While no two financial services businesses are exactly alike, there is common ground in the challenges overcome on the way to sustaining success. Following are a few favorite ideas that helped MDRT members turn a challenge into a win. Try one of these out for a boost in your business.
Focused referrals
It takes courage to ask for referrals. Fortunately, there’s no need to ask all of your clients for referrals. I only ask the top 20% of my top clients. Then in five years, you’re in a different circle of clients. When you ask the right people for referrals, your income grows.
Douglas John Bennett, Dip PFS
MDRT member since 1995 and Court of the Table qualifier, Crawley, United Kingdom
Teamwork to become more client-centric
If you map out your processes by yourself, you miss a lot. I have sessions with my staff and work with them to re-engineer our processes. I see more with the team, and we rebuilt the processes around our clients so we became more customer-centric.
Jose Victor Vuilleumier Valdez, LUTCF, FSCP
MDRT member since 2011 and Top of the Table qualifier, Jalisco, Mexico
Adapting and tripling income
My business 10 years ago was group benefits — employee life insurance, health insurance and so forth. I used to give assets under management (AUM) cases to friends since I didn’t do that in my business. When government regulations changed, it affected my income significantly. I realized I had to adapt so I could continue to have enough income and because of client demand. Now my business is 80% AUM and 20% everything else. As a result, my income tripled and I helped my clients. I just adapted to what was there. You focus on what needs to be done and ignore everything else.
Michael P. Austin, CFP, ChFC
MDRT member since 1994 and Court of the Table qualifier, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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My observation is that it is always the job of the manager to satisfy the client. Because every client is ignorant. Many people become ignorant even after knowing a lot. And it is important that you have complete information about the product. Sometimes the same thing has to be repeated many times. It doesn’t matter, the goal is to satisfy your client.