More Tips From the MDRT Annual Meeting

Learn from the best how to avoid a no-show, create a "prospecting" card and resist the temptation to talk your client out of a sale.

By Maggie Leyes

Avoid no-shows.
Have you ever had a referred prospect not show up for his scheduled appointment? To ensure that a prospect makes it into your office, Dan Richards offered this suggestion in his breakout session "Rethinking Referrals." The afternoon before the scheduled appointment, have your assistant call the prospect to confirm it. This alone greatly increases your chances of sitting across the desk from your potential client the next day.

Then, Richard said, go one step further and have your assistant add a "differentiator" into the conversation: "The parking lot is often congested at 3 p.m., when you are coming in, so look for the parking spot near the door that is reserved for you." Before the appointment, ensure that a spot near the door bears a sign with the prospect's name. When the potential client arrives, sees his name and parks easily, you have begun the differentiation process.

But don't stop there. Have your receptionist greet the prospect by saying, "Yes, [your name] told me he is expecting you." Richard said that in this increasingly competitive market, many prospect go to see several advisors before choosing. "Do what you can, especially during the 'early experience,' to make your practice stand out," he advised.

Create prospecting cards.
If you really want to super-charge your business, put the words "by referral' on your card. This was the advice that Jim Ruta gave the 7,000-plus attendees during his main-stage presentation "Crack the Code." He then told a story about the power of this small move. An advisor handed his new card with "by referral" on it to one of his long-standing clients. This is the response he got from the surprised recipient: "I thought you were too busy to see more people. So, I've been referring my friends to someone else." And Ruta had this additional suggestion: "Give out way more cards than you think you should, because your card is better off in prospect's garbage can than in your filing cabinet."

Don't talk your prospect out of a sale.
Edward A. Radosh, CLU, ChFC, had this lesson to teach in his presentation, "Unless Your Closing Ratio Is 100%, You Need This Session": You will never be good at closing unless you always listen to the question asked. And Radosh gave attendees a very poignant example. An advisor was sitting with a client who was there to complete his insurance transaction. With pen in hand, poised to sign the check, the client asked the advisor, "Is this a good company?" Instead of listening carefully to the question, and then giving the simple reply, "Yes!" the advisor began to "regurgitate a lot of information about the company [the client] had not been asked for," said Radosh. The man stopped when the agent, in the midst of the long discussion about the company's strengths, said that it had been founded in the 1920s. The man replied, "Well, my friend just bought a policy from a company founded in the 1800s-that's what I want."

If you are looking for more ideas from the MDRT annual meeting, be sure to read comprehensive coverage of the meeting "Reach New Heights." Plus, be sure to listen to this month's podcast, which was recorded at the meeting: "How Delegate Effectively-and Better Leverage Your Staff" with practice management guru Gina Pellegrini.