go-to market

Writing Market Commentary to be Read

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 16, 2013, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

We’re fortunate to be currently leading one-on-one interviews with financial advisors on behalf of a long-standing client. We always enjoy these discussions as a good way to vet the execution of strategic sales and marketing plans.

In a conversation yesterday, an advisor and I talked a lot about content, detailing what makes for good and bad commentary. He’s a savvy advisor, serving his clients for over 15 years and had myriad examples starting with “this is great” and “these guys waste my time with…”.

Reflecting on that conversation, I distilled two ideas to share broadly (others stay privy to our client, sorry).

  1. Add bullets to the top of any commentary longer than 3 paragraphs. I noticed as we walked through positive examples the role bullets play in his decision-making process (whether to read or not).
  2. Make sure the graphics and charts belong. He wanted information and data that told something interesting, not  supportive. He thought, numerous times, an author included a chart to prove his opinion. He’s not looking for asset managers to show their work or use backwards-looking data to prove a case.

We find many more asset managers (relative to years’ past) relying on commentary to influence their prospective clients. As they do so, it’s crucial to produce content as client-friendly as possible.

Life (Insurance) is complex

Posted by Anu Heda on Nov 05, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

As I meet more life  insurance agents and executives, the industry challenges and issues become clearer. Clearer in just how difficult and complex they are.

What if I told you: you could start a business where:

  1. No incumbent has more than 7% market share.
  2. The products are more in-demand than ever.
  3. The press regularly speaks about the products keeping the topic ‘top of mind.’
  4. Buyers cannot substitute a “MacGyver” solution easily.
  5. Your business doesn’t need its own sales force.  In fact there are nearly 400,000 sales people that could sell your product for you.

That may sound appealing.  If you let me continue, I may add:

  1. The industry has the most stringent government regulation.
  2. The average American feels somewhere between apathy and negativity towards the industry.
  3. The products remind buyers about growing old and/or death.
  4. Those products are pretty confusing, even to industry veterans.
  5. Large sections of your Sales force will be selling your product, right along side your competitors.

Now, would you still be interested?  Well, these are just the beginning of issues facing insurance executives. They are both – humbling and exciting.

For Naissance, we’re excited.  We’ve worked with organizations that dismantled big problems into manageable questions and then sought out answers.   In one instance, the question was what sales support and services should we invest in next year and why? That’s a great question that can directly impact sales effectiveness (top-line growth) and cost controls (bottom-line management).