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Marketing experts will tell you that an email strategy is essential for driving new client acquisition.
The assumption is that new client opportunities reside in your unconverted prospects, and that if you “drip” them over time with email, they’ll re-engage with you at some point down the road.
This idea comes from the pre-internet days of info-marketing, where providing free information was an effective selling technique.
But times have changed.
Emails used to be read because information was valued.
Now emails are ignored and even seen as a nuisance, because free information is everywhere, and it’s no longer trusted.
Besides, the idea that the sale is something that you build up to over time – as opposed to being a breakthrough moment that you need to reach with the prospect – is flawed.
Unless the prospect agrees to engage you as a client in the initial meeting, then the chances of them engaging you at all are slim to none.
They’re too busy receiving incoming emails from everyone else trying to reach them. Don’t be where everyone else is – the inbox is the last place you want to be.
The emotional breakthrough that the prospect needs to experience with you is agreeing that their issues are grave and serious enough to justify hiring you to solve them.
Free information drip-fed via email is simply not enough to build that agreement.
The advisory sale must be made directly, one-on-one with you – not remotely over a series of emails – and the initial meeting is your only shot to do it.
I call it the “one-call sale.”
The one-call sale is a skill that any open-minded advisor can learn.
Once you learn it, you’ll be in a completely different category compared to other advisors who are still using information-based modalities of selling.
Selling has become a lost art.
Our prospects rejected the manipulative, street-level sales tactics of the past and adopted a philosophy of educating the prospect instead.
But this created a culture of trying to prove your value to your prospects, which ironically lowered their perception of you as an authority they should trust.
This is the state of selling now and why so many advisors are struggling with it.
With the one-call sale approach, you’ll create trust naturally, without manipulation or tactics, and in a way that preserves your authority and leverage as an expert.
I liken it to how a doctor diagnoses a patient in an empathetic but no-nonsense way, and the patient trusts and complies with the doctor’s recommendations as a matter of course.
There’s no pressure, but there’s also no long education-based process, conducted remotely post-diagnosis.
There’s a straight line of sight from initial diagnosis to prescription to treatment.
It works well for the doctor and the patient.
To learn more about the one call sale, order your complimentary book and schedule your free one-on-one consultation below.
Ari Galper is the world’s number one authority on trust-based selling and is the most sought-after high-net worth/lead generation expert for financial advisors. His newest book, “Trusted Authority” has become an instant best-seller among financial advisors worldwide – you can get a free copy of Ari’s book here and, when you click the “YES” button in the order form, you’ll also receive a complimentary “get new clients” lead generation consultation. Ari has been featured in CEO Magazine, Forbes, INC Magazine and the Australian Financial Review. He is considered a contrarian in the financial services industry and in his book, everything you learned about selling will be turned upside down. No more chasing, no pressure, no closing.
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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
