The Discovery Meeting is Key to Opening a Large Case Opportunity

The life insurance industry is very diverse, with advisors from different walks of life, ethnicity, and educational backgrounds. Regardless, one similarity that successful insurance advisors share is that they understand the value of incorporating a multi-step sales process in their practice.

The proven Life Insurance Sales Process that I like to use involves five important steps:

1. Understand the client’s current situation
2. Uncover the desired outcome
3. Crash test and identify potential issues
4. Evaluate scenarios
5. Make Insurance recommendations

In this blog, I will focus on the first three steps of the Sales Process, as they are instrumental in setting the tone and can make the difference between closing the sale or not. The first three steps are usually carried out in the first client meeting, which we will refer to as the “Discovery Meeting.”

The Discovery Meeting is an opportunity for the advisor to uncover the client’s current financial situation and their desired outcome, which are essential ingredients when determining estate planning objectives and obstacles along the way. At the same time, the Discovery Meeting can help the advisor better use their time. The answers gathered throughout the meeting will help uncover opportunities and separate the interested insurance client that will act from a prospect that may look like the perfect Insurance candidate on paper but may not take action.

When booking the Discovery Meeting, it is best practice to take the time and explain to the client what will happen throughout the conversation and why. To take the pressure off and help the client be as open as possible, the advisor may want to let them know that there will not be any kind of recommendation made in the first encounter.

The purpose of the Discovery Meeting is to gather information, educate while commonly agreeing on possible issues, and mainly to develop trust. While in the meeting, through a series of closed-ended questions, the advisor will gather the quantitative data, which we refer to as the traditional “Fact-Find.” Throughout a Discovery Meeting, the advisor will probe further than with your traditional Fact Find and ask open-ended questions to help the client think, open, and express their future estate planning desires while educating and identifying possible roadblocks.

As we know, Life Insurance is just the liquidity component of the estate planning puzzle. Depending on the circumstances, the advisor may have the opportunity to educate the client on how to control the distribution of their assets by having a Will versus passing away intestate and allowing provincial legislation to take over this important task. Throughout the conversation, depending on the situation, the advisor may also introduce the use of additional estate planning documents such as Secondary Wills and Power of Attorneys, continuing to position themself as a trusted advisor and a sounding board for the client instead of a product pusher.

Throughout the Discovery Meeting, the idea is for the advisor to let the client do most of the talking. Throughout the open-ended question part of the meeting, it may be normal to experience awkward moments of silence as the client takes their time to think about their objectives. This is entirely normal, and the key is not to interrupt the silence, as listening will cause clients to break the silence, allowing the advisor the opportunity to identify possible obstacles and probe further while educating.

In my opinion, incorporating a proven sales process and carrying through each step is well worth the investment of time. It will help uncover additional opportunities while allowing the advisor to sit down and probe and educate the prospect to determine if they are indeed interested in the benefits of life insurance before making a product recommendation.

I look forward to expanding on steps four and five in my next blog. 

Nader Ansary

Vice President, Advanced Markets