When it comes to identifying a target market, narrower is better. Focusing your efforts on insurance clients within a specific field or profession can help you establish yourself as a knowledgeable – and referable – insurance advisor.
“Have your ideal client, and really focus your education and marketing dollars toward that ideal client,” says Justine Zavitz, a financial advisor with Zavitz Insurance Inc. in London, Ont., who specializes in serving the medical and dental professions. “If you’re not focused on one thing, you’re never going to be really, really good at one particular thing.”
Zeroing in on a single profession may seem like a strategy that would limit your pool of prospective clients, especially if you are new to the insurance industry. However, successful insurance advisors say that carving out a niche can help to generate more sales. It allows you to develop and refine a targeted sales pitch that resonates with your core audience rather than having to develop a new, customized pitch each time you meet with a new prospect.
The result of specialization is a shorter sales cycle, says Ted Hickey, regional director with Quebec City-based La Capitale Financial Security in London, Ont.
Makes selling easier
“The typical broker now tries to be all things to everybody,” Hickey says. “Targeting your efforts to a specific population makes selling easier.”
Developing a strong grasp of one market, and the insurance products best suited to members of that market, Hickey adds, is more manageable than trying to educate yourself on the full universe of insurance products.
In some cases, entire insurance firms cater to the needs of clients within a specific field or profession. La Capitale, for example, specializes in providing disability insurance and other financial products for self-employed skilled tradespeople and farmers. The firm has a Canadawide career sales force of almost 300 advisors.
Farmers and self-employed tradespeople usually have a higher than average risk of injury on the job, and they typically don’t have access to workers’ compensation, group benefits or other forms of income protection. So, these individuals have a unique set of insurance needs. This market, Hickey says, is best served by advisors who have some familiarity with the nature of the work that these clients do and the products best suited to them.
Insurance companies and advisors without at least a basic understanding of the skilled trades and farming industries have trouble relating to clients in these markets, he adds: “They don’t have the marketing strategies, the understanding or the training.”
This market also is large enough that there is no shortage of prospects, Hickey says: “It’s a massive population. And in insurance and finance, this market is underserved.”
Another example is MD Physician Services Inc. (MDPS), which specializes in physicians and other members of the Canadian Medical Association, along with their families. In addition to personal life and health insurance, these clients often require business-overhead insurance and various other types of protection related to their practices.
Next: Separate set of rules
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Separate set of rules
Medical incorporations are subject to a separate set of rules from other corporations, so it’s important for advisors serving this market to be familiar with those rules. MDPS strongly emphasizes ongoing education, says Jeff Blain, national insurance head with MDPS in Hamilton, Ont., to ensure its advisors are equipped to provide advice that is as specific and relevant to the medical profession as possible.
“[Education] allows [MDPS advisors] to get more focused on the various types of insurance strategies and products in which they want to become an expert,” Blain says.
Once you have identified a target profession and educated yourself on the primary insurance needs of its members, seek out prospects in that market who are in the early stages in their careers.
Still in university
Zavitz, for example, pursues prospects while they are still in university. Young people are unlikely to have insurance at that point in their lives, she says. And although a student’s insurance needs usually are low, those needs quickly increase once the client graduates and begins practising.
By establishing a rapport early on, Zavitz adds, you can set the foundation for a relationship that could last for decades.
“When you start working with them as students,” Zavitz says, “nine times out of 10, you’ll have a client for the rest of their career – and your career.”
This is the third instalment in a three-part series on developing a specialized insurance practice.
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