Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
I heard your book on sales was featured in a recent podcast. I’m the leader of a 19-person advisory firm, with several seasoned advisors in the mix. I brought all of them on with existing clients in the anticipation that they would contribute to the revenue of our firm. None of them are bringing in new business. I’ve grown the firm significantly thanks to a strong market. We’ve also received some new contributions from existing clients. But outside of my efforts, no net-new clients.
The longest tenured advisor is six years; the newest 10 months. It isn’t like I haven’t been patient. I’ve spoken with several of my colleagues and we all agree that many advisors won’t sell – they don’t like it, they aren’t good at it and they simply will not do it.
Could buying them a book help them be more effective at sales? I am very skeptical. Convince me.
V.E.
Dear V.E.,
It is impossible to buy someone a book and expect them to significantly change their behavior! Changing behavior, breaking habits and instituting new ways of doing things for anyone is challenging.
I’m not sure what it will take to convince you, but I have been doing this work for a couple of decades, working with financial advisors all of types, experiences and approaches. My strong answer is “yes,” you can absolutely teach people who aren’t comfortable selling how to sell more effectively. I call this “selling for the non-sales professional.” I have watched advisors who were completely resistant to the idea of selling and seemingly unable to do so, transform once they were given tools or taught in a way that works for their style and approach. There is no one-size-fits-all — you have to try a few approaches to see what will work with each of your advisors. If you are telling them to do it like you’ve done it, although you have been successful, your style might not work for others.
There are several things you need to consider. Integrate some of these ideas into conversations with your team and see if you can help them shift:
- Be clear with them that you are not trying to turn them into salespeople. I’ve been selling for my entire career, including institutional alternative investments to pension plans, retirement plan services, mutual funds and the like. I’ve always believed the skills one develops in learning to sell effectively are invaluable in many other business aspects – negotiation, follow-through, excellence in communication, focus on others, active listening and so on. However, I recognize and respect that to many people who have chosen finance for a profession, the idea of being a salesperson is somehow demeaning or uninspiring. So, let your team know that by no means are you hoping to turn them into aggressive salespeople. In fact, I believe many of the traditional ways salespeople are taught – such as how to “objective objections” is terribly misplaced in our industry. It’s about relationship, and listening and trying to understand what the person or family needs and then working to help them solve their issues. It is never about pushing something onto someone. In this business the relationships are very long term – a lifetime in many cases, or several generations long, so “pushing” someone to do business with you is ineffective. You want the relationship for the long term, which means engaging in relationship during the sales process.
- Help your team see that they have value to add and they are actually doing the marketplace a disservice if they aren’t letting others know what they can do to help them. Over the years I’ve compiled countless stories of friends and even family members who had an opportunity to hire a financial advisor and did not choose someone close to them because they didn’t fully understand what the person did for a living! You don’t want them to shut down conversation at the family holiday table by talking about asset allocation and diversification within a portfolio, but you do want them to share how they help people and what they are able to do if the situation presents itself.
- Ask for the business. They might already be having conversations with people and come back feeling and thinking they are not getting anywhere so why bother? Advisors must learn that ultimately you do have to ask someone to work with you. Again, this does not have to be posed in a pushy or aggressive way, it can be as basic as “I believe I am a good fit to help you and your family, what would be a best next step to help you make the right decision for your financial well-being?”
Reframe the discussion of selling and help them see it is not an offensive thing, but rather a helpful and supportive thing. They might start to be more bold about it. And as I said, I do agree that a book has never changed anyone’s behavior, but if you want some additional ideas that I don’t have space in the column to share, please do check out The Pocket Guide to Sales (available from the link on this page) where I go into much more detail on all of these topics.
Dear Bev,
It’s been good times for our firm for several years now. My advisors make a good living – a very good living – and admittedly they don’t work entirely hard. I need them to be more invested in the growth side of our business ex-market movement. We can’t count on the market gains to continue indefinitely and even if they do continue for another few years, I need to see organic growth to make the firm saleable.
How do I get people off their duffs who have no reason to become more aggressive?
A.B.
Dear A.B.,
You don’t.
I call this the “overly content syndrome” where someone is well paid, satisfied and content where they are. It is extremely difficult to move someone to do something differently when there is no meaningful carrot and no stick that will move them to change their position. Even when I teach sales skills, I talk about how someone has to experience a trigger, some sort of life event that moves them to action. I often call this the “burr in the saddle.” If the burr is not uncomfortable enough, the person won’t change their position in the saddle, they will just continue to ride off into the sunset content and happy with their lot in life.
Create a situation where they are motivated to move. You have to either inspire and influence them by your words and actions, you have to institute a gain or set of gains for them so compelling they want to do more or you have to start dinging them in the current state so that they become less and less content and want to move in order to avoid the pain, or the burr in the saddle. This is actually a common difficulty for advisory firms – it is a very well paid profession and with recurring revenue. Once you have enough clients to benefit from a healthy income, you can rest pretty easily by just working with existing clients and keeping them contented and happy. Forcing movement is tough and does require discipline. You might need to try and combination of things. Otherwise, bring in your next hire and make sure it is someone who is hungry to sell and wants to help with growth of the firm. Be diligent in your hiring to make this happen.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Entrepreneurship. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
