Stop Building Relationships to Make the Sale

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A few days ago, I had a call with an advisor who said he was averaging 10 new meetings a month, and only converting a few of them into new paying clients. When I suggested he focus on building trust instead of relationship-building, he paused.

“But isn’t that what I’m doing? They all liked me, and I was able to show my value.”

Many advisors who have been operating for years under the traditional sales mindset share the common misconception that relationship-building is required to make the sale.

Understand that your prospects may like you, but they probably don’t trust you.

The truth is, relationship-building and trust-building are mutually exclusive, like two parallel planes that don’t intersect.

The confusion between the two comes from the old sales myth that you need to become someone’s friend (a peer-like relationship) for them to do business with you. That model worked just fine pre-Covid, but it no longer works in the new economy where the advisory profession has been commoditized.

Instead, you may find yourself creating “superficial friendships” in multiple meetings, with the hope that if they like you enough, they’ll eventually do business with you (a very long sales cycle).