IFC National Marketing

Don Tiegs, Concierge Insurance Director

Why Listening, Not Selling, Will Define the Future of Financial Services

Don Tiegs

Risk Management Steward

Don Tiegs is the Concierge Insurance Director for IFC National Marketing, one of the fastest-growing IMOs in the industry. Don is a frequent presenter at industry conferences and regularly shares his insights as a podcast guest and featured author for industry publications.

I didn't set out to build a career in insurance. I was working in IT when people kept telling me, "Don, you're so personable, you should be in sales." Not long after, a sales position with an insurance company crossed my path, and I found myself as a field agent going door to door, meeting people and trying to figure out what they actually needed.

I'll be honest: I had no idea what I was doing. Three days of training and a "go get 'em, tiger" were the extent of my onboarding. So, I fell back on what I knew from my IT days and created a tool that organized information about plan options for clients, making them easier to present and easier for clients to understand.

It worked. Soon, other new agents were asking what I was doing differently. Before long, I was helping agents navigate the same learning curve I'd just climbed. That's what eventually led me into the leadership role I'm in today, where I work with financial professionals and insurance agents across the country to help them understand and sell products their clients need but that may be outside their area of expertise.

The Lesson COVID Taught Us

When the industry shifted online during COVID, I started hearing from agents that "what used to work" had stopped working. So, I sat in on calls to see what was happening and discovered that the clients hadn't changed, but the agents had stopped listening. They walked into conversations with a script in their head, so focused on what to ask next that they missed what the client was actually telling them.

That observation reshaped how I coach agents today. I now teach what I call opportunity engineering guides. It's a structured but human three-call process that slows agents down enough to: 1) hear their clients; 2) reflect what the client said back to them ("You mentioned these concerns. Did I understand that correctly?"); and 3) build a plan around what the client fears will happen if their concerns go unaddressed.

I've discovered this is an effective approach because when you help clients build a plan instead of selling a product, they buy in. The key is to focus on selling a solution that happens to have a product attached to it.

Closing the Confidence Gap to Win More Business

The biggest challenge I see among advisors right now isn't a lack of product knowledge. It's fear of sounding uninformed outside their specialty. When a client asks about something adjacent to financial services, like long-term care, many advisors either avoid the topic or refer it out entirely, which quietly damages the client relationship.

Here's a small language shift that makes a real difference: if a client asks whether you offer a product you don't specialize in, don't say, "No, but I know a guy who does." Say, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I've got a guy."

Same referral, same outcome, but the client hears "yes" instead of "no." That one word changes how they perceive your value.

Harnessing AI to Simplify and Educate

Technology, especially AI, is changing how we serve clients, but not the way most people assume. I don't believe clients are going to replace advisors with a chatbot because they still need a licensed human to complete the process. Instead, I encourage financial professionals with whom I partner to harness the power of AI to cut through the complexity of common, time-consuming tasks. For example, an illustration can easily turn into a 40- or 50-page document, and sending a client three or four product illustrations at once creates paralysis, not clarity.

Instead, I use AI to turn a client's specific concerns and a couple of illustration options into a short, plain-language summary that highlights benefits instead of numbers. We review that summary together, then drill down to the ideal solution. This allows me to focus on and walk through only one illustration, the one that's the best fit for their needs. It's a small sequencing change that keeps clients engaged instead of overwhelmed.

Five Habits for Long-Term Success

A common theme throughout my career has been distilling and organizing complex information into manageable portions that are easier for advisors, agents and their clients to digest. With that said, here are five habits I encourage all financial professionals to focus on for long-term growth.

1. Embrace AI, don't fear it. If you're not comfortable with it, partner with someone who is and learn as you go. Most of what I do now takes minutes, not hours.
2. Treat your online presence as your business card. Stay active, credible and visible. If you need help, get help.
3. Build your bench. Lean on your network, your concierge resources and specialists around you rather than trying to be the expert on everything yourself.
4. Stay in front of clients after the sale. A policy isn't "one and done." Consistent, valuable touchpoints are what make you a trusted advisor rather than a transaction.
5. Lead with empathy. Ask questions that uncover what a client fears will happen if their concerns go unaddressed, then build the solution together rather than fitting them into a product you already had in mind.

None of this requires reinventing who you are as an advisor. It just requires listening a little harder, simplifying a little more and remembering that clients don't want to be sold. They want to be heard.