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Sales is one of those words that a lot of people want to avoid. I know because my advisor coaching clients always tell me they don't want to be “salesy” when we're talking about referrals. There’s a lot of conjured-up images of salespeople that give the word “sales” a bad rap. The truth is more people are in sales than ever will admit. If you are responsible for bringing in prospective clients, closing those prospects and servicing clients, you’re in sales.
The typical sales cycle includes various steps such as finding, connecting to, qualifying and meeting with the prospect, overcoming objections, closing the deal, nurturing the relationship and generating referrals. If one or more of these steps is weak for some reason, you will struggle with your business development efforts.
Let’s look at three easy ways to improve your sales cycle.
Know how you want to be referred and ask for it
“How do you want to be referred?” is a common question that I ask a coaching client. Most advisors fail to have a good response because they’ve never given it much thought. For example, my client, “Mike,” first responded by saying, “I would like it if I met a potential client in a restaurant.” But after some questioning and more thought, he realized that a restaurant atmosphere was not his ideal scenario. Restaurants are noisy with interruptions from the waiter and other people nearby who can hear your conversation. Instead, Mike decided that to meet a prospective client (typically a male CEO) he would prefer to meet him at his cigar bar. At the bar, they would be able to share a cigar for 45 minutes without being interrupted.
When you are referred to people in a manner that increases your likelihood of closing that prospect, you can dramatically improve your closing ratio. How you want to be referred is personal to you. But keeping that information to yourself does you no good. You need to share that information with your COIs and clients who may be trying to refer you. Ask people to refer you this way whenever possible and they most likely will unless there are other reasons that would impact the situation. If that happens, you can adjust to another manner of being referred that works for you and them as well.
Describe your ideal client in terms others can relate to
A lot of advisors can describe their ideal client. That gives you the information you need to hone your marketing efforts. If you want better referrals, it all starts with knowing exactly who you are best suited to serve.
Advisors tend to describe their ideal client in a way that means something to them but not much to anyone else. For example, an advisor might describe her ideal client as people with complex financial resources, high-net worth, willing to go deep, appreciates my advice, follows through on commitments and looks at the big picture. This might be okay for general marketing, but not so much for referral marketing.
For other people to refer you (thereby shortening your sales cycle), you need to describe your ideal client using traits that other people can recognize. For example, high achieving corporate women, minorities, 40s-60s, pharmaceutical executives, leading busy hectic lives, confident, optimistic decision makers, etc. When you create the image that other people can recognize, you’ll increase the chances that your referrals will be spot on. This will again increase your closing ratio since you’ll be spending more time with the right prospects.
Leverage third party credibility
Go back to the paragraph where I listed the typical steps of your sales cycle. Imagine if all these steps (find, connect, qualify and meet with the prospect, overcome objections) could be taken care of on your behalf. That would be a dream, right? Your focus could then turn to what’s left (close the deal, nurture the relationship and generate referrals).
Your dream can become a reality. Third-party credibility gives you the opportunity, but education is what really makes it happen. For example, “Joann” heard her sister, “Carol,” complaining about the high cost of college for her twin sons. Joann said to Carol, “If I could connect you to someone who could help, would you like to meet her?” Carol said “yes, of course!” Carol had a few questions for Joann and then Joann told her sister that Emily would be calling her. Joann reached out to Emily (her financial advisor) to give her Carol’s contact information. When Emily reached out to Carol, all she had to do was close the deal and nurture this new relationship. Emily was able to leverage the credibility that Joann has with Carol.
In this example, the only reason Joann was able to recognize the opportunity for Emily, knew what to say to her sister and how to answer her sister’s questions was because Emily had taken the time to educate her clients and prepare them for this kind of referral situation. When you do the same with your clients, you’ll leverage third party credibility and shorten your sales cycle considerably. You’ll increase your closing ratio, too.
Before you move on to your next task, make an appointment in your calendar with yourself to do the work to determine how you want to be referred and to clearly define your ideal client in a way that makes sense to other people. Consider what your clients need to know to refer you as well as Joann did for Emily. If you need help with these tasks or can’t imagine how you would share this information with your clients, let’s talk. Shortening your sales cycle will make sales more enjoyable, increase your revenue, allow you to serve more people with your talent and afford you the opportunity to do more on your bucket list.
Michelle R. Donovan owns Productivity Uncorked LLC where they help financial advisors to be more productive and be more profitable. You can schedule a 30 min conversation with her directly on her calendar. Their new online course The Profitable Productivity Plan for Female Financial Advisors is now available. Michelle’s books have become Wall Street Journal best-sellers, Amazon best-sellers and published in seven languages. Email Michelle at Michelle@ProductivityUncorked.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.