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It might seem like a far-fetched concept, but making the sale should be a consistently predictable and effortless experience. Your outcomes should not be unpredictable and you should not have to “follow-up” on qualified prospects who have ghosted you.
When a qualified prospect enters your sales process, you should have be 80-90 percent confident they’ll become a paying client. If you don’t have that level of confidence, then you still haven’t locked down a predictable and repeatable pre-sale system.
You probably have a post-sale system – you know exactly what to do with clients once they agree to work with you. But pre-sale with new prospects (no referral and zero trust), most likely your approach is far less predictable.
Perhaps you approach the sale as if it’s a social interaction. Many advisors do. Or you revert to expert mode where you share your knowledge and mix in a bit of rapport-building, hoping your prospects will see your value and choose you. That’s not a sales system, that’s free consulting, which waters down the sales outcome.
By contrast, when you have a sales system, converting your prospect into a paying client is an efficient routine with a predictable outcome. You have an engineered process that leads new prospects to say “How can you help me?”
From their point of view, it feels unique and specific to their situation. From your point of view, it’s a finely tuned sequence you’ve mapped out in advance and repeat with every prospect the same way.
Opportunities rarely slip through your fingers because you know what to say, how to say it, and vague notions like “seeing if we’re fit” have been designed out of your sales conversation. You operate more like a doctor than a financial advisor.
Other advisors view their sales meetings as having a casual chat and expecting their prospects to be looking for information, as if they are on a “shopping” trip. But your prospects should be met by a trusted authority (not advisor) who is diagnostic in nature.
They don’t even have to like you in order to trust you. You create instant clarity and trust, because you have a system that enables you to zero-in on their deepest issues, creating a sense of gravity and urgency.
“Wow, this advisor is unlike any other I’ve met with. He doesn’t waste time with surface level chit chat or fake rapport, he’s straight to the point. It feels like he does this all the time, he must be good at what he does. I think I’ll go with him.”
That is the kind of trust and instant decision making, that having an effective sales system creates.
First, you go deep on their issues and you explain the impact of not solving them. Then, they ask you for help and you prescribe the treatment. You onboard.
It’s that simple.
To learn how to create a scalable and systematized trust-based sales system, order your complimentary book and consultation below.
Ari Galper is the world’s number one authority on trust-based selling and is the most sought-after high-net worth/lead generation expert for financial advisors. His newest book, Trust In A Split Second has become an instant best-seller among financial advisors worldwide – you can get a Free copy of Ari’s book here and, when you click the “YES” button in the order form, you’ll also receive a complimentary “plug up the holes” lead generation consultation. Ari has been featured in CEO Magazine, Forbes, INC Magazine and the Financial Review. He is considered a contrarian in the financial services industry and in his book, everything you learned about selling will be turned upside down. No more chasing, no pressure, no closing.
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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
