Success Strategies for Financial Advisors | Sales & Marketing Speaker

I enjoyed 23 years in the greatest business in the world, a financial advisor. I managed to qualify many times at Million Dollar Round Table ‘Top of the Table’ level and right now is a full time motivational speaker sharing ideas and strategies in 48 countries. In this article are some of the basic strategies I used over the many years to achieve the highest levels in financial services.

One of the most important things that I learned early on was to remember people’s names. This was brought home to me in a disastrous interview early in my career.  I was going to see a top executive at IBM and he’s name was Eustace Harris. Well I remember sitting in the waiting room saying to myself, ‘don’t call him Useless’ (instead of Eustace). As you can imagine, I had just conditioned myself to do just that. What happened? I walked straight in and said, “Hi Useless, my name is Frank Furness, how’re you doing?” and throughout the rest of the interview I kept calling him Useless. Fortunately he had a sense of humour and became a client and up until today he still reminds me about that first interview.

Keep alert and pleasant, I mean it doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, you’ve got to be alert, you’ve got to be pleasant and let the clients talk about themselves. Put yourself into the position of the client and think about what may be some of the things on their mind just before seeing you. They’re probably thinking, who are you, how credible are you, and how long have you been in the business, how qualified are you? Who is the company that you work for and how long have they been around, how credible are they, whose products do you sell? Are you there just to line your pocket or to actually look after the client? Are they going to see you again? These are some of the questions that are on the client’s mind and you’ve got to clear these questions before you go any further. Now the way you do that is using a method called the ‘Ben Duffy’. 

Many years ago a large tobacco account was up for grabs and every big advertising company was after this account. There was a fellow called Ben Duffy and he was also after this account. He had a tiny firm and he thought to him, how am I going to get this account, I’m just a small guy with a small company, there’s no chance. Then he thought about it and said to himself, ‘let me put myself in the position of the buyer that I going to see. Let me think about some of the questions, some of the things that might be on the client’s mind’ and he wrote out a list of fifty questions, then narrowed those down to about ten questions and answers. He went in to see the client and said, ‘in preparing for today’s meeting, I put myself in your position and thought there might be some things you’d want to know about me, my company, what’s in it for you, what’s in it for me and as such I’ve prepared a list of ten questions.’ Well the chap from the tobacco said, ‘well I’ve got ten questions as well’. They swapped lists, six were the same and he won the account.

Now for years and years, I used exactly the same strategy. When I met a potential client at the first meeting, I would reduce tension levels by getting the client to talk about themselves and then  I’d say to the client, ‘you know Joe, in preparing for today’s meeting, I put myself in your position and thought there might be some questions on your mind. Who is Frank Furness, who is XYZ Financial Services, how long have they been around, what’s in it for me, what’s in it for you? Are these some of the questions on your mind?’

They would normally nod in agreement and this is the only time you will speak about yourself. This is the opportunity to sell yourself and establish your credibility. So if you’ve got a degree, if you’ve been in the business for ten years, whatever you have done well, this is where you sell yourself.

Next you would speak about your company, how well established they are and what sets them apart from everyone else. Next I would say ‘ you’re probably also wondering what’s in it for you and what’s in it for me; well what’s in it for you, all I want to do is take a snapshot  of where you are now, and where you want to be in the future and really just help you develop the strategy to get there. What’s in it for me; if you like what I’m doing and feel that I can do a credible planning strategy for you, all that I would ask of you is, should you be satisfied with our recommendations, that you place the business with us. Secondly, whether or not we do business together, should you find us to be professional and ethical, we would like you to refer us to other professionals such as yourself. (Get commitment)

Right now I am an International motivational speaker specialising in sales and technology, but where I learned my selling skills was in financial services where I qualified amongst the top half percent of salespeople in the world at the Million Dollar Round Table ‘Top of the Table’ level.

I used all of the methods explained above and these are also detailed in my comprehensive 15 CD/DVD resource Sales Strategies for Financial Advisors (http://www.ifaskills.com )

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 42 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Business & Clients’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

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INCREASE SALES WITH REFERRAL PROSPECTING

1. Ask for specific referrals to narrow the customer’s focus.
2. Gather as much information about the referral as possible.
3. Ask your customer for permission to use his or her name.
4. Ask your customer for help in obtaining an appointment with the referral.
5. Contact the referral as soon as possible.
6. Inform your customer about the outcome of the contact.
7. Build referral alliances (this can be through sources such as tip clubs, centres of influence, key people in the industry).
8. Prospect for referrals just like you prospect for sales leads.
9. Rank your referrals as you do your customers:

• A for hot (you know a lot about the referral and the referrer introduces you)
• B for warm (you know little about the referral and you can use the referrer’s name).
• C for cold (you know nothing about the referral, and you can’t use the referrer’s name).

10. Seek internal referrals (other departments, locations, divisions, branches and subsidiaries).

Also, Take a listen to our 5CD and DVD package ‘Finding New Clients and Business’, filled with tips, techniques and ideas to increase productivity

Boosting the Effectiveness of Cold Calling

As a sales technique, cold calling can be a pretty hit and miss affair. When not performed properly, calling a list of numbers, even if they are established leads, can be a scattergun approach that can be both unpopular and ineffective. However, quite often, salespeople and sales managers are not helping themselves by taking the wrong approach and making what can already be a difficult method of selling even harder. Correctly done, cold calling can be an effective sales technique, but just like any form of selling it requires skill, techniques and the right approach. Done incorrectly, and cold calling can be perceived as rude, intrusive and too impersonal.

Calculating the cost
Cold calling can be expensive, especially for businesses that have large call centres where dozens of people are going through the phone book and calling thousands of numbers a day. According to the Direct Marketing Association, even those companies that are good at it rarely have success rates higher than 5 percent. However, for those less proficient, the cost of phone calls alone could be astronomical and make cold calling as a sale endeavour pointless. Of course, cheap landline deals and lower tariffs during the evening can help save money, but even then, with only a couple out of 100 calls turning into a potential sale, this could still mean a company could be spending more on phone calls, paying staff and keeping the lights on than they are making in sales. This is one of the reasons that many businesses that rely solely on cold calling for their income, such as double glazing companies, have a reputation for being risky enterprises. However, by taking a more planned approach, you can maximise the potential success rate, and make the cold calling far more cost effective.

Timing
The thing about cold calling, particularly on the telephone as opposed to personal face-to-face canvassing, is that you never know if it is a potentially a good time to be approaching your intended customer. Somebody could be in the bath or otherwise preoccupied when you call. With cold calling, timing can be everything. When calling a business, making contact at lunchtime when somebody might be eating their sandwiches or calling late in the day, when people are getting ready to go home, is going to reduce the chance of making a sale. The same is true of domestic cold calling. Many cold callers prefer the evening when people are more likely to be home from work. However, this can often be a time when people are busy, preparing dinner or putting children to bed,
If it does turn out to be a bad time, simply trying to batter your way through with your sales pitch will get you nowhere. A good salesperson can learn to identify that it is an inopportune moment and switch the purpose of the original call from attempting to sell, to arranging an appointment to phone back at more suitable time.

The opening
The opening is by far the most important aspect of a cold call. It is within the first few seconds that you can either intrigue potential customers or completely alienate them, and if it is the latter, there is nothing you can subsequently do to change the situation. Many cold calling companies use scripts for their salespeople, and while these have their advantages, not all salespeople are great actors and so can’t be expected to sound natural or even human when reading a script or repeating well-rehearsed words. Either they sound as if they are reading, or they speak so fast it can be both difficult to comprehend or make them sound like a robot.
Sounding human, professional and warm, as if you are calling a colleague for chat rather than bombarding somebody with your sale’s pitch is by far a better approach. However, some cold callers go too far the other way and start trying to be too personal, such as asking how somebody is that day or evening. People see right through this. Nobody believes somebody on the end of the phone that they have never met is going to have any real interest in their health or wellbeing, so keeping it professional, saying good morning/afternoon/evening and introducing yourself is by far a better approach than trying to soft soap somebody.

The pitch
Once you have introduced yourself, you can start your pitch. While everybody has their own techniques and methods of explaining what they are selling or calling about one key ingredient is always essential: to the point quickly and succinctly. It may well be that the person on the other end of the phone will be interested in what you are selling, but by taking to long to get to the point, you risk frustrating them, especially if they are busy.
Another aspect of cold calling to understand is identifying when it is time to quit. While tenacity and perseverance can pay off, identifying a lost cause will save you from wasting your time. For instance, if you are selling double glazing and the person on the other end of the phone tells you they have had their windows done only six months earlier, there is nothing you can say, and no discount you can offer them that will entice them to buy.
As with all aspects of sales, cold calling is a skill that has to be learned and practiced. Perhaps the most important method of increasing the chance of success is to try new pitches and openings, and seeing what works and what doesn’t work for you. You have more chance at success by developing techniques based on your own personal experience rather than on some handed-down dogma that may be effective for one salesperson but not for another.