The Professional Sales Introduction

Let me tell you a story. Many years ago, a large tobacco company's advertising account was up for grabs and every big advertising company was after this account. There was a small advertising company owned by a fellow called Ben Duffy and he was also trying to secure this account. He was up against big competition; some of the largest companies in the Industry and it would be a coup to land such a large client. Ben Duffy thought to himself 'how am I going to get this account, I'm just a small unknown player with a small company, there's no chance.' He thought, 'let me put myself in the position of this chap that I am going to see. Let me think about some of the questions, some of the things that might be on the prospective client's mind'. He wrote out a list of fifty questions, and then narrowed those down to about ten. When he met with the client, he said 'in preparing for today's meeting, I put myself in your position and thought there may 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 Company replied, 'well, I've got ten questions myself'. They swapped lists, six of the questions were the same and he secured the account.

For years and years now, I've been using exactly the same method, using the ‘Ben Duffy’. I would go and meet with a client for the first time, we'd go through past, present, future to establish rapport and then use the 'Ben Duffy'. I'd say to the client, 'you know Joe, in preparing for today's meeting, I put myself in your position and thought there may be some questions on your mind, things like ‘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?' You then nod your head and he'll nod back again (I love the doggy nod) because these are some of the questions that are on their mind. An important thing is to learn this script verbatim. It's got to form a natural part of your conversation. This is the script: 'In preparing for today's meeting, I put myself in your position and I thought you might want to know, who is (your name), who is XYZ Financial Services, what's in it for me, what's in it for you? Are those some of the questions on your mind?' Write that down and learn it verbatim.

They normally reply ’yes sure, these are some of the things on my mind'. Now and now is the only time you will speak about yourself. And this is a brag session, this is where you're selling yourself, you're selling 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.

I would say, 'I'm Frank Furness, I've been in the business for twenty years now, I'm a Certified Financial Planner'... or you may say, 'hi I'm Henry Smith, I've been in the business for some time now, I'm working for one of the best companies, I've been through incredible training courses. Prior to this I was a banker and I have my B.Comm degree... '

This and this is the only time that you sell yourself and the best time to sell yourself well is now.

Most companies give people a script that's pages and pages long. I don't know how they expect people to actually learn their scripts verbatim. So sell yourself first: then you would go into the company's script. This is where you sell your Company, how long they have been around, various offices etc. Now, depending on your company script, you would carry on with the Ben Duffy. Your prospect wants to know that he's dealing with a good company that has been well established, that has been around for a long time. I'd then say to him, 'if you're also wondering what's in it for you, what's in it for me; well what's in it for you is simply that I just want to take a snapshot of where you are now, and where you want to be in the future and really just help you get there. What's in it for me; if you like the way I conduct business, I'd like you to place the business with me and for that I get paid a fee. I also want to establish a long-term business relationship. Our income is derived from brokerage fees paid to us by the financial institutions. 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.'

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.frankfurnessresources.com/financialadvisor)

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com and please download complimentary eBooks and software at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com





Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in financial services sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com and for resources take a look at http://www.frankfurness.com and http://www.frankfurnessresources.com
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