We have no formal training when it comes to “client acquisition”, but we have handled close to 1,000+ client inquiries in last 5 yrs and we have converted few hundreds out of them into our clients. We have dealt with various kind of clients from different parts of India (and NRI’s from abroad) . So today, I want to share with you some open secrets which we have learnt over the years. They are not fancy secrets, but some basic lessons but often ignored by financial planners or any kind of adviser. These basic learning’s will help you while dealing with a new prospect, and chances of his becoming your client will increase.

But, before we move ahead, I want you to be clear on what is prospecting ?

What is Prospecting ?

This might look like a very simple question, but we have often seen that most of the advisors do not live up to its actual meaning. Prospecting for most of the financial planners is ‘Targeting a potential customer’, or ‘applying tricks which can convert someone into paid client’ and these tricks can many a times work in reality, but in our opinion is not the right way of prospecting. Here is how we define prospecting.

“Prospecting is simple action of helping someone understand what you do and how you can be helpful to them”

With this, let me now talk about those 6 powerful and obvious insights which will help you prospect in a better way.

1. Clients hire those who can do things which client himself cant do 

Its a no-brainier. If you give a feeling to client that what you are going to do is something which a client himself can do, there is no good reason for him to pay a huge fees, because he has an alternative to do it themselves. Its important to understand this critical aspect, because most of the financial planners go to meet a prospect and say things like.

• “I will help you with finding your networth and cashflow”
• “I will create a PDF report for you, which will have some analysis of your financial life”
• “I will apply complex formula’s and tell you how much you need to save for a goal”

 

Trust me, these is not a powerful way to demonstrate your work and ability. May be the client might not be able to do these things themselves, but they will “assume” that they can do all these things by goggling and taking out a Sunday off. Most of them, do not think its worth Rs 15,000-20,000 to someone for this because they feel ”So , is this what they call financial planning .. Awweeee ..”

So what you should really do is tell them things, which they will not be able to do or do not even know exists, like you help them with saving more tax, like you can help them with an action plan which will improve their financial life, that you will get their small things done through your staff (running around) and they can concentrate on their core area, that you will help them giving their best with your support. How you can restructure their financial life and improve it by 15% ! . Speak that kind of things ..

2. Clients want to hear about results – Not what you do

“Sir, I will help you in financial planning which will help you achieve your financial goals”

Next please !

Clients want results. PERIOD!

Clients are dying to pay you, IF you can show them how you can bring results in their financial life. How about saying something like this to your prospects !

– Hi Sudhir, How much do you rate your financial life on the scale of 0 (worst) to 10 (amazing) ?

– hmm.. I would say 3.5

– “Ok, so here is my commitment for your financial life, Lets work together and in next 100 days, I am designing your “financial freedom project” and I assure that I will take your financial life to a level that you will rate it atleast 8 or 9 for sure. And I have made it happen for my 75 other clients in last 5 yrs, what do you choose ?”

Do you See the power? See the language of results ? See the commitment level , see the genuineness and confidence ? Now you can actually do the same set of things which you were doing earlier, but at-least change the language used and link things with results. when you ask your clients to take some actions, link it with the results it would bring in their financial lives.

Understand this to the core of your heart- clients are ready to pay for results , not just for a ‘financial plan’

3. Clients love those advisors who respect themselves

– “Can you come on Sunday to my home to collect the datasheet” ?- “Sure sir, you are the King, I will do whatever you say”

– “Hello Sir, you called me at 3:00 pm, I am here outside your cabin” , “Please wait for 1 hour, I am into an important meeting” – “Sure sir, I will wait, client is God”

Have you been doing this or allowing your clients to treat you like this? Because if you are, then you are trapped, you are treated like trash most of the times, because client does not see you respecting your own time, you can come any time he wants, you have no restrictions on when they can call you. They can not treat you like a puppet and you have to communicate this in the start.

Show them you are into a serious profession and you are a powerful person who does not tolerate any non-sense, and only quality people deserves to work with you. When you do this, you attract clients, I must say quality clients.

When Nandish gets on call with a new prospect, He tells them that we do not work on Sunday’s and will not talk over phone anytime they want, we will first schedule a call over email and then talk exactly AT THAT TIME. Clients appreciate this a lot and agree to it.

4. Start the process, ask them to continue it

This is a killer one.

Clients do not want to make any mistake when it comes to hiring someone. One of the biggest reasons why prospects dont convert is their fear of making a mistake. They feel – “What if it does not work out?” or “Can I trust this financial advisor?”

So instead of “Do you want to start?” , the question which you should present is “Do you want to continue?” /

Its critical to understand, that clients need to experience you fully. I have seen so many financial adviors focusing on all the traps they can set, to create one more client. If they are spending 1 hour with the prospect, till the end they focus is on making him his client and not on how they can help him. They do not want to give anything for free because they feel, its only reserved for a client who has paid them money.

However in reality this is a big blocker for getting clients. Instead of asking and expecting prospects to become your clients, how about starting the process the moment you meet them. Start giving them all that they want. Start giving them a datasheet and tell them they can fill their data and keep it all with themselves. The datasheet filling will help them to understand about their own financial life.

If they are facing some taxation issue, send them a great article on tax, which solves their issue. Send them your ebook on personal finance, point them to some good calculator which will help them understand how much they need to save for a goal. Tell them what they want , engage them and then its the matter of a choice – if they want to continue the journey they have started with you.

I know the biggest question right now in your head must be – “If I do all this, will he still become my client?”.  And the answer is MOSTLY YES .

We have seen coming to us for services after reading our articles, after reading our books , after doing our online programs.

Let me share with you, what we exactly we do at jagoinvestor with our prospects

We send them a 56 page ebook which has few very good articles am tell them to read it. When a new prospect puts an enquiry to us, we start asking him what are his top 3 pain and struggle points in his financial life, and then we start sending our answers on how they can improve upon it. We ask them, if they have read our books and also tell them which Page number they should read for sure given their issues, and ask them not buy it because we will send them the book anyways on signing up.

Do you notice that the question now is NOT – “Do you want financial planning for us? ” , But – the whole conversation has shifted to – “Do you want to continue this journey with us or not” . And if you understand human psychology – this converts more number of clients.

5. Say the real thing, don’t fabricate things

One salesman came to my home in afternoon, and when I opened the door – he declared that I am getting 3 encyclopedia books for “FREE” , as part of their promotion and they have done this in the whole building, now all I need to do was spend 5 min to hear what he has to offer.

Due to my straight attitude, I asked him clearly what I need to buy to be eligible to get things for FREE . He said – “Nothing Sir, Its part of the promotional program” . I insisted , but he was too pushy and kind of forced me to listen to him and I knew he fabricated things to just make a sale.

He lost it – there an there ! .

He was not real and authentic. He wasted my time and his own time. I hated it and I was sorry for him, that he did not understand this small and so basic thing that he should never say things which are false. When you meet a client, make sure you say what is in your mind, and it should be reality.

• When you say, you are unbiased, you have to be .
• When you say, you care for them, you have to
• when you say you will help them with implementatin, you have to
• when you say, you have a team of 10 people, you should have
• when you say, you are CFP with 5 yrs of experience, you have to be
• when you say, you have 50+ fee based clients, damn – you need to have it.

 

I cant stress more on this, because trust me and you know it, the other party can see things on your face. Your voice, the confidence, the way you reply, the way you present things, everything you do – SHOUT the reality and your prospects are smarter than you.

1. More then intellengence, prospects are looking for Trust
2. More than certification or CFP qualitfication, they are looking for Honesty
3. More than experience, they are looking for quality advisor
4. More than your company size, they look at your confidence level

 

So next time you meet a prospect, just be who you are and what you exactly do – You will win a prospect.

6. Dont show attachment and they will come back

One of the biggest Sales lesson – I have learnt from Nandish Desai, my amazing business partner is this – “Sales happens, its not done”. Sales is an outcome of something, and that something is showing your prospects what your association can bring on the table, what kind of results it will create.

You surely need a client, but if you get attached to him being your client, your behavior will dilute and you will not be able to serve him better. So do not have attachment with a prospect. When Nandish gets on call with a new prospect, who has put an inquiry for financial planning with us. He starts his call like this

“On this call, I want to help you . On this call , I want to understand, how can I be helpful in your financial life. We both are going to be on this call for 1 hour and I assure you I will speak every word in your interest and I have ZERO attachment on you becoming my client. 

You becoming my client at the end of the call has no relation between our relationship before and after the call, My only focus for next 1 hour is, how can I serve you and help you create an awesome financial life. Lets start and please remind me at the end of the call, to send you a 56 page free ebook, we have designed for our prospects, I am sure it will add value to your financial life”

And we live upto what we say. We do exactly that, and the prospect converts to client because there is no single reason why they don’t want to engage with us.

Having no attachment does not mean that you do not work on your process for client acquisition or plan things out. All we want to say is that you focus has to be on helping someone , and not “trapping” him. When you say you are not attached to a prospect becoming your client. its just a way to declare that you are not needy, its just a way to give a feeling that you will take their financial life seriously. That you do what you say, that you do not do things “just” to get the business. Next time you meet a prospect, instead of focusing on “What should I do, so that he/she becomes my client” –

• Instead focus on “What Can I do, which will add one new good thing in his financial life”
• Instead focus on – ” What should I do , which can create a WOW experience for him”
• Instead focus on – “In my meeting, how can I help him lead a better financial life”

 

Conclusion

Trust me , these leanings are worth its weight in gold . Next time you meet a new prospect, try these things on a new client and stop seeing him as target and more of a human who really needs your help.

Prospecting becomes easy and fun and enjoyable when you are truthful and do without attachment. I would love to hear your experience and thought process after reading this article. Please share in comments section.

 

The original article was written at  http://jagoadvisor.com/convert-prospects-into-clients-6-tricks/

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