Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Click here to watch a video and learn more about Evidence Based Advisor Marketing
“I already do that.”
That’s the common refrain from advisors when I explain The Solin Process℠. But, when I probe further, I find it’s never true.
Asking questions
A critical component of The Solin Process℠ is asking questions. When advisors tell me they ask questions, I ask them to provide examples. Here are some common ones:
What are your retirement goals?
What keeps you up a night?
What has your prior investment experience been like?
While these are questions, they’re not consistent with The Solin Process℠. They are intended to steer the conversation. The subtext is that the advisor is in charge of the meeting and will set the agenda.
The Solin Process℠ achieves the opposite goal. It puts the prospect in charge of the agenda, and lets the conversation go wherever the prospect wants to take it. The advisor makes no effort to do anything other than to get to know and understand the prospect better, by asking soft, open-ended questions, and appropriate follow-ups, like:
Tell me about yourself.
That’s interesting, tell me more about that.
What was that experience like?
(To a couple) How did you meet?
Advisors who implement The Solin Process℠ correctly shift their focus from being interesting to being interested. They demonstrate a profound, authentic and sincere interest in the other person, and resist the temptation to talk, unless they are asked a question. If that occurs, they answer briefly and then ask this question:
Did I answer your question or would you like more detail?
Don’t persuade
A second critical component of The Solin Process℠ is not persuading. This is very difficult given the intense competition advisors face from their peers.
Advisors frequently ask how they can respond to the following questions, without violating my “don’t persuade” rule:
How do you justify your fees?
What makes you different?
Compare these suggested responses to ones you typically provide.
Q. How do you justify your fees?
A. I can tell you what services we provide and the value we seek to add, but only you can decide what our fees are worth your situation.
Q. What makes you different?
A. Can you elaborate on what comparison you are seeking? We may or may not be very different from advisors and financial planners who use the same investment philosophy. We are likely to be quite different from those who engage in practices such as market timing or stock picking.
Marketing Services For Evidence-Based Advisors...and a New Book!
We offer consulting services on how to convert more prospects into clients through Solin Consulting, a division of Solin Strategic, LLC. Our evidence-based persuasion strategies have significantly increased conversion rates for our coaching clients. I'm available to speak at events. I also provide individualized coaching using videoconferencing.
We offer a full range of digital marketing services exclusively to evidence-based advisors through Evidence Based Advisor Marketing, LLC . These services include: web and content creation and the creation of innovative videos. You can see websites we have designed, content we have drafted and videos we have produced here.
Click here to request a free, no obligation website evaluation.
I'm working on a new self-help book for the general public. It's called:
Ask
Be Liked. Be Loved. Be Better
Ask will be published in early 2020. We'll be rolling out programs for advisors who want to offer this game-changing book to their clients as a way to demonstrate value. For more information, click here. You can sign up for updates at the link (scroll down).
For more information, please contact:
Dan Solin
[email protected]
(239) 949-1606
Schedule a call with Dan here
If the prospect provides clarification indicating they want to know how you are different from another firm offering similar investment and financial planning services, this would be your response:
A. I can’t differentiate ourselves from that firm because I don’t know enough about them. Would it be helpful if I answered your questions about what we do, why we do it and what we charge, and then you can compare us to other firms?
In these examples, note the emphasis on asking questions, without seeming to evade a response, and shifting the burden from the advisor to the prospect. There’s no effort to persuade. You are providing information so the prospect is empowered to make a decision.
It’s a very counter-intuitive – but powerful and respectful – way to convert a prospect into a client.
Dan Solin is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. His sales coaching practice includes helping advisors convert prospects into clients and generating leads through videos and other elements of marketing. Dan is not affiliated with any advisory firm.
Get Dan's investing insights by signing up for his free, weekly newsletter here.
Subscribe to Dan’s YouTube investing channel here.
To receive updates about Dan’s new self-help book, Ask: Be Liked. Be Loved. Be Better, click here.
Read more articles by Dan Solin
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
