Advisors Blog

Expand your reach into the lucrative business market with these approach questions and sales concepts.

TAPPING INTO A HUGE OPPORTUNITY

Did you know there are over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., representing almost 44% of U.S. private payroll?

Recent surveys of business owners revealed the following statistics: 

• 29% of family business participants have not completed any planning other than writing a will.
• Almost three quarters have no disability income protection in place.
• 60% have done no business succession planning.
• Over the next 30 years an estimated $6 trillion in assets will need to be transferred by privately held businesses to the next generation.
• 19% say they have not done any planning simply because they are too busy. 

APPROACH QUESTIONS

Instead of starting the discussion with insurance products, it is advisable to approach business owners with so-called “approach questions” that can get the prospect thinking about their own situation.

Business owners have a lot on their plate – uncover the most critical issues with these simple, tried and true approach questions such as:

• What’s keeping you up at night?
• What are the top concerns you think might cause problems for your business?
• Do you have enough to retire?
• Will you be able to sell your business for the right price when the time comes?
• Who will take over your business when you retire?
• Who can run your business or pay your bills if something happens to you?
• Do you have enough saved to pay for children’s college tuition?

Download the “What’s Keeping You Up At Night?” flyer from Penn Mutual for a list of 40 common questions that business owners are probably already thinking about.

For a more in-depth explanation of top business owner problems and priorities, download Principal’s "Business Needs Analysis" two-page checklist. 

OPENING CASES WITH BUSINESS EVALUATIONS

To open up the discussion on business planning you might ask when was the last time they had their business appraised. Then we can offer a free informal valuation of the business’ fair market value – just as a starting point in the planning process. 

The Free Business Valuation is a powerful tool used in opening large business cases. In conjunction with our carriers we can offer a no-cost business appraisal (which might cost several thousand dollars otherwise) based on recent tax filings, which can be used to quantify exactly how much buy-sell coverage is needed, as well as other planning diagnostics. 

Not only have you saved the client thousands of dollars had they hired their own appraisal service, you’ve also set the stage to breeze through the financial analysis portion of the underwriting process by having those documents already examined by a potential carrier. 

Several of our carriers offer a free business evaluation service. The more detailed ones will require tax records from your client; others can offer a ballpark figure by simply giving them some basic revenue and sales figures.

Once the business owner has seen the true value of their business, a next step often includes looking at Buy-Sell Coverage or Key Person coverage. In the event of the death of a business partner, the surviving partners would typically want to buy-out shares of the deceased partner to keep the business running. Click the links for our Buy-Sell and Key-Person fact finders. 

Call us to help start the business analysis process and get quotes for these business needs.

In future editions of our GBS Advisor’s Blog we’ll cover other business planning topics such as:

• Key-Person Coverage
• Disability Coverage
• Owner’s Retirement Planning
• Multi-life Guaranteed Issue Carve-Outs
• and more.