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Finding Gold
Imagine Your Target Market is Dead!
By Michael Lovas
August 1, 2006
See the most serious problem in the financial industry.
A few times each year I write an article on coaching. Well, not actually write, but rather share. See, I answer some of the most relevant questions about the most professionally debilitating problems faced by advisors today. These are questions my own coaching clients ask me to help them solve.
This article addresses the number-one, most serious and significant problem faced by the vast majority of people in the financial or insurance business.
Here's what the problem sounds like when my clients ask me about it: "I work with seniors and my income has dropped off. What can I do?"
Here's what the problem looks like: Imagine you wake up one morning and find that your entire target market is dead.
If you can imagine that you actually wake up and find your target market is dead, you will come to face to face with the reality staring you in the face today. Your target market is going the way of the great buffalo herds. They're fading into history. If you specialize in the senior market, that's bad news for you. However, even worse news for you is that replacing the seniors are their children — the leading-edge Boomers. How can that be worse news? After all, it is a humongous market with great wealth. They are 180-degrees different from their parents. They are diametrically different in just about every possible way.
What does that mean to you? Disaster! It means that as the seniors fade into history, so will your skills and effectiveness. The approaches that worked with seniors do not work with Boomers.
- The logic that guides seniors into buying annuities will not work on Boomers.
- Their psychology, values, identity and beliefs are 180-degrees different.
- How they buy, why they buy, who they trust, who they believe, who they scorn — in all of those things, they are completely different from their parents.
In other words, Boomers are your worst nightmare because few (if any) of your selling skills are relevant to the Boomer market.
What can you do about it? Simple — learn why Boomers make their decisions. What motivates them. What they avoid. Who they avoid. What they want and why they want it — in the context of financial services.
The solution to this problem is simple — so simple as to be deceiving. You learned about seniors and how to appeal to them by paying attention to people who understand them. Do the same thing now. Find someone who knows about Boomers. There are many resources available to you. But many of them are generic. You do not need a generic resource. You need a very specific resource that explains the Boomer psychology in terms of their buying financial services. Anything else gives you interesting information that you cannot use to take action.
Here's an example of the type of relevant information you need. It is a description of leading-edge Boomers as seen through their values in the context of financial services:
Leading-edge Boomers and Retirement
Even today, the leading-edge Boomers still hold dear many of their life-long values. Sitting on the porch and rocking their way to death is not among them. Let's look at what the Leading-edge Boomers see as their lives in retirement — and why they see it that way:
Good life and spending. As humans, we seek to replicate the environment that nurtured us as children. Thus, leading-edge Boomers sought a lifestyle at least as good as they had experienced as children in the ‘50s. Economic history had given them nearly 20 years of steady growth, so they assumed they could achieve whatever they wanted, and that they could also afford to buy whatever they wanted — income, savings and credit notwithstanding. This is how they developed their reputation as over-spenders.
Financial planning for retirement. In research conduced by American Demographics magazine, half of Boomers responded that investments in stocks, bonds and real estate would provide retirement funds. But for the leading-edge Boomers, 73 percent of respondents age 59 or older planned to support themselves with the money they receive from Social Security! How does that jibe with the data suggesting that Boomers possess more wealth than any previous generation?
Remember, it's not a homogeneous group. And, even those who have had significant incomes have lived a lifestyle of spending. So, working as a financial advisor with Boomers will require you to think "outside the box" in order to translate the Boomers' property into liquid assets they will need to fund their coming years. You will have a very difficult time trying to fit them into generic programs.
Retirement. In 1997, Scudder, Stevens & Clark, Inc. released the results of a major study on Boomers and their retirement expectations. While the information is a about ten years old, I cite it here because it has a direct bearing on your job:
"Boomers anticipate they will switch from their primary careers earlier than their parents' generation did, or not retire at all. Boomers plan to live more actively in retirement than their parents and view the period in terms of opportunity, not as a ‘state of exile.' The survey results also point to a collective consciousness among Baby Boomers that financial planning is essential for this period of life, while underscoring a failure to actually be preparing adequately, as well as a surprising lack of financial literacy."
According to the survey nearly half (48%) of Baby Boomers believe they will retire before 65 and an equal percentage anticipate some type of paid employment in retirement. In addition, 13% said they're planning to stay with their current careers past 65, and 20% aren't planning to retire at all. Only 18% said they'd retire at the traditional age of 65.
Retirement preparation. According to the Scudder research:
- 80% of Boomers say they have begun to make plans for a financially secure retirement
- 79% consider retirement their primary investment goal
- 73% say they "usually" save for retirement
- 70% contribute to a 401 (K) or 403 (B) plan
- 63% have established another savings or investment plan.
While those numbers are encouraging, look at this next set. They paint a different picture:
- 58% of Baby Boomers have no idea how much savings they will need for retirement
- 46% tap savings and investments now to meet expenses
- 20% have less than $10,000 and
- 67% have less than $50,000 in their 401(k) plans
- 21% have established a nest egg goal
- 70% of Boomers say they are worried about their financial futures
- 75% regret not having begun to plan for retirement sooner
- 40% of Boomers cite lack of knowledge as the main reason their retirement planning lags
- 44% consider themselves investing "novices"
- 54% say they feel "stupid" asking financial questions.
Why are those numbers so terrible? I subscribe to the thought that the financial industry attempted to use an out-dated sales strategy on these Boomers. They tried the fear approach. This might have worked on Boomers' parents, but Boomers are polar opposites of their parents. Here's an example:
"…at current rates, the cost of services such as personal care, adult day care, and assisted living could quadruple by 2030. Total national expenditures for services that promote aging in place are projected to reach $193 billion in those 30 years. Out-of-pocket costs will also climb, by 369%, to $112 billion."
Who can comprehend those numbers? I can't. So how did this fear tactic affect Boomers' retirement preparation? It moved them to inaction!
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Those are pages from our up-coming Report on the psychology of selling financial services to Boomers. It comes after years of research and experimentation. We read the other books and reports on Boomer psychology and determined that there was very little available that was relevant to financial professionals. We also determined to write a Report that presented relevant information with recommendations for how to use it within the financial industry. We focused on relevance and specificity.
Here's how that's different. Information that you cannot use to take action is an opiate that lulls you into a false sense of success. But, in the end, it fails to help you succeed in doing anything other than collecting more information. Why is this a danger to financial professionals? Because either you, your colleagues or your boss are probably Analytical. Because researching is an important aspect of the financial industry, the industry attracts a lot of people who are highly analytical.
In fact, we even give them their own credentials — CFA. People who are mainly analytical love to collect information, but they have difficulty recognizing the distinction between passive information and actionable information.
When the Marines send someone into the field with the job of collecting information, they expect to get back only information that they can use to take action. Imagine if that Marine radioed back to headquarters that among the enemy 33% wore beards, only 2% were women and their average household income last year was 100 pesos.
Translate that into your own business. When you see the demographic information about the Boomer generation, you'll see data like - zip code clusters and average household income. How are you going to use that? If it won't help you connect to those people, then you need to keep looking.
In Conclusion. If you work with the senior market today, get prepared to watch your income decline, or take steps to learn how to work with Boomers. Remember, Boomers represent a very different psychology. Learn why they are who they are, and why the make decisions. It will shine a light on the products and services they want, and it will show you how to step in to become their trusted advisor.
Your Reward. The information I've shared with you today comes from our Report on the psychology of Boomers. We teach this material to our coaching clients, and we deliver a fascinating keynote on it "How to Sell Financial Services to Boomers." If you want to succeed with Boomers, let me know. We will give you a $100 discount on two things you cannot get any place else — the AboutPeople Boomer Package. It consists of an advanced copy of the Report (to be released in August) and two hours of personal coaching in how to connect with Boomers. Regular Cost: $800. Your Cost: $700.
MICHAEL LOVAS is the author of ten books, three columns, and a thousand articles on Professional Credibility and the Psychology of Communication in the financial industry. He's the co-founder of AboutPeople and the founder of Credibility Marketing.
Michael speaks at conferences and seminars in Canada and the US. He is an inspiring trainer and coach who helps advisors improve their businesses. He holds three prestigious certifications: Licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), Licensed Trainer of NLP; and Clinical Hypnotherapist. They make Michael an expert at helping financial professionals succeed at a higher level by building more meaningful business relationships.
AboutPeople Books:
- (NEW) Questions Are the Answer! - A guide for using questions effectively in sales conversations
- (NEW) Axis of Influence! - How credibility & likeability intersect to drive success!
- (NEW) Words that Sell - The language of psychological marketing & selling
- Face Values - How to read people and connect with them in less than 3 minutes!
- The Boomer Report - The financial advisor's guide to understanding the boomer mind
- Presentation Magic - How to gain a psychological advantage in your seminars and sales presentations
- The 5 Levels of Rapport - How to create a meaningful connection with people who are important to you
- Magnetic Connections - Consultative selling for financial professionals
- IDENTITY - How to create and deliver the most important statement of your business life
- Inside the Mind of the Senior Market
- Beyond Wave Marketing - How to add credibility to your relationship marketing
Find AboutPeople books at: www.aboutpeople.com
Michael Lovas, C.Ht.
AboutPeople
(509) 465-5599
1503 E. Riverview Dr.
Colbert, WA 99005
www.aboutpeople.com
