Creating Trust: In An Understandably Un-Trusting World

“Trust No One” is the new mantra. Seniors, affluent individuals, business leaders and investors have seen virtually every institution and corporate leader and even the premise of ‘homeland security’ and government response to emergency prove themselves spectacularly untrustworthy, and are given sensationalized reasons daily by every media to distrust banks, insurers and others on Wall Street, so it is perfectly understandable that they are Not prepared to trust you, Not one word you say, Not any promise you make, Not any organization or product you represent. The dirty little secret of widespread bank insolvency and thin trading volume is that over a trillion dollars of private “mom ‘n pop” capital has been withdrawn from commercial investment and is now mattress-savings…literally, flooding into gold, with the affluent–art and classic cars, with seniors–cash and U.S. Treasuries; and otherwise, parked in places thought safest, without regard to yield. To some extent, this has benefited the annuity and insurance industry. However, any professional advisor or agent seeking to establish new relationships and secure new clients in this environment finds himself severely handicapped, with his chief obstacle - fully understood or not - exceptionally high, exceptionally firm and stubborn distrust. This is reflected in shrinking seminar attendance and rising costs of buying such attendance, declining response to advertising, longer sales cycles, even heightened reluctance by clients to refer, as well as lower initial transactions. There are effective responses and strategies, but they are not the same ones that worked nicely, pre-2008. And even before tackling the subject of more appropriate and effective strategies for this time, a new understanding of where the prospective client is at, psychologically and emotionally when you first ‘arrive’ is essential-and that is where this timely, groundbreaking and frank book, Trust, begins