Marketing tips for advisors: How to fill your calendar and sell annuities

Tyrone Clark, president of Brokers Choice of America, talks with InsuranceNewsNet Publisher Paul Feldman about the successful tactics needed to position your practice, improve your online presence and decrease marketing costs  – while selling more annuities.

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Interview Transcript

Feldman:

Hello, everyone. I'm Paul Feldman and I'm here with my longtime friend of the business, Tyrone Clark. We're here in DC, and Tyrone is one of the best marketers that I know in the annuity world, and we're going to talk about marketing today for advisors. So Tyrone, what are some things that you're seeing from the advisors that you work with that you know throughout the industry, because you are a pioneer in the annuity space?

Tyrone Clark:

Thank you, I appreciate that. Well, I'm still very heavily involved in the depths of daily marketing with agents, and I live the experiences with agents. I invest in marketing with the agents. So Paul, one thing about our business, we have to have results. An advisor, an agent, has to have people to see. And the bottom line here, agents just simply want their calendars full. And as you know, everybody's been doing a lot of seminars, and the seminars have gone through trend changes. There used to be no food seminars and then food seminars, and then classes and workshops and university sponsored. COVID went to knock everything down to zero, and then seminars started kicking back up but the nation was pushed into technology, and the nation then went to ordering and doing everything online.

And so, everybody got a quick start into the digital age. So now the trend is changing from seminars, classes and workshops to online virtual, and that's a big discussion. But to help everybody here today, when it comes to the online world, that's where all marketing is going to be. It's all going to be online. Advisors are going to have to convert their practice to totally online.

And so, we've learned the hard way, the real hard way, Paul, about making a lot of mistakes online. And we are very fortunate to have spent a lot of money, a lot of time, pain, blood, sweat, and tears to have really figured out with no hype, no BS, how agents can still fill their calendars but totally online.

Feldman:

Okay, how do they do it then?

Clark:

Okay, so obviously I'm an FMO, but I want to remove that and I want to give sincere, helpful information to everybody. Now going to converting your practice online, there's seven steps that an advisor needs to go through, or a financial firm. Okay, the first step, Paul, is they're going to have to make sure that they know how to run a business online and that means that the insurance industry, for example, is using e-applications and going virtual as well. So, that's number one.

The second step is they're going to need some tools that they're going to have to install, but number three, this is important. Agents need to Google themselves. They need to see what is out there on Google. And to their surprise, there may be negative things and they may not get a response. The next step is their websites. Their websites are not acclimated to virtual online marketing, so they probably have to redo their websites.

But the next step-

Feldman:

So let's just stop there.

Clark:

Okay.

Feldman:

I want to continue on this. What do you see most wrong with agents and advisor's websites?

Clark:

Okay, what's wrong is they have pigeonholed themselves into an area that is different than what they're marketing for. So for example, if I'm utilizing an online prospecting system that is talking about qualified plans and then when people go on my website and they see that I'm talking about disability insurance or health insurance, or Medicare, they see there's a conflict. People are going to research the advisor. They're going to look all over the internet on everything, so we have seven steps to help an advisor to knock down every step so that they're in good position.

Now on the website, Paul, people can tell if the website is old. And unfortunately, a lot of advisors don't invest in themselves like a business. What they don't do is invest in quality design, quality graphics. If it looks like a high school kid put your website together-

Feldman:

And a lot of them do.

Clark:

It's going to cost you. So Paul, why spend thousands of dollars on a digital marketing campaign only for those prospects to look at your website and go click. As a friend of mine says, you're one click away from obscurity. So, what we've had to do is find high quality and low cost web designers to acclimate your site to the internet.

So first, you got to Google and make sure there's not a whole bunch of bad stuff. It might not even be you. It may be somebody with a similar name, and so that has to be examined. Then the website has to be looked at. Then the next step is your authoritative positioning. See, people want to see you as a specialist, a quality professional expert in an area. So we had to go out again and find another source, a gentleman named Michael Saunders who has a company called Authoritative Positioning ... and this is economical. We're not talking about crazy amounts of money. The website is going to be redone to a high level. We've got examples of that. The next thing is your authoritative positioning.

Okay, so you've got to get those things in step. Then here's the next issue. Paul, how do you appear online? This is amazing how professional advisors with credentials and experience and education and background will go online, their microphone will be horrible, no lighting equipment. Their background behind them-

Feldman:

So, when they're doing a Zoom call with a client. it looks like they're in their basement.

Clark:

And what's very common is they're looking down into a camera, or they have glasses and it's glaring, or their forehead is glaring. So they need to pay attention to their appearance online. And my recommendation is don't get those computerized cheap backdrops where you're blending into the background. We had to go to another source ... Those are three sources that we utilize ... to get your background just right for your audience. Because when people are looking at you online, they're making opinions and judgements and like Al says, one click away from obscurity.

Feldman:

My whole office where I work, and I don't know that we've done a webinars or anything, my whole office is designed around what my background looks like. I mean, with bookshelves, everything is put in place. If you could see it, there's a reason for it being there.

Clark:

It's like when you sell your real estate, your home, you hire professional stagers that stage your real estate. It's similar.

So let's review here what I'm talking about. To go virtual, this is just the beginning part. Okay? The other part of it is your interaction, your language you use, your time and your schedules. It has to be tied in with the communication structure.

This is serious business. It's not just playing around one foot in, one foot out. And unfortunately, whether advisors realize it or not, it's all going digital, virtual, and they may as well look at this as a positive and they can quickly, efficiently, inexpensively move in that direction. So, this is just the initial part of it. There's also the compliance. The other part of it is what campaigns are being conducted by who and how does that fit with your practice and is that compliant with your licenses? That's huge.

And then, the next step after that is the communication structure ... They call it funnels ... that are built in. But there's a wonderful part of this. Number one, the advisors will cut their marketing costs down dramatically. Number two, they'll have more efficiency with their operation in terms of the number of people they can work with on a daily basis. They don't have to drive across town. They don't have to go see somebody in person. And here's the other thing, once their clients know them, work with them and so forth, they can do business with them virtually anywhere they go.

We have advisors that go on vacations and trips, and on boating, and they're working with clients. But there's another part of this, as well. It leads into a CRM system built with technology all around the entire process. In the past, Paul, I would teach advisors about the art of seminars. And every single thing you can think about in seminars from how you bond with people, how you dress, what you say, walk around, roll up your sleeves, loosen your tie, take your jacket off, touch your audience, that's the science of seminars. Now you have the science of online.

And here's something important for everybody to know. Think about this. What's important is the customer experience online. That experience online is a big thing, and there's experts now that simply study the experience of the other person online in relation to you. Every tiny part of what you do online ... and now, it's not a matter, Paul, of just jumping online and saying, "Hi," and "I'm so and so and look how great I am." It really should be done professionally and with different steps, and then it becomes a part of your normal practice.

Feldman:

Yeah, you got to keep following up. I mean, after a seminar, you do a seminar, you do a great performance, you don't follow up? And, you can't expect to send one email to somebody and for them to want to do business with you.

Clark:

Well, there's good news and bad news in this discussion about going virtual online. The bad news is so many advisors, including myself, we spent a whole bunch of money with a bunch organizations that really didn't know what they were doing. And, I got really lucky to find an advisor who converted his practice almost nine years ago, spent about a million dollars, and I pleaded with him to teach us his success. And then, we had to go out and find the components to build into what we're doing.

But this is important, Paul, what I want to say about this virtual online business. The large companies, the multi-billion dollar financial firms are investing billions of dollars right now into converting their advisors into total online. So, this is a last opportunity for the independent advisor to put a stake in the ground and pull themselves forward and quickly move in that direction before the firms come in with all of their gizmos and shiny objects for people.

Feldman:

Yeah, I don't know that they can replace the humanized advisor, somebody who's out there, is a human, is a real person. Somebody that can relate to you.

Clark:

Well, that's-

Feldman:

I mean, Ken Fisher doesn't relate to anyone, I don't think.

Clark:

Well, so what you're talking about, Paul, is bonding with people and showing that you're real and you're sincere and that you care and you have a big heart.

Feldman:

And that you know what you're talking about.

Clark:

And most important, that you know what you're talking about. But, the process is is your system communicating with a prospect, like in our case, 14 times before your first face-to-face with a client? So see, the technology is your best friend in where we're moving here, and to look at it that way. And you can do things now that you could never do face-to-face in seminars.

So, what I just said is what does all that mean? That means that an advisor can write substantially more business, more efficiently and at a lower cost. And you know, Paul, you'll find this interesting. We have a lot of father and sons, mother and sons and daughters, siblings who are younger, and the advisors, the insurance agents, are 58, the average age, to 68 years old and their kids are technology savvy, and now the kids help their parents get all set up. And a lot of times now, you have financial teams of mom and sons or daughters, or father and sons and daughters and that's actually a great way to walk your son or daughter into the business because they're used to it. And-

Feldman:

And have a transition plan.

Clark:

Yes.

Feldman:

Most advisors don't even have a transition plan.

Clark:

Yeah, I have a lot of experience with agents who pass away and sadly left their practice in shambles. There's technology now that ... I don't want to mention the company name, but they can easily, affordably tap into a technology that puts all their clients together and sets it up for sale. If they get deceased or ill, they can sell their annuity practice. They can get that information through you.

Feldman:

Okay. So, I always ask this of everybody. What is a question I should have asked you that I didn't?

Clark:

So Paul, I wish I could tell them stuff that would blow their mind. What the institutions are going after is lifetime value of a customer, lifetime retention, direct to the consumer, staff licensed advisors, strip out the products with fees and commissions, compliant framework and control through their digital devices connected in with their tax and legal and their budgeting. That's where things are going. And once you get a consumer in that spot, they're not going nowhere else.

And, that's where it's going. But I'll tell you that the good news is, Paul, the advisor who specializes in an area, that is the freedom and the control and the opportunity for an advisor when they specialize in an area.

Feldman:

Plant your flagpole and specialize and be the expert.

Clark:

Yes.

Feldman:

People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. And, trust is earned. It's not given, and trust can be earned by being a thought leader, by putting your message out there.

Clark:

Well, Paul, one area that is a blue ocean, just a complete blue ocean for advisors where they can separate themselves from everybody else, be of enormous help for people, have unbelievable opportunity, is the biggest threat to retirement, we know is taxes. We know it's inflation and we know it's market risk and volatility. Those are big risks to retirement, but there's a bigger risk and it's simply aging. And 70% of all people over 60 will end up using convalescent, home health, skilled, intermediate or custodial care. They will have Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, dementia, and Paul, when you are going to have to take out of your pocket $8000 to $20,000 a month on top of a down market, or volatile, on top of inflation, on top of increased taxes, the whole old idea of "Don't worry, the market will come back and you'll be restored" is not going to happen for a lot of older folks.

And I fear that the legal industry is going to wake up and say, "If you're fiduciary and you did nothing about this, we're going to hold you responsible." But Paul, our industry has phenomenal products. We call it longevity care asset allocation. By allocating a portion of your portfolio here, whether you live, die or quit, you're going to be good. And in these products that are magnificent, we have a solution. The whole nation should know about this. Every single advisor, every advisor should become school educated in this area on longevity care asset allocation, and I think it's going to explode. But you want to become competent and knowledgeable in this area. It's not about product, it's about the whole process.

Feldman:

More of a holistic approach to what people are really going to live.

Clark:

Yes.

Feldman:

Because we're all going to die.

Clark:

Really? Not if you're in California.

Feldman:

There hasn't been one person that's ever escaped death.

Clark:

Well, Paul, I have been passionate and on a mission for 40 years about annuities, and I am a walking history book of annuities. I'm like a National Museum piece of annuities. But to this day, after all those years, you can take these fixed products and you can say, "Hey, safe, liquid, tax advantages, competitive returns without risk, probate avoidance, simplicity, exchangeability, and income they can't out outlive," by gosh, it's about time, which is happening now, that the Wall Street side of the world is waking up to these products.

And when it comes to the phenomenon of the index annuity developed with Richard Cato from Genesis Actuarial Firm in 1994, which became a Keyport product, and I was one of the first to see it, what you have, Paul, is safe and secured compounding growth guaranteed on a tax advantage basis with the ability to capture a significant portion of index returns without having to risk principle, nor risk prior gains.

So when you look at these products, it's not so much they have a part. They have the part, the part in retirement and it's about time that the entire financial industry from all the different sectors, from the broker dealer world, the securities world, and of course the insurance come together for that consumer and insert these products just so that they have a secure retirement. And, I would love to talk about all the experts, winners of Nobel Prize that base mathematics –

Feldman:

Yeah, actuarily sound product.

Clark:

... and everything on this. Yes, so I think the time is coming not only for the various sectors of the financial industry to come together about the magical wonders of these great products but also for the regulatory world but more importantly, the federal government to partner with private commercial solutions so it doesn't end up on their shoulders to provide this to consumers.

And the bottom line is that one person, your aunt, your uncle, your grandpa, your grandma, your mom and dad has a guaranteed income for life. And you know, Paul, I just want to say one last thing. We know and heard that women will control somewhere like $38 trillion of wealth in the next six years. Remember, Paul, they are interested in a return on their relationship, not so much a return on the investment. They're risk adverse and they want guarantees so that they can go have fun and do what they want in life.

Unfortunately, only 15% of advisors are women and as such, it's the man talking to the man and they've been ignored. Well now is their is time. Now is their time, and now the industry is hopefully waking up to addressing these concerns and issues about women.

Feldman:

Because most women are left widowed.

Clark:

Yes.

Feldman:

And so, you know that transition's going to have ... and as an advisor, you have to service and have a relationship with the wife, or-

Clark:

Well, Paul-

Feldman:

... be a female advisor, and we need more of them.

Clark:

Well, 70% of women will fire their husband's advisor when he dies. Let's suppose you walked up to Warren Buffett and you said, "Warren, do you know that you're going to lose 70% of your customers?" Do you think that would get his attention? I would think that would get the industry's attention. I think the one individual that has the heart of this entire issue is Dave Macchia. Dave has been doing studies and articles and writing trying to wake up –

Feldman:

Good stuff.

Clark:

... wake up the industry for the last 20 years about this issue and now it's here. And, it's about time that they design products based on what I just said.

Feldman:

Tyrone. That was excellent. What a great interview. We got some great insights for you. Thank you so much for joining me today.

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