By Jerry Davis

The following is an excerpt from Jerry Davis' presentation Client Building Via the Internet, which he delivered at this year's Million Dollar Round Table annual meeting. The full text of this and all MDRT presentations can be purchased through MDRT.

More significant than the increase in potential clients is the change in how they behave and what they want. Attracting and satisfying these new clients (and keeping old ones) is a whole new ballgame.

Clients are online
The Internet is growing at warp speed and has far surpassed the adoption rate of any other communication medium in history, including the television and telephone. Each year since 1996, more computers were purchased in the United States than TV sets. Today there are millions of websites and billions of searchable Web pages, with no letup in sight. The fact is, our clients may well be ahead of us in their use of this new medium. Here are some statistics:

• Sixty-five percent of Baby Boomers between the age of 35 and 55 are online, and their biggest concerns are retirement planning and children's college education. (Forrester Research)
  
• The number of households seeking online advice is expected to grow from 3 million today to 21 million by 2003, and online assets under management will grow from $415 billion today to $3 trillion by 2003. (Forrester Research, Jupiter Communications)
  
• Today only 3 percent of those households have access to a professional financial planner. (Forrester Research)
  
• Sure, you may think your older affluent clients are not online. Guess again! Americans age 55 and older log 38 hours per month of Internet usage while the median income for these households is about $60,000 or double the national average. (Media Metrix) The top reasons why wealthy Americans use computers are: time savings (84 percent), monitor finances (83 percent), all-hours access (79 percent), investment and financial decision control (71 percent) and money savings (60 percent). (US Trust Survey of Affluent Americans)
  

Clients are in control
Yes—control! We are all consumers, and we are spoiled. We live in a fast-food society where consumers have grown accustomed to getting what they want, when they want it. Look at your hometown for example: Do you have a 24-hour Wal-Mart, 24-hour Home Depot, 24-hour grocery, or even 24-hour fitness center?

Think about it. When we request information, we demand it to be fresh, fast and relevant to our needs. We want control, and we want it at any time of day! Should we as financial professionals care? You bet, because our clientele is demanding it! If we don't provide service on demand, then our clients and prospects will take the avenue of least resistance and go online to AOL Personal Finance, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money Central, Quicken.com or a plethora of other consumer sites that create exchanges to address their demand for product—and advice.

Consumers are using the Web for financial management, and we must begin conducting business online as well.

I know you are thinking that your clients love you and would never leave you for some other planner, or, worse yet, some online superstore. Well, let's consider this scenario. Pick any rural town in America where a Wal-Mart has moved in, and you will see a downtown that is loosing small family-owned business and small proprietorships. Why is this happening? Convenience!

Adapt or suffer the consequences
Change is stressful but inevitable. And we are once again faced with the challenge of doing business a new way.

Those of us who have been around business for 20 years or more remember the days when we simply sold life insurance. In the early '80s as a life insurance agent, I remember the wholesalers coming out of the woodwork to coerce me into selling their fancy mutual fund, limited partnership or tangible asset—not to mention the recruiters for insurance companies that wanted me to broker their universal and variable universal life policies.

Things are different now. The business is more rewarding today, but much more challenging. Most of us have evolved into full service shops, and we have to learn multiple disciplines to keep pace with the changing financial world. Now, we have to get "virtual." Consumers are using the Web for financial management, and we must begin conducting business online as well.

The train is leaving the station. To remain competitive, you must respond to the needs of today's clients. You need to find ways to build rich, interactive and meaningful relationships—while meeting client expectations of a high-tech, 24-hour Web interface. You need technology, tools and support. You need to compete with the many other financial portals on the Web seeking to attract your clients.

Jerry Davis is a co-founder, president and chief executive office of LifeGoals Corporation. He can be reached at 888-326-0006, or through email at jerryd@lifegoals.com.

For the full text of Client Building Via the Internet, purchase a copy of the presentation from MDRT.

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