Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
You’ve just had a promising initial meeting with a high net worth prospect, the chemistry between the both of you felt right, and they agree to the next step in your process.
It’s incredibly validating and a wonderful feeling to experience zero resistance so early in your sales cycle.
But then something viewed as trivial (to them) — though not to you — happens: They don’t provide their statements and documents as discussed, which is required for you to show them your value. Your low-friction initial experience quickly becomes a high-friction, painful experience. You now have little choice, but to “follow up” with them to try and get them to provide you with what you need. Or you might choose to let them go, because chasing prospects isn’t your thing. Either way, it’s a lost sale, that could have been worth $10K - $20K per year in fees – over 10 years – $100K - $200K (assuming zero growth in AUM). You’re now denied the opportunity to strike while the iron’s hot. And as each day passes, they go “cold” on you. It’s frustrating to say the least. What’s happening here?
Through no fault of your own, you’ve been led to believe that selling is a multistep process, that the sale consists of moving your prospect through a series of momentum-building steps. Behind this belief is the assumption that it’s your knowledge and expertise, or the sophistication of your solution, that differentiates you and ultimately drives your prospect’s choice of you, rather than other advisors on their shopping list.
That assumption is false and needs to be confronted, so you don’t continue losing any more new client opportunities.
Why does that assumption now need to be challenged? Because your prospects are no longer willing to comply with your “let me prove myself to you” process. This clashes with everything you’ve probably been taught by the elders in your profession: “To make the sale, you must prove your value.”
What’s needed is a totally new mindset and strategy to address your new reality: The advisory industry has now been commoditized and most prospects are now in “shopping mode.” This is a new phenomenon that didn’t exist prior to the past few years. It's a shift that most advisors haven’t come to terms with -- knowing how to address it head-on.
Instead of requiring your prospects to follow a series of steps -- putting the sale completely in their hands -- what if you had no steps and therefore no sales cycle at all?
Ridiculous, impossible … you might be saying to yourself. This concept of no sales cycle may not have built your current book of business, but it’s going to be required to grow your business from here. To create this shift, you need to view the sale from a completely different perspective, not as a culmination of steps, but as a single moment.
Let’s take this a step further … The sale itself is no longer a process, it’s a decision where your prospect realizes in a split second that their level of trust in you equates to the value they assume you’ll provide. Your value is imbedded in how effectively you create trust with them; it’s not seen as a separate component, as currently taught by many of the industry “gurus.”
Moving your prospect through a “sales cycle” involving steps allows them to delay confronting that truth of having to address and take action on their own issues. There’s no urgency, no sense of facing their problem. They can put it off to tomorrow, or next week, or next month ... until eventually, other concerns take over and it loses priority altogether.
You only get one chance for them to trust you enough to hire you, and that needs to happen within the first 30 minutes of your initial meeting.
Selling value as the buy/no-buy decision point will always require you to educate your prospect first. That will only elongate your sales cycle, because it doesn’t create an emotional connection to you, it creates “I’d like to think about it.”
When you can master this approach (as long as you’re open-minded to challenging your own thinking), instead of continuing to accept the traditional value-selling approach as the norm, you’ll be able to create a willingness to make a decision with you, on the spot.
This is an art, not a process. It defies everything you’ve been taught over the years, but it’s the simplest and most elegant way to have your high net worth prospects trust you in order to be decisive with you. (No statements or documents needed to make the sale.)
To learn more about this contrarian and simple approach to selling, order your complimentary book and 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, “Trust In A Split Second” 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 “plug up the holes” lead generation consultation. Ari has been featured in CEO Magazine, Forbes, INC Magazine and the 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.
A message from Advisor Perspectives and VettaFi: To learn more about this and other topics, check out our podcasts.
Read more articles by Ari Galper
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
