I watched a hilarious Peter Kay sketch, “Peter’s Trip to the Dentist”. It’s entertaining but also has serious messages for us in business or sales. And both ideas come with a warning that our traditional income stream may be in jeopardy.
Let me explain.
Early in the sketch – and it’s here on YouTube - https://youtu.be/uuQQ6tVsznk - Peter laments Lockdown and M&S. M&S Jogging Bottoms give him a false sense of security. We’ve all probably been caught in this trap lounging in our dining rooms, spare bedrooms or studies—posh attire up top but joggers or PJs underneath. A stretchy Jogging Bottom will allow waistlines to expand, and we have no idea. Or choose not to accept that we’re putting on a few pounds.
This metaphor helps us to appreciate if our businesses are changing around us. If you’re in the mortgage advising world, you may see your juicy proc fees hitting your bank account, flattering your income. You may not see the Bank’s AI Bots around the corner about to take away your easy mortgage business or new mortgage advisers flooding the market who will operate differently, more innovatively and take away your business. Spicy proc fees hitting your bank balance each month are like your jogging bottoms.
Later in the sketch, Peter talks about a filling that fell out of a tooth. Being a man, he delayed going to the dentist for too long, and it turned into an abscess. Very painful. You can’t put off the pain by leaving it; it’ll only get worse.
If you’re in the financial world, you might have been lamenting, “I’ve been soooo busy, it’s been my best year yet”. I’ve seen these posts on LinkedIn from advisers. Carry on thinking it’ll be the same all the time, and the abscess may well come later.
So the message for you in sales, business, whatever it is you sell, is to think always about additional income streams or new innovative ways of delivering your value. Act now to head off the inevitable change at “the pass”. Here are some ideas I’ve talked about before:
- Mortgage advisers should move into protection advising to earn some handsome commissions. Protection insurance is sold very badly by the online AI Bots; it needs selling.
- Look into the later life marketplace but make sure you get properly authorised and trained first. Think about all their needs, not just raising a loan.
- Look into trusts, wills, attorneys.
- Financial advisers – beware of your reliance on ongoing advice fees – they won’t last forever. Look to amend your fee model before you lose your income. Modern consumers buy things differently from how they worked in the 20th Century. People rent things, pay subscriptions for services – think Netflix. Clients have things delivered – think Amazon and Tescos. People self-learn now rather than commission advice – think YouTube. Consumers like to buy things without sales advisers looking over them, and that includes investment advice. Yes, your High Net Worth clients think differently, but there are only so many high net worth clients to go around as the numbers of financial advisers thankfully expand.
Peter’s sketch resonated with me. Last week I’d a follow-up dentist appointment to fix my tooth which lost it’s filling too many weeks’ ago. I’m a bloke; when the pain starts, leave it as it’ll go away. It never did.
