If you are considering a jump into advanced markets, you might want to consider the advice of MDRT President Guy Baker, MSFS, CFP, MBA: Become a specialist.
Baker, one of three prominent advanced markets experts interviewed for this month's cover story, the Advanced Markets Producer Roundtable, says that today's clients are less likely to appreciate a general practitioner.
"Today, with all of the intricacies and skills required to help clients focus on their concerns and options, being a specialist is valued," Baker says in the article. "They want someone who does this all the time and really knows their stuff. This thinking is similar to a surgeon who does heart transplants all the time. So a young producer needs to get a general education, but then pick one area and really learn it ... [Clients] are more interested in experts who have already learned the ropes and can help them avoid the pitfalls. They are going to be wary of someone who dabbles."
Baker didn't just jump right into advanced markets and hit the ground running -- his first attempt failed within six months, but he learned from it and was much better prepared the second time around, six months later. These days, he has refined his specialty to be the business exit planning market, which is ripe with aging baby boomers who own businesses they will need to sell. Yet he has found there isn't a lot of competition among producers serving this market: "I have discovered that insurance agents have abandoned almost entirely the exit planning element," Baker says in the Producer Roundtable article.
By specializing in helping business owners disengage from their companies, Baker has created a very successful niche for his firm, and he is effective in promoting that expertise to keep new business rolling in.
Exit planning may not be your cup of tea. But if you want to be successful in advanced markets, identify that area of specific interest where you see opportunity and do everything you can to become a well-versed expert in that area. Become a specialist, and market your expertise.
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