Financial Consultants & the Art of the Pithy Statement

The following speech was my Club President’s opening address, at AIA Toastmasters Club’s NFNF chapter meeting, on the 28^th January 2021.

Club members, colleagues, my fellow Toastmasters, welcome to our NFNF chapter meeting. 

As we consider the events of the past year, and developments in the industry, I would like us to remember that we are financial services consultants, not insurance agents.  As consultants, we are experts in our field; as agents, we would be mere salesmen.  As consultants, we leverage on our credibility to offer solutions; as agents, we push products.  We are not here to sell life insurance.  We are here to sell the idea of what life insurance can do for people. 

We are in AIA Toastmasters Club to refine that concept so that all of you can go out, and be more effective in your work.  This means moving away from presentations, and moving towards actually connecting with your clients.  This means finding the write words to convey profound concepts and statements to them, so that they intrinsically understand that you have their interests at heart.  They say a picture paints a thousand words. But the right word, at the right moment, in the right place, implies a universe of emotions even pictures fail to convey.  Find those words. 

You could tell your clients, that as long as there is one person, whether a spouse, a child, a parent, anyone, who depends on their continued income, then they need life insurance. 

You could tell your clients, that whatever excuses they may have for not getting any form of coverage, would only sound selfish and ridiculous to the people they leave behind, their grieving widows and orphans. 

You could tell your clients, that they are not buying life insurance because they are going to die, but because the people they love are going to live.  And how do they want them to life? 

You could tell your clients, that life insurance is a means to engage in estate planning before they have made their money to provide for all of their needs and family. 

You could tell your clients, that the only person who is best placed to take care of them when they are old, is the person they are now, because there are no guarantees with people. 

Master the art of the pithy statement, and allow them to think of the consequences of their decisions.  And make sure you deliver for them.  We are in an industry where we are one of the few people to deliver some good news, when others are suffering pain and loss.  That is why we invest time in being effective communicators.  That is why we are here in this programmme. 

Over to you, Toastmaster of the Day.