The Perceived Evil of Selling ANYTHING

There is nothing more dangerous for the good of this country than someone using a carefully crafted marketing plan to sell something to the buying public. Let the target of this plan be people over the age of 60, and you have a real national crisis on your hands. At least, that is what some in the financial media and in competing industries would have us believe. There has been so much hype lately about how insurance agents are methodically plotting to sell unsuspecting seniors some type of dreaded insurance product; you would get the impression that there was a major reason to panic about the safety of our retired population. Truth is that the real problem is more in perception, or perhaps in this propaganda, than in reality.

The fact that the American public is subjected to constant marketing assaults is an accepted part of the culture which arises from our democratic society and the free enterprise system. We are bombarded daily with some type of marketing blitz, whose sole purpose is to sway our decision to buy certain products over other competing brands. If effective and intentional marketing methods get us interested in something, and then capture us in a moment of weakness, like when we are eating a free meal at a seminar, critics imply that such marketing tactics can completely remove all resistance and reason from an otherwise, intelligent and rational adult.

Retail stores spend millions of dollars each week in print ads, TV, and radio commercials, just to get you to come to their store for the possibility of capturing your interest in some product they sell. The customer is free to visit the store, look at the merchandise and leave without spending a dime. If they want, they can choose to talk to a salesperson and get information for later consideration; or, if they prefer, they can make a purchase decision right there on the spot and go home with their new acquisition today. We value this freedom to choose and even if our choices do not turn out so well, we defend our right to make our own decisions.

Service professionals do not have retail sites where people can casually come browse the merchandise they offer before they consider a purchase. Even though some commercials would have you think otherwise, financial products are not a do-it-yourself purchase and most people need much more information and explanation than they can acquire on their own, before being in a position to make an informed decision about such an important consideration.

Seminars have become the “stores” that many financial professionals have chosen to use to market their products and services. The meal, an obvious part of the draw, is no different than the many sales ads and commercials we hear that entice us to go “shopping” at some particular store this weekend. But once in the room, no one who attends the seminar becomes a sure thing. Like a casual visit to the mall, the seminar allows the attendee to anonymously “browse” through the ideas presented by the sponsor, and to preview the financial professional’s credentials before agreeing to allow them into their personal space by way of a follow-up appointment.

The goal of the financial seminar is no different than any other marketing campaign used by countless businesses every day. It is to attract potential customers for the purpose of being able to tell your story about what you have to offer that might be of interest to those who respond to your advertisement. Then, from those who attend the seminar, the goal is to identify those who have further interest from those who do not. Anyone who attends a seminar does so of their own free will, even if they are over the age of 60. Once there, any attendee who decides to continue to meet with the sponsoring agent does so of their own choosing. Finally, even after attending a seminar and meeting with the agent several times, the person is completely free to choose to purchase a product from this agent or not. To assume some evil or malicious intent on the part of an agent, simply because they have chosen this particular marketing method with which to expand their potential clients, is puzzling. And to chastise any agent or supporting marketing organization, who attempts to develop the most effective seminar marketing system, is to challenge the very foundation of our economic freedoms.

The real questions in all of this debate about marketing financial products to seniors, is why some consider it inappropriate to use the same acceptable types of marketing methods regularly used in other industries in the area of insurance products, and equally as curious is why some think that this particular elderly segment of our population is so helpless and in need of special protection? Interestingly, it seems that ALL of the criticism of how insurance agents are marketing insurance products comes from OUTSIDE the insurance industry from competing segments, especially the securities industry. They refuse to accept that insurance falls under a completely different regulatory authority then securities, and that insurance has its own set of rules, none of which are being violated by the current marketing practices, which include the use of seminars as a means to meet prospective clients.

It is time for those who have unwittingly gotten aboard the bandwagon to condemn the sale of annuities and other insurance products to seniors, first set in motion by the securities industry, to take a clear look at what is really going on and stop overstepping their bounds. This is a turf war by the securities industry and nothing more. The insurance industry is one of the most highly regulated and respectable industries in the country and every product that is offered today has undergone an intensive review for product design, pricing, and suitability for the market in which it is approved for sale. This means that if an insurance agent is promoting the use of annuities as retirement financial tools to a primarily senior group, even if they use a seminar marketing system, they are completely within compliance and within the legal authority of their insurance license to do so. Most importantly is that any criticism or opinion of the securities industry is totally irrelevant.