Northamptonshire-based Velvet Mortgage & Insure Services has launched a training course for advisers to help them have protection conversations with clients.
Speaking to FT Adviser, Joanna Streames, founder of Velvet, said the virtual course - which she is considering calling 'Streamlining for Success' would begin in April and run until July.
The course will comprise a series of webinars, delivered over Zoom, with links to spreadsheets, scripts and follow up newsletters, and costs £999.
Streames said the course has been developed after she saw increasing numbers of advisers approaching her over LinkedIn and social media, asking her for hints and tips on how to reach people with protection.
I believe that with different processes and time management strategies and using the tools that we have on the internet can help significantly.Joanna Streames, Velvet"A lot of the questions I was getting seemed to fit into the same few categories - time management and how to cope with the pressures of protection advice and research without getting stressed.
"There were also people saying they were struggling with organisation and dealing with regulation - so much so that they did not have time to prospect for new business, but that they were unhappy with the lead generation they were using."
She said lead generation, and how to prospect for business and reach new demographics, was the third, the "biggest" problem.
"People bring that up to me time and again, and I believe that with different processes and time management strategies and using the tools that we have on the internet can help significantly", Streames explained.
"Insurance is sold, not bought and really advisers know this but do not always know how to have these conversations with clients, or how to 'sell' the benefits that come alongside protection policies, such as rehabilitation and mental health support."
According to Streames, approximately four weeks of the course will be on time and diary management, how to streamline processes, and how to delegate, and the second section will be on leads and prospecting.
Bridging to protection
"I'm also going to do two weeks on how to bridge from mortgage advice to protection", Streames said. "I'll be showing people - often newcomers to the profession - how to position protection with somebody and how to have those conversations with clients."
Claiming that protection "really is my passion", she said she would be talking a lot about how to move away from the old way of thinking "how much I can get in commission" from a product and through to "building long-term relationships with clients, and how to research what is really the best policy for the client".
Social media will also be covered. Velvet does a lot of posts on TikTok and Instagram to raise awareness of the need for protection, especially among younger people.
Giving FT Adviser a sneak peek of the spreadsheet she employs to structure her social media posts, Streames said it was vital to have a proper strategy in place, not just posting things haphazardly or non-compliantly.
She said: "If you are strategic you can get four months' worth of content to post regularly done within three to four hours.
"And if you can't do that, then think about outsourcing to someone who can spend one afternoon a month doing this.
"It's all about raising awareness."
