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 52 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 and
his name was Eustace Harop. 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 are you doing?”
and throughout the rest of the interview I kept calling him Useless.
Fortunately he had a sense of humor 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 specializing 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.
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 Exceptional Achievers’
which is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk
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/
