All Products Net Good And Bad Press, But Why?

Recently I’ve heard a lot of advisors that I work with mention that their prospects are getting NEGATIVE information about Annuities. Here’s a quick discussion of how to handle it…always remember -“A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” Dale Carnegie
In this day and age, information and opinions are everywhere. You can literally search any topic on the internet and find, in print, someone who agrees and disagrees with the most extreme topics. As an experiment, I recently hopped online to test an extreme opinion I felt confident everyone would disagree with. I typed, “MOTHER THERESA IS BAD” into Google, and guess what? I immediately found pages in which people passionately agreed with that statement. The point is, you obviously can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
All too often, clients and prospects are given negative articles and information by their current advisor, or perhaps they stumble upon information on the internet about a given product. The problem here is, people tend to believe that if it’s in print, it’s legitimate. Moreover, in today’s environment, if you want to support your belief in something, you can always simply go online and find “proof” to support it. Silly as it may seem, many of us operate this way. We feel one way, and we go online to find so-called “proof” to back it up. This is the way we confirm our decisions.
Rather than getting emotional and trying to “confirm” what is right and what is wrong, why not have an open mind and literally look at the facts to help us make decisions?
When your clients and prospects get third party press – for instance, something indicating “ANNUITIES ARE BAD” – how should you respond? Should you open up your desk drawer and show them all the great articles written about annuities? Let me first say that I do think it’s a great idea to have positive third party press. However, I don’t believe in fighting fire with fire in this scenario. Why not help the client see and understand things in a logical way as opposed to an emotional way. Why not go “BIG PICTURE” with your clients, helping them see what’s really going on and why these articles are really being written? Rather than defending any particular products, your wisest move may often be to help the client to understand the purpose for which articles are written and the hidden agenda behind the press in which many consumers are placing such stock.
The truth is, there is a WAR going on in the financial world. The war is between Wall Street, Banks and Insurance Companies. Why? Because they’re are all fighting over the same money. The majority of America’s wealth rests with the Boomer and Senior generations, and virtually every major financial institution is fighting over this money. The press, as we all know, loves readers and viewers, and like any war we might be fighting elsewhere, they willingly jump right into the fray to cover the action. When you see an article that’s particularly negative on a given product, stop for a moment before digesting everything you’re reading, and simply ask, “Why is this really being written?” Oftentimes, the answer is obvious.
The truth of the matter is that in most cases, when a particular financial vehicle, such as an annuity or mutual fund, is receiving negative press, the product is often not the real issue at hand. The press is often condemning the manner in which the product was sold.
In the case of fixed annuities, for example, the fact is, there are over 1,159,271 individuals in the United States licensed to sell these products. The training to become licensed is often a 3-day class and a 2-hour test. That is it.
The point? Many professionals got licensed in less time than it takes to become a massage therapist and were able to sell these products and be perceived as “an expert.” Many of these people did not know the products themselves (though they may have genuinely thought they did), and if they didn’t know what they were selling, their clients couldn’t have known either. It’s akin to a client going to the store to buy an iPad because of all the great features they’ve heard about and then later finding out they actually bought a Kindle. It’s NOT WHAT THEY THOUGHT IT WAS. This is the problem – not the products themselves. Both products are great for the right customer, but if sold incorrectly, both a Kindle and an iPad are poor products – just like their financial counterparts.
The true experts who understand this business and understand how products work know which products are best, where they fit into a client’s portfolio and how they help clients reach the outcome they desire. Clients who are with this type of advisor often become raving fans in the end.
Help your clients remember: The motives of anyone bashing a particular financial vehicle are suspicious by definition. All products have a designed purpose and are built to address a particular need. In that sense, such blanket criticism of a product would be no different than someone offering general criticism to a particular medicine such as penicillin or ibuprofen. Misapplied, any medication could be dangerous, but when used to treat the needs for which it was designed, it’s just what the doctor ordered.

P.S. ADDED BONUS - HOW TOP ADVISOR HANDLES BAD PRESS:

One of my advisors mentioned how he handles this, and coaches his clients through what will happen when a client leaves his office and goes to talk to their current advisor, there’s usually just 2 things the advisor will say.

1) I CAN DO THIS TOO!

2) THIS IS BAD, DON’T DO IT!

So he simply lets the client know up front, this is what they will say and then he asks them,

“WHAT IS THE GOAL OF YOUR ADVISOR WITH EITHER OF THESE STATEMENTS?” (they almost always say "To keep the money!”)

Then he follows with this statement:

"RIGHT, SO NOW YOU ARE PREPARED AND KNOW WHY HE IS SAYING IT. REMEMBER, THIS ISN’T JOHN’S (current advisor) MONEY AND IT’S NOT JEFF’S (you) MONEY, THIS IS (while motioning to them)… (theyalmost always say “MY MONEY”)