Have you ever felt annoyed because you were sitting in traffic behind an elderly driver who was going as slow as molasses and keeping you from getting where you wanted to go as fast as you wanted to get there? Or you've been waiting in a checkout lane behind a senior citizen who was methodically counting out their change while your ice cream was melting?
Maybe you start out feeling sorry for them, but little by little the impatience builds, and you and the other people waiting in line exchange glances that tacitly say, "I'm superior to that old person. I shouldn't have to wait. I have places to go and people to see and they're wasting my day."
As much as we may hate to admit it, we've all been that impatient person and probably feel a little guilty about it. It's times like these that my husband likes to say, "Someday we'll be that age -- if we're lucky." Boy, does that ever put things in perspective.
A dose of patience
Seniors are often considered a favorite client of financial advisors. They have both spending power and the need for the products you offer. What a lucrative combination. In reality, however, these same clients can drive you to distraction. They know they're valuable to you, and they're not shy about taking your time and attention. They may also be reaching that age where they become suspicious and distrusting of everyone, especially those who have a financial interest in them.
If they've started to question you and your recommendations, it may be a side effect of their general fear of life. Imagine this: The body that they used to count on is beginning to betray them. Their vision and hearing are diminishing. Their memory is starting to dim. Their joints are aching, they can't move very fast, and their reaction time has slowed. If we get frustrated waiting in line behind them, imagine how frustrated they must feel, unable to do the things that they took for granted only a few years before. Pretty frightening indeed.
So what can you do about any of this? How is it your problem in the first place? In this issue of the Agent's Sales Journal, we feature advice from experts to help you relate more effectively to this important client, learn what makes them tick, and how to be more sensitive to their needs.
In addition to reading the tips in this issue, you should be sure to add three more power tools to your senior marketing arsenal: empathy, patience, and respect. Every time you interact with your senior clients, demonstrate to them that you understand their concerns, their needs, their wants, and even their fears. They are at a point in life where they may require extra help from you ... help in understanding the products you are recommending or help in reading the fine print. Perhaps they need you to repeat the same thing a few times because their hearing is failing and they didn't catch everything you said.
Instead of viewing them just as elderly people who don't walk so well, see so well, or hear so well, we should remember that they were once a vibrant force in our society. That frail-looking old person in line at the market may at one time have been a family doctor who saved lives, or a favorite teacher who opened minds, or a business owner who strengthened the community, or a member of the military services who fought for our freedom.
Whenever we interact with seniors, we should check our impatience at the door and treat them with respect -- never with intolerance or condescension. It may seem cliched, but it certainly doesn't hurt to treat them the way we hope others treat our parents and grandparents. Or the way we hope someone will treat us when we reach that age -- if we're lucky.
Wishing you successful sales in life.
