“The no-sell sale”:
Recently, I read an article that impressed me. Written by Katherine Vessenes, a lawyer and well known consultant to successful advisors, she has given permission to reproduce her article. To see more about her work or to sign up for her newsletter, go to www.vestmentadvisors.com.
By Katharine Vessenes:
When I first starting working with multi-million-dollar advisors, I was astonished to learn their closing ratio was a whopping 80 percent to 95 percent. Then, to test out my theories, I started working directly with investors myself; not that I wanted to work with investors. The reason? My closing rate had been about one-in-three prior to this.
So, you can understand my surprise when I found that by using this system, my own closing ratio was more than 90 percent. That’s why I call this powerful process the “No-Sell Sale”. I mean, if I, a pretty lousy salesperson, could do it, anyone can.
This sales process is not about selling at all; it’s about identifying prospective client’s areas of concern and then solving their problems. There is no hard selling. It’s the process of figuring out what your prospective client really wants and needs — and then giving it to them.
It’s incredibly easy to close more business if you have the right dominos and they are properly positioned. Here are some of the dominos, which, when properly aligned, can help you create your own No-Sell Sale:
1. Set every appointment up for the wow experience.
Remember that it’s important for every existing and prospective client to face your very best “Starbucks” experience”; that is, an experience so warm and powerful, prospective clients won’t be able to wait to come back and see you.
An example:
Have your receptionist memorize this script whenever you have a new prospect: “You must be the Martins. Katherine said to expect you. Also, Jim, her client service manager, said you liked diet ginger ale. If there’s anything else I can get for you, please let me know.”
Refreshments are then served on china, with crystal glasses — all of which are presented on a nice tray.
This is a far cry from a financial advisor’s office I worked with last year. All they offered me was water, and it was served in a Styrofoam cup — more of a Lake Wobegone experience than a Starbucks experience. It did not make me feel special — in fact, it had just the opposite effect — I felt like I was so unimportant to them that it was not worth their time to wash out a glass for me.
Making prospects feel special is a key part of the experience. Everyone wants to feel like they are your most important client. Taking a little extra time can pay big dividends in your relationships.
2. Let the prospect talk. Your job is to listen.
Recently, I sat in on an interview with the number-two rep of a medium-size broker/dealer. He was making about $700,000 per year and could easily double that by tightening up his sales process. His biggest problem? He talked too much. I watched him burn a full 30 minutes in chit-chat with his new prospect.
Multi-million-dollar advisors know their only inventory is time. It’s important to be efficient with that time. Although multi-million-dollar advisors are polite and do spend time getting to know their prospects, they don’t spend 30 minutes talking about themselves, the weather or swapping stories. The best way to use your time is to get prospective clients talking about themselves. This not only lets them feel important, it helps you assess how you can best solve their problems.
Ask prospective clients some key questions about themselves, such as:
* What brought you in today?
* How can I best help you?
* Tell me about how your parents treated money when you were growing up. Did they have an abundance mentality or a poverty mentality? How did that change your philosophy on money now?
* How did you get to where you are now?
* What is your investment philosophy?
* What do you want your money to do for you?
* What is the best investment you ever made and why?
* What about the worst?
* Have you ever had a successful relationship with a financial advisor? Tell me about it.
By the time you go through these questions, you will not only know a lot about your prospective client’s character, but you will also know their money personality. If the prospect is hung up on losing $500 in a bad stock choice 20 years ago, this tells you they’re very uptight, remember every bad experience and are very risk adverse. Remember: The prospect, not you, is the marketing genius. Once they tell you what they want, all you have to do is give it to them to close the sale.
3. Use an agenda.
Sometimes advisors will send out an agenda in advance of the meeting. This can be a good technique. However, to simplify my sales process, I usually had an agenda prepared at the time of the meeting. The agenda makes you look like the professional you are. It also serves as crib notes, so you don’t forget to cover all the key items.
The agenda, which I recommend you present using a flip chart or whiteboard, serves many functions. It helps prospects stay focused, as at any time during the meeting, they can look at the agenda, which is always posted, and see where we are at. It really helps reduce their fears and makes them feel more comfortable. People don’t like surprises and one way to make the process less fearful for them is to let them know, in advance, what to expect.
Once I go over the agenda with prospects at the beginning of the meeting, I also ask these two questions:
a) What do you most want to happen during our meeting today? This lets you know the uppermost thought on your prospect’s mind. If you can solve that problem, you can create another client.
b) Is there anything else you want to add to this agenda? This entire process is all about the prospective client. Asking this question lets them know they are in charge. People who feel they are in charge are more likely to agree to your recommendations.
4. Use the client’s learning style.
One of the best investments I ever made was to become Kolbe certified. Kathy Kolbe created a series of amazing tools that can be used to assess how people solve problems, approach work and make decisions. These same tools can be used to help assess how clients need information presented to them in a way that makes them feel comfortable and able to come to a decision to implement our recommendations.
Although this is a much longer discussion than we have time for, to summarize: I have learned to first approach all clients as if they are “QuickStarts,” in Kolbe speak. That means they like executive summaries and bullet points. Give them too much information and they check-out mentally because QuickStarts get bored easily. The point here is to cut to the chase quickly for this group, which represents about 20 percent of the population.
Next, I would add in the details for the “Fact finders.” This group, another 20 percent, loves background information and the depth of your research. They want to know that you have done your homework and you aren’t shooting from the hip. If you don’t give them the reasons for your recommendations, they will think you are unprepared and won’t trust you.
Thirdly, I would tie our recommendations into the client’s past, present and future. This addresses the needs of the “FollowThrus,” who are very organized by nature. I would give special attention to our process for determining what we recommend because process and procedures are important to this 20 percent of the population.
Finally, I would make sure the recommendations were put in a pretty binder with a nice cover, because this is important for the “Implementers.”
5. Involve both spouses in the conversation.
One big mistake I have seen some advisors make is to talk just to the husband and ignore the wife. They must be under the misconception that husbands make all the financial decisions.
Sometimes it’s done very subtly, like starting the conversation about the local sports team. Now, some women are big sports fans, but many are bored by this topic and will feel left out — make sure you talk about something that is important to both spouses. Both spouses must feel valued, important and appreciated.
Another misconception is that the husband is in charge of financial decisions. In fact, I have seen numerous studies that show women control more than 50 percent of all of the wealth in the U.S. today. It’s always safe to assume that both parties will be talking about you and your services on the way home from the office, so make sure you “love-up” both of them.
One way to involve the spouse is to repeat the questions for each one or rotate who you want to answer first. Here is a script for that process:
* “So tell me, Jane, what do you most want to get out of our meeting today? Bill, what about you? What do you most want to get out of the meeting?”
* “Bill, what would you say are your top three financial goals? Jane, if I asked you the same question, what would your answer be?”
So, empowering the prospect, using an agenda, loving them up, giving them a wow experience, using their learning style and involving both spouses are key dominos that need to be aligned for the No-Sell Sale. On the surface, each one of these may seem pretty inconsequential. In fact, you may be saying, “Why should we go to the trouble of baking cookies and serving juice in a crystal glass? We could save ourselves some time and a little money by skipping this domino.”
Yes, you could save yourself some time and money, but you would also reduce your closing ratio. Because it takes so much time, energy and expense to get a new prospect into your office, it is important to wow them the first time — you may not get a second chance.
Each of these dominos may not seem like much, but when you add them all up — you can get terrific results — and that means a lot more happy, satisfied clients.
Next time we will discuss five more dominos in your No-Sell Sale — how to convert more prospects into clients.
Katherine Vessenes, JD, CFP®, RFC, president of Vestment Advisors is the country’s leading consultant on the practice management strategies need to build the multimillion dollar practice (Kaplan). She is also America’s best-known authority on the legal, ethical and compliance issues facing financial advisors (Bloomberg). A popular speaker and practice management consultant, she can be reached at: 952-401-1045, Katherine@vestmentadvisors.com or www.vestmentadvisors.com.
©Katherine Vessenes 2010, all rights reserved.
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Recently, I read an article that impressed me. Written by Katherine Vessenes, a lawyer and well known consultant to successful advisors, she has given permission to reproduce her article. To see more about her work or to sign up for her newsletter, go to www.vestmentadvisors.com.
By Katharine Vessenes:
When I first starting working with multi-million-dollar advisors, I was astonished to learn their closing ratio was a whopping 80 percent to 95 percent. Then, to test out my theories, I started working directly with investors myself; not that I wanted to work with investors. The reason? My closing rate had been about one-in-three prior to this.
So, you can understand my surprise when I found that by using this system, my own closing ratio was more than 90 percent. That’s why I call this powerful process the “No-Sell Sale”. I mean, if I, a pretty lousy salesperson, could do it, anyone can.
This sales process is not about selling at all; it’s about identifying prospective client’s areas of concern and then solving their problems. There is no hard selling. It’s the process of figuring out what your prospective client really wants and needs — and then giving it to them.
It’s incredibly easy to close more business if you have the right dominos and they are properly positioned. Here are some of the dominos, which, when properly aligned, can help you create your own No-Sell Sale:
1. Set every appointment up for the wow experience.
Remember that it’s important for every existing and prospective client to face your very best “Starbucks” experience”; that is, an experience so warm and powerful, prospective clients won’t be able to wait to come back and see you.
An example:
Have your receptionist memorize this script whenever you have a new prospect: “You must be the Martins. Katherine said to expect you. Also, Jim, her client service manager, said you liked diet ginger ale. If there’s anything else I can get for you, please let me know.”
Refreshments are then served on china, with crystal glasses — all of which are presented on a nice tray.
This is a far cry from a financial advisor’s office I worked with last year. All they offered me was water, and it was served in a Styrofoam cup — more of a Lake Wobegone experience than a Starbucks experience. It did not make me feel special — in fact, it had just the opposite effect — I felt like I was so unimportant to them that it was not worth their time to wash out a glass for me.
Making prospects feel special is a key part of the experience. Everyone wants to feel like they are your most important client. Taking a little extra time can pay big dividends in your relationships.
2. Let the prospect talk. Your job is to listen.
Recently, I sat in on an interview with the number-two rep of a medium-size broker/dealer. He was making about $700,000 per year and could easily double that by tightening up his sales process. His biggest problem? He talked too much. I watched him burn a full 30 minutes in chit-chat with his new prospect.
Multi-million-dollar advisors know their only inventory is time. It’s important to be efficient with that time. Although multi-million-dollar advisors are polite and do spend time getting to know their prospects, they don’t spend 30 minutes talking about themselves, the weather or swapping stories. The best way to use your time is to get prospective clients talking about themselves. This not only lets them feel important, it helps you assess how you can best solve their problems.
Ask prospective clients some key questions about themselves, such as:
* What brought you in today?
* How can I best help you?
* Tell me about how your parents treated money when you were growing up. Did they have an abundance mentality or a poverty mentality? How did that change your philosophy on money now?
* How did you get to where you are now?
* What is your investment philosophy?
* What do you want your money to do for you?
* What is the best investment you ever made and why?
* What about the worst?
* Have you ever had a successful relationship with a financial advisor? Tell me about it.
By the time you go through these questions, you will not only know a lot about your prospective client’s character, but you will also know their money personality. If the prospect is hung up on losing $500 in a bad stock choice 20 years ago, this tells you they’re very uptight, remember every bad experience and are very risk adverse. Remember: The prospect, not you, is the marketing genius. Once they tell you what they want, all you have to do is give it to them to close the sale.
3. Use an agenda.
Sometimes advisors will send out an agenda in advance of the meeting. This can be a good technique. However, to simplify my sales process, I usually had an agenda prepared at the time of the meeting. The agenda makes you look like the professional you are. It also serves as crib notes, so you don’t forget to cover all the key items.
The agenda, which I recommend you present using a flip chart or whiteboard, serves many functions. It helps prospects stay focused, as at any time during the meeting, they can look at the agenda, which is always posted, and see where we are at. It really helps reduce their fears and makes them feel more comfortable. People don’t like surprises and one way to make the process less fearful for them is to let them know, in advance, what to expect.
Once I go over the agenda with prospects at the beginning of the meeting, I also ask these two questions:
a) What do you most want to happen during our meeting today? This lets you know the uppermost thought on your prospect’s mind. If you can solve that problem, you can create another client.
b) Is there anything else you want to add to this agenda? This entire process is all about the prospective client. Asking this question lets them know they are in charge. People who feel they are in charge are more likely to agree to your recommendations.
4. Use the client’s learning style.
One of the best investments I ever made was to become Kolbe certified. Kathy Kolbe created a series of amazing tools that can be used to assess how people solve problems, approach work and make decisions. These same tools can be used to help assess how clients need information presented to them in a way that makes them feel comfortable and able to come to a decision to implement our recommendations.
Although this is a much longer discussion than we have time for, to summarize: I have learned to first approach all clients as if they are “QuickStarts,” in Kolbe speak. That means they like executive summaries and bullet points. Give them too much information and they check-out mentally because QuickStarts get bored easily. The point here is to cut to the chase quickly for this group, which represents about 20 percent of the population.
Next, I would add in the details for the “Fact finders.” This group, another 20 percent, loves background information and the depth of your research. They want to know that you have done your homework and you aren’t shooting from the hip. If you don’t give them the reasons for your recommendations, they will think you are unprepared and won’t trust you.
Thirdly, I would tie our recommendations into the client’s past, present and future. This addresses the needs of the “FollowThrus,” who are very organized by nature. I would give special attention to our process for determining what we recommend because process and procedures are important to this 20 percent of the population.
Finally, I would make sure the recommendations were put in a pretty binder with a nice cover, because this is important for the “Implementers.”
5. Involve both spouses in the conversation.
One big mistake I have seen some advisors make is to talk just to the husband and ignore the wife. They must be under the misconception that husbands make all the financial decisions.
Sometimes it’s done very subtly, like starting the conversation about the local sports team. Now, some women are big sports fans, but many are bored by this topic and will feel left out — make sure you talk about something that is important to both spouses. Both spouses must feel valued, important and appreciated.
Another misconception is that the husband is in charge of financial decisions. In fact, I have seen numerous studies that show women control more than 50 percent of all of the wealth in the U.S. today. It’s always safe to assume that both parties will be talking about you and your services on the way home from the office, so make sure you “love-up” both of them.
One way to involve the spouse is to repeat the questions for each one or rotate who you want to answer first. Here is a script for that process:
* “So tell me, Jane, what do you most want to get out of our meeting today? Bill, what about you? What do you most want to get out of the meeting?”
* “Bill, what would you say are your top three financial goals? Jane, if I asked you the same question, what would your answer be?”
So, empowering the prospect, using an agenda, loving them up, giving them a wow experience, using their learning style and involving both spouses are key dominos that need to be aligned for the No-Sell Sale. On the surface, each one of these may seem pretty inconsequential. In fact, you may be saying, “Why should we go to the trouble of baking cookies and serving juice in a crystal glass? We could save ourselves some time and a little money by skipping this domino.”
Yes, you could save yourself some time and money, but you would also reduce your closing ratio. Because it takes so much time, energy and expense to get a new prospect into your office, it is important to wow them the first time — you may not get a second chance.
Each of these dominos may not seem like much, but when you add them all up — you can get terrific results — and that means a lot more happy, satisfied clients.
Next time we will discuss five more dominos in your No-Sell Sale — how to convert more prospects into clients.
Katherine Vessenes, JD, CFP®, RFC, president of Vestment Advisors is the country’s leading consultant on the practice management strategies need to build the multimillion dollar practice (Kaplan). She is also America’s best-known authority on the legal, ethical and compliance issues facing financial advisors (Bloomberg). A popular speaker and practice management consultant, she can be reached at: 952-401-1045, Katherine@vestmentadvisors.com or www.vestmentadvisors.com.
©Katherine Vessenes 2010, all rights reserved.
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