Virtual reality: The new frontier in reaching prospects and clients

By Susan Rupe

We’ve all heard the term “out-of-the box thinking” to describe looking at something in a new way. But an insurance training expert wants you to forget about the “box” and move on to “out-of-this-world thinking.”

Panos Leledakis is CEO of IFA Academy, an educational and research organization specializing in training insurance and financial advisors. He urges advisors to try reaching clients and prospects through virtual reality.

Virtual reality can be a tool to make insurance attractive to younger generations, Leledakis said.

“Virtual reality and augmented reality are redefining what an in-person meeting is,” he said.

Social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram are already becoming irrelevant to younger consumers, Leledakis contended, and those young consumers are tired of using Zoom for meetings. Virtual reality is the new frontier. The U.S. has 57.4 million virtual reality users, he said.

So how does Leledakis use virtual reality to connect with clients and prospects?

“I can use my headset and I can invite a client to meet me as an avatar or a hologram in a VR environment, where I can shape it as I want,” he said. “I can meet the client in my VR ‘executive office’ or on my ‘yacht,’ in the ‘office of the President of the United States,’ or even if in a ‘space station in outer space.’ I can even use impressive floating, 3-D holographic presentations to impress them. I can make a handshake with a client, a high five, even a hug.”

Leledakis sometimes invites my prospects and clients to play a virtual reality table tennis game as an icebreaker before their actual meeting. He also makes group presentations in a virtual space where he lands on stage in a virtual-reality helicopter.

“It's a whole new level of connectivity and interaction,” he said.

The right headset and the right apps

Leledakis uses an Oculus Quest 2 headset, which made by Facebook. But he added that free VR apps, such as Engage, are available and can be used on a computer or mobile device.

“Do you think that this is a way we can make more millennials, Zoom users and tech-savvy clients want to meet with you?” he asked. “Brand yourself as an advisor ahead of your time and make them talk about you to others with admiration. If needed, train them on how to use it. Propose to them what headset to buy and guide them to these new experiential aids. It's an experience that they will never forget, but neither they will forget you of course.”

Leledakis said he is finding dozens of prospects in the VR world. He uses a free VR app called Horizon Worlds and created by Facebook. You can go into the app as an avatar, admit hundreds of people into a VR conference or a VR networking event. You also can create your own VR world and invite others to join.

“I met many of my high-income clients in the VR world, and I closed my biggest life insurance policy to a client that I met in VR, $35 million of life insurance to an executive of JP Morgan,” he said.

Along with virtual reality, augmented reality and hologram technology also are becoming popular ways of connecting with prospects and clients, Leledakis said.

“In the near future, you can be at the client’s home or office, using simple VR glasses or, if you can imagine, wearing VR contact lenses,” he said. “Some say this technology is for the far future, but not really.”

Leledakis said advisors “must not be afraid of the future of technology.”

“We just have to be prepared for it.”

Using innovation and technology “can make insurance great again for our profession and for society,” Leledakis said. “We can make also insurance cool for the new generations, who believe that we are a profession with no technology and innovation. We have to go where our clients will be. Millennials want to be on VR. So let's meet them where they want to be.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.