How Social Security Planning Gets Me 8 New Clients a Month

I’ve been a licensed insurance agent for the past 10 years. I was independent, but with an umbrella of different advisors, until I opened my own business about five years ago. I mainly focus on retirement income planning and doing seminars to educate people on preservation of dollars once they are in the retirement phase of life.

At dinner seminars, people just want to eat

I started out doing dinner seminars. I would speak generally about the purpose of retirement planning, and put an emphasis of wealth preservation, and I would try to get seats filled by enticing them to dinner. Unfortunately the cost was a little more than I wanted to do, and it turned out that, also unfortunately, most people were there to eat dinner, and not necessarily to convert that into a one-on-one free consultation.

So it was challenging to get people to come for the real reason of learning about retirement planning, which is what I want to focus on. Our goals were not very compatible. But that was what I knew how to do, when trying to build my clientele, so I did that for a couple of years, and it did OK. But it was challenging to build my business that way.

Dropping dinner and getting focused

When you do a seminar on something broad like “retirement planning,” it does OK, but when the event is specifically on Social Security or Medicare, hands down, the response rate is much higher. Once you reach out about Social Security or Medicare, there’s no problem in getting people to attend. There’s such a great need for education, and no “1-800-HELP-ME” number.

I found Horsesmouth through my field-marketing organization. I knew Social Security was a hot topic, but I was a little intimidated at first. I hardly knew anything about it. But I dove into it because I felt that it really meshed with my goal in trying to help people with retirement planning. It’s one piece of the puzzle. It was a topic that people need to be educated about, and it was something people would be interested in coming to for the purpose of learning. I could build relationships from the initial workshop, because people would say, “She does know about Social Security.” And there’s a huge interest in it.

I started doing the Social Security workshops about five years ago. I wanted to get away from dinner seminars, and get people to focus on what they came to listen for. So I started making calls to find inexpensive venues and I stumbled into libraries around my area. I do direct mailing, but no food whatsoever. Skeptical people will ask, “What is it really about?” and I answer, “It’s really about what you’re coming for.” I go to libraries, very low cost, and I’ve never had a problem filling the seats.

All I’ve done in the last five years is Social Security workshops. I’m able to build on that simple topic. I never have issues with people coming, learning, hearing, and developing relationships through that. It has been my sole priority in regards to building my business.

Direct mail still works

I use a postcard-size, three-piece mailer that just says “Social Security Workshop” with a few bullet points on it. It says something about “legislation changes” or whatever, and how they can’t afford to miss this workshop. It has my name on it, but really the postcard is about “How can we maximize your Social Security?”

We include a reply card. I have a call center that takes all the calls if people want to reply via phone, or they can mail in the postcard marked with the date they want. I want it to be really, really user-friendly, not very wordy at all. I send five thousand mailers per month, with a marketing budget of about $2,500 per month. That’s half of what I spent on dinner seminars.

I do one seminar a month, usually on two different days. I can fill about 30 seats at each seminar. I don’t want to overextend. So it’s about 60 people a month I’m able to reach.

Running the workshop

I put a packet together for all the attendees. I print the brochures from Horsesmouth, a little bio about me and what I do, some testimonials, and a sheet for them to fill out for a free consultation. At the beginning of the workshop, I go through the packet and explain that I will be asking them to schedule an appointment with me. I tell a little bit about myself and the desperate need to educate people about Social Security. Then I pretty much go into the Horsesmouth presentation. At the end I talk about market volatility and the hook strategy of a financial plan, and say that the one-on-one free consultation is just about giving them some options.

I share how long I’ve been doing these presentations and encourage questions. Sometimes we can feed off one another. In the beginning I was quite nervous to take questions. But as I learned more, I felt more comfortable. I also give them the peace of mind to know, “If I don’t have the answer to your questions, I have a contact who does.” That would be Elaine Floyd, of course. It does help tremendously to have the resource of extra knowledge through email with Elaine.

Overcoming objections and setting that first appointment

At the end of my seminar, I have a slide with a list of reservations people might have about meeting with a financial advisor, such as, “I’m too busy,” “I have an advisor,” “I don’t know if I want to be sold to.” I go through all of these objections and tell the audience, “I’m here to earn your trust. I’m not here to sell you a transaction. I’m here to develop a relationship.” I try to end by breaking down walls, because trust is paramount. I get them to see that it’s an opportunity to get together, for me to see if I can help you. If I can’t, that’s OK, too. It does help to address head on what they are thinking.

I talk a bit about retirement planning and the objectives, then ask people to fill out the evaluation sheet. I try to get an appointment set at the time of the seminar. And if they set up an appointment, I give them one of the laminated Horsesmouth Baby Boomer’s Guide to Social Security. I try to see everyone as they go out the door and have some one-on-one contact with them. I collect the sheets and the first question I ask when they come up to me is, “Can we make an appointment?” So I’m a little forward. I try to encourage them to make an appointment on the night of the workshop because life gets busy.

If they don’t want to schedule an appointment, I’m not pushy about it. I offer to call the next day to set it up, if they don’t want to take the next step today. And if someone tells me to follow up in a week, I’m going to follow up. I think that is a key to being successful. You need to follow up, even if it’s been a month. I put it on my calendar, and make sure I call to ask, “Remember me?” It’s a warm reach, since you’ve met the person. Follow-up is imperative in this business, no matter how you do it. Sometimes people might call six months later and tell me they’re ready for the appointment now. Sometimes people just aren’t ready. That’s OK, I’m patient.

My team is just me and an administrative aide. I try to do all my follow-up myself. Also, every day I call new people who sign up for the seminars and introduce myself and thank them for signing up. Then the day before the seminar, I call and confirm that it is happening. I’ve already had the opportunity of a warm touch before the seminar. People are welcoming of these calls.

Results

Let’s say I average 25 people each workshop, which is about 15 households. At a typical presentation I’d say about half of the households make an appointment with me on the spot. That’s a pretty good ratio. Then I pick up another two or three appointments through follow-up. At the end of our multi-meeting onboarding process, I would be happy with three or four becoming clients. I don’t think that’s being overconfident; I think it’s a pretty safe number. I’m pretty diligent to do a workshop every month, except for December.

3 meetings from prospect to client

After we set an appointment, I send a confirmation email the next day with my address and so forth. I also send a checklist of documents for them to bring—retirement accounts, assets, and so forth. At the first meeting I get to know them by asking questions about preservation versus accumulation, when they want to retire—really A to Z in terms of their financial picture.

Then at the second meeting I run the Social Security report. I also run a retirement analyzer report to show them how long their money will last. Then I go into great detail. I have a huge whiteboard in my office where I go through the products and specifics about them. I try to give them a snapshot of where their cash flow will be in retirement, and then we turn to Social Security. I do a market comparison to market volatility versus where their assets are right now. Sometimes, unfortunately, I see that they will run out of money relatively early. But to the ones who have plenty of money for retirement, I ask, “Why are we taking risk? Why are all of our assets in the market?” It’s an eye-opening report to show them where they are and where their money is.

I have two questions to bridge to meeting three. I tell them at the beginning of meeting two that I will be asking, “Do I bring value to your situation? Have I shown you things that you may not have heard of?” If the answer is “Yes,” the next question is, “How much money do you want me to work with?”

I sell fixed index products. At that third meeting I take a spreadsheet of their assets that I created for the second meeting and ask them, “How much money do you want to protect, to put into a product that’s going to create lifetime income and protect the principle?” I try to transition specifically into where their dollars are, and how I am able to create a report of guaranteed income. I speak to their needs rather than generally speaking of the product. I pull all the pieces together so that they have ample dollars in retirement.

I touch on Medicare as a part of expenses. In regard to specific health care questions, I have a colleague that I refer them to. I’m not an expert in that, but the unknown of health care costs is a big concern for retirees. So I make sure I give them a resource to reach out to.

Normally they sign papers and officially become clients at the third meeting. I follow their lead and I’m not pushy, but the third meeting is where I ask the final, “Where do we go from here?” It’s not cookie-cutter, of course, and sometimes we go to four meetings, but I try to get a “Yes” or “No” by the third meeting.

Productivity climbing

I set a goal every year in regard to productivity. And I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to reach it every year. I haven’t seen any decline, only the progress of increasing productivity. Being consistent with the seminars creates relationships and really shows people that I’m not just here to sell them a product.

I’m always trying to improve. On my evaluation sheet, I ask “What did you like about tonight? What didn’t you like?” I’m always concerned to make sure that they got what they came for. I’m proud to tell the skeptics, “It truly is all Social Security.”