If you have purchased an Apple iPhone and marveled at the box it came in, you have experienced the strategy smart marketers are using to differentiate themselves: never missing an opportunity to wow their customers. Consider it a metaphor for your practice: holding onto your best clients and attracting the most valuable new ones requires […]
As I pack my bag for a sales trip, I load what I consider to be essentials: Advil, Excedrin and allergy medication for on-the-road aches, pains and congestion; Extra shoelaces in black, brown and white (for my running shoes); Black shoe polish to give my dress shoes an extra sparkle; Buttons and sewing kit for […]
At a time when your dreams are just a click away, it’s never been easier to run up more debt than you can handle. Those smartphones we all carry were supposed to give us access to information to make us smarter consumers. In fact, almost half of shoppers say they use their phones to make […]
When it comes to closing a sale, the saying goes that a “yes” is best, but a “no” is better than a “maybe.” With a “no,” you can quickly move on to another prospect. A “maybe” can keep you engaged indefinitely, spinning your wheels and gumming up the sales pipeline of your product. Every salesperson […]
The costs of long-term care are increasing every year, but most families do not understand what they will be confronting when it is time to start paying for care. Too many people wait until they are in the middle of a crisis before they start trying to figure out how the world of long-term care […]
For most of us, life has its routines: we get up about the same time every day, we eat the same breakfast and we take the same route to the office. It’s a reassuring pattern that enables us to focus on the higher-functioning tasks. Or so we like to think. In reality, researchers have found […]
In the business of financial services and insurance sales, getting bigger does not necessarily mean becoming more successful. In fact, while so much attention has focused on adding services and employees, some advisors and agents have found that staying small and serving a loyal clientele is a much more satisfying path for them. As technology […]
Late-life finances can be the toughest conversations for any financial advisor. Faced with the ramifications of decisions they made decades before, clients can only ask that they not be surprised by unexpected costs and expenses. But, there are surprises lurking for many seniors and their families who think they are prepared for retirement, but, haven’t […]
Almost half of today’s workers and retirees believe that future generations of retirees will be worse off than those currently in retirement (49 percent globally, 46 percent U.S.), according to findings from new global research. The New Social Contract: A Blueprint for Retirement in the 21stCentury is based on a 2018 survey of 16,000 workers and retirees in […]
Millennials are taking investing and retirement seriously. That is the surprising conclusion of the J.D. Power 2018 Group Retirement Satisfaction Study. While the survey makes the claim that millennials are most likely of all demographic groups to be prepared for retirement, that’s a bit of a stretch, considering that the oldest millennial is only 37 years […]