What does it take to be successful in sales?

Some say the most important thing is Enthusiasm.

en·thu·si·asm n.

1. Great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause.
2. A source or cause of great excitement or interest.
3. Archaic

• Ecstasy arising from supposed possession by a god.
• Religious fanaticism.

While you need to have a passion for what you do and what you sell, it takes more than enthusiasm to be successful.

Selling is not just “telling.” Successful selling takes more than just spewing facts about products and services. It is relationship development, prospecting, making the approach, interviewing, presenting, answering objections, asking for the order, and keeping promises. Selling requires enthusiasm, product knowledge (yours and your competitors), and confidence.

con·fi·dence n.

1. Trust or faith in a person or thing.
2. A feeling of assurance, especially of self-assurance.
3. A trusting relationship: I took them into my confidence.
4. The state or quality of being certain: I have every confidence in your ability to succeed.

Expertise breeds confidence. Confidence results from knowing you are prepared, and that you can deliver and keep promises. Confidence forms the basis for enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a choice. But still you don’t want to run around screaming about your product. Unbridled enthusiasm results in a lack of focus. It takes more to truly succeed in sales.

pro·fes·sion·al·ism n.

1. Professional status, methods, character, or standards.
2. The use of professional performers, as in athletics or in the arts.

Professionalism takes all of the factors listed above to a higher level. It helps you form a cogent story, run your business like a business, build and work a plan in an organized, focused manner.

So what is the most important factor?

There is no one most important key to success in sales; they are all important! Your success is a product of how well you execute on the activities and behaviors listed above, and the attitude that you bring to these tasks.  Successful salespeople are confident in their abilities, enthusiastic about their solutions, and professional in their execution.

Good selling!

This week a financial advisor called me for presentation coaching. When she shared her approach, she led off with, “I need to talk to you about…” I stopped her immediately. You see, your clients focus on what THEY need, not what you need. Too often advisors’ conversations revolve around “I”. Crafting sales conversations for maximum effectiveness requires some work on your part. Examine everything you say in order to improve closing ratios and better serve your clients.

How can you modify your communication to improve sales success? Take a look at the following examples of sales-speak I have heard recently, with some suggested changes in phraseology:

“I need to show you this investment/insurance/planning idea.”
BETTER: You would benefit from considering this investment/insurance/planning idea.”

“Consolidating these accounts helps me do a better job of tracking your portfolio.”
BETTER: Consolidating these accounts makes it easier for you to track your portfolio.”

“I want you to look at this.”
BETTER: “You will really want to see this.”

Focus on making your presentations client-focused. Phrase your selling statements using “you” more frequently than the word “I.” Doing this helps you present benefits of recommendations instead of features. Your clients will take action when they know the benefits they will receive as a result of taking action on your recommendations.

Good selling!

In the course of serving their prospects and clients, financial advisors recommend many products and services.  You might consider several different solutions for a particular need.  Too many advisors offer a client several options in the name of helping them make an informed decision.  At times these advisors provide a spreadsheet of products along with the accompanying product details and minutia.  The advisor wants to “educate” the prospect.  In most cases these product and service comparisons result from the fact that the advisor poorly profiled the prospect.  If you ask enough questions and work hard to build trust, you will know what the prospect needs, and prospects sense conviction. The prospect doesn’t want education – they want solutions.

Of course there are times when you need to compare and contrast different solutions to help the prospect make a decision.   It makes sense to have a secondary recommendation in the bag, but don’t lays multiple options out in front of the prospect.  This practice confuses people and confused minds never say yes.  Do your job. Be strong in your opinions.  Know what the prospect needs, and sell it with conviction.

Good selling!

One week into the new year how are you doing with those resolutions?  In case you want to grow your business this year I suggest you resolve to call your best clients, and say something like this:

“A big part of my responsibility to my clients is to keep them on tract with their financial objectives.  However, people change and their goals change.  In order for me to do my best work for you you need to tell me when things change.  May I ask you three brief  questions?”

• “Tell me your three most important financial goals?”
• “What has changed in your life in the last twelve months?”
• “What can I do to serve you better?”

The questions may be brief, but the answers may make for a long conversation.  Take the opportunity to meet face to face to discuss these questions in depth.  You will be amazed at the results.

Good selling!

Yesterday I was hosting a sales coaching conference call for Cathay Wealth Management, a division of Cathay Bank.  The financial markets are crazy, and we discussed the fact that clients are looking for solutions.  They need solid, proven strategies.  A trusted advisor remains calm in the face of a storm, and exudes strength and confidence, and can communicate that demeanor to clients and prospects.  This calm happens when you know the history of the financial markets – we have been here before.  Consider the following strategy when choosing what you will say to clients and prospects:1.  Don’t Confuse The Headlines With The News.  The national media sells stories with hyperbole and superlatives. Bad news sells.  This bias for promoting bad news even extends to the corporate sector. A 2007 press release from PricewaterhouseCoopers Contained the following headline:

U.S. Industrial Manufacturers Expect Lower Growth Rates for the Next 12 Months, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers

When you read the article, you find the survey of manufacturers predicted quarterly revenue GROWTH of 5.7 percent!  While this was a reduction from a previous forecast the predictions could still be considered robust.  So look beyond the headlines to the real news.

2. Know The Dynamics of Market Cycles.  Markets cycle, so recognize the predictability of cycles over time as demonstrated in different asset classes.  Study financial history.  Use tools such as Ibbotson Charts and other third party resources to show clients how markets ebb and flow.  Be able to explain how bad news always produces opportunity, and get clients positioned to exploit opportunities when they appear.

3.  Remember the Four Basic Principles of Investing

* Professional Management
* Asset Allocation
* Diversification
* Dollar Cost Averaging

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”  While the challenges we face are many, these days can truly be the best of times for those advisors that know their story, and are proactive about taking it to the people who need it most.  Also remember, your clients know a lot of people just like them that need a financial advisor just like you who is always present when needed the most.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: sales coaching, financial markets, trusted advisor

Selling financial services as a financial advisor, stock broker, insurance agent, or banker involves six critical factors to be successful – long term. Short term success is possible without attention to these “Critical Success Factors,” (CSF’s) but long term success requires proficiency on a regular basis in each area. The CSF’s include:

1. Prospecting
2. Sales Approach
3. Presentation
4. Answering Objections
5. Closing
6. Service

Nothing revolutionary here; these topics have been taught since the earliest days of sales training. However, today many firms neglect basic sales training, and we always benefit from a reminder to step outside ourselves and objectively examine our business. Let me ask you a few questions:

• Are you weak in one or more CSF’s?
• Do you pay attention to and seek to improve each factor?
• Do you continually evaluate yourself and your business?

If you are new to financial product sales, or if you are experienced, consider reading my book, The Ultimate Small Cap Business; Building A Financial Advisory Practice. This concise book provides a comprehensive overview of financial service selling and practice management. Look for future posts to provide tips for each of the Critical Success Factors of Sales.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: financial advisor, stock broker, insurance agent, banker

Yesterday I was speaking to a sales coaching client who works as a financial advisor in a bank in New York. She asked me how to answer an objection that she had received on a recent sales call. After suggesting a response, she asked me about another objection – and then another and another. We spent the rest of our coaching call discussing how to answer a wide variety of objections, and I shared several “techniques” for dealing with objections.

This conversation reminded me that the long lost art of sales training has been, to some extent, marginalized and in some cases forsaken. “Sales trainers” – and I use the term loosely – suggest that selling has evolved. Salespeople should sell in their “own style” they say. Salespeople should listen, ask open ended questions, offer solutions, and then…

What happens is the prospect inevitably says, “I want to think it over,” and today’s salespeople lose the sale, at least temporarily, because they cannot deal with objections and close the sale. Let there be no doubt that selling has evolved and for the better. Professional salespeople do develop their own style, and always have. However, salespeople need a foundation of skills to help them survive – and actually sell something – until they have the experience and wisdom to sell within their style.
My suggestion for this sales coaching client was to make a list of every product and service she presents on a regular basis, and then list the four most common objections she hears to the offering. Then I suggested she consider how to answer these objections. Being prepared in this fashion will make her more confident – and successful – as she grows in her sales skills.

Sales training still provides a foundation for all new financial advisors. With a multitude of resources available there is no shortage of opportunities to learn the ways of the masters.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: sales coaching, financial advisor, sales call, Sales trainers, selling, Salespeople

All of us learn from our experiences. The problem with learning from personal experience is that you have to take the test before you learn the lesson, and that can be painful to you and your clients. One solution is to learn from the experiences of others. By learning from others you compress time and omit unnecessary mistakes. To benefit the most from this strategy, choose to listen exclusively to the masters.

No greater master exists in the investment business than Don Connelly. Don has long been acknowledged as America’s leading advisor to financial advisors. With forty years of unparalleled experience and success, he provides common sense ideas that benefit advisors regardless of their distribution channel or level of achievement. Today Don shares his expertise through “Camp Connelly.” Don possesses a wealth of information gathered from the best of the best in the investment industry. This is a can’t-miss resource for financial advisors.

Still have more to learn about the investment industry? Check out “Camp Connelly.”

Good selling!

Yesterday, along with millions of other families, we opened Christmas presents. My grandson Cameron, (aka Camper), was right in the middle of it all. Camper was that star of the show! He is a wonderful little boy. Bright, cute, loving, and while I am partial to him, all of that is the truth. As are many kids, he is a model of persistence – something that, as a sales trainer and sales coach, I love! In the midst of opening presents, he reminded me (aka “Pam Paw”) of an old sales principle – “Don’t Confuse Your Prospect!

Camper gets more toys that most children – a lot more toys! He would rip open one package, get real excited – and then push it aside for the next gift. Before long he was through opening packages and playing – in a box! Many of you will identify with this story. However, I hope it doesn’t remind you of your sales presentations.

Sometimes sales people give the prospect too many choices. A great way to close a sale is the “Choice Close,” where the salesperson offers the prospect two solutions, either of which will solve the prospects problem. No matter what choice the prospect selects, everyone wins. The Choice Close works, but the problem with this close is salespeople sometimes offer more than two choices. I know a salesperson in the 401k market that prepares spreadsheets of five to ten, (yes, TEN), products from which the prospect is expected to select one solution! Two problems exist with this approach.

First, just as my grandson has so many toys that he can’t decide which to select, and ends up selecting a non-solution solution (the box), our prospects can’t decide upon the best solution from those offered. A confused mind never buys! Second, if you are truly a professional salesperson, your opinion is of tremendous value to the prospect. They expect you to have an opinion, and you better have one!

So, how can multiple options help you close more sales? First, if you use the Choice Close, limit your choices to two solutions or, in any case, never more than three. However, always have an opinion of the option that best serves your customer, and the reasons for your choice. Second, if you did a spreadsheet analysis for the prospect – keep it in your file. Tell the prospect, “I reviewed X number of options, and I feel the one I am presenting to you today best meets your needs.” Another tactic is to use the same approach, but tell them you reviewed multiple options, and boiled them down to two, and then point out the advantages and disadvantages of each offering. Once again, have an opinion about the better choice for the prospect.

Don’t let your prospects play in a box – a competitor’s product. They deserve the benefit of your expertise, so make your recommendations with conviction based upon your experience, research, and facts. The client will be well served and your sales will go up!

Happy Holidays – and Good Selling!

Technorati Tags: persistence, sales trainer, sales coach, sales principle, professional salesperson

Business strategist and professional speaker Michael Roby addressed a group of leading financial institution sales managers at a management conference in St. Helena, CA on December 3, 2007. Bank Insurance Securities Association (BISA) hosted their “Sales Management Fall Workshop,” which was open to institutions in the United States and Canada. Roby conducted his “Managing Excellence” seminar, which teaches sales management strategies and skills.

BISA, based in Wayne, PA, fosters the full integration of securities and insurance businesses with depository institutions’ traditional banking businesses. BISA reaches out to and offers services to executives throughout its member firms. BISA participants include executives from the securities, insurance, investment advisory, trust, private banking, retail, capital markets, and commercial divisions of depository institutions. The BISA provides a single forum for these executives and their product and service partners to work together to find solutions to help grow their businesses.

Michael Roby is a nationally known speaker that helps his audiences get improved sales results that are quantifiable and lasting. While corporations and audiences know Michael as an authority on sales, marketing, and the distribution of financial services, he is also known as one of America’s best motivational speakers. Roby delivers thought-provoking keynotes that leave a lasting, positive impression on his audience. His website, www.michaelroby.com is also home to a leading sales and marketing blog.

Technorati Tags: Business strategist, professional speaker, Bank Insurance Securities Association, sales management