There are many industry stats about 401k “sales.” Perhaps you have your own. It’s natural to talk in terms of lead generation and sales funnels and qualifying questions and, of course, closing. But, when you get down to it, it’s not really so much about generating leads as it is about generating relationships. Lead gen is all about an internal process. Relationship gen is about focusing on how we solve other people’s problems. To be sure, we still need to deliver on retirement plan features and service, quality and price, but we know that these things often seem like commodities in the market. “Selling” a retirement plan is the end of the transactional funnel, but it’s the beginning of an engagement we hope to serve for many years. That suggests that we focus on how we reduce complexity, how we reduce risk and how we deliver a great relationship – all things that differentiate us best.
It’s no surprise that many of the people and companies we meet find it difficult to understand the vocabulary and rules and regs of retirement plans. That discomfort presents both a challenge and an opportunity since the power of partnerships like ours is our ability to help them navigate this terrain and communicate that we truly understand their needs and goals. If we look for ways to simplify complex topics and stay focused on client needs and goals, we’ll do our best to differentiate and earn lasting relationships.
Needless to say, we value our relationship with you and look forward to investing energy in our collaboration in the year ahead. Let’s talk about how can work together to communicate our value and help others succeed.