To effectively do the bestpossible job for your clients during these times of economicupheaval emanating from the pandemic, you need a process formanaging change. Because change will be the only constant for theforeseeable future. You need a process and a methodology to helpyour clients plan their benefit's decisions and expenditures. Yourclient's need a roadmap, a strategic plan, to guide their tacticaldecisions; both their actions and reactions. And it needs toinclude contingency plans because of all the possible changes thatare completely out of their control.

To do this, you will need to become much more consultative in your approach. And youwill need a formalized process that's replicable, as well astraining and tools to make this transition successful. But yourclient's need you to do just that, and they demand their advisor(s)provide this kind of counsel and expertise, or they will findsomeone who will. All of this will be independent of how they gainaccess to life and health insurance products in the future. Yourprimary value proposition cannot be as the access point toproducts. Your clients need your expertise and you need to reinventyourself to remain relevant.

You may be asking yourself: "I get it, but where do I start?" Itseems clear you need to start with first analyzing your clients andprospects. You need to focus in a very real and meaningful way onwhat they need now and over the next three to five years. What dothey want to accomplish with their benefits program? Do they evenwant to offer benefits? Will their competition offer benefits?These are all real-world strategic questions that any thinkingemployer should be considering. Whether you acknowledge it or not,they will be thinking about these questions. So you need to embracethe process and lead the discussion.

For decades, the overwhelming majority of employers felt a"moral obligation" to be paternalistic and offer an increasingarray of benefits. And when the global economy was expanding andthere was stiff competition for human talent, business logicdictated that employer's needed to be responsive in order toattract and retain talent. But the world has changed, and we aredealing with a new and very fluid reality. Now is the perfect timeto engage your clients and prospective clients in a strategicdiscussion. The good news is that you can accomplish this dialogueby conference calls or video-conferencing (since you are not likelymeeting in-person right now anyway), and your audience has the timeand motivation to consider their options with your guidance, adviceand counsel.

As a result, it would appear that you need to first focus on theemployer's values. What's important to their business? Theirculture? Their human capital strategies? If it's doing business atthe lowest possible cost, having a robust benefits program likelyis not relevant or of concern. On the other hand, if artfullyproviding a benefits portfolio is of value to the business becauseit permits the firm to retain the talent it needs to maintain andgrow business operations, then it's worth the time to strategicallyplan what the benefits program should look like over the next fewyears.

Next, you need to focus on critical needs. If the client isgoing to offer employer-paid benefits, including medical coverage,what are the most critical needs that must be addressed that arerelevant to that employer's values, culture, and human capitalgoals? In this regard, you need to become more of a human capitalconsultant, rather than a benefits broker (perceived as a productvendor by many, anyway). The beauty of this approach is that bybecoming much more consultative, you are making yourself relevantand valuable to your clients, while beginning to morph yourbusiness practice.

When engaging the client, simply focus on being collaborativeand articulating critical needs. Build consensus with the clientparticipants, and make absolutely certain that one of thoseparticipants is the CFO. That's the pivotal executive positionfocused on strategic goals, managing expenses, and criticallyevaluating financial options, not the least of which are theirbenefits expenditures. And the CFO typically is the architect andauthor of the enterprise strategic plan. Just ask a CFO if theyhave a benefits strategic plan, and see what the reaction is. The"light bulb" goes on, and there is this "aha" moment. Benefitsrepresent 9% to 11% of total operating expenses for most employers.How could their organization not have a written roadmap to guideall their major benefits decisions and expenditures for such anexpensive budget line item? Having this conversation with a CFO isthe fastest way to gain access to the C-Suite, differentiate yourpractice, and to take over accounts from brokers who are merelyproduct vendors.

At this point, you undoubtedly have the client or prospect fullyengaged and thinking strategically about what they are trying toaccomplish with their benefits program. This is not the time to bein a sales mode; it's the time to be consultative. This is not"I've got a widget to sell. Do you want to buy it?" Instead, youshould be asking lots of open-ended questions and taking copiousnotes. Being facilitative and consultative will help you to engagethe client in a discussion, rather than a sales pitch. It will alsoenable you to make more informed recommendations that areresponsive to the client's values and needs.

Once you have jointly identified the critical needs, you canturn your attention to solutions. And yes, your recommendedsolutions will likely entail group medical insurance plan design,or perhaps direct primary care; benefits communication andenrollment strategies; the application of technology, perhaps inthe form of a benefits portal; and the intelligent integration ofvoluntary benefits and lifestyle benefits,among other products and services. With all the plan design andre-design of the last decade, gaps in coverage were inevitablycreated. However, the needs of employees have not diminished. Ifanything, they have increased. At a minimum there are opportunitiesto offer permanent life insurance, disability income, criticalillness, auto and homeowners insurance, long-term care, pre-paidlegal services, household budget and debt counseling, retirementplans, and a variety of new lifestyle benefits. The commissionsfrom the sale of these voluntary benefits can increase your salesrevenues, improve profitability, and enhance your business assetvalue. You also need to assess their executive benefits, which maybe woefully outdated, and may impact that employer's ability toretain key executive talent during these challenging times.

Finally, you need to memorialize your mutual discussions in awritten document. Your clients need a roadmap, a strategic plan, toguide their tactical decisions — both their actions and reactions.And it needs to include contingency plans, because of all thepossible changes that are completely out of their control. To dothis, you will again need to become much more consultative in yourapproach.

If your clients are demanding answers, or counsel from someonewho seems to have a process or approach to managing in thisenvironment, then what are the implications for your businessmodel? Have you objectively thought about the ramifications? Areyou thinking strategically about your business and its future?Look, your time is undoubtedly consumed by all the day-to-daytactical activities required to manage your business and retainyour clients. And in all likelihood, you are beginning to get usedto the impact of your clients having a "work-from-home workforce",staff meetings via conference calls and "team-building virtualhappy hours" using video-conferencing as part of the "new normal."Recognize that a substantial number of benefits advisers are stillin denial. Most continue to act like these fundamental changes inthe way business is being conducted will have no impact on theirclients' decision-making or on their own business operations.However, do you really believe that? Do you really think this isthe time to play the ostrich game and continue to act like it's"business as usual"? It's time to be pro-active and act like yourbusiness life depends upon it. Because it does!

So can we agree that your role has changed and will continue tochange? It's not about accessing products. It never was, but itdefinitely is not that going forward. Your clients need yourexpertise, advice and counsel. They are confused and anxious, andrightfully so. The bottom line is that we all will be awash on asea of uncertainty for the next two to three years. As a result,there isn't a client organization out there that's not willing totalk to an advisor that seems to have some information or someprocess for coping with all this change.

Denying it is not going to change the eventuality of all this.So where do we go from here? For forward-thinking benefitsadvisors, all this uncertainty creates enormous opportunity,provided that they are prepared. Once you can wrap your mind aroundthe possibility of what we have been discussing, you will realizethat you must take action, and you must take it now. You need toevaluate your business model and consider the possibilities. So howcan you monetize the client relationships that you already have?You have already incurred the client acquisition expense, so howcan you generate revenues going forward? You may be paid consultingfees for some services and commissions for certain products andservices, so some financial modeling seems in order, correct?

You also need to evaluate your firm's ability to offer otherhuman resource services that are complementary or synergistic withbenefits, such as  payroll and tax filing services,benefits administration, workers' compensation administration,outsourced human resource consulting, regulatory compliancetraining and audit services, employee surveys, total compensationplanning, year-round benefits communications programs, humanresource management training, and a myriad of other services thatemployers need and that are increasingly being outsourced toqualified third parties. You are already at the table handling aportion of their needs. Shouldn't you be morphing your offerings toaddress your client's changing needs? If you don't, someone elsewill. And they won't stop until they have the total account,right?

I realize that for many of you, we are taking you way outsideyour comfort zone. But going out of business won't feel socomfortable either. With so much uncertainty, your clients needyour expert advice and counsel now more than ever before. They needa trusted advisor and you can fulfill that role if you utilize theapproaches discussed above. You need to have a process that you cancommunicate to your clients and prospective clients that willinstill confidence and that will ultimately build consensus withintheir management team. The beauty of this approach is that you canalso create new revenue streams in the process by chargingconsulting fees and earning commissions on voluntary benefitsproduct sales. And in the process, you will be writing yourselfinto the script for the next 3-5 years from a client retentionperspective. Now that's a winning strategy. 

Jack Kwicien is managing partner of Daymark Advisors, LLC, aboutique management consulting and merger & acquisitionpractice headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.