PCE has often written about how to enhance the buying process using positive psychology that taps into human motivation.
The ability to do this is reliant on your understanding of what drives human behaviour and in particular why it is that people connect with you and your offering.
PCE and others have written about the work of Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria whose theory on human behaviour can be adapted to the sales process in financial planning and especially insurance sales.
As a recap the theory suggests that humans have 4 insatiable drives being the drive ti acquire, to bond, to learn and to defend.
In financial planning and insurance solutions we have at our core a desire to help our clients and in fact meet these needs.
Success therefore should you subscribe to the theory is dependent on having a deep understanding of what it is that your clients truly identify with as needs and wants.
In the new world of financial planning and a future insurance world what people will buy from you is dependent on how deeply they feel that they need your services or your offer or your solutions when balanced against these drivers.
In fact the greater your ability to explore these motivational forces with your clients ergo the greater your success at positioning your solutions.
This then transcends the need for niche marketing or specialisation. Inter generational advice techniques become irrelevant along with the marketing materials to tap into and converse with multi generations.
Rather these needs and drives work across demographics of age, culture, sub culture and social class.
Skilled practitioners using these drives can predict human behaviour and hence anticipate needs into the future making sure that they are always one step ahead of their competitors.
In a new world of financial services such foresight is invaluable.
Most of all utilising and designing your business to tap into these drives does one very important thing. It allows you to connect and engage with your clients on a deeply emotional level. Not only a differentiator this emotional connection is incredibly important in decision making. Despite the temperament of the client the emotional feedback internally provided to the client becomes positive buying signals that drive rational decision making. Whether someone just feels right doing business with you or whether they feel it is a sound rationale decision the truth of the matter is they will buy from you because you have emotionally connected with them.
The way you've done it is by leading them to the path to either acquire, bond, learn or defend or better still......all of the four.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Doing the Placido Domingo - The things you can't take back : why first impressions count
I played chess with my son tonight. He's just learning so I let him get away with things. He makes a move, I say "really....you sure about that....take a moment...look around ...what might happen?". He stops, he thinks, he sees the potential outcomes and he says "oh I take it back, I take it back". And of course I let him. He rethinks and makes another, better move.
If only life was like that. If we got to see and live out the consequences of our actions but then be able to press the rewind button and "take it back" would we make better decisions? Would our learning be augmented?
Translating this into the world of financial services, our clients experience us making that first move. That move stays with them and it is something that we can't take back.
Sometimes that first move takes placed before we have even met our clients. The first move is they way the receptionist answered the phone when they first made their inquiry.
The first move is the look of our website, the information pack that arrives in the mail, the look of the carpark, the front door, the waiting area, the smile at the front desk, the coffee, the ornaments, the client testimonial book, the photos, the awards, the uniform, the music playing or not, the channel on the TV, the magazines in the stand, the flowers be they artificial or real.
It's the first handshake, the first words we utter.
What PCE are talking about here is because you do not get a second chance at a first impression then preparation matters. When Paul Keating in his address to the Canberra press gallery on 7 December 1990, talked about doing the Placido Domingo, his message was widely misconstrued and misquoted.
In paying tribute to Chris Higgins, Prime Minister Keating spoke about those people who when really serious about what it is that they are doing then they truly are a participant.
And to be a participant you need to master what it is that you do and be a performer. Each first impression is that opportunity to be on stage and shine knowing that because you can't "take it back" that you don't get second chances that you get up on stage prepared, polished, with experience with practice and with belief.
It is PCE's belief that there are unfortunately in this industry and many other service industries a few too many as Mr Keating pointed out "voyeurs".
For financial services this extends from financial planners, insurance agents, BDMs, executives and underwriters.
People who daily go through the motions. Who never replay back the moves, the decisions they have made, the way they have engaged with people and realise that they could have done it better and that yes indeed there is room for growth and improvement.
These people damage relationships irreparably and damage brands and the most important brand they damage is their own.
Go back to that chess board, have a look at the moves you've made. Reset the board. Try again, think ahead, practice, practice excellence, look at things from another's perspective and change those first moves into ones that are lasting positive impressions that build brands, build relationships and in this industry change lives.
If only life was like that. If we got to see and live out the consequences of our actions but then be able to press the rewind button and "take it back" would we make better decisions? Would our learning be augmented?
Translating this into the world of financial services, our clients experience us making that first move. That move stays with them and it is something that we can't take back.
Sometimes that first move takes placed before we have even met our clients. The first move is they way the receptionist answered the phone when they first made their inquiry.
The first move is the look of our website, the information pack that arrives in the mail, the look of the carpark, the front door, the waiting area, the smile at the front desk, the coffee, the ornaments, the client testimonial book, the photos, the awards, the uniform, the music playing or not, the channel on the TV, the magazines in the stand, the flowers be they artificial or real.
It's the first handshake, the first words we utter.
What PCE are talking about here is because you do not get a second chance at a first impression then preparation matters. When Paul Keating in his address to the Canberra press gallery on 7 December 1990, talked about doing the Placido Domingo, his message was widely misconstrued and misquoted.
In paying tribute to Chris Higgins, Prime Minister Keating spoke about those people who when really serious about what it is that they are doing then they truly are a participant.
And to be a participant you need to master what it is that you do and be a performer. Each first impression is that opportunity to be on stage and shine knowing that because you can't "take it back" that you don't get second chances that you get up on stage prepared, polished, with experience with practice and with belief.
It is PCE's belief that there are unfortunately in this industry and many other service industries a few too many as Mr Keating pointed out "voyeurs".
For financial services this extends from financial planners, insurance agents, BDMs, executives and underwriters.
People who daily go through the motions. Who never replay back the moves, the decisions they have made, the way they have engaged with people and realise that they could have done it better and that yes indeed there is room for growth and improvement.
These people damage relationships irreparably and damage brands and the most important brand they damage is their own.
Go back to that chess board, have a look at the moves you've made. Reset the board. Try again, think ahead, practice, practice excellence, look at things from another's perspective and change those first moves into ones that are lasting positive impressions that build brands, build relationships and in this industry change lives.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Creating creative sales strategies
Fun Fridays! The day when your prep/grade one children get to run a muck dressing up and acting and having free run of the facilties and using every aspect of energy enthusiasm and spirit possible.
The art of learning in this environment delivers an experience that allows self discovery and importantly the ability to look at things from another persons point of view. Play acting or taking a part requiring one to step out of themselves comes easily to these children but eludes us adults restricted by the conventions of our workplace compared to the uninhibited playground of Fun Friday.
So the solution : create the fun Friday environment in your workplace.
First step in this is to recognise the strengths of the individual's in your team and then importantly recognise and document the valid learning experience required by each team member.
The exercises you need to then employ draw on De Bono and Gardener's multiple intelligences. This is where you need help and a professional to execute the programme.
The first step though starts with you and your willingness to take yourself and your team on a journey of discovery and have fun doing so. What you will find is new skills and a new way of looking at things with your clients your staff you and your business the beneficiaries as you further differentiate your client engagement.
The art of learning in this environment delivers an experience that allows self discovery and importantly the ability to look at things from another persons point of view. Play acting or taking a part requiring one to step out of themselves comes easily to these children but eludes us adults restricted by the conventions of our workplace compared to the uninhibited playground of Fun Friday.
So the solution : create the fun Friday environment in your workplace.
First step in this is to recognise the strengths of the individual's in your team and then importantly recognise and document the valid learning experience required by each team member.
The exercises you need to then employ draw on De Bono and Gardener's multiple intelligences. This is where you need help and a professional to execute the programme.
The first step though starts with you and your willingness to take yourself and your team on a journey of discovery and have fun doing so. What you will find is new skills and a new way of looking at things with your clients your staff you and your business the beneficiaries as you further differentiate your client engagement.
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Use the Whiteboard - Your Next Sales Presentation
So it's your first meeting with a new client. You need to get to the core of their very being - their dreams, hopes and aspirations and connect with them in a way that is memorable and that resonates with them to such a degree that they think when considering the options and perhaps weighing your services up against a competitors that it is you who understands them better that any prospective or current adviser.
How do you do that?
Is it the quality of the brochures you gave them? The luxuriousness of the couch in the waiting room. The way they were greeted by your front of house staff? The magazines in reception or perhaps it was your pure brilliance in the way you desicribed the multi-layered strategy you would put into place for them?
The reality is that is would and should be expected to be none of the above.
Now don't get us wrong you need a lot of the above to even be considered.
A professional air and the impression that you actually have a business that is successful and can afford a decent coffee machine not to mention decent staff are critical factors.
Your capabilities and a demonstration that you have catered for and helped clients exactly like them are non-negotiables.
The way you demonstrate that is therefore key.
So how do you communicate that to clients have different ways of receiving, perceiving and then relaying information?
By mapping out thought processes and strategy using a combination of words, pictures, and diagrams you are able to cater for different learning styles and create a live visual and text diagram of your prospective (or review) clients world.
Better still once you develop a template for yourself - share it with your clients as the example of what you will work through with them together......that's right....give them the pen and get them involved - drawing and COLLABORATING in your process.
Whose appointment will they remember?....yours or the adviser who asked them questions directly from a fact find document OR the adviser who seemed to have no process at all......not to mention instant coffee?
How do you do that?
Is it the quality of the brochures you gave them? The luxuriousness of the couch in the waiting room. The way they were greeted by your front of house staff? The magazines in reception or perhaps it was your pure brilliance in the way you desicribed the multi-layered strategy you would put into place for them?
The reality is that is would and should be expected to be none of the above.
Now don't get us wrong you need a lot of the above to even be considered.
A professional air and the impression that you actually have a business that is successful and can afford a decent coffee machine not to mention decent staff are critical factors.
Your capabilities and a demonstration that you have catered for and helped clients exactly like them are non-negotiables.
The way you demonstrate that is therefore key.
So how do you communicate that to clients have different ways of receiving, perceiving and then relaying information?
By mapping out thought processes and strategy using a combination of words, pictures, and diagrams you are able to cater for different learning styles and create a live visual and text diagram of your prospective (or review) clients world.
Better still once you develop a template for yourself - share it with your clients as the example of what you will work through with them together......that's right....give them the pen and get them involved - drawing and COLLABORATING in your process.
Whose appointment will they remember?....yours or the adviser who asked them questions directly from a fact find document OR the adviser who seemed to have no process at all......not to mention instant coffee?
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Creative Sales Engagement Through Disciplined Process
Is it possible to have a disciplined sales methodology and process and at the same time provide an environment of innovation and creativity.
At PCE we think the two go hand in hand.
By providing the boundaries and automation of process staff are empowered by understanding how the core of their required KPI's can be built into daily, weekly and monthly process - some of which can be automated, the balance of which becomes habit.
From there staff, you and your sales professionals, have the freedom, flexibility, well defined boundaries, empowerment and most importantly the time to be innovative.
So how do you create a process that leads to freedom and flexibility?
At PCE we believe it's all about communication and transparency and leadership by example.
A mechanism to communicate with clarity and transparency is a good old fashioned communication board.
Now let's get this straight - having worked in the boiler room environments of high performance and cut throat sales - we are not talking about a leader board that is fear driven.
Rather we are talking about a pulse board. A snapshot of the mood of your office, of the development plans for individuals. Yes it's also about results and activity that people have achieved and have committed to. This is an important component but it is also about what you as a leader of your sales team have delivered in removing hurdles for outperformance and what incremental improvements have been made in the previous week for example.
It's a mechanism for communicating success and for looking at what conversations and techniques the team will try in the next period (say for example over the next fortnight) in their sales conversations.
So very quickly this type of communication becomes not only a performance tracker but a performance monitor and a guide and mechanism to share ideas.
Most importantly having leaped over hurdles it allows for time out for ideas development. By allocating 20% of sales team time for them to innovate - after of course this type of board has been in operation for a period that you are comfortable that the right behaviours have been adopted - you give through a process the right and autonomy to be creative.
Creativity through disciplined process.
At PCE we think the two go hand in hand.
By providing the boundaries and automation of process staff are empowered by understanding how the core of their required KPI's can be built into daily, weekly and monthly process - some of which can be automated, the balance of which becomes habit.
From there staff, you and your sales professionals, have the freedom, flexibility, well defined boundaries, empowerment and most importantly the time to be innovative.
So how do you create a process that leads to freedom and flexibility?
At PCE we believe it's all about communication and transparency and leadership by example.
A mechanism to communicate with clarity and transparency is a good old fashioned communication board.
Now let's get this straight - having worked in the boiler room environments of high performance and cut throat sales - we are not talking about a leader board that is fear driven.
Rather we are talking about a pulse board. A snapshot of the mood of your office, of the development plans for individuals. Yes it's also about results and activity that people have achieved and have committed to. This is an important component but it is also about what you as a leader of your sales team have delivered in removing hurdles for outperformance and what incremental improvements have been made in the previous week for example.
It's a mechanism for communicating success and for looking at what conversations and techniques the team will try in the next period (say for example over the next fortnight) in their sales conversations.
So very quickly this type of communication becomes not only a performance tracker but a performance monitor and a guide and mechanism to share ideas.
Most importantly having leaped over hurdles it allows for time out for ideas development. By allocating 20% of sales team time for them to innovate - after of course this type of board has been in operation for a period that you are comfortable that the right behaviours have been adopted - you give through a process the right and autonomy to be creative.
Creativity through disciplined process.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Leading the client relationship stakes
Watching Luke Nolan ease Black Caviar up and almost get pipped at the post got us thinking at PCE whether no matter how hard you've gone early is it right to ease up before the line in the interests of taking care of the workhorse(s) under you?
We think yes, a thousand times YES.
To become a business of choice that your clients seek out relies on your ability to develop your capabilities to transform the lives and perhaps the businesses of your clients.
To do that you need to have an unwaivering focus on relationships and continuous improvement schedules for yourself and the people in your team.
The differentiatior in business success is relationships.
Your ability to attract, engage and retain the right relationships is the ticket to the races where you compete to practically apply your product knowledge and strategy skills in a meaningful way articulating how these skills relate to a clients world NOT how they show relate to yours.
This way to play allows your business to be incredibly co-herent and in so doing positions you and your people for success. You are clear in your message about how you add value to your clients and your staff understand exactly how your business does that.
Whatever you decide your way to play is then requires you to develop the capabilities that deliver those promises.
The skills you build are paramount but nothing beats attitude, energy and follow up.
To foster an environment that thrives with the passion of this approach you need to foster story telling and sharing at every possibility with your team. These stories become part of your culture and become the "WHY" we do the things we do.
Further looking to develop your teams and individuals within the team so they can be subject matter experts creates the daily positive momentum that drives them towards that finish line in the relationship stakes.
But you can do none of this without process:
- a system for balancing and harnessing the energy of your team and for replenishment
- accountability for activity
- transparency in team actions including the leader
- a daily assessment of team dynamics
- visual reminders of the promises made by all team members
- the fostering of a high EI culture where mood assessment is an individual and team doctrine
- and a focus on the 1 percenters - all the simple things that you'd like to do for clients but never get the time........these are the differences between winning and losing so build a process and automate these small wins and watch the dramatically positive effect on staff moral and client WOW factor
So is is right to ease up before the finish line in one race to make sure that your team and you can sustain repeated excellence over time.
The way to do this is via individual development and the accentuation of positive re-inforcement and extrinsic motivation.
Critically it's about working within peoples daily and weekly rythyms and their lifestyle outside of work.
It is no surprise that the 5 BRW best places to work offered flexibilty and autonomy BUT matched with clear goals, clear reward systems and intermittent random acknowledgement to drive the positive emotions of staff towards the work itself and the clear defined goal oriented outcomes.
We think yes, a thousand times YES.
To become a business of choice that your clients seek out relies on your ability to develop your capabilities to transform the lives and perhaps the businesses of your clients.
To do that you need to have an unwaivering focus on relationships and continuous improvement schedules for yourself and the people in your team.
The differentiatior in business success is relationships.
Your ability to attract, engage and retain the right relationships is the ticket to the races where you compete to practically apply your product knowledge and strategy skills in a meaningful way articulating how these skills relate to a clients world NOT how they show relate to yours.
This way to play allows your business to be incredibly co-herent and in so doing positions you and your people for success. You are clear in your message about how you add value to your clients and your staff understand exactly how your business does that.
Whatever you decide your way to play is then requires you to develop the capabilities that deliver those promises.
The skills you build are paramount but nothing beats attitude, energy and follow up.
To foster an environment that thrives with the passion of this approach you need to foster story telling and sharing at every possibility with your team. These stories become part of your culture and become the "WHY" we do the things we do.
Further looking to develop your teams and individuals within the team so they can be subject matter experts creates the daily positive momentum that drives them towards that finish line in the relationship stakes.
But you can do none of this without process:
- a system for balancing and harnessing the energy of your team and for replenishment
- accountability for activity
- transparency in team actions including the leader
- a daily assessment of team dynamics
- visual reminders of the promises made by all team members
- the fostering of a high EI culture where mood assessment is an individual and team doctrine
- and a focus on the 1 percenters - all the simple things that you'd like to do for clients but never get the time........these are the differences between winning and losing so build a process and automate these small wins and watch the dramatically positive effect on staff moral and client WOW factor
So is is right to ease up before the finish line in one race to make sure that your team and you can sustain repeated excellence over time.
The way to do this is via individual development and the accentuation of positive re-inforcement and extrinsic motivation.
Critically it's about working within peoples daily and weekly rythyms and their lifestyle outside of work.
It is no surprise that the 5 BRW best places to work offered flexibilty and autonomy BUT matched with clear goals, clear reward systems and intermittent random acknowledgement to drive the positive emotions of staff towards the work itself and the clear defined goal oriented outcomes.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Why would a client pay a premium for something that isn't there? Reassuring your clients when buying your service
Marketing guides such as the work of Solomon et al (2011) remind us that services, such as the provision of financial planning services, have the characteristics of intangibility, inseparability and variability.
These characteristics create problems for the financial planning business wanting to engage clients and position as the solution of choice as well as charge a fee commensurate with the degree of work involved and the expertise of the service provider.
Why would a client pay a premium for something that isn't there?
How can a client assess that you have done a good job, when the outcome of your work (a plan for retirement in 20 years, a full insurance plan that is effected on the future passing of the sole breadwinner) is either a) many years into an ever increasingly uncertain future or b) something they really don't want to ever contemplate happening?!
The intangibility of the service that a financial planner provides means that customers can not see, touch, experience the "product" as they could with for example with a new flat screen TV. Further the inseparability of your service means that clients can not experience your services without being involved in the process which means they need to engage with you and your staff. The "moments of truth" in the delivery of financial planning services are a daily occurance.
And after all of that no matter your best intentions or the fact that you may be dealing with the same client and say performing the same task such as the annual review of their insurance or investment portfolio the performance of you and your staff will vary.
What can you do about this to reassure your clients but also importantly be even more different (than you already are if you have been following the tips from PCE) from your competitors in the provision of your financial planning services?
1) Dealing with the intangibility of insurance and financial planning.
Solution: Make it tangible.
You need to re-assure your clients about the service that you are about to provide. Visually, this starts with the look of your offices. How is it furnished? Decorations. Art-work. What's the quality of your logo, business cards, letterheads, corporate brochures? (oh....do you have one?). What about your staff? How are they dressed? How are you dressed? Do you look the part? Do they? Do you have a corporate uniform? Should you? What would it say about your business? Might give people the impression that you are here for the long haul. Might focus the client more on the business proposition and less on the individuals who make up the business.
And just where are your certificates, awards, press clippings (oh...do you have any of them?), white papers you have written (you've done one of those yes, positioning you as a specialist in your field of expertise?)...are they displayed in your offices?
What about that testimonial book? A dream board perhaps of your clients living out their dreams after the plans you put in place for them came to fruition. That's in the reception area yes?
And that website...that's a winner yes? You've got a video clip of you and your staff, there's lots of useful information, a place to sign up to more information that's of value, lots of tabs so people can find things easily, it's connected to your social media hub.
You in other words have a business that is well presented, and oozes credibility.
2) Dealing with the moments of truth
Solution: Train your staff on what is expected in delivering service to your clients and workshop with them what it is that you do and how it changes peoples lives for the better. Train them to appreciate the value of what it is that your business provides and then build systems and processes that allows them to efficiently deliver quality service.
This is harder than it looks and means a lot of work in process mapping and building a robust CRM.
3) Variability
And despite all this work you are just not going to be able to avoid things going wrong. So build your processes and follow them to try and standardise/industrialise what it is that you do, but take it as an opportunity when things go wrong. You can review your processes and you can deliver on your initial promise that you should make to your clients which is "this is what we will do if things go wrong...". It's a service promise and should be part of your initial pitch in your engagement letter before the client has even become a client.
And if you really want to test your services get a friend to test drive your staff and other like businesses and find out what you do well, what you can improve and what gaps you need to fill.
Do all of this and people will pay and pay a premium for something that isn't there.
These characteristics create problems for the financial planning business wanting to engage clients and position as the solution of choice as well as charge a fee commensurate with the degree of work involved and the expertise of the service provider.
Why would a client pay a premium for something that isn't there?
How can a client assess that you have done a good job, when the outcome of your work (a plan for retirement in 20 years, a full insurance plan that is effected on the future passing of the sole breadwinner) is either a) many years into an ever increasingly uncertain future or b) something they really don't want to ever contemplate happening?!
The intangibility of the service that a financial planner provides means that customers can not see, touch, experience the "product" as they could with for example with a new flat screen TV. Further the inseparability of your service means that clients can not experience your services without being involved in the process which means they need to engage with you and your staff. The "moments of truth" in the delivery of financial planning services are a daily occurance.
And after all of that no matter your best intentions or the fact that you may be dealing with the same client and say performing the same task such as the annual review of their insurance or investment portfolio the performance of you and your staff will vary.
What can you do about this to reassure your clients but also importantly be even more different (than you already are if you have been following the tips from PCE) from your competitors in the provision of your financial planning services?
1) Dealing with the intangibility of insurance and financial planning.
Solution: Make it tangible.
You need to re-assure your clients about the service that you are about to provide. Visually, this starts with the look of your offices. How is it furnished? Decorations. Art-work. What's the quality of your logo, business cards, letterheads, corporate brochures? (oh....do you have one?). What about your staff? How are they dressed? How are you dressed? Do you look the part? Do they? Do you have a corporate uniform? Should you? What would it say about your business? Might give people the impression that you are here for the long haul. Might focus the client more on the business proposition and less on the individuals who make up the business.
And just where are your certificates, awards, press clippings (oh...do you have any of them?), white papers you have written (you've done one of those yes, positioning you as a specialist in your field of expertise?)...are they displayed in your offices?
What about that testimonial book? A dream board perhaps of your clients living out their dreams after the plans you put in place for them came to fruition. That's in the reception area yes?
And that website...that's a winner yes? You've got a video clip of you and your staff, there's lots of useful information, a place to sign up to more information that's of value, lots of tabs so people can find things easily, it's connected to your social media hub.
You in other words have a business that is well presented, and oozes credibility.
2) Dealing with the moments of truth
Solution: Train your staff on what is expected in delivering service to your clients and workshop with them what it is that you do and how it changes peoples lives for the better. Train them to appreciate the value of what it is that your business provides and then build systems and processes that allows them to efficiently deliver quality service.
This is harder than it looks and means a lot of work in process mapping and building a robust CRM.
3) Variability
And despite all this work you are just not going to be able to avoid things going wrong. So build your processes and follow them to try and standardise/industrialise what it is that you do, but take it as an opportunity when things go wrong. You can review your processes and you can deliver on your initial promise that you should make to your clients which is "this is what we will do if things go wrong...". It's a service promise and should be part of your initial pitch in your engagement letter before the client has even become a client.
And if you really want to test your services get a friend to test drive your staff and other like businesses and find out what you do well, what you can improve and what gaps you need to fill.
Do all of this and people will pay and pay a premium for something that isn't there.
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