This Quick Start
will focus on the most valuable, useful and effective
features of the VSA. A more comprehensive introduction can be
found by taking the Guided Tour.
Organization of the Virtual Sales
Assistant
The VSA Main Menu
is the main navigation page for the VSA. It allows you to search for
support material by Tools or by Needs and view audio visual sales
training material under the Ideas section. Below we have broken the VSA
down by various aspects of a financial advisor's practice and
identified exactly what tools and material can be of aid to the advisor
in each of the areas.
Before we begin, be aware that the VSA's Video Training Center
is a terrific resource, not just to learn more about the VSA today, but
as an ongoing resource to maximize the benefit of the VSA to you and
your professional practice.
Prospecting and Approach
Very few sales support tools provide any help to the producer in these
areas, but the VSA is an exception:
1. Referred Lead Generator (RLG)
– The RLG is a “prospecting engine” that provides
names of a current client’s neighbors. These names can then be
used to begin the referred lead process.
2. Target Market Lead
Generator (TMLG)
– The TMLG is another “prospecting engine” that
allows you to target all the doctors, lawyers, florists, etc. in a
small city or zip code.
3. Prospect/Client Approaches
– The Priority Planning Concept is the simplest, least intrusive
and most effective method of approaching personal and business
prospects. The section contains field-tested Priority Planning Reviews
(PPRs) that can be personalized and used to reveal a prospect's most
important needs. The new Plans and Priorities is a new e-mail based
update tool that captures a client’s future needs with the click
of a mouse!
4. Personal Website
– The VSA offers “crisp, clean and professional”
advisor sites for all subscribers. The site is turn-key, requires no
maintenance and contains a logo or picture of the advisor. It is a
great prospecting and self-promotion tool.
5. Option to E-Mail
Reports
– The Internet has become a wonderful tool for providing
prospects with information. The VSA's option to e-mail all the reports
discussed below has become a vital part of prospecting and approaching
targeted prospects and/or clients for many producers.
6. Newsletters and Wave Marketing
– The section provides turn-key newsletters that can be either
mailed or e-mailed to clients and/or prospects. Not only can they help
create new sales, they can also serve to cement an advisors’
relationship with clients.
7. High Touch Client Videos - LIFE has
collected stories of real people who benefited from insurance
during a time of great personal and financial need, and turned
them into brief essays and videos. These stories are wonderful
third-party endorsements for the real value of insurance. LIFE videos can be sent to your clients/prospects via
e-mail for an approach, pre-appointment confirmation or just to
show you care.
Sales Interview
1. Fact Finders
– The VSA provides fact finders for virtually all
markets…about 25 of them in total for business, estate, personal
and disability planning, as well as questionnaires designed for annual
planning reviews.
2. Client Presentations
– The VSA contains over 75 complete presentations and reports for
point-of-sale delivery to customers. All have been reviewed for
compliance by FINRA, print out in letter quality (color if you have a
color printer) and are personalized for you and your prospects.
3. Concept Pages
– This is one of the most impressive features of the VSA. The
section contains over 750 concept pages covering practically every
subject in the financial arena. It also includes all current and
archived tax tables and mortality tables. Further, the concept pages
can be used to create custom and personalized presentations for clients
and prospects.
4. Calculators
– Included in the VSA are a wide array (nearly 100) of
calculators designed to help you determine your client’s needs in
a given area. It includes calculators for survivors, retirement, long
term care, businesses, estate liquidity, charitable giving, financial
planning, as well as many specialty calculators, such as Roth versus
traditional IRA, Required Minimum Distributions, 72 (t), etc.
5. Powerpoint Slide Presentations
– There are 25 Powerpoint presentations that can be saved to your
computer. Seminars can be conducted and interviews can be held without
being tied to the Internet. Handouts for all the presentations are also
provided.
6.
Financial Snapshots- Financial Snapshots are unique and simple need analysis calculators that help identify your clients' financial needs
and priorities. Like photographic snapshots, our Financial Snapshots
produce a picture of an instant in time...a financial picture, if you
will. However, the financial picture can be saved and updated to
reflect your clients' changing needs and objectives. These Financial
Snapshots are available:
Cash Needs at Death Income Needs at Death Cash and Income Needs at Death College Savings
Disability Income Needs Retirement Income Needs Long-Term Care Expense Complete Financial Snapshot
Business Organization
1. Book on Building a
Practice
– "Building Your Financial Services Practice" is a complete
system with the tools needed to build a practice. The book identifies
the 6 systems a producer needs to succeed and tells how to establish
them. Many agents have found this book a great way to critique their
own business, while others have found it invaluable in “bringing
in a junior” associate for succession planning.
2. Annual Planning Calendar
- The Business Manager (TBM) is an annual planning calendar and
business control system. You simply print the contents and then 3-hole
punch or spiral bind them to create a week-at-a-glance planner pad. It
has been designed specifically for financial advisors to help control
their business and time. It is not the only such system available in
the industry, but we believe it is the simplest and therefore the most
effective.
Client Building
1. Annual Reviews
– Forms specifically designed to provide producers with a
structured approach in the vital client building and repeat selling
activity.
2. Financial Workbook
- Worksheets or a complete book that can be used by prospects and
clients to put their "financial house" in order, as well as to help
ease the burden of uncertainty that most families experience after the
death of a loved one. You can print them and use them with your
prospects and clients, either as a way to "keep in touch" or as part of
the interview process.
3. Client Newsletters
–The VSA Client Newsletters are personalized with your name,
contact information and a brief description about your firm. If
you choose, a personal picture can also appear on the newsletter. They
are available in two formats: PDF, designed to be printed and mailed,
or HTML, designed to be e-mailed.
4. Specimen
Documents
– Nearly 100 specimen documents designed to help the client and
his/her attorney get started on drafting supporting documents from
complex trusts to business agreements.
5. Life Guides
are a form of checklist or questionnaire, designed to provide clients
and prospective clients with information and guidance on a variety of
life events, all with financial implications. In addition to
providing them to individuals, they can be provided to affinity
groups. For example, you could provide a copy of the Teaching
Kids About Money Life Guide to members of a local PTO/PTA.
Advanced Markets/Reference Material
1. Presentations, Concept Pages and Calculators
– The VSA contains dozens of clear, concise and compliant
point-of-sale material for personal and business insurance planning,
estate planning and charitable planning. Calculators are available for
all these markets with one of the most extensive group of business
calculators in the industry.
2. Reference Books
– The VSA contains the entire texts of all nine of the most
comprehensive books on insurance and financial planning…Stephen
Liemberg's Tools and Techniques series covering Life Insurance
Planning, Estate Planning, Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning,
Financial Planning, Charitable Planning, Income Tax Planning,
Investment Planning, Life Settlement Planning and Retirement Income
Planning.
3. Tax FAQs
– This section contains printable answers to common tax questions
about life and health insurance and annuities with links to and a "road
map" of the entire US Tax Code.
4. Business and Consumer Resource
- This area is designed to help consumers and businesses resolve legal
issues. There are thousands of state specific government documents and
forms, as well as a wide variety of legal FAQs, many of which are
available in RealAudio and Windows Media formats.
5. Virtual Underwriter – Provides you with access to
client screening questionnaires, background information on medical
conditions, explanations of common medical tests, and advice on
how to successfully handle "declined" applicants.
6. CE Courses
- A library of “e-learning CE courses” from The National
Underwriter. These courses are free for your learning purposes.
To use them for CE credits, the grading and filing fee is just $25.
Motivational and Other Support
1. Inspiration and Motivation
– "Mental Vitamins" to raise your spirits, give a presentation or
just browse with articles and quotes by "masters" such as Jim Rohn, Zig
Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins and many others.
2. Sales Ideas
– These are sales ideas that originally appeared in the VSA's
twice monthly newsletter, the Virtual Advisor. They provide great ways
to use the VSA to make sales immediately.
his Guided Tour of the Virtual Sales Assistant (VSA) is designed to: 1. dramatically cut your "learning curve" in making effective use of the Virtual Sales Assistant; 2. introduce you to The National Underwriter's Tools and Techniques Online Library ...