Ten top tricks for writing protection business

1. Have a process

Zurich deals with advisory firms of all sizes – from one-man bands to those with several offices and many advisers across the country.

In the experience of protection consultant Wendy Matthews, firms that have a set sales process for writing protection business and someone to manage that process tend to be more successful.

“It should be coming from the top down,” she says.

“There is a responsibility on networks to encourage and support advisers, too.”

2. Set out your stall

If you want to advise on protection, make that clear from the outset. “I always say to advisers that they need to set out their stall at the beginning,” says Wendy.

“Are you a mortgage adviser or are you a mortgage and protection adviser? If you are a mortgage and protection adviser, that’s what you should be saying to the customer.

“Do it as a package – I’m going to get you the house and I’m going to keep you in the house no matter what life throws at you in the future. Bear in mind that when buying a house or sorting their mortgage could be the customer’s only chance to receive protection advice.”

3. Show that you care

What is protection?

“You can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you can’t touch it, you can’t feel it; a customer might just see it as an amount of money going out of their bank account every month,” says Wendy.

“To counter that, you need to explain the importance of protection to your customers and show that you genuinely care about them. Discuss ‘what if?’ scenarios and almost treat them as though they are a family member. If that was your mum, dad, brother, sister or cousin sat in front of you, what would you recommend for them?

“You would be recommending that they have life, CIC [critical illness cover], IP [income protection] – the whole lot, because you would want to know that no matter what happened, they would be covered.”

4. Make it important

Some advisers don’t want to discuss protection until a client receives a mortgage offer for fear that they would have wasted their time. But trying to go back to arrange protection at a later date can strike customers as a means to make a sale as opposed to providing good customer care.

“Some advisers don’t make protection a priority,” says Wendy.

“A customer might think, well if they don’t think protection is important then why should I?

“Don’t make protection an afterthought; make it a priority. Your customer will thank you in the future especially if they end up needing to make a claim.

“Customers will buy into protection if you explain its importance. As their adviser they trust you: if Wendy thinks it’s important, then it must be important.”

5. Make it personal

The key for distribution team leader Andy King is to make it personal for the customer.

“Make them understand why they want it from an emotional point of view,” he says.

“Does that person have a family history of cancer or do they have experience of cancer or motor neuron disease or a child with Down’s syndrome? Making it personal to them helps to bring the value of protection to life.”

6. Use the customer’s language

There is a lot of jargon in protection which can be at best off-putting and at worst confusing for the customer.

Avoiding acronyms and complex terminology can make for easier and more productive conversations around protection.

“Let’s not call it a CIC plan or even a critical illness plan – it’s a ‘keep you in your house’ plan,” says Andy.

7. Don’t prejudge the customer

You can’t always judge a book by its cover. “A lot of the time the adviser feels defeated before they start, thinking it’s going to be too expensive for them; I’m not going to quote them critical illness,” says Andy.

“I’ve been in sales a long time and many a-time I’ve been surprised. I’ve thought, this is a bit pricey, but they’ve gone, yeah okay that’s fine and they’ve signed up.

“So don’t prejudge your customers; it’s probably cheaper than you think and there are always options. You don’t need to have cover of a quarter of a million; a year’s worth of salary – £50,000 or even £25,000 – can make a huge difference to someone.”

8. Think about vulnerability

Especially these days, amid the cost-of-living crisis, advisers need to be conscious of how vulnerable their clients are – and shouldn’t be afraid to discuss it. On the contrary, it can be a powerful tool.

“I talk a lot about vulnerability and resilience,” says protection consultant Iain Pollock.

“As soon as you give someone a mortgage, you put them in a position of indebtedness – you make them a vulnerable person.

“Clients might not be aware of their own vulnerability – or that protection can help to reduce their exposure to vulnerability.”

Asking clients to reflect on their own vulnerabilities can help to convey the importance of protection.

“I always talk about vulnerability with my advisers – it’s quite a powerful way to discuss protection,” continues Iain.

“Protection is there for customers at life events – like retirement, you’ve got whole of life and convertible term, income shock or critical illness. You can look at life events that may be on the horizon, the potential vulnerability of the customer and the solution provided by putting protection in place.”

9. Emphasise the positive

While protection is often seen as safeguarding against ‘the worst’, there are many positives angles, too. What does the client want to do with their money? What are their plans for the future?

“As an industry, we can be a bit doom and gloom – you’re going to die, you might get ill – but we can turn it around and look at the positives,” says Iain.

“So, you want to get married, have a family, get a bigger house? You can focus on the good things that clients want to do with their money and how we can protect the positive stuff as well. I call it positive protection.”

10. Write it or refer it

The Financial Conduct Authority is introducing a new Consumer Duty that will set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and require firms to put their customers’ needs first. The rules come into force on 31 July 2023 for new and existing products or services that are open to sale or renewal and a year later for closed products or services.

“This is all about making sure customers get the best outcome and if advisers are not talking about protection at any point in their process, they are failing in their consumer duty,” says Andy.“

It’s happening, so what are you going to do about it?