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!