If you think finding prospects is tough, wait till you try convincing them to become your client.

In this blog post, Chris Chan offers words of wisdom to struggling financial advisors—whether they’re just starting out or already have some experience in the field. Chris shows you how you can reach out to prospects on the phone, and, once you have one foot in the door, how you can win them over, and turn them into clients.

CURING CALL RELUCTANCE

Many of us dread the idea of making a phone call to a complete stranger, especially with the intention of asking for something. In an episode on #Ask Chris, Chris refers to this phenomenon or “symptom” as Call Reluctance, or a fear of making phone calls.

A person’s behaviour is often a result of their belief system which is often shaped by their past experiences. If a person’s past experience with calling has been negative—the client might have scolded him or he might have lost friends in trying to prospect them—it can be very demoralising.

The pain involved in making a phone call is the reason why people have call reluctance.

But the reverse is also true. When a person gets positive responses from the calls they make, it actually becomes fun. And when it’s fun, there’s no need to force yourself to make calls.

The problem is, “historically”, the approach to sales is a numbers game, commonly known as the “Law of Large Numbers”. If you make enough calls, the number of successful calls will balance out the number of unsuccessful ones, and you will achieve your desired target.

This is why sales managers ask their consultants to make a phone call—even though most of the time it’s unpleasant, because it’s actually painful.

To overcome call reluctance, Chris has designed a very special script that actually significantly reduces the chances of a call turning into a negative experience. In fact, when used correctly, a prospect has almost no chance to say, “Not interested” or “Let me think about it”.

Chris’ script is a vast improvement over the commonly used, “Hi. Good afternoon, sir, I’m calling from XYZ Company. Is it convenient to talk for a moment?” A script like this immediately defines your call as a sales call or a business call, rather than a service call or personal call.

The moment your prospect recognises your call as a sales one, you’ve started off on the wrong foot, because his defences as a consumer will be raised high against you. Convincing him to become a client now becomes uphill task because you approached the prospect in the wrong way. Using Chris’ script sets a positive tone for your call right away and gives you an advantage.

CHRIS HAS THIS SCRIPT AND MORE TO HELP AS MANY FINANCIAL ADVISORS AS POSSIBLE AT OUR TRAINING WORKSHOPS AND LIVE EVENTS. FIND OUT HOW HIS SCRIPT AND STRATEGIES CAN HELP YOU AT OUR REFERRAL REVOLUTION WORKSHOP.

CONVINCING A “COMPARING” CLIENT

Once you’ve managed to set a positive tone using Chris’ script, it now becomes easier for you to convince your prospect to become your client. But what if your prospect wants to compare what you have to offer to the offers of other financial advisors? This is what Chris has to say on the subject in another episode of #AskChris.

First of all, if a person wants to compare what you have to offer before doing business with you, it may be naturally assumed that the person hasn’t give you his full trust, yet. He isn’t sold on the idea that you can give him the most suitable or the “best” product.

If we were to compare the financial advisory business to the medical profession, can you imagine yourself questioning a doctor after he gives you his prescription, and asking him if the medicine was suitable? Or would you tell the doctor, “I’ll go back and let me do some research”, “Let me compare prices first”, or “Let me go to another doctor to see whether they can offer me something cheaper.”

While unimaginable for doctors, this instance is quite common among many financial consultants. And there are two underlying reasons for this.

First is the perception of the industry as a whole. The sad truth is that the current financial advisory industry has emerged from a sales kind of environment where people were going around pushing insurance products to consumers from the 50s to the 70s.

As a result, people’s perception of the role of an insurance or financial advisor is that of a salesman. Where this may not be the case in the US, the UK, Australia and other developed countries, Asia has yet to catch up in this respect.

But until then, how do you improve the image of financial consultants in the client’s eyes?

The second reason largely has to do with individual financial consultants, on how they better brand themselves, be it online or offline. Is the way they conduct their business a sales process, or an advisory process?

Chris has personally trained salespeople who were able to transform their process from a sales process into an advisory process, with the belief that with an advisory process, a client feels totally understood.

Chris explains his belief with a “100 + 100 = 100” formula, wherein the first 100 stands for the client feeling 100% understood by the client in terms of his beliefs, his values and his unique situation. A good financial consultant will also consider the client’s personality, risk profile, limited resources and so on.

If the client feels 100% understood, and if the advisors have done a good job to explain the solutions he has to offer, the client will be 100% sold on those solutions. This in turn leads to only one outcome: a 100% closed deal.

SO IF THERE’S NO 100% CLOSED DEAL, IT SIMPLY MEANS EITHER THE CLIENT DIDN’T FEEL 100% UNDERSTOOD, OR HE WAS NOT 100% SOLD ON YOUR SOLUTIONS.

Many financial consultants spend more time trying to think about whether the problems that they have with closing sales lie in the solutions they offer or in the closing process, when in truth, their success hinges on that first consultation. It’s during the first appointment where you get to know your client and to understand him 100% that you can start to lead up to the second and the final 100%.

Getting that first part of the financial advisory process right, where you understand the client and gain his trust, is what will eliminate the situation wherein the prospect says that he needs to compare what you have to offer.

That said, bear in mind that you can’t please the whole world. There will always be that 1 to 3% of consumers who prefer to get their information and buy online, as well as those who prefer to compare prices. The good news is that they are the minority, and that there’s a market for everyone.

GET MORE ADVICE FOR GETTING MORE REFERRALS, USING THE RIGHT TOOLS, AND BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND AT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL, OR CONTACT US AT PPP ACADEMY TODAY.