What You Can Learn From My Retirement Plan

I’ve never been much of a “saver.” You know, one of those people who consistently sets aside money every month for retirement. One of those people who understands the long-term cost of buying a $5 bag of popcorn at the movies and what that $5 will be worth in 40 years in a retirement account earning 6%. Or the long term benefits of paying cash for a car versus going into debt for the car you really want. You know that person who has a long term financial plan and knows exactly how much they need to save on a monthly basis to achieve that plan? Definitely not me. I love the idea of saving for retirement, and sure I send a little money to my IRA every year, but I certainly wasn’t making any sacrifices to ensure I had enough bucks in the bank when I decided it was time to move to Florida and pick up a hobby.

But that all changed a few years ago.

All the sudden I started listening to and acting on financial advice I had ignored for years. Why the big change? Why was I motivated? I was motivated by the same thing that motivates all of us to act – especially when change is difficult or change is expensive – I emotionally experienced the consequences of running out of money at 70. In other words, I learned what it would feel like to be stressed and worried when I didn’t want to work or think about working. It became real.

When the market crashed in 2008, my Dad’s retirement vanished and I personally witnessed the stress in my Dad’s face as I watched him go to work at 70 to pay the bills. Like me, he had bet his financial future on an entrepreneurial venture, and that bet didn’t pay off. Like me, he wasn’t much a saver either. And it immediately became crystal clear to me what my life might look like if my “basket that held all of my eggs” got knocked off the table.

Here’s the point. Change is difficult and if we aren’t extremely emotionally invested in the outcome, we won’t act. We may agree with the advice and believe we need to change but our beliefs don’t determine our ultimate destination. What we do, our actions, determine our destination. And people won’t act unless they deeply experience the payoff. The formula is simple:

Belief + Care = Action

Awareness of this principle is typically the missing element in most reps’ attempt to build value in a larger solution or in motivating a decision-maker to invest in solving a problem that is not one of their top priorities. The decision-maker may believe that you could solve the problem, they may believe in the value of paying more, but if they don’t care enough, if they don’t feel it, they won’t act. They just haven’t experienced what it would be like to be “70 and working at Wal-Mart” (my Dad chose to sell real estate, so if you need property in Lake Burton give him a call).

Numerous times as a customer, I have experienced the pain of not heeding the advice of a well meaning sales rep who tried to get me to see the importance of buying the policy or investing more to protect ___, or spending more on ___ because it would last longer. But at the time it just didn’t seem to matter. “It will all work out,” I thought.

But once I truly experienced the problem, the countless hours of trying to fix what was broken, or spending more money to buy it again or repair what I bought, or not getting the support I needed, I easily saw the value of paying more or doing it right.

So, as people who are responsible for influencing others to make the best decisions, how do we ensure that our customers and reps make the best decisions so they can avoid experiencing the pain of ignoring our advice? The key is to get them to experience the pain now.

Bring the future to the present.

If I, as a customer, am going to be miserable in the future because I bought the cheapest version of a product, then make me miserable now. Make sure I emotionally experience what it will feel like to deal with all the problems related to making an easy temporary decision but signing up for long term consequences. Spend the time necessary to figure out how to paint a picture (whether you use analogies or stories) in a way that brings the future into reality.

If this is a struggle, here are a couple of options to consider.

Maybe the customer isn’t emotionally invested in the payoff of your solution (i.e. doesn’t care), because YOU aren’t emotionally invested in the payoff. You say what you’re told to say, or you repeat what you’ve heard or read, but if you were being honest, you’d admit you really don’t get it. When the customer says it’s too expensive, or expresses their counter argument, you secretly think, “That’s a pretty good point.” Maybe you haven’t invested the time to develop the passion and confidence in your solution. There is something compelling about a sales consultant who has firsthand knowledge of the consequences of not heeding their advice.

Their passion compels us to believe what they believe.

Or maybe you get it but you just haven’t developed the simple analogies or stories to make the complex simple. Great communicators know how to leverage what the audience already understands in order to connect with an idea that they don’t understand. You can read more about customer centered selling specifically in another blog post here.

Lastly, maybe it’s just simply not a fit. For some customers, your solution isn’t worth the investment (e.g., you’re recommending a long term solution to a customer that has a one-time need) or the course you are recommending shouldn’t really be a top priority right now. So they can’t care because they don’t believe.

Regardless of your personal challenge, I can promise you this: if you focus on the “care” part of the equation, you have a much better chance of motivating a qualified customer to act. And when it comes time for “retirement,” they will be eternally grateful…and they may tell a few hundred friends.