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Most advisors think of themselves as being good listeners.
They begin their initial meetings with standard questions, like, “What brought you in today? What are your goals? Where do you see yourself in five years?” – making sure to let their prospect to do all the talking.
The meeting often ends on a friendly note and advisors take that as an indication of their prospect’s interest. After all, they said nothing that could have been perceived as pushy or offensive. Now they get to work their magic and with a bit of time their prospect should come to see the value in hiring them.
The problem is, this usually doesn't happen.
The fragile rapport advisors carefully cultivate – over weeks of meetings and free financial planning behind the scenes – comes undone in a second by their prospect wanting to “think about it” or needing to check with their spouse.
You did everything by the book. Your prospect talked and you listened.
But listening alone is not enough to build trust.
Trust in a sales context is more than just a good meeting or good rapport. Typically, an advisor will listen and listen, until their prospect finishes talking. Then they’ll proceed to talk about a process to start solving their problems. But this process of listening does not build the kind of deep trust that leads to the sale.
Trust is a commitment.
It’s the moment when your prospect says to themselves, “He gets me... I’m in. Let’s do this”.
The great misunderstanding about trust is that simply listening to your prospect doesn't help them come to that conclusion.
You see, your prospect only has a surface level understanding of their situation. In fact, chances are there’s more under the surface that they’re unaware of, which is why they’re in that situation in the first place.
Rather than simply listening and proceeding with your advisory process as usual, you need a trust-building process within the sales conversation itself that guides your prospect through the “iceberg” of their situation and helps them see under the surface what they couldn’t see on their own. After all, that’s at the heart of what made them feel they needed to talk to you in the first place.
Help them to see the “blind spots” of their situation. This is the only way they’ll realize that you understand their situation more than they do, and that they need to trust you to solve it.
If you fail to do this, then they’ll just go and find another advisor.
Once you understand how the sale is determined by this deep trust connection alone, it’s easier to see how other typical advisory sales activities you’re doing after your initial meeting might be missing the target.
With a problem-centric process inside your sales conversation that is based on building deep trust and not just rapport, you can get your prospect’s commitment to hire you in much less time and with much greater predictability.
All that’s required is for you to shift your thinking around the idea of what trust really means, from their perspective, not yours. It’s not just rapport, it’s a commitment to hire you.
To learn more about designing a sales process to take your prospects down the iceberg of their situation and build deep trust quickly, 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.
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