PCE spent time today with a brilliant individual who had lost confidence in their customer approach as it had been questioned by an influential adviser in financial services who has succeeded using a very different style.
So we had in front of us someone who is:
- genuinely passionate about people
- connects with people about their values
- shares her dreams with clients and they reciprocate
- matches strategy solutions with delivering client wants
- lives breathes and sleeps her chosen profession : insurance advice
- professional and polished
So why on earth was she questioning herself now? Well, she's new in town and perhaps that approach does not work in the market she's found herself in.
In PCEs opinion nothing could be further from the truth.
Here before us was a perfect example of a new age adviser : an adviser that clients are desperately seeking.
This adviser has all the hallmarks of being highly referable simply by being who she is.
So here in a nutshell is what you need to do to create the differentiator that leads to genuine client engagement and referrals and genuine enjoyment of what you do. Follow your bliss!
1) be highly referable : that is you need to have a visual value document that illustrates what it is that you do and what your input into the process is for clients. In other words a value of advice document. For more details contact PCE direct www.positiveclientengagement.com. You also need to have a pitch about why you do what you do, who you do it for, what outcomes they have by working with you.
2) be able to demonstrate your process / method for what it is that you do : flow charts are brilliant here
3) engage your clients : lifestyle questions, ratings, profiling, wealth management indexes and scores all help
4) survey your clients and ask for feedback : how well do you know them and how well do they know you
5) educate your referral sources and educate yourself about them : and don't pay them for referrals : rather you through your exemplary service will make them look good purely due to the fact that they cared enough about their clients to refer them to you : and you can turn away referral sources who won't work with you in this way
6) be able to be reviewed : that is have a web presence and on that site show case you, your team, educate, inform, engage, share - but most of all be real
7) communicate communicate communicate : reassure your clients after they engage you, after you present your advice, after they sign up
Templates, examples are all things that great genuine people in this industry share.
PCE has bucket loads and are happy to engage you with these tools ( and a little tip ....most of them can be found in the 100 posts we've written.....so as much as we'd love to package them and sell them to you....with a bit of work from your end ....most of it is here already)
Enjoy!!!
Showing posts with label Sales Psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sales Psychology. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
The Five Step Client Interview Process for Insurance and Financial Planning
So you have dazzled your prospective client with the customer experience they have just encountered when first entering your business. Now they are sitting across from you and the fun begins. What do the best businesses do to ensure what happens next: is fun, is differentiated, is highly engaging (for the client and the adviser) leads to 100% conversion from prospect to client and leads to obtaining client referrals at a rate of above 70%?
Essentially there are 5 things that these businesses do. They do them in sequence and as a part of a deliberate well thought out process. Further they advise their prospective clients sometimes well before the meeting itself that there is a defined process that they are going to take them through. Further these businesses have developed collateral be it corporate brochures or web site applications or information that defines what this process is.
The brilliance in what they are doing is first and foremost is that it is simple, second by doing this they tap into a vast array of positive client psychology techniques, third, because it is a defined process it can be taught to emerging advisers and front of house staff, fourth it can be articulated clearly and succinctly and best of all despite the simplicity the fifth point to note is that it is rare that a business works through all 5 elements and consequently it is highly differentiated.
The 5 step client interview process:
1) Engage your clients in the data collection process
This does not mean running laboriously through the fact find or similar data collection forms. This means a highly engaged genuinely curious inquisition into the clients world. This is best done using a formulaic method. Ideally visual, participative and a means to get the client talking about themselves. It's "going deep" with a client.
Best techniques and practitioners utilise mind map diagrams that go further than just assets and liabilities but cover much broader areas of a clients world.
How do you get clients to share that much information? Show them your mind map or family tree but the best practitioners start by outlining what it is that they have incorporated for themselves and then ask the prospect to reciprocate.
2) Ask great questions and set a benchmark for where the client is now and what the possibilities may be.
These are questions about lifestyle and other aspects that are non financial. It's about where else they have obtained advice and what was their experience. It's about hard questions about how they would live their life if time was limited or if money was no object.
Great questions take practice and take time to construct. PCE has created 4 questionnaires available via PCE for those interested. (yes website still under construction)
Further PCE have a benchmark tool to assess where a client sits now and where they will be after your advice.
3) Describe your methodology, for insurance sales, for choosing the right levels of cover. There are plenty of applications that work through clients scenarios, even i pad applications provided by life risk houses, and worksheets that PCE have developed. What's important is to highlight that there is a method and that all your clients go through this process and have positive results as a consequence : this is where the power of story telling about your clients comes into its own. And story telling is a critical element of step 3.
4) Use visuals to explain your suggested course of action. Be it words on a slide. A diagram about how it all fits together, what you need to do here is imprint in a clients mind the solidity of your solution. Flow charts work very well and if you can for example explain how packing insurance options works and will work for the client sitting in front of you by a visual method what stays with the client is not so much the product names and intracacies but rather that you have constructed (or will construct) something cohesive, relevant and understandable for them.
5) Describe the next steps : what is the application process / when will your recommendations be ready / what is the underwriting process and in doing so define the outcome that they will have which should be in the clients words and aligned to the objective that they want to achieve or that you have identified is a necessary component of their well being. Further provide them with an engagement pack that reassures them that they have made the right decision in choosing you. This will certainly have relevance when natural buyers remorse sets in. By having managed the psychology of the sale process during the appointment you have mitigated the natural thought process of the client and reassured them that what they experienced in your waiting room was genuine and that in a very short space of time the feeling that you understand them and are genuinely concerned about their well being. The WHY you are in business is powerful here. Make sure you tell them at this point why it is you do what you do.
Essentially there are 5 things that these businesses do. They do them in sequence and as a part of a deliberate well thought out process. Further they advise their prospective clients sometimes well before the meeting itself that there is a defined process that they are going to take them through. Further these businesses have developed collateral be it corporate brochures or web site applications or information that defines what this process is.
The brilliance in what they are doing is first and foremost is that it is simple, second by doing this they tap into a vast array of positive client psychology techniques, third, because it is a defined process it can be taught to emerging advisers and front of house staff, fourth it can be articulated clearly and succinctly and best of all despite the simplicity the fifth point to note is that it is rare that a business works through all 5 elements and consequently it is highly differentiated.
The 5 step client interview process:
1) Engage your clients in the data collection process
This does not mean running laboriously through the fact find or similar data collection forms. This means a highly engaged genuinely curious inquisition into the clients world. This is best done using a formulaic method. Ideally visual, participative and a means to get the client talking about themselves. It's "going deep" with a client.
Best techniques and practitioners utilise mind map diagrams that go further than just assets and liabilities but cover much broader areas of a clients world.
How do you get clients to share that much information? Show them your mind map or family tree but the best practitioners start by outlining what it is that they have incorporated for themselves and then ask the prospect to reciprocate.
2) Ask great questions and set a benchmark for where the client is now and what the possibilities may be.
These are questions about lifestyle and other aspects that are non financial. It's about where else they have obtained advice and what was their experience. It's about hard questions about how they would live their life if time was limited or if money was no object.
Great questions take practice and take time to construct. PCE has created 4 questionnaires available via PCE for those interested. (yes website still under construction)
Further PCE have a benchmark tool to assess where a client sits now and where they will be after your advice.
3) Describe your methodology, for insurance sales, for choosing the right levels of cover. There are plenty of applications that work through clients scenarios, even i pad applications provided by life risk houses, and worksheets that PCE have developed. What's important is to highlight that there is a method and that all your clients go through this process and have positive results as a consequence : this is where the power of story telling about your clients comes into its own. And story telling is a critical element of step 3.
4) Use visuals to explain your suggested course of action. Be it words on a slide. A diagram about how it all fits together, what you need to do here is imprint in a clients mind the solidity of your solution. Flow charts work very well and if you can for example explain how packing insurance options works and will work for the client sitting in front of you by a visual method what stays with the client is not so much the product names and intracacies but rather that you have constructed (or will construct) something cohesive, relevant and understandable for them.
5) Describe the next steps : what is the application process / when will your recommendations be ready / what is the underwriting process and in doing so define the outcome that they will have which should be in the clients words and aligned to the objective that they want to achieve or that you have identified is a necessary component of their well being. Further provide them with an engagement pack that reassures them that they have made the right decision in choosing you. This will certainly have relevance when natural buyers remorse sets in. By having managed the psychology of the sale process during the appointment you have mitigated the natural thought process of the client and reassured them that what they experienced in your waiting room was genuine and that in a very short space of time the feeling that you understand them and are genuinely concerned about their well being. The WHY you are in business is powerful here. Make sure you tell them at this point why it is you do what you do.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Greater Success And Sales Using Emotional Intelligence to Engage Staff and Clients
Research studies have related team performance and team characteristics to effective leadership behaviours.
These behaviours encompass emotional intelligence.
And emotional intelligence becomes then a precursor for the demonstration of transformational leadership.
The conclusions drawn then are that facets of brain dominance and emotional intelligence may be potentially useful predictors of transformational leadership behaviours.
So what is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is described by Herbst and Maree and again by Schelecter and Strauss as a cognitive ability that involves the processing of emotion.
Other models define emotional intelligence in terms of behaviours and skills, including stress management skills (such as stress tolerance and impulse control), self-management skills (such as self-control, conscientiousness and adaptability), as well as social skills (such as conflict management, leadership and communication).
Overall critical in understanding how effective a persons level of emotional intelligence is, is the requirement to understand how an individual perceives, understands, utilises and manages emotions.
Leadership comprises both intellectual and emotional facets and both these facets need to be attended to during the training of managers in order to equip them with sufficient leadership skills.
Transformational leadership behaviour has been found to be positively related to team-leader emotional intelligence and both these are said to be positively related to trust (both in the team leader and in team members) and to team commitment.
It seems that leaders are important creators and sustainers of the processes and dynamics responsible for effective teams.
So in the financial services world - effective client engagement and client servicing comes from having exceptional teams, team members and team dynamics that support a culture of ownership and empathy with the client.
Further the team needs to be crystal clear on the outcome that the business is creating for the client.
Without a leader that can define in client terms the vision for the business with a meaning and relevance that staff can not only believe in but share the vision and help create it - then the business is only positioning itself for transactions with clients and not transformations of clients and the business itself.
Businesses that are not defining a vision, purpose and message for clients, sharing that vision with staff and building capbilities to deliver on the promise may do well in the short term in transactional wins.
But the businesses such as industry funds and the major financial institutions that are shaping messages to win hearts and minds of clients will be the businesses that truly capture the attention and the longevity of client loyalty.
The longer they are able to do this, then the longer they will be able to build their capbilities further to provide true family advice, true intergenerational offerings that deliver on providing the unspoken needs of clients.
These behaviours encompass emotional intelligence.
And emotional intelligence becomes then a precursor for the demonstration of transformational leadership.
The conclusions drawn then are that facets of brain dominance and emotional intelligence may be potentially useful predictors of transformational leadership behaviours.
So what is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is described by Herbst and Maree and again by Schelecter and Strauss as a cognitive ability that involves the processing of emotion.
Other models define emotional intelligence in terms of behaviours and skills, including stress management skills (such as stress tolerance and impulse control), self-management skills (such as self-control, conscientiousness and adaptability), as well as social skills (such as conflict management, leadership and communication).
Overall critical in understanding how effective a persons level of emotional intelligence is, is the requirement to understand how an individual perceives, understands, utilises and manages emotions.
Leadership comprises both intellectual and emotional facets and both these facets need to be attended to during the training of managers in order to equip them with sufficient leadership skills.
Transformational leadership behaviour has been found to be positively related to team-leader emotional intelligence and both these are said to be positively related to trust (both in the team leader and in team members) and to team commitment.
It seems that leaders are important creators and sustainers of the processes and dynamics responsible for effective teams.
So in the financial services world - effective client engagement and client servicing comes from having exceptional teams, team members and team dynamics that support a culture of ownership and empathy with the client.
Further the team needs to be crystal clear on the outcome that the business is creating for the client.
Without a leader that can define in client terms the vision for the business with a meaning and relevance that staff can not only believe in but share the vision and help create it - then the business is only positioning itself for transactions with clients and not transformations of clients and the business itself.
Businesses that are not defining a vision, purpose and message for clients, sharing that vision with staff and building capbilities to deliver on the promise may do well in the short term in transactional wins.
But the businesses such as industry funds and the major financial institutions that are shaping messages to win hearts and minds of clients will be the businesses that truly capture the attention and the longevity of client loyalty.
The longer they are able to do this, then the longer they will be able to build their capbilities further to provide true family advice, true intergenerational offerings that deliver on providing the unspoken needs of clients.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Low Emotional Intelligence = Low Client Advocacy
We are constantly surprised at how the good old sales skills of basic rapport have eluded some of the new entrants into the world of financial services incorporating financial planning and insurance strategy professionals.
What seems to generate ridicule and scepticism with this new breed is what any etiquette book or course will define as basic manners and what members of groups such as the Million Dollar Round Table will define as going deep with a client.
The old breed of salesperson formed deep engaging and long term relationships with clients. These relationships lasted years, they developed into friendships - lifelong and they were not only with the client but the clients family who invariably became clients as well.
We are floored when we hear advisers say "I don't think I need to do any of that client engagement stuff.....I just sell insurance".
Well sir, we shan't be buying it from you.
EI - the ability to know one's self and therefore the ability to place yourself in the other persons shoes, to control your emotions and manage theirs is a fundamental part of sales.
It's about connecting with values, beliefs and respecting them. It transforms relationships and creates advocacy.
This is about leadership.
We'll talk more about leadership and EI in coming posts and how it transforms teams, businesses and lives.
What seems to generate ridicule and scepticism with this new breed is what any etiquette book or course will define as basic manners and what members of groups such as the Million Dollar Round Table will define as going deep with a client.
The old breed of salesperson formed deep engaging and long term relationships with clients. These relationships lasted years, they developed into friendships - lifelong and they were not only with the client but the clients family who invariably became clients as well.
We are floored when we hear advisers say "I don't think I need to do any of that client engagement stuff.....I just sell insurance".
Well sir, we shan't be buying it from you.
EI - the ability to know one's self and therefore the ability to place yourself in the other persons shoes, to control your emotions and manage theirs is a fundamental part of sales.
It's about connecting with values, beliefs and respecting them. It transforms relationships and creates advocacy.
This is about leadership.
We'll talk more about leadership and EI in coming posts and how it transforms teams, businesses and lives.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Are you ready for the financial planning "value" conversation
One of the most transformational conversations we believe you can have with a client is the "so what" conversation.
In that very first interview, the first engagement with a client when they are about to lay down all their financial paperwork and you are tempted to start copying and documenting the information into your client fact find.....STOP.
Why is any of this important? Why does it matter?
And yes, you actually need to ask the client these questions.
What do you mean they ask, I'm here to consolidate some superannuation.....
Yes, but why does that matter. So what? How is that going to change your life and which aspects of your life will that impact on? And what are the positives and negatives that you can think of for a good outcome and a bad outcome respectively.
And in that dialogue that follows you have engaged the client on what matters most to them. What is important to them and why.
We have had the fortunate pleasure of hearing Simon Wallace from AXA speak over the last two days and he posed the question that "are advisers ready for the value conversation?" When they get the call from the client "you've charged me $x thousand for your service over the last year....I can't see the value"......are advisers ready for that conversation?
If they have engaged the client on what it is that truly matters, if they have sat back from the financial fact find, sat back from the strategy and simply asked...so what? And then they have had the dialogue with the client to deep dive into the answer. And if they have documented that in the advice document and refer back to it, remind them and further they have systemised and industrialised the positive engagement that resonates with the client .......then yes they'll be ready....but they won't have to be, because the clients will not be questioning the value in the first place.
In that very first interview, the first engagement with a client when they are about to lay down all their financial paperwork and you are tempted to start copying and documenting the information into your client fact find.....STOP.
Why is any of this important? Why does it matter?
And yes, you actually need to ask the client these questions.
What do you mean they ask, I'm here to consolidate some superannuation.....
Yes, but why does that matter. So what? How is that going to change your life and which aspects of your life will that impact on? And what are the positives and negatives that you can think of for a good outcome and a bad outcome respectively.
And in that dialogue that follows you have engaged the client on what matters most to them. What is important to them and why.
We have had the fortunate pleasure of hearing Simon Wallace from AXA speak over the last two days and he posed the question that "are advisers ready for the value conversation?" When they get the call from the client "you've charged me $x thousand for your service over the last year....I can't see the value"......are advisers ready for that conversation?
If they have engaged the client on what it is that truly matters, if they have sat back from the financial fact find, sat back from the strategy and simply asked...so what? And then they have had the dialogue with the client to deep dive into the answer. And if they have documented that in the advice document and refer back to it, remind them and further they have systemised and industrialised the positive engagement that resonates with the client .......then yes they'll be ready....but they won't have to be, because the clients will not be questioning the value in the first place.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Passion, Flow and Meaningfulness - Your Business Plan for 2012
We've taken a deviation from the latest series of topics (which have been focussed on sales pitches and presentations using the engagement techniques we've promoted).
The reason is that there are no techniques, no presentations, no silver bullet to sales, and the development of your small business in the professional insurance, financial planning and financial services space if you do not have the motivation and well-being suited to managing your work efforts and direction.
Richard Sisely, New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 35(2), 28-40, looked at the issue of motivation and the facilitation of autonomous motivation and its impact on well being.
Sisley wrote that intrinsic motivation had a high connection with relationships built on trust, empathy and stability.
Hang on a second. Isn't that what you are trying achieve as a professional financial planner and insurance adviser?
Tell me more!!
Sisely also then expanded and suggested that striving for self-determined goals (such as your plans for 2012 in your business) is connected with well-being and a determinant of a daily positive mood.
I'm liking the sound of this especially in the current economic climate!
Because this has implications for your business and in turn your clients.
First in your business this has implications for staff selection and for the assignment of roles/tasks in your business.
If you've read the E -Myth, or done a sticky note exercise where you look at all the tasks in your business and who does them.....and who should be doing them...then you understand where this is heading.
You need with these tasks as Sisely describes to assign a value identification with them. You need to take your staff on the journey of the validity of the task and the impact on the client.
This leads to better client engagement and outcomes.
What about you and your motivation and your passion?
Passion according to Sisley has a correlation with work satisfaction, well-being, and less stress.
Passion is critical. What in 2012 are you passionate about? Share it. Document it. Write it on a wall (or whiteboard). Share it with your clients. Make yourself accountable to your passion.
Flow, or the optimal experience (read effectiveness and efficiency) brings with it positive moods. You are far more likely to take on those tasks that you already have attached validity to and that are assigned correctly when your passion is driving you. It's that feeling of, well for want of a better word....flowing.
Meaningfulness. My favourite of Sisely's writings, meaningfulness depends on your own values and that also means having a high enough emotional intelligence quotient that you can respect others values. EI is that ability to not only be aware of your own feelings and emotions but to then use that information to guide your actions (Hur et al, 2011).
And that's where a transformational leader can create a service climate of exceptional quality.
It is a palpable feeling that you get when you walk into a business that delivers excellence in the customer experience.
Can you learn EI? Yes there are courses. Maybe you can improve. It is said it improves with age...so you can wait I guess.
But if EI houses the qualities of empathy, motivation, self-awareness, trust, emotional stability and these are all qualities of a transformational leader then there is one thing you need to do.
Get up, walk to the mirror and ask yourself a few questions.
- what are you passionate about?
- are you ready to share that passion?
- what are your values?
- do you live them?
- what are the values of the people around you?
- do you know - do you ask them?
- do you act in a way that is true to your values?
- what can you do daily to develop empathy, motivation, self-awareness, trust, emotional stability
But most of all - get passionate!
Back to the presentation pitches next time
The reason is that there are no techniques, no presentations, no silver bullet to sales, and the development of your small business in the professional insurance, financial planning and financial services space if you do not have the motivation and well-being suited to managing your work efforts and direction.
Richard Sisely, New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 35(2), 28-40, looked at the issue of motivation and the facilitation of autonomous motivation and its impact on well being.
Sisley wrote that intrinsic motivation had a high connection with relationships built on trust, empathy and stability.
Hang on a second. Isn't that what you are trying achieve as a professional financial planner and insurance adviser?
Tell me more!!
Sisely also then expanded and suggested that striving for self-determined goals (such as your plans for 2012 in your business) is connected with well-being and a determinant of a daily positive mood.
I'm liking the sound of this especially in the current economic climate!
Because this has implications for your business and in turn your clients.
First in your business this has implications for staff selection and for the assignment of roles/tasks in your business.
If you've read the E -Myth, or done a sticky note exercise where you look at all the tasks in your business and who does them.....and who should be doing them...then you understand where this is heading.
You need with these tasks as Sisely describes to assign a value identification with them. You need to take your staff on the journey of the validity of the task and the impact on the client.
This leads to better client engagement and outcomes.
What about you and your motivation and your passion?
Passion according to Sisley has a correlation with work satisfaction, well-being, and less stress.
Passion is critical. What in 2012 are you passionate about? Share it. Document it. Write it on a wall (or whiteboard). Share it with your clients. Make yourself accountable to your passion.
Flow, or the optimal experience (read effectiveness and efficiency) brings with it positive moods. You are far more likely to take on those tasks that you already have attached validity to and that are assigned correctly when your passion is driving you. It's that feeling of, well for want of a better word....flowing.
Meaningfulness. My favourite of Sisely's writings, meaningfulness depends on your own values and that also means having a high enough emotional intelligence quotient that you can respect others values. EI is that ability to not only be aware of your own feelings and emotions but to then use that information to guide your actions (Hur et al, 2011).
And that's where a transformational leader can create a service climate of exceptional quality.
It is a palpable feeling that you get when you walk into a business that delivers excellence in the customer experience.
Can you learn EI? Yes there are courses. Maybe you can improve. It is said it improves with age...so you can wait I guess.
But if EI houses the qualities of empathy, motivation, self-awareness, trust, emotional stability and these are all qualities of a transformational leader then there is one thing you need to do.
Get up, walk to the mirror and ask yourself a few questions.
- what are you passionate about?
- are you ready to share that passion?
- what are your values?
- do you live them?
- what are the values of the people around you?
- do you know - do you ask them?
- do you act in a way that is true to your values?
- what can you do daily to develop empathy, motivation, self-awareness, trust, emotional stability
But most of all - get passionate!
Back to the presentation pitches next time
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Closing Sales Questions That Matter - Managing Client Sales Psychology
It's time now to take your closing skills to the next level.
You can only use the techniques we'll talk about today in engaging your clients in the sales process to provide fantastic client outcomes if you have successfully and expertly identified:
- the areas of the clients financial and insurance solution that are lacking, and these have been clearly identified to the client and importantly to the referral source that ideally these clients have come from due to the success of the use of the wealth management index questions (as dicussed in our early posts)
AND
- you have engaged the client on a psycho-emotional level and discovered invaluable information about how they feel about specific areas of their lives, how they rate those aspects now and what they would like to see in the future around those specific areas
AND
- you have explored what success looks, feels, sounds like to the client and what are the regrets the client would have should time escape them and they do not fulfil their dreams
By doing this you would have positively engaged your clients in a manner and depth that few sales professionals in financial services do.
You would have clearly differentiated yourself from competitors and you would have developed an incredible level of rapport as a consequence of taking the time to understand your clients values and showing respect towards those values.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOUR PROSPECT / CLIENT WILL BUY FROM YOU.
You now need to make a great attempt at pre-closing.
After you have followed all the above you have earned the right to ask questions about the clients final decision making process.
The range of questions you need to ask will cover:
- the types of financial and insurance decisions they have made in the past
- how and from whom that advice was delivered
- the experience the recollect in the delivery of that advice - their perception
- what stage they are at in the buying process
- what stops them making decisions
- who do they involve in the buying process decision - which voices do they listen to including the ones in their head
- what they expect from you
All of this combined with what you have learnt, from using the techniques we've discussed previously, about how they process information, will enable you to make the pitch of your life and win the deal.
And if you don't view every client presentation of the solution that you have invested so much time, education, professionalism and emotion is as the pitch of your life......the client/prospective client will know that.
After all what you do on a daily basis is make the lives of your clients better ....that's worth getting passionate about.
Follow Positive Client Engagement over the next few months and we'll show you how to deliver the best pitches possible.
Till next time
You can only use the techniques we'll talk about today in engaging your clients in the sales process to provide fantastic client outcomes if you have successfully and expertly identified:
- the areas of the clients financial and insurance solution that are lacking, and these have been clearly identified to the client and importantly to the referral source that ideally these clients have come from due to the success of the use of the wealth management index questions (as dicussed in our early posts)
AND
- you have engaged the client on a psycho-emotional level and discovered invaluable information about how they feel about specific areas of their lives, how they rate those aspects now and what they would like to see in the future around those specific areas
AND
- you have explored what success looks, feels, sounds like to the client and what are the regrets the client would have should time escape them and they do not fulfil their dreams
By doing this you would have positively engaged your clients in a manner and depth that few sales professionals in financial services do.
You would have clearly differentiated yourself from competitors and you would have developed an incredible level of rapport as a consequence of taking the time to understand your clients values and showing respect towards those values.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOUR PROSPECT / CLIENT WILL BUY FROM YOU.
You now need to make a great attempt at pre-closing.
After you have followed all the above you have earned the right to ask questions about the clients final decision making process.
The range of questions you need to ask will cover:
- the types of financial and insurance decisions they have made in the past
- how and from whom that advice was delivered
- the experience the recollect in the delivery of that advice - their perception
- what stage they are at in the buying process
- what stops them making decisions
- who do they involve in the buying process decision - which voices do they listen to including the ones in their head
- what they expect from you
All of this combined with what you have learnt, from using the techniques we've discussed previously, about how they process information, will enable you to make the pitch of your life and win the deal.
And if you don't view every client presentation of the solution that you have invested so much time, education, professionalism and emotion is as the pitch of your life......the client/prospective client will know that.
After all what you do on a daily basis is make the lives of your clients better ....that's worth getting passionate about.
Follow Positive Client Engagement over the next few months and we'll show you how to deliver the best pitches possible.
Till next time
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