Why Questioning Leads to Closing

Dear Advisor,

While it is hard for me, I will respect your request and won’t take the space here to give you tips and coaching on how to sell effectively. I will, however, answer your question about why you are being “pushed” to expand opportunities for the firm to work with additional individuals who need your help.

That’s how I am going to reframe the concept of sales, or growth – it isn’t just about seeing the firm gain more revenue. It is about finding ways to help more people and, in doing do, expand the firm’s opportunities. Reframing what you are doing is important and could help your attitude when talking with clients about this.

I want to talk about the open-ended questions you’ve been asked to use, however. Many sales coaches and trainers will talk about the importance of consultative questioning. Many firms, like yours, develop good open-ended questions to use. There are a couple of things to talk about when using open-ended questions:

1. Answering often doesn’t solve the right problem. Advisors (and even professional salespeople) don’t realize they are in the mode of telling, not selling. While you may think sales is pushy and aggressive, in reality the role of the technical expert can be just as pushy, in a different way.

You might hear something you know you can solve, and you go right to the answers for someone. You then find yourself in the mode of convincing, rather than engaging. This happens when you come with the answers, not the questions. When you use open-ended questions and refrain from jumping in too quickly to solve, you help your client think through something they may not be in touch with or may not have considered deeply. If you can help someone uncover what they are really thinking, why it matters and what they might want to do about it, then you are guiding them – not telling or selling.

2. Questioning leads to closing. A number of the advisors I work with are pretty good at engaging, asking questions and caring about the answers. However, they are really uncomfortable with the close. I promised you I wouldn’t give you coaching on “closing,” so I won’t. What I will tell you is that when you stay patient and ask a number of open-ended questions, you allow the person to come to their own conclusions about what they need to do, and why.

When you do this well, it actually can take away the need for the ask when you are closing. You find the client might talk themselves into what they need to do. This takes patience though. It means asking a good open-ended question and then pausing and refusing to jump in to fill that empty space, which can be hard to do. The more someone answers a “why?” or “what do you think/feel about?” type of question, the more they are convincing themselves of whatever needs to happen next.

3. Don’t ask if you are unwilling to listen. One of the most entertaining breakouts I do when I work with advisors on consultative questioning is the art of reflective listening. Reflective listening is when you’ve asked a few questions (hopefully no more than three or four) and heard a number of answers. From there, you take the time to summarize for the speaker (your client) what you believe you’ve heard.

This is actually harder done than said, because most people actually don’t listen all that well to everything that is said. They get fixated on one idea, or take notes and get distracted, or try to answer something too quickly. Listening to each answer and then connecting the pieces for your client takes time and focus. It pays off because often once the client hears back what they have said, they can be ready to take another step.

I hope this helps a bit with orienting you toward using some of those open-ended questions. You aren’t doing it because you are being a pushy salesperson. You are doing it because it gives you a chance to stop telling and start listening, to help the client close themselves on a next step and to hone your listening skills! Only good things can come out of it if you keep doing it.

Dear Bev,

I am supposed to be the sales manager for our firm. I’m an advisor who is good at selling. Actually, I wouldn’t even call what I do “selling.” I am good at relationships, and I don’t mind asking my clients to introduce me to other people. This doesn’t translate to managing my colleagues. It definitely doesn’t translate to holding my team members accountable and overseeing them. I don’t even like to do the coaching. They all have different styles than I do, so I feel awkward saying my way is the right way. My boss, the owner of our firm, is a “never say ‘no’” guy, so I can’t push back on this. But I don’t want to be a jerk either.

A.C.

Dear A.C.,

You didn’t really pose a question, more of a statement, but I assume the underlying question is “How do I do what my boss wants without feeling uncomfortable and thinking I am being obnoxious to my advisor colleagues?” You can do this by sharing with your colleagues that you’ve had a great deal of success in finding new opportunities by engaging with your clients in interesting ways. Ask them if they are open to learn about the conversations you’ve been having, the steps you are taking and what you believe works and what doesn’t. Then, very importantly, change the dialogue to what they feel comfortable with and what they think might work for them in a similar way. They can’t do exactly what you do, but you could help them think through what they can do in their style and approach.

You might find some of your colleagues don’t believe it is their role to “sell,” so you have to walk a fine line of not pushing and acting like you are overseeing them (unless you have genuinely been given this responsibility). Be a helper to your colleagues. However, if they want you to back off and make it clear they don’t appreciate your interference, I think I’d leave it there. Unless you are being paid to be sales manager, or you are being compensated to see they make a behavior change, there isn’t a lot in it for you to make enemies of your colleagues. Some might disagree with me, so I’m always open for our readers to weigh in with their thoughts!

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. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She 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.

A message from Advisor Perspectives and VettaFi: To learn more about this and other topics, check out some of our webcasts.

Read more articles by Beverly Flaxington