MUELLER DOESN’T JUST HELP HIS CLIENTS
SOLVE THEIR FINANCIAL ISSUES; HE ALSO GOES
THE EXTRA MILE TO HELP THEM IN OTHER AREAS
OF THEIR LIVES.
Getting ready
On any given day, Mueller
may have anywhere from
six to 10 appointments
lined up or he may be jet-
ting all over the country
or beyond to give an
industry speech. Then
again, he may be visit-
ing the New England
Financial agency in
Brookfield, a suburb
of Milwaukee, where he
works. There, he can often be found
mentoring new agents. Today, instead of
spending time with rookies, he is show-
ing me how it’s done.
“Old school says buy and hold,” he
explains. “But the next question is: How
has that done?” He picks up an article
he’s just clipped from USA TODAY with
the headline “It’s Been A Tough 10 Years
for Stock Funds.” Underneath that, it
says, “Even some big names have had
major long-term losses.” He points to
a top fund on the chart that accompa-nies the article and says, “If you’d put
$100,000 in that fund 10 years ago,
you’d now only have $70,000. So, you
wouldn’t have made anything for 10
years and you’d have lost 30 percent
of your money. Some of these funds
are down 35, 40, even 55 percent.” He
wields the article and looks at me. “Mrs.
Prospect, this is one of your options. But
I ask you, how has that done?”
If you examine the figures, it becomes
clear: not well. “That’s what you’re trying
to get people to understand,” he says.
“Using this [list of fund returns], I ask
the prospect, ‘Should we use another
strategy?’ All I want them to do is arrive
at a place. I’m not telling them what’s
going to happen.”
But Mueller’s not done; in fact,
he’s just warming up. He turns the
page over to show me another article,
with the headline, “Even the Wealthy
Feel Tapped Out.” He says: “If the
rich are hurting, what do you think is
happening to the middle class and the
poor?” With these articles, Mueller is
trying to achieve two things. He wants
his clients and prospects to understand what’s happening and he wants
them to come to their own conclusion
that they need to act.
The first appointment
We get in the car and head for an appointment. The phone rings. It’s his
client, David. Recently David’s health
insurance premiums, along with his
wife’s, had jumped from $1,200 to
$2,500 a month, putting his small
business—a gas station—in jeopardy. Mueller’s response was, “I can fix
that.” But the question is: How did
he know about this problem in the
first place? Mueller found out over a
slice of pizza. “David has the
best pizza in the city at his station, so I stopped by one day
and was eating a slice, when
he started talking about this
problem,” he says.
It’s this sharing, this being
involved on an almost familial level that draws people to
Mueller. He helps his clients.
But he doesn’t just help them
solve their financial issues;
he also goes the extra mile to
help them out in other areas
of their lives. Deliver a policy
and help a widow put together
a lamp she just bought? Sure.
Do an annual review and offer
