Carve Out a Niche for More Annuity Sales

The conventional wisdom in the annuity sales world is to bend over backwards, doing everything you can to please any customer that comes knocking at your door.  But in reality, trying to be everything to everyone can make you seem disjointed and disorganized to prospective customers.  In the third installment of the guerilla annuity sales principles series, we’ll explore why it’s better to establish yourself as the big fish in a small pond than one of the many fishes swimming in the big sea.

We’ve already talked about the benefits of establishing yourself as an expert in the annuity sales field, and to some degree, the idea of carving out a niche for yourself takes this a step further.  Instead of presenting yourself as a general annuities expert, consider creating your image as an expert in a specific type of annuities – variable, equity-indexed, or retirement – or for a specific target market, such as senior citizens, wealthy individuals, or families.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Won’t I be giving up some sales if I specialize in a specific type of annuity sales or target market?”  To be fair, if you work in a smaller community or rural area, you may have to work as a generalist in order to find enough customers to stay in business.  However, if you live in a larger community, carving out a niche for yourself can have some surprising benefits:

• Less time weeding out unqualified prospects

When prospective customers know that you focus on providing specific investments for certain groups of people, they’ll only contact you if they themselves fit into your chosen niche.  In addition, separating yourself from the pack by choosing a specialty makes the process of earning referrals even easier.  People tend to hang out with others who are like them – if you prove that you’re the best qualified to serve one member of your target group, they’ll likely refer you to other people who might be interested in your services.

• Set yourself apart from the annuity sales competition

In metropolitan areas, there may be dozens of annuity sales agents and brokers all marketing the same annuities to the same groups of people.  In these situations, it can be difficult to prove that you’re the best choice for potential customers when they’re seeing similar advertisements from all the other agents as well.  However, if you set yourself apart by focusing on specific annuity types or target groups, you can advertise this fact to prospective.  When they come across your advertisements proclaiming your specialization, they’ll respond more positively if they fit into your target annuity sales category.

So how can you tell if specializing in a certain niche is right for you?  Take a look at the list of your past clients.  Do you see any patterns?  Are most of your clients in a certain age range or income level?  Do you tend to sell more of one annuity product than another, or are your commissions generally higher from the sales of one type of annuity over another?  You may be surprised to find that narrowing down your prospects to a certain target market or annuity type won’t cut into your existing client base at all!

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Annuity Sales | Annuity Leads | Financial Advisor Leads | Financial Planning Leads