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If you
are a financial-services practitioner, you will probably
agree that this job is not easy. More than a half of the
people you will talk to would give you a negative reply,
and only a tenth of those you get to talk to will
probably buy something that you are offering.
Financial planning is undoubtedly one of the most
important and life-changing endeavors that you will
encounter. It is extremely important and vital in
everyone’s life. Yet, as a practitioner, you will find
it as one of the most challenging careers you will ever
find.
Allow me
to share with you my experience some time late last
year.
If you
are a techie and a gadget freak, you’d probably know
Microwarehouse, the dealer of iPods, Apple, Palm and all
those stuff many of us would like to have.
Microwarehouse usually has a bi-annual sale that offers
good savings on those gadgets. I went to a sale in its
office in Kapitolyo in Pasig, and it was interesting. It
doesn’t really advertise its sale, it just goes by word
of mouth. There’s a lot of people but it was still OK,
not a mob.
For its
year-end sale, Microwarehouse announced its sale early
and even advertised; it did not hold it in its office
but rather in a big place at Silver City in Tiendesitas.
My
business partners and I were curious about the sale so
we had a “peek.” Wow! We saw a long line. . . such a
long queue. . . the line is just to get a number, and
only a certain number of customers are allowed inside at
a given time. After you get a number, you will still
need to wait for them to call you. Crazy!
I bumped
into a friend who was there at 12:30 p.m. (the sale
started at 12 noon) and she got inside by after 3 p.m.!
My goodness! Of course, we were not crazy enough to fall
in line and just shook our heads in disbelief.
On the
way back from the sale (we were riding in a car), and
amid the horrific, my friends Edwin Ngo and Wiley Tan
said that when H&M (a fashion retailer) opened its store
in Hong Kong, there was a six-hour line to get in. I
also narrated seeing a long line of people trying to get
into a Louis Vuitton store, also in Hong Kong.
Hmm,
this got me into thinking: Do you ever think there will
ever be people lining just to get a mutual fund, UITF,
preneed or life insurance? Will people ever fall in line
to speak to financial planners and advisers? If you are
into the sales of financial products, you would know
that getting an appointment to see a prospective client
is not at all easy. Universal numbers will tell you that
out of 10 prospects, you’d probably only sell to one.
Ouch.
This got
me into thinking, hmmmm, maybe we should start
“branding” financial awareness, make it hip just like
having an iPod, wearing a Rolex, having the latest
styles of Zara, sipping coffee at Starbucks, driving an
SUV, etc. Maybe it’s time to look at financial literacy
like a commodity that people would want to “buy.” Then
it will make the job of the practitioner so much easier.
Despite
the difficulties, I urge the financial practitioners not
to give up so easily. Although difficult, times are
changing, I suppose. It seems that there are many people
who are hungry to learn about financial planning.
When
Efren Cruz and I established www.income-tacts.com, we
knew that there will be people who will be interested
and sign up. What we didn’t expect is that in just a
little over five months, our membership would swell to
almost 1,200—there are many out there yearning to learn.
I have been getting invitations about personal financial
planning left and right, and this can also mean there is
an increasing number of people eager to learn.
My
challenge to the practitioners is to be more creative
and passionate about what you do. If you are a life-
insurance agent, focus on solving the life-insurance
needs of your clients. If you are a mutual-fund agent or
a marketing employee of a bank and you’d like to sell
mutual funds or UITFs, go out of your way to educate
your clients on the value of pooled funds.
If you
are a stockbroker, make your customers understand the
importance of taking calculated risks and positioning.
Widen
your credentials, improve your competence—but always try
to communicate well with your customers. Don’t confuse
them with jargon and all those stuff that only you could
understand. Be creative; make your presentations useful
and valuable from their perspective, and not yours.
Branding
financial planning will greatly help, but finance
practitioners should start from within.
My two
cents worth.
****
J. Randell Tiongson is a training specialist,
personal-finance educator and coach and a director of
the Registered Financial Planning Institute. He has been
engaged in the various facets of the financial-services
industry for nearly two decades. He is also the
cofounder of www.income-tacts.com with Efren Ll. Cruz,
an interactive site dedicated to the financial literacy
of every Pinoy. For inquiries, you may send an e-mail to
randellt@gmail.com.
Join the
11th RFP Program (July 5 to August 23, 2008). Visit
www.rfp-philippines.com or inquire at info@rfp-philippines.com/Tel.
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