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The Initial Interview: You Have Only One Chance To Make A First Impression.

Your first interview with a prospect is the most crucial. You only get one chance to make a first impression. You only get one chance to put your best foot forward and establish the right tone for everything that follows.

Find out how to get the most out of every initial interview with an older client.
In this section, the Mature Market Toolkit shows you how to:

Connect and add emotional value; it is the only way you will do more than an occasional transaction. Mature clients want relationships, not transactions. Relationships require emotional value; otherwise, anyone else can be substituted for you.

Lay a foundation for sales today and in the future with the client and everyone he or she knows or meets. Mature clients who are emotionally connected to you will seek out opportunities to mention your name and make referrals. Unlike younger clients involved in their own lives, older clients want to help you. It is their role in the relationship.

Collect enough information to make an appropriate recommendation and be in full compliance with regulations governing sales to older adults.

Accomplishing those first three objectives will inevitably lead to the achievement of a fourth: a sale in the initial interview. As a 28-year advisor has said, "this business is not really about selling things, it's about talking to people and finding out what they want."

The Mature Market Toolkit includes:

Emotional Action Checklist -- quickly add emotional value.
Strategic Questions -- lay a foundation for sales, referrals and word-of-mouth walk-in business by asking the right questions.
Information Questions -- make appropriate recommendations and keep in compliance with NASD rules and proposed regulations by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners relating to older investors. Get information for:

• Product suitability assessment
• Client's life goals
• Suitability for variable annuities and variable life policies
• Replacing investments, such as a 1035 exchange
• Determining if a fee-based account is suitable

(From Initial Interview: Information Questions)

Inventorying client’s life goals and goals for children, grandchildren and other loved ones

Older clients generally shift from focusing solely on their own well being to include, to a growing extent with each passing year, those who are dear to them.

Encouraging them to talk freely about their hopes and dreams will help them sort and articulate their priorities and help you to understand them in order to provide a foundation for making suitable recommendations. Questions to consider include:

• Do the clients have sufficient resources so they can help provide grandchildren with the same quality of competitive educational opportunity that they provided to their children?
• Are they interested in intervening in the lives of their children or grandchildren?
• Do they have specific goals for helping their children and/grandchildren? For example, do they want to pay for their grandchildren’s college education? Do they want to pay for a portion of it?
• Do their children/grandchildren have special needs of some kind?
• Do they feel a need to make provisions for taking care of a disabled child/grandchild after they have passed away?
• Do they have siblings or other relatives who they feel a need to take care of?

The more specific you can encourage them to be, the more likely it is that your recommendation will be exactly on target.

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Build Relationships: Capture Assets

You want more than a single transaction with a client. You want a relationship. Only a relationship can produce sales over time, referrals, and positive word-of-mouth, leading to additional clients. The good news is that mature clients also want a relationship. Unlike younger clients who typically simply want to get their business done, older adults put much more value in the relationship itself.

Given that you both want the same thing, building a relationship with every mature client should be easy. And it is – if you know what to do.

In this section, the Mature Market Toolkit shows you how to:

• Collect information you need to build a relationship that is more than just an occasional transaction.
• Systematically provide feedback to mature clients that satisfies them emotionally.
• Take simple actions that show you value older clients.
• Use the events that transpire in clients’ lives to regularly uncover client needs and sales opportunities. Events put money in motion. Capturing it is easy if you have the tools.

The Toolkit includes:

The Relationship Profiler – a form that gives you key information you need from each client in order to easily build a relationship without using up much of your time.
Relationship Profiler Instructions – how to use the Profiler to systematically and easily improve your relationship with each mature client.
Relationship Summary – a quick read of the key points for your next call with the client
Relationship Summary Instructions – how to use the Relationship Summary effectively
Small Talk Primer – what to talk to each and every client about before and/or after business in order to keep your relationship warm
Small Thoughts Checklist – simple actions you can easily take to show clients that you value your relationship with them.
Seniors-Friendly Office Checklist – make your office part of the sale.
Life Events Checklist – From births to deaths, life events that put money in motion for mature clients.
Instructions for Life Events Checklist – how to use life events to uncover sales opportunities with every client at least once a year.

(From Build Relationships: Capture Assets)

Small Talk Primer

Why do you need a Small Talk Primer?
Because most advisors are lousy at talking about things other than investments and investing with people they are not close to – which is 99.99% of the world. So they don’t do it. And because they don’t do it, they give up opportunities and set themselves up for penalties.

In other words, they make less money than they should or could -- with very little additional effort. And no cost.

These are the problems advisors create for themselves:

• Relationships with most clients are at arms-length. Dealing with clients at arms-length means you are not building emotional equity.
• No emotional equity means clients have little reason to stay with the advisor except performance.
  • Performance declines and clients leave.
  • Performance stays the same (average for most advisors), and clients leave because the grass is greener elsewhere.
• No emotional equity means clients have little reason to make referrals, so they don’t.
• No small talk capability, no ability to call clients about anything except investments. Therefore, fewer positive contacts. Therefore, fewer chances to uncover sales opportunities.
• No small talk capability, the greater the fear to call clients just to keep in touch when the market goes sour and some recommendations don’t work out. Failure to keep in touch is clients’ biggest complaint about advisors. And the main reason most leave.

Three steps to become a small talk pro

1. Use the Small Talk Topics list below to write down at least three and not more than five topics that interest each client. Write a brief description of each topic, not just the title. You want to be able to sound like you are interested enough to remember what the client has told you previously. You should have this information in the Relationship Profiler, including especially Recent Events. The topics can be anything from travel to books to sports to grandchildren. It makes no difference whether you are interested in them or not.
2. Every time you talk to the client, raise one of these topics before or after business. Doing so religiously will make you a more interesting and responsive person to the client. And, most important, it will set up your ability to call the client and only do small talk. You will find that absolutely invaluable when you need to keep in touch to maintain the relationship but you don’t want to talk about investments because the market is bad or particular investments are not performing well.
3. Use questions like these to begin the small talk and keep it going:

• What’s going on with____? (Your health, your children, the house remodeling, etc.)
• Have you (done/read/seen/etc.) any _____ lately? (Good for Activities and Interests, such as travel, golf, going to the movies, etc.)
• How is ______ now? (Good for bringing up a previously talked about topic)
• What’s happened/happening to _______? (Almost anything)
• What is _____ doing now? (Especially good for children, grandchildren and pets)
• How is your _____? (Good for almost anything – How is your broken arm? How is your bridge game? How is your daughter? How is your job going?)
• How do you feel about_______? (Great for getting deeper: How do you feel about your daughter’s marriage to a gas station jockey? How do you feel about your recovery from illness? How do you feel about your new home?)
• How do you feel about that? (A good follow-up question)
• What’s your reaction to_____? (Anything, but especially something the client has just told you: What’s your reaction to that?)
• What do you think about _____? (Anything in the news of interest to the client. What do you think about the Cubs this year? What do you think about the landing on Mars? What do you think about the new music director at the symphony?)

Just remember to show interest in what the client says and follow-up questions like those above and you’ll be a small talk pro in no time.

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Deepen Relationships: Maximize Assets

You can’t capture all the assets of all your clients. But you can maximize the assets you capture of key mature clients, the ones with the largest assets.

You need a systematic, effective, program that deepens the bond between you and selected clients, leading ultimately to maximizing the assets they keep with you.

In this section, the Mature Market Toolkit shows you how to:

Create a program focusing on 15-20 mature clients at a time over a three to six-month period.

Create a series of events to bring you together on a regular basis.

Build specific actions around each event. You want to do more than entertain your best clients. You want to bond with them.

The Toolkit includes:

Marketing Plan – a step-by-step program for deepening relationships
Checklist of Events – things to see and do with clients, including running very low cost events
Finding Speakers for Events – how to find free or inexpensive speakers on topics of interest to your clients
Guide to Conducting Events – how to organize events and activities for mature clients
Event Letters and Scripts – invitations, confirmations and how to ask for referrals to invite to an event
Calendar -- program the marketing plan
Filled-in calendar – example of how to make the calendar work for you

(From Deepening Relationships: Maximize Assets)

Guide to Conducting Events for Matures

Key Issues

Physical considerations
Type of event
Invitations
Planning calendar

Physical Considerations

Matures may have physical limitations restricting types or locations of events. Typically, closer is better. Driving may be a problem.

Daytime events tend to work better with older retirees, especially mid-morning or mid-day.

Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is the best day of the week. Avoid holidays, including religious holidays, and dates that conflict with large community events. Avoid dates that conflict with student school performances that may draw grandparents and other retirees.

Fall and winter are the best seasons of the year for generating the largest number of attendees. Be aware that weather conditions in winter that may cause cancellations or declining attendance.

Types of locations for consideration when sponsoring an event:

• Local library
• Community college
• Bookstores
• Churches and synagogues
• Senior centers
• Community centers
• Country clubs, business or athletic clubs
• Movie theaters
• Hotels and motel conference rooms

Before finalizing a location for an event, make sure that you’ve visited the site personally.

As prospective attendees get older, physical characteristics of the location become increasing important. Things to be concerned about include:

• Located in a safe and secure area.
• Minimal walking distance to the seminar room.
• Convenient, clean and well-lit restrooms.
• Adequate directional signs.
• Good sound system.
• Adequate room lighting. Remember that glare or reflective light makes it difficult for older adults to see easily. More lighting is required as people age.
• Good heating/cooling system. For older adults, in particular, it is relatively easy for a room to become too cold or too hot. Make sure that air and heat ventilation does not blow directly on the audience.
• Avoid rooms with low-hanging chandeliers, light reflecting from mirrors on the wall and glaring sunlight.
• Noise interference from outside sources.
• Non-smoking room.

Seating arrangements for Matures need special attention, depending upon the kind of event:

• Classroom-style; long narrow tables in front of each chair, making it easy to take notes.
• Wider areas between chairs. Older people prefer more room.
• Wider aisles between rows of seats.

Always serve refreshments or, if the time and location are appropriate, lunch or dinner.

Types of Events

The type of event should be matched to what you know about the retiree from the Relationship Profiler. In general, events fall into three major categories (See Event Checklist):

• Personal growth -- Matures learn something; a speaker on antiques is an example.
• Rest and relaxation -- Matures renew body or spirit; a golf outing is an example.
• Social – Matures connect with other people; a barbeque is an example.

The three major categories match three of the five major core motivations of older adults. (The other two core motivations, giving back to society and independence, are difficult to turn into events). Because core motivations drive behavior, the more closely aligned the event is with a core motivation important to that client, the more the he/she will benefit from and appreciate the event.

In other words, because a Mature plays golf doesn’t mean a golf outing is the best kind of event for him or her. Matures should be invited to events reflecting their core motivations.

Invitations

From the point of view of invitations, there are two kinds of events: those to which many people are invited and those to which only a relatively small number are. In a structured program to deepen relationships with Matures, only a relatively small number would be invited because the objective is to get close to that small number. In a broader marketing program, a large number might be invited.

When only a small number are being invited, an informal telephone invitation is best because it reinforces the personal contact you want. See Telephone Invitation To Activity.

When a larger number are invited, use the Event Invitation Letter or a formal invitation. Older retirees may prefer formal invitations. Use typeface 12 to 14 points. Serif-type versus sans serif improves readability. Avoid italics because the typeface tends to be thinner and harder to read. Have the invitation printed on semi-gloss or matte finish since it will be easier to read. Using a traditional invitation approach means that an outside envelope is important.

Follow-up the invitation with a phone call. That increases the odds the invitation will be accepted. It also offers you a chance to get a referral. See Request for Referral Script.

After someone accepts, send the Confirmation Letter.

Call to confirm attendance before the event. See Telephone Confirmation Script.

Action Calendar

Making certain all the pieces of an event come together smoothly requires planning and implementation on a specific schedule.

The Action Calendar lays out a schedule that is appropriate for most events. However, there may be events for which a longer or shorter schedule is required.

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Capture New Business: Referrals, Word-of-Mouth and Connections

Your clients can lead you to new business through direct referrals, word-of-mouth about you and connections to groups of other mature adults. And they will if you encourage them the right ways.

In this section, the Mature Market Toolkit shows you how to:

• Capture new mature clients through their adult children in their 30s, 40s and early 50s. These adult children are already your clients. Learn how to motivate them to connect you with their parents. Over 80% of those adult children have at least one parent living.
• Capture adult children as clients through their mature parents.
• Build a referral network of current mature clients. Not simply people who may give you a referral, but, rather, people who have the contacts and desire to regularly make referrals.
• Generate the buzz that leads to walk-in business. Use client life events as a way to get recognition and differentiate yourself from other financial consultants.
• Obtain speaking engagements at places where mature clients congregate: senior centers, church groups, community groups, etc.
• Get publicity and build community recognition from your speaking engagements.
• Organize seminars for older adults so that they draw heaviest and are most productive.

The Toolkit includes:

Instructions -- for working with mature clients to get their adult children
Instructions -- for working with adult children to get their mature parents
Instructions -- on building a referral network of affluent mature clients
Instructions -- on using life events to generate word-of-mouth
Instructions -- on obtaining speaking engagements, including list of organizations to contact and topics to speak on
Instructions – on using speaking engagements as a lever for publicity
Instructions -- on organizing a seminar for mature clients

(From Capture New Business: Referrals, Word-of-Mouth and Connections)

Instructions for Obtaining Speaking Engagements

Speaking in front of public audiences is one of the very best ways to build a reputation in the community and to reach large numbers of potential prospects. It is also much easier to carry out than most advisors believe.

Organizations are always looking for speakers who will appeal to their members. Appealing speakers offer something new and/or important for the organization audience. Every organization has someone in charge of programs. Most programs are scheduled significantly in advance. Therefore, in order to significantly increase your assets through speaking, you need to:

• Identify local organizations
• Find out who the program chairperson is
• Contact that person long in advance of when you would like to speak

Identify local organizations.
See Organization Checklist below. Look in the “Community Calendar” section of community newspapers. Ask local restaurants and hotels which organizations hold meetings there. Ask local Chambers of Commerce.

Get addresses and/or phone numbers. Try to get names of program chairpersons. You may have to do some detective work to find that person; start with whatever officer’s name you can get and then keep asking until you uncover the program chairperson.

Getting Public Speaking Engagements
Write to organizations several months in advance of when you would like to speak. See Sample Letter to Organizations.

Enclose a short description of your talk with letter. You are far more likely to get an engagement with a talk about a topic important to organization members rather than one about investing in general. For example, “Managing Investments in Retirement” or “Increasing Retirement Income” makes more sense for a retiree group than “Asset Allocation” anything. See List of Good Topics for Mature Investors.

Follow-up with phone call to program chairperson. See Meeting Organizer Follow-Up Script.

List of Good Topics for Mature Investors
Topics personally relevant to mature investors are much more likely to get you speaking engagements than typical investment topics. A list of possible topics is shown below. In some cases you may have to do some research outside of your area of expertise or you may want to bring in an outside expert.

Possible Topics

• Managing Investments in Retirement
• Increasing Your Retirement Income
• Investing for Your Grandchildren
• Financial Concerns in Family Caregiving
• Downsizing for a Better Retirement: Selling Your Home and Investing the Difference
• Cutting Your Taxes in Retirement
• Providing for Your Children and Grandchildren
• Getting Ready for Retirement: What You Need to Know; What You Need to Think About
• IRA Rollovers: What You Need to Know

You may be able to think of other topics that would be of particular interest to people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Just remember, when you do public speaking you are not necessarily looking for immediate prospects or sales. You are building a reputation that will eventually produce word-of-mouth business.

Organization Checklist for Speaking Engagements
This list is meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive. Your community may have other organizations that are appropriate for the program you want to present.

Public Organizations
School District
PTA
Park and Recreation District
Public Library

Community Organizations
Adult Education Center
High School/College Extension Center
Community Center
Seniors Center
Seniors Clubs affiliated with churches

Service Organizations
Chamber of Commerce
Rotary Club
Kiwanis
Lions
Elks
Moose

Social Organizations
The Women’s Club of Your Town
Women’s and Men’s groups associated with churches
County Clubs
Athletic Clubs

Veterans Organizations
VFW
American Legion

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