The policy explanation meeting

I have been having this ‘post-implementation’ meeting with new clients ever since I joined the business back in the UK in 1978, and with demonstrating value and creating a quality experience for your client more important than ever in the current climate, I strongly recommend you incorporate this meeting into your initial advice process.

The policy explanation meeting is by far the shortest meeting you will have with your new client in the initial engagement process, but I believe it is also commercially the most valuable. The ‘value’ boxes that this meeting ticks are as follows:

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1) It serves to refresh the client’s memory on the reasons why they have taken out the types and levels of cover (focus on the outcomes);

2) It puts the business done into its appropriate overall context (refer to the ‘Circle of Safety’ recommendations document i.e. the ‘Platinum Package’);

3) It gives you the opportunity to identify the next steps that will be taken at the first review meeting, thereby planting that business in their subconscious; and

4) It enables you to ask for more referrals if you have already obtained referrals at the point of sale and taken at least one of them onboard as a client, or to seek feedback from the client on the quality of the experience they have had in coming onboard as a client, which in turn will open the door for referrals.

Also consider the fact that this meeting is likely to be one of the very few meetings when you are not looking to do any business, which in itself makes it valuable.

Assuming you recognise the commercial benefits of this meeting, it is important that you preposition it with your client at the point of sale. Remember it is at this point in the process that a new client is at their most vulnerable, having parted with thousands of dollars and having nothing in the form of physical, tangible product to show for it, so the opportunity to get back in front of you to make sure everything is OK is like a security blanket or a lifeline for them.

I tell the client, “So assuming we both do our jobs effectively and in a timely fashion, then sooner rather than later you will be on cover and in receipt of your policy documents, and when you receive your policy documents, we are going to get back together again to make sure you understand them and that everything is present and correct. OK?”

When you are notified by the life company that the cover is in force and documents have been sent, you get straight on the phone to the client and say, “Great news! Everything is up and running, and your cover is in force, so we need to grab our diaries and make a time to get together.”

Following these steps will mean that you will get to have a policy explanation meeting with the majority of new clients, and the benefits to be had from these meetings are enormous.

Chris Unwin is the founder and chief executive of Chris Unwin Training & Consulting Services