The Mel Gibson investment strategy

A few eons ago Hollywood made a movie that I guarantee you would never see the light of day today, and not just because it had Mel Gibson as the lead.

It was called, “What Women Want”. And, if you haven’t seen the movie, essentially good ol’Mel plays a marketing executive that’s on the Nike account or something like that. And, Helen Hunt is also in the movie and she plays a rival marketing executive.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but in a late night seance, Mel shocks himself nearly to death with women’s product and can now magically hear all their thoughts.

He uses this skill to steal their best thoughts, because Helen Hunt is the brains of the whole operation – as per the movie. Traditional patriarchy type stuff, Mel is the star and villain. But, he is redeemed in the end by Helen Hunt's character!

The point I want to make here is this:

If you can understand how your client thinks, you can sell them what you want them to buy. Period. Minus all the unethicalness of Mel Gibson (should we be shocked, really?)

Which brings me to David Cowper. One of the legends of the life insurance business.

If you’re unfamiliar with him, he came to Canada as an immigrant in the 60s. He didn’t have a network. He didn’t have anything, so he went after the only people he knew how to talk to:

Construction workers.

Maybe not the best clients, but he knew how they thought. And, he positioned insurance so that it hit at the heartstrings and he made lots of sales. Not big sales, but enough to get by.

But, he knew success wasn’t selling to construction workers, so he moved up to Doctors. But, he was smart about it, he only went after doctors who were working the overnight shift, because most sales people wouldn’t want to be talking insurance at 2AM, which gave him an edge.

He was having a lot of success with doctors, but then they brought in the National Insurance Plan through Tommy Douglas out of Saskatchewan. Here in Ontario it still exists as OHIP, and wherever you’re reading this from, you have it still there.

While this might have been good for Canadians, it was not at all good for Mr. Cowper’s doctors. They would be making substantially less when the government came in. So he had to pivot again and find a new market to go after.

One day he walking down Bloor Street in Toronto and a massive tower went up. He thought, you know who probably needs my advice:

Real Estate Developers.

They are wealthy, they have substantial assets to protect and most importantly, they can pay a lot of money. People who I personally refer to as, “Players with Money”.

But here’s the issue. David didn’t know a thing about developers. He didn’t know how they thought. He couldn’t talk their business. And, that means he couldn’t sell insurance to them, because he didn’t know what they cared about.

But he did know that he had to get closer to them. He needed to get in proximity. But, not as an insurance salesman – no something else.

He needed these developers to see him as an equal.

Remember, this is key. If you want to work with the best clients, you need to figure out a way to:

1. Get in proximity to them

2. But, retain your power position

If you are close to them and an insurance salesman/woman, you lose your power, because they realize you need them more than they need you.

But, if you have something to provide these developers of value that they can’t get somewhere else. Well, that’s a whole other game.

So here’s the genius of David Cowper.

He has been working with some local politicians, helping them get elected, etc the last few years. And he kept doing that. And, when it came to reward him a favor, he asked to be put on the planning committee for the City of Toronto.

This is so ingenious in my opinion. Because, developers need to approach the planning committee with proposals for new developments (buildings, neighborhoods, etc.) He sat on this committee for 3 years and he got to meet all the developers, learned their business, learned their lingo and more importantly saw how they thought.

Now he didn’t go after selling to them while he was there, that would be unethical. But, once he did leave the committee he went after them.

But now he already knew most of them, had valuable knowledge he could share, but most importantly:

He knew how they thought. He knew what they valued.

And, for the most part, all of these businessmen needed insurance and a lot of it.

Now, I’m not telling you to run down to your local politician and start fundraising for them to get you in front of developers, maybe it will work and maybe it won’t. (Though public service is a virtue).

But I am saying, think about how you can get close to your ideal clients so that you can learn how they think and so that you can build uncommon knowledge that they need. This will put you in a power position as someone to be listened to.

It works for me, you're reading this email right? Why, because you know I likely know things you don't and you want the info I have. But, I've built this knowledge over years meeting hundreds and hundreds of business owners and Advisors. You can do that too!

If you do that consistently, be in close proximity, put yourself out as a valuable resources that can help them and talk their language: they will listen. And you will listen. And, then you will realize what they need.

And, as always, successful people need insurance…usually a lot of it.

Until next week,
Andrew

P.S. In case you're one of those people that immediately scroll to the bottom, here's the TLDR:

1. Get into proximity of your most ideal clients

2. Learn how they think.

3. Provide the value back to them

4. And, wrap it into a sale.

5. Repeat, until rich.