Handbook
Abstract
Acquiring, retaining, and developing clients are the major steps for any
successful business; failure to accomplish these steps is the major reason
many professionals and firms fail to achieve their full potential.
The financial services industry is currently facing its biggest c hallenge:
increased competition; smarter buyers who want to deal with p
rofessionals
instead of sales people; and the emergence of social media, including
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google.
The Financial Sales Handbook: A Guide to Become a Top Producer is
for experienced professionals as well as for those who want to make the
transition from managing work to more effective selling. The book is
also for professionals who want to sharpen their skills. It is intended as
the nucleus for corporate training programs as well as for self-employed
professionals who must market and sell to stay in business.
This book presents techniques and tips on
Prospecting
Niche marketing
Leveraging existing clients
Developing talent
Time management
Social media marketing
Positioning and branding
Cross-selling
Warming up cold calling
Keywords
cross-selling, financial services marketing, lead generation, niche market
ing, prospecting, referral marketing, relationship management, sales
pipeline, sales tactics, selling
Contents
Acknowledgmentsxi
Introductionxiii
Part 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 7
x Contents
Resources165
Additional Articles175
Notes179
References181
Index183
Acknowledgments
This book is a synthesis and consolidation of the best ideas, techniques,
and strategies Ive learned about financial services marketing and have
practiced for over 15 years. Id like to thank those who contributed to this
book, the team at Business Expert Press for providing me the opportunity
to publish with them; Roger C. Parker for providing the inspiration for
the concept of this book; Michael McLaughlin for his business guidance,
Heather Suqioka who proof read every chapter and provided valuable
advice, and Cheryl Lacey for her encouragement and support. Finally,
thank you to all the clients and professionals that Ive the pleasure of
working with and learning from.
Introduction
This I Believe
Did you know that everybody is a salesperson, in the sense that we must
persuade others of the idea that the products or services we can provide
will lead to a better life? This goes for anyone who earns money: from
carpenters, doctors, and teachers to engineers.
Selling for a living is an honorable and respectful occupation that
plays a significant role in the economy and our daily lives; without it, we
would not enjoy many of the luxuries that we often take for granted.
The art of selling has been practiced for centuries and was used by
the Phoenicians and Greeks as they sailed the Mediterranean in search of
buyers for their oils and perfumes.
I often see leaders of financial services firms, who want to improve
their sales performance, make the mistake of trying to find a born salesperson. Over time, most discover that searching for a born salesperson
is a fruitless exercise, as no such person exists. The simple fact is that
effective salespeople are made, developed, and molded, not born, and
they come from a variety of backgrounds. They may have educational
qualifications, or they may have no qualifications at all.
Selling is an acquired skill and one that can be developed, at least to
some degree, by anyone. When a professional develops their capabilities
in the art of selling, they are often said to be a born salesperson with
natural talent. They have so thoroughly mastered the sales process and are
having so much fun that they seem to have a natural talent.
But such skilled sales professionals are no more born to their profession than are top athletes, doctors, or lawyers. Top professionals acquire
their skills through study, reading books, and attending seminars conducted by professional sales trainers. They learn the tools and techniques
of selling from coaching, learning aides, and observing other selling professionals. Of course, the best teacher is on-the-job training, performing
sales tasks under the guidance of an experienced, trained professional who
xiv Introduction
Finding prospects
Qualifying and obtaining appointments
Identifying needs and providing solutions
Persuading prospects to buy
Generating referrals from clients
However, simply reading this book wont make you a top professional;
what you will gain is an understanding of the skills needed to become a
top professional. If you understand and accept the fact that no one is born
to sell and that it can take several years to become a top professional, then
Introduction
xv
almost anyone is capable of improving their sales skills. Even if you never
considered yourself a salesperson, you can sharpen your selling skills, and
over time you may just become a top performerone of those so-called
born salespeople.
This I Believe!
PART 1
CHAPTER 1
changes are inevitable, and others will come as a result of creative effort.
After reading the chapter and absorbing the ideas, you will be able to:
Excellent
Category 1
success
Category 2
doing ok
Poor
Implementation
Category 3
trouble
Category 4
failure
Sales Effectiveness
In top firms that enjoy vertical growth and consistently produce solid
returns, the owners excel in five areas:
Yes
No
Sales leadership
Financial management
Plans are in place to manage annual income and profits.
Action Steps:
Scan through each of the five categories and select areas that
apply.
Select your three highest priorities.
When establishing goals and objectives, less is better. Be
realistic: you are much better off focusing on a few goals and
achieving them than scattering your time and energy across
many objectives and doing a poor job.
Focus
The most important skills, qualities, or attributes of top performers are
their highly developed ability to learn from past experience, being able
to reflect on their knowledge and experience, and being able to organize
their observations and leverage their success to their advantage. To determine the present state of your business, analyze the following seven areas:
Existing clients and prospective relationships
Service offerings
Targets of opportunity
Network quality
Markets you are serving
Market position
Value position
Service Offerings
Your products and service offerings are largely intangible ideas purchased
for the end result they will produce. Your clients dont really purchase
services: they purchase the expectation of receiving a more favorable future,
which includes the expected benefits of the purchase. Benefits exist solely
in the perception of the clients and are always related to your clients needs
and expectations about the way in which those needs and expectations will
be met. Every product and service that you offer either improves, reduces,
protects, restructures, identifies, or resolves something. Use the Service Perception Map in Figure 1.1 to review your products and services offerings.
Action Steps:
Select a product or service.
Each of the verbs in Figure 1.1 describes how your product
delivers the outcome.
Repeat the exercise for the remainder of your products and
services.
Evaluate each product as leading edge, competitive, or falling
behind.
Targets of Opportunity
Targets of opportunity are growth opportunities from existing clients,
prospects, referral sources, and alliance partners. These often have a brief
shelf life and include:
Improve
Protect
Reduce
Name of product/
Service
Develop
Restructure
Resolve
10
Action Steps:
Use the aforementioned checklist to identify the areas of
attention within your business.
Create a corrective action plan for each.
Markets You Are Serving
All top performers credit their success to receiving a steady stream of
client referrals that provides an excellent source of leads, referrals, and
introductions. Clientreferral relationships need to be carefully managed
as an important business asset. The following are components of effective
networks:
Clients: Category A and Category B clients
Managing your referral network can be time-consuming; however, its
well worth the effort. Building a strong network is a two-way street: you have
to give (reciprocate) in order to receive high-quality and consistent leads.
It can take three to six months before leads can start being produced.
Regularly review the length and quality of your relationships and take
any necessary corrective actions, such as replacing network members
(Table1.3).
Action Steps:
Use the clientreferral worksheet to assess your Category A
and Category B clients.
Whos making referrals on your behalf?
Who makes referrals upon request?
What actions do you need to take to ensure this continues?
Repeat this exercise.
Market Position
You may already be specializing without realizing it. Your Category A
and Category B clients that may make up a significant portion of your
Yes
Quality of
relationship
Potential
(1 to 5)*
H-M-L**
Growing/
stable/decline?
Comments
No
Market/
industry
revenues are all part of an industry, a group of clients doing the same
thing, such as retail. They may sell to a similar market or demographic. It
is important to pinpoint and evaluate the industries of your top clients to
ensure there is still a growing demand. Streaming services such as Netflix
have replaced the need to hire DVDs from the local shop. If your top A
clients were video retailers, you could find yourself exposed, and clients
could disappear through no fault of your own.
Table 1.4 examines the markets of your A and B clients.
Rate each industry as either growing, stable, or in decline.
Determine if any further investigation or action is required.
12
Value Position
Your value position is what differentiates your business from your competitors. You want to create a point of difference that answers three
important questions:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. What type of value do you provide?
Your value position describes how you want to be known and by
whom, for example, in the following statement:
Figure 1.2 shows three groups that you should position yourself with:
Targets of opportunity: As previously discussed, these are growth
opportunities from existing and prospective clients; this is essential for
building long-term relationships and repeat business. Network: These are
your referral sources from existing clients and centers of influence; positioning your value will help make it easy for this group to refer business
Targets of
opportunity
Targets of
attention
Network
to you. Targets of attention: This also extends to lost business and clients
that you wish to upgrade, for example, Category C to Category B, while
offering additional value to existing clients (cross-selling). Action Steps:
List your Category A clients.
Contact several of them and ask their perception on:
Who you are (what you do)
What you do (services you deliver)
Your value (benefits of working with you)
Use the feedback to identify common themes, and adjust your
value position statement accordingly.
Having a clear understanding of your firms state is the foundation
for your firms selling and marketing activities. In the next chapter well
discuss how to discover your natural clients and prospects.
Summary
Understanding the elements that drive your business is
important to creating a thriving financial services firm and
establishing the right goals that will enable you to act wisely.
Most plans fail due to poor implementation rather than poor
development. A major cause is a lack of understanding of the
current state of play. This results in developing plans that are
simply based on the previous results and producing the wrong
plan at the wrong time and place.
In top firms that enjoy vertical growth and consistently produce solid returns, the owners excel in four areas:
Sales capabilities: Ability to acquire new business and retain
existing business.
Sales leadership: Developing sales plans, recruiting, and
developing top talent.
Service teamwork: Workflow management and good proactive relationships with suppliers.
Team management: Annual business planning process and
creating a culture of accountability.
14
Index
Advisory board marketing, 95
Attraction marketing methods
advisory board marketing, 95
client appreciation events, 94
conducting seminars, 9293
creating elevator statement, 99101
creating own network, 9394
industry networking, 9699
lunch and learn events, 96
networking within occupation, 99
not-for-profit networking, 9091
orphan community market, 9192
sample questionnaire, 9596
Blog, 134, 137138
Booklets, 133
Business owners marketplace,
103104
Capabilities, positioning of, 34
Client appreciation events, 94
Client events, hosting, 4647
Client marketing system
annual review, 5859
creating yearly road map, 58
identifying, 5758
midterm review, 5960
referrals and introductions, 61
work with trusted advisors, 60
Client process, existing, 3941
Client referral network worksheet,
1011
Client retention process. See Client
marketing system
Concept-focused sale professionals,
5456
Contact program
ongoing tailored, 123
prospect, 124125
Content marketing
leveraging knowledge, 132
184 Index
Index 185
Facebook, 22
Google+, 22
LinkedIn, 21
referrals, 7274
Solutions, positioning of, 3132
Tacit knowledge, 132
Target marketing
business owners marketplace,
103104
description, 103
Target marketing approach
establish meaning, 109
identifying opportunities,
108109
leveraging event, 110
LinkedIn, 110111
tapping network, 110
using centers of influence, 111