Amid falling protection sales and a growing protection gap, Pink and Aviva have teamed up to provide a protection training academy for mortgage advisers and people new to the industry. Mark Graves explains why.
It is also important for advisers to know that the people they are surrounded by and the people who run their network recognise the difference between placing a mortgage and selling a protection case.
They need to know the person in charge knows that, if they have not managed to sell a policy in several visits to a customer, it is not because they are not trying but because it is a really hard thing to do.
Often one of the key factors in selling protection is taking a relationship approach rather than a transactional one, but for a mortgage adviser who has purely ‘transacted’ business for the past ten years, this can be incredibly difficult, which is why training for advisers is so incredibly vital.
The benefits of comprehensive training should be self explanatory: thorough training enables the advisers to become more confident and competent holistic protection planners.
This also has an add-on benefit for the client, as if a protection policy is sold correctly the customer fully understands what they have bought and the reasons why they have bought it.
The adviser will also be in a better position to make it clear to the client the purpose of the protection as part of their longer term plans.
Another benefit of this approach is that the more the client understands the reason they have bought a policy, the more likely is the protection to remain in place.
There is some evidence that this message is getting across, as increasingly it is mortgage advisers who are moving into this sector, frequently selling more protection than IFAs, although there is always a need for more training.
What a training academy needs to do is focus on the difference in protection selling skills and the importance of emotional engagement – identifying client requirements in a positive way so advisers can help customers feel empowered to safeguard their families’ futures.
As well as training on the softer sales skills needed for selling protection, advisers need to be provided with in-depth knowledge on all the products available so they are supported on product information and know exactly what is available so they can find the best products for a client’s needs.
The adviser also needs to know they will be able to access a wealth of engaging materials designed to make the conversation easier.
Based on insights from both advisers and consumers, the Pink/Aviva protection training academy gives advisers practical guidance on how and when to broach the sometimes difficult subject of life assurance.
This might be the first such training for a very long time, but it is pretty certain that the demand for such academies will grow and grow as their value becomes apparent and the results speak for themselves.
Mark Graves is a director of Pink network
