Most advisors’ sales processes are based on informing and educating prospects.
You have a discovery meeting.
You do a free financial plan.
Then you have another meeting to present the plan and educate your prospect about why it’s important to implement it to solve their challenges.
Even if they turn up to all these meetings and understand your plan, there’s no guarantee they’ll become a paying client.
Often they say: “Let me think about it and I’ll get back to you”.
This is in stark contrast to other professionals like lawyers or doctors, who usually have a new client/patient pay at the end of the first consultation.
Could it be that the entire free information/value selling model is fundamentally mismatched to what prospects are really looking for?
The decreasing conversion rates from first meeting to new paying client, suggests it is.
If they wanted just information, they could search online for it related to their issues.
Lawyers and doctors don’t spend time educating potential clients and patients about the legal code or biochemistry.
The issue is that the more information you provide, the more questions are raised creating more reasons to “think about it” — a form of indecision.
Your prospects may have you assume they want information from you, but what they really want is to trust you to take their problem off their plate.
Information alone can’t satisfy their need to trust you.
Here are three universal, time-tested principles, that will protect you from
“over-delivering” with information and value, missing a new paying client opportunity:
1.) Selling is not an intellectual exercise
Your prospects aren’t seeking information, what they really want is clarity. They want the burden of deciding what to do about their money simplified and solved. They want an emotionally intelligent financial expert who gets them at a deep level – someone they can trust.
2.) Your job is not to impress them with your knowledge
Your job is to clarify their situation to the point where they ask you: “Can you help me?”. Your sales process needs to work more like an appointment with a doctor over a serious medical issue that you discover through your financial “x-ray” process.
3.) It’s not a Discovery meeting, it’s a Diagnostic meeting
They don’t need to get to know you to trust you – contrary to the industry norms. In fact, they don’t even have to like you to trust you. Why does your doctor refrain from the “know, like and trust” model? Why do they diagnose with bedside manner and deep empathy, but don’t invite you for coffee? Because they know a social relationship “pre-sale” can degrade their position as a trusted authority.
To get some help on creating a doctor-patient sales process that matches what your prospects really want from you, order your complimentary book and consultation below.