“That’s the way I would do it”

That, he says, would be the ultimate compliment.

Geller, president of L.I. Geller Insurance Agencies Ltd. in Campbellville, Ont., admits it took him 36 years to understand Goodman’s message fully: that confidence is key to success as a salesperson, and so is making your client believe that you do your job better than anyone else.

Although Geller, 58, may not have fully grasped what his mentor meant at the time, he has worked to implement the wisdom of that advice into his practice. And when Geller is not running his practice, he focuses on educating and mentoring others and helping experienced advisors to share their knowledge.

It is not uncommon for an inexperienced advisor to be told that Geller can help him or her. And Geller does, whether it is by phone, email or through his educational initiatives.

The insurance industry has changed dramatically since Geller began his career, and advisors now require more support from their peers than before. The shift from the “captive agent” structure to more independent advisors, greater levels of specialization and the accelerating pace of online communications require advisors to know more and adapt quickly.

Geller started his career as a captive agent with Concordia Life Insurance Co. (now amalgamated with Empire Life Insurance Co.). He quickly moved to Imperial Life Assurance Co. of Canada (which became a part of Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Co. in 2001). At both firms, Geller worked in an office together with experienced advisors who could provide advice on connecting with prospects and successfully making appointments.

Geller understood from the beginning that he had to learn from others in order to develop his career.

“My manager of the day, John Fergusson, used to say, ‘You don’t want to reinvent the wheel’,” says Geller. “‘Take advantage of what other people have learned so you don’t repeat their mistakes.’

“That was where I began to develop a belief,” Geller adds, “that mentorship was important to insurance.”

Geller built his career by specializing in offering insurance support to lawyers. He knew he was not one for “emotional sales” and, being the son of a lawyer, he felt he understood the members of that profession.

“My belief at the time – probably mistaken, in retrospect,” he says, “was that lawyers were more logical than others. And so I thought, ‘There’s my natural market’.”

As Geller’s practice progressed, so did the opportunities to share his knowledge with other advisors. In 1982 and 1983, Geller moderated a training course for the Life Underwriters Association of Canada (LUAC), a predecessor of Advocis. He also wrote for publications such as LUAC’s Forum magazine and spoke in front of various underwriting groups throughout North America.

Geller wanted to help as many people as possible, but he often was limited to one-on-one encounters and speeches to small audiences.

“We didn’t even envision being able to discuss things with 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 people,” he says. “It was inconceivable.”

That restriction changed with the advent of the Internet and the request from Jim Hostetler, founder of the U.S. insurance publication For Brokers Only. In 1995, Hostetler asked Geller if he wanted to be involved in a new online message board called the For Brokers Only Exchange. It would allow advisors to share questions and ideas. Geller agreed and became a contributor.

The message board proved to be an important tool in an industry that was moving away from the captive-agent model. Many advisors were moving to independent structures that provided little support.

In 2000, Geller launched his web-based discussion group, For Advisors Only (www.foradvisorsonly.com), which gives advisors the opportunity to post questions and answers regarding their profession. Geller tries to engage advisors by posting articles he feels are of interest. (Geller never posts his own opinions on issues, he says, because of his role as operator of the message board.)

That same year, Geller became involved with the Caledon, Ont.-based Peel Institute of Applied Finance, which provides professional-development opportunities for financial services providers. Geller’s role was to help the institute’s founder, Jim Bullock, find the best speakers for its semi-annual educational symposiums and determine topics for discussion. The one topic that Geller felt did not require greater focus was product-based discussions.

“Continuing education,” Geller says, “had become about companies paying to present on how to sell their products.”

Geller avoids the product focus in his most recent initiative, the Canada Sales Congress, which marks its second anniversary this month in Toronto.

When the idea for the convention came up in 2012, Geller wanted the event to be similar to TED Talks, the famous online videos in which speakers present their ideas in 18 minutes or less. Geller understood that keeping the presentations brief would attract top speakers and provide more benefit to attendees.

This year’s convention will showcase 18 speakers presenting their 10 best client-communication ideas.

“If you give people 180 transferable communication ideas in five or six hours, and they can take three back to their offices and are more successful than before,” Geller says, “then we’ve contributed something.”

Geller also makes contributions in a field that holds a deep personal connection. In 2009, Geller underwent a kidney transplant. As a self-proclaimed “information junkie,” he wanted to learn more about his condition and found his only resource to be pamphlets.

“It’s like me going to a bank, picking up an insurance pamphlet and assuming that [it] tells me everything I need to know about insurance,” Geller says. “Pamphlets are a wonderful sales tool; they’re useless for information.”

Geller was determined to help make information more easily available for organ transplant recipients and donors. After recovering from his surgery, Geller launched two online forums: For Donors Only (www.fordonorsonly.com) and For Recipients Only (www.forrecipientsonly.com).

“You can see,” he jokes, “I’m not very creative with my names.”

Geller reads as much as he can on transplants and talks to nurses and doctors to gather the information that he posts on these sites. One section alone of For Donors Only received 10,000 visits in the past year.

Geller finds time for these extracurricular activities while running his successful insurance advisory practice. His team includes Heather Shawcross, the practice’s administrator; Amy Chow, an actuary; and approximately a dozen insurance advisors who specialize in areas such as travel insurance and group benefits. Geller’s wife provides claims support.

Geller continues to specialize in lawyers as clients, having gained more familiarity with their business and the ways in which insurance can help them – such as providing income protection should a lawyer fall ill. “A lawyer earns money by the hour,” Geller says. “If they start going for tests or have to work part-time, their income starts to fall.”

Further, Geller understands the pressures that lawyers face and respects their work ethic: “You get a lawyer who has a heart attack and they’re back at work within 90 days.

“If I was a lawyer, God forbid,” Geller says, “that’s the way I would do it.”

© 2014 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.