Finding new ideas help refresh your marketing

That will mean new things – unless you have been on a consistent, year-on-year 10%+ growth track for a while and you simply need to keep turning the handle you will need new ideas.

Your growth will probably come from something that you haven’t done before. The problem with that is all the defences you have created to justify how you do things right now. They had their genesis in the choice that you made all those years ago, and the most troublesome thing about them is this: you were probably right.

So changing or even extending your business into areas which you probably rejected in the past with good reason is tricky. All the information you see about a clever new product, new message, or new marketing regime you tend to see through a lens. The lens is your past judgment against that new thing. I have met with advisers that passionately believe Agreed Value is superior to Loss of Earnings, and of course, with the advisers that believe the reverse. I have met with those that think the first benefit you should sell is medical and those that believe it is the last. Possibly the most ingrained prejudice amongst some advisers is the belief that social media is a waste of time.

At one point you were right. You might still be right. But the scary part is this: what if you make no changes between now and the end of your career?