Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Business in Social Settings
Fred is one of many advisors who struggle with the idea of putting social contacts into their pipelines. You may be asking, if this makes people uncomfortable, why don’t they focus their efforts elsewhere? Well, because social connections often represent an enormous (and fairly quick) prospecting opportunity – low-hanging fruit, if you will.
People that like you, trust you and respect you professionally are one step away from being clients. You should be the person they trust most to handle their family’s financial affairs. The key is introducing your services properly; in a non-threatening, non-salesy, “doing a favor” kind of way.
In our coaching, we see several core mindset issues that hold people back from mastering social prospecting:
- Social Self Consciousness – Being intimidated by approaching people of wealth.
- Poor Sales Skills - Not being sure how to approach social contacts the right way.
- Fear of Being Salesy - Not wanting to appear like a salesperson is a major issue – Closely aligned with poor sales skills and social self-consciousness.
- Low Confidence – This is often conveyed as “Not wanting to put your relationship in jeopardy if something goes wrong”. Many advisors don’t feel confident enough in their service offering.
From Fred’s perspective, the issue was part sales skills and part confidence. With a combination of serious self-awareness (recognition of strengths and weaknesses) and intensive performance coaching, Fred went through a metamorphosis. He rededicated himself to stepping outside his comfort zone and deliberately practiced his affluent sales skills in two core areas:
- Verbiage: Fred was intent on mastering the language he would use in approaching his social contacts. We scripted some basic bullet points and he practiced until he “owned it”.
- Timing: Week by week, we helped Fred activate his “Rainmaker Antenna”. We knew that he was having frequent conversations with his social contacts regarding their family and their business. Each of these conversations had one or two natural points for him to introduce his professional services.
Here’s where opportunity meets preparation. Within one week, he was speaking with a doctor friend of his who started complaining about upcoming tax changes. So he offered to meet and share some thoughts on what his team is doing for some of their current physician clients. Then he found out that a small business owner at his club was preparing to sell some real estate, so he mentioned the work he’d done with other business owners and suggested they meet to ensure that their family was on the right track.
These are two of countless opportunities that heretofore Fred, like so many advisors, let slide. However, the new and improved Fred – self-aware –deliberately practicing his affluent sales skills –allowing himself to go far outside his comfort zone has offered second opinions to eight different social contacts, four of which became clients in a relatively short period of time. And he did all this without being perceived as a salesperson.
Fred’s story isn’t an anomaly; this kind of transition can be yours – if you dare. Step outside your comfort zone, practice your sales skills and you too will reap the rewards of high impact social prospecting.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Strategic Networking
Portland: Ring Ring - I answered the phone to find Jim, an advisor who, like many others, desperately wanted to build his practice. He said, "I just sold my practice in Tennessee, I moved to Portland, and I'm starting all over". I assured him we'd seen this situation many times, yet he insisted, "You don't understand, I really need to build my practice. I convinced my wife to make the move and she was against it all the way. I promised her that I would rebuild our lifestyle, but with this market downturn I think I'm in over my head."
The market downturn was the least of Jim's worries. His poor sales skills were a much bigger issue, hence his call to our office. Convinced we could help, he entered into our Performance Coaching and committed himself to doing everything possible to rebuild his practice the right way.
Jim was fighting an uphill battle. Even though his new market was wealthy, his in-town connections were minimal. They sparsely consisted of two clients and a couple of wholesalers. In his own words, he was forced back into "rookie mode" -- with one clear exception. He knew full well that the way he built his first practice wasn't the way to rebuild in today's environment. Times have changed and the affluent are more cynical and skeptical than ever. Any attempt at cold calling just wouldn't bring in the type of clients that he was now capable of servicing. Jim had to do something - and fast.
I'm about to outline one of the core methods used by this advisor to start the rebuilding process with a bang. This will be useful, not only for rookies or those rebuilding a practice, but for anyone looking for more affluent clients. The answer, believe it or not, is strategic networking.
Notice that I said "strategic" networking. This isn't your ordinary meet and greet or card-swapping party. This is getting on the affluent playing field, going where the affluent go, doing what the affluent do. This is your entry point for strategically (and seamlessly) selling your professional services.
Granted, this seems like a pretty basic principle. Which begs the question, why do so many people have a negative feeling about networking? The main reason is that most people aren't good at networking.
Strategic networking is highly effective. We hear it every day in our coaching and we see it in our research. 35% of advisors brought in at least one new million dollar client last year through networking. If everyone really networked the right way, we know this statistic would be far higher.
Getting Started
Get involved with 2 to 3 strong networking activities. This could be at a weekly poker group, a Rotary club, a country club, a charitable organization. Look for groups that:
- Put you in contact with affluent prospects
- Have regular meetings - once per quarter isn't enough interaction to build meaningful relationships
- Give you time to interact with people at the meetings/events
- Will allow you to get involved; showcasing your competence
- Involve the kind of people and activities that you enjoy!
There is a six month rule of thumb regarding social networking. Develop relationships, get involved and make a good impression before proactively marketing your services. So…
For the first six months, ease your way into these groups, become involved and think in terms of:
- Targeting specific people that fit your ideal client profile.
- Developing meaningful relationships with them.
- Unless they bring up business before then, work hard for six months then start proactively putting them in your pipeline.
Jim understood the task at hand; he had to start making a footprint in the new community that he'd targeted. He started reaching out to various charities and community groups that would allow access to the movers and shakers. After a half dozen calls and a handful of trial meetings, he had a much better idea of where the affluent congregated in his community. Not to mention, within his first month (not six), he landed a $1.2mm client (was going through a divorce and needed help), connected with the top real estate agent in town (a great COI), and played three rounds of golf with an Indy racing team owner. The last time we touched based with Jim he estimated a little of $10mm in his pipeline as a result of his networking efforts. Was that a bit of social prospecting and strategic networking? You bet.
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