Guerilla Annuity Selling Principles II – The Power of Information

Take a second to think about today’s advertising landscape.  Annuity prospects are exposed to dozens of conflicting sales messages every day – to have success with annuity selling, you’ve got to find a way to cut through the clutter.  In this second installment of the guerilla annuity selling principles series, we’ll take a look at one easy way to get your message across: marketing with information.

Today, corporations and sales executives spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads that are designed to be humorous and memorable.  However, while these messages may provide a brief burst in market recognition, they don’t always measure up in terms of sales conversions.  Do you remember the sock puppet dog that was the mascot of dot-com bust Pets.com?  Even though people around the world could correctly identify which company the puppet represented, it didn’t result in more dollars coming in to the company.

What people really crave is information – not catchy jingles or memorable mascots.  If you give them good information in your sales message, you’ll have them knocking down your door with more business than you can handle.  But what qualifies as good information?  In general, it should be both concise and specific, demonstrating your annuity’s benefits without being bogged down by obvious sales messages.  The specific type of information you should provide depends on which marketing method you’re using.

• Direct Mail

With annuity direct mail, you have a limited amount of time to capture a prospect’s attention, so your information needs to be short, sweet and to the point.  Come up with three to four single sentences that describe your annuity’s strongest benefits.  For example, consider something like “Earn a guaranteed return of 4.5% on your investment, while the stock market tanks.”  If you want success with annuity marketing and annuity sales, you must immediately answer the prospect's question "what's in it for me."

• Seminars

When you’re hosting an annuity seminar, keep in mind that people have shown up for the information you’ll provide – not to hear an hour-long sales presentation.  Speak openly and honestly about the benefits of annuities, not annuities.  In other words, your presentation must be about safety, tax savings, savings on social security tax, lifetime income.  Sell the benefits, not the product. Be that guy that tells it like it is, and be refreshing with your honesty and candor.  Even if you turn off some prospects because annuities aren’t the best fit for them, you’ll impress other attendees with your honesty and likely convert more of them into customers than you would rattling off standard sales copy.

The truth is that people can smell an advertising pitch from a mile away, and are more likely than ever to simply ignore it.  Don’t believe me?  Studies have shown that Internet users don’t even notice banner ads anymore because they’ve become so attuned to subconsciously detecting and disregarding advertisements.  In this advertising-happy climate, the one thing people long for more than anything is good, solid information.  If you’re the one that fills this need, you’ll find yourself overrun with new customers and clients, ready to give you their money. Other resources on annuity lead generation.

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Guerilla Annuity | Selling Principles | Annuity Sales  | Financial Advisor Leads | Financial Planning Leads