Editor’s note: Covering everything from weathering the difficult economy to what makes some people extra successful, these Member’s Choice runner-up articles missed a spot in our annual Top 10, but they were still among the most popular articles of the year.
When there is an abundant supply of financial advisors in your local market, it becomes harder for you to differentiate yourself. As a result, it’s easy to adjust your fees downward (or add more pre-sale meetings to your sales process), out of fear you might lose a new client opportunity.
But if you allow yourself to become commoditized in this way, you open yourself up to being “shopped” against other advisors
This is a problem facing many financial advisors, even successful ones.
Your initial meeting with a potential client will go well, but near the end of the meeting they’ll say to you something like: “Thanks for your time but we’re looking at two or three other advisors and have meetings lined up this week…we’ll get back to you.”
Ouch…you just invested an hour of your time for a “we’ll get back to you.”
Waiting for potential clients to get back to you is no way to build a reliable and consistent business—and being forced to chase them when they don’t get back to you only pushes them away.
So, what do you do?
Focus on getting to the truth
When a potential client says to you the dreaded phrase “We’ll get back to you,” understand: It’s not about you, it’s about them.
They have been conditioned to believe that solving their problem requires shopping around for different solutions. The problem is, they aren’t qualified to evaluate any solution…if they were, they could solve their problem on their own.
Subconsciously, they also want to avoid their problem, and shopping around provides the perfect distraction.
When they’re in shopping mode, you need to call them out, but in a refined and delicate way.
After telling you they plan to see other advisors first, you could respond like this:
“May I ask, what is the most important criteria an advisor must have, for you to want to work with them?”
If assessing multiple advisors is a genuine need, shouldn’t they be able to articulate their selection criteria?
I suggest to you that they’ve never even thought about the answer to that question.
Your goal, always, is to get to the truth of your potential client’s problem and understand the reason why they sought your help in the first place.
If solving their problem is not a genuine and urgent priority for them, this simple question will confirm that and allow you to disengage. But if it is a genuine priority, you will have diplomatically shown them that shopping around is a waste of time, and brought their focus back to solving their problem with you, assuming you match their criteria.
Remember, your potential client is not interested in how you solve their problem. The main thing on their mind when they meet you is whether they can trust you to solve it.
Learn how to build trust with your potential clients and dispel any resistance that makes them believe they need to shop around.
Focus on getting to the truth, rather than making the sale.