Gaining Instant Trust
Selling aggressively and fast using manipulative selling tactics has always been the moral for sales professionals, and for good reason. These traditional selling techniques have generated a substantial amount of commissions. At the same time, however, these tactics have also created deep levels of mistrust, driving public opinion of financial professionals to an all-time low.
The old school style of selling is more prevalent than one might think. Even highly respected companies like Standard Life, in June 2012, had to disavow a memo sent by financial advisors suggesting that they push products that generate higher commissions and fees. Almost every consumer has a story of how they were pressured or misled into buying something that wasn’t necessarily in their best interests. It’s a major reason we are seeing the changes brought on by the DOL today!
In my world, this selling approach is not only unethical, but ultimately self-defeating. In fact, my experiences lead me to an interesting conclusion: Today’s more sophisticated, educated and wiser consumer is demanding a different way of doing business. I discovered, especially with the leading edge of boomer consumers, that they don't want any part of old school selling. They don’t want somebody ‘closing’ them, probing them, warming them up, or digging to find their hot buttons. To be better, we have to figure out a different way to sell, a way that has no ‘selling’ in it, yet could make more sales. A method that builds instant trust. A non-selling, selling system. Many of what you read on this site will focus on exactly that approach.
In client meetings, it is so important to place the majority of the emphasis on how a change in finances can improve the client’s quality of life rather than placing it on growth and performance numbers or product features and benefits.
Most financial professionals think they're in the business of helping people with money, but that's really not what the client is there for. A better sales approach involves checking on your clients' reactions to different investment options. When you suggest a new strategy, you should be wondering, “Will using this product or employing that strategy improve your life?” At the end of the day, you can tell your clients that if what you suggest doesn’t improve their quality of life, then they shouldn’t do it and that they are ok to move on to something else! Where have they ever heard something like this??
As advisors, we want to be keenly aware of each client’s emotions because I believe that all sales are the result of the clients’ inner drive to relieve themselves of painful emotions or to satisfy emotions yet unfulfilled. For example, a big part of providing greater quality of life is ensuring that clients feel secure, relieving their fears about their money and their future. Clients are absolutely petrified of the economy, of politics, of institutions, and of the world economy affecting us. Bottom line, they want that fear to go away. If your strategies relieve that fear, they will buy, and they will do so without you ever having to manipulate them into some artificial closing situation.
-Trent Martin