Keyword: TRUST

Building client trust on purpose

Trust is famously the currency of the finance and insurance industry and the foundation of any long-term client relationship. And the way trust develops between intermediary and client is as complex as the exchange rate of a currency. No wonder the topic fills entire books.

A case in point: "Erfolgsfaktor Vertrauen bei der Versicherungsvermittlung" by Volker Eickenberg, which also serves as the source for this article.

In professional jargon, building and maintaining trust in business relationships is called trust management. A simplified overview emerges if you read the word TRUST as an acronym. Each of its five letters then stands for a key dimension of trust in professional client service.

T for Transparency

For trust to develop, sales has to put its cards on the table. With complex financial and insurance investment products, most clients lack a deeper understanding. That is where you come in, bringing clarity, in other words transparency.

Make sure you answer the following questions in every advisory meeting, even if clients don't ask them:

• Why do you recommend a particular product?
• What are the opportunities and risks?
• How high are the costs?
• Does the product meet sustainability criteria?
• What about your remuneration and possible conflicts of interest?

Transparency also means meeting clients on an equal footing. Express yourself as clearly and simply as possible, and keep checking whether the other person can follow your explanations. That way, you make your reasoning visible and give the client orientation.

Digital advisory channels such as the App & Customer Portal also increase transparency. Clients can track the performance of their portfolio at any time, have central access to their contract documents and can contact their intermediary quickly and easily.

R for Relevance

Every client has different goals and needs. The more closely the advice is tailored to their individual life situation, the more meaningful, and therefore relevant, the result. As an intermediary, always try to understand the client and their starting point as fully as possible so that you can offer them a solution that fits precisely.

The most important step is creating the investor profile: the answers to the questionnaire provide information on the client's financial situation, previous experience, risk appetite, investment horizon and investment goals. The mandatory question on sustainability preferences gives you further insights.

On this basis, you can discuss specific criteria to find the best possible insurance solution:

• What comes first: protection or building wealth?
• How important are death benefit cover and other risk components?
• Which tax advantages should be used?
• How attractive are flexible premium adjustments?
• Does the client already have specific ideas about fund selection?

In short, your job is to point out the opportunities and advantages of the proposed solution to the client, but also its risks and possible disadvantages.

Client needs change with their life situation. That is why modern insurance solutions such as Prosperity Plus matter so much: they offer numerous options for adjustment, for example in how premiums are structured, which you can use to give needs-based advice.

U for Understanding

As an intermediary, you should be able not only to understand and explain complex matters but also to assess them and put them into context. With your expertise and judgement, you give your clients the arguments on which to base well-founded decisions.

Starting from the needs analysis, in other words the evaluation of the client's information, you can now move on to the risk-return analysis. A comprehensive overview of the market lets you select from various products and compare them systematically.

• Does the product match the client's risk profile?
• Which contract offers the greatest premium flexibility?
• Does the policy contain hidden costs, or is everything transparent?
• How many funds are there? How far can the risk be diversified?
• Can risk components be added flexibly and removed again if necessary?

Once you have answered these questions with your professional judgement, you can offer a solution tailored to the client. According to Eickenberg, clients mostly expect flexible, individual, long-term or secure solutions. Modern (unit-linked) policies such as Prosperity Plus can be arranged flexibly and individually and are designed for the long term.

S for Security

Because of their complexity and long-term perspective, insurance products are often described as low-involvement products. Since their benefit only materialises in the distant future, it seems rather abstract to clients in their current situation. They may grasp its long-term importance rationally. But deciding to sign a contract often takes an extra push.

That push comes from you as the intermediary meeting the client's need for security, not only financial and legal but also emotional. Eickenberg names two key skills for this: likeability and empathy.

Likeability is about how you communicate and behave socially. So what you say is only part of it. At least as important is HOW you say it, radiating honesty and authenticity through your gestures and facial expressions.

Your empathy is just as essential: how well can you put yourself in the other person's shoes and understand their thoughts and feelings?

Show understanding for the client's personal and financial situation. Give positive feedback in conversation and take objections and concerns seriously. Even if the client decides not to sign, your empathy lays the groundwork for a relationship of trust.

T for Tenacity

Signing the contract is an important first step. But the work continues: deepen the client relationship to ensure lasting satisfaction. Show how much the client means to you and, above all, how much value you bring them. You do this by taking on a broad range of roles:

• Point of contact, always reachable and ready to listen to questions
• Problem solver, on the client's side in disputes
• Contract manager, monitoring the running contract and recommending adjustments where appropriate
• Source of information, keeping an eye on the market and legislation to keep the client up to date
• Trusted adviser, someone the client can rely on and who can put them in touch with related services when needed

Your attentiveness ensures that the insurance cover keeps pace with the client's needs and changing circumstances. The psychological effect of ongoing client care is at least as important: your attention signals to clients that you see them as people whose needs evolve.

Tools such as Partner Life and the App & Customer Portal bring you even closer to your clients. They let you adjust contracts and create new offers quickly and easily. In turn, clients can use the digital channel to contact you at any time.

For Eickenberg, how close the client relationship is in practice depends above all on the intermediary's loyalty. He counts a wide range of positive qualities as part of this, such as commitment, a solution-oriented approach and genuine interest. These personal qualities in particular lay the groundwork for a lasting relationship of trust.

Conclusion: follow the TRUST model

Trust management means creating transparency, showing relevance, demonstrating sound understanding, providing security and sticking with clients as a loyal partner over the long term. Building trust is a complex process that depends on many individual factors in day-to-day work. The five pillars presented here form a solid foundation on which to build a trusting client relationship.

Article published by Prosperity Solutions AG