When financial
advisors look at their peers, it’s common for them to wonder why there can be
such a large success gap between advisors who appear to have comparable skill
levels. If you’ve wondered about this issue as well, the answer generally comes
down to how good a financial advisor is at selling themselves. Because advisors
all offer services that clients need, the big differentiator comes down to how
individual advisors present themselves to potential clients.
If
you’re at a point in your own business where you’re ready to move to the next
level, here are five things you can do to increase the size of client sales
that you’re able to close:
Explicitly
Target Higher Level Clients
Many
advisors get stuck in a rut of focusing on less than ideal clients because they
know they can easily close them. While moving up the value chain may involve
some rejection, your business will never get to where you want without taking
this leap.
Focus
on Selling Solutions
Although
financial advisors offer services, the most successful ones are those who
position what they do as solutions. While many people may not care about the
technical details of managing a stock portfolio, they do care about knowing
that their kids will be able to afford college or that they’ll be able to live
comfortably during retirement.
Emphasize
Objectives and Challenges
This
is related to the previous point. By framing your offerings in a way that
emphasizes what someone is trying to achieve and the challenges that need to be
overcome in order to accomplish that objective, you can put your pitch into a
language that’s really going to resonate.
Know
How to Determine Budgets
You
don’t want to simply charge more for what you do just because a specific client
can afford it. However, what you do want to do for clients with a higher net
worth is tailor solutions that will provide them with even more value. In
return for this increased value, they’ll be happy to pay a higher price for
your offering. But before you go down that road, you need to spend some time
looking at your qualification process and ensuring you can correctly identify
your most promising client leads.
Offer
Three Options
When
you give a client a proposal, it shouldn’t be limited to just one option.
Instead, it should have three options. In most cases, the second option will be
the one the prospect is most likely to take. The power of having three options
together is it anchors the price and really drives home the value of what that
client is going to receive from you.
Although
it does take time and effort to implement the strategies we covered, doing so
is one of the best investments you can make in the success of your business.