In a crowded market place where clients are bombarded every day with a barrage of messages telling them who to trust, what to do, and how to do it, positioning ourselves as a valued resource is getting more and more difficult.  In the first article in this series, we discussed some of the issues that advisors are facing today.  In the second, we discussed some specific strategies to get in front of more people and have their minds open when we got there.  In this article, we will discuss how to position ourselves for maximum effectiveness now that we are in front of them. 

The exercise "describe what you do for clients" is a common exercise in many sales trainings.  I remember one of the first trainings that I went to in the business, an ex-Lehman Brothers broker said we needed a stock story and an elevator pitch that we could recite after 6 cocktails (we tested ourselves on that later that night, as I recall).  While I think it is important to be able to wax elegantly on our virtues, I would argue in today's market it is a horrible place to begin a persuasive conversation. 

If you are trying to gain credibility, you really have two options: you can claim it, or you can earn it.  While claiming it is the most common strategy, it is also the quickest way to lump yourself in with the crowd.  Think of it this way for just a second, what can you say in 30 seconds that is truly unique in the market place?  In fact, if you were to think about the ads that most companies run, if it weren't for the logo at the end, could you even tell them apart? 

In the market place today, we have two issues that need to be addressed the next time that we are in front of a qualified prospect.  First, the client's options are virtually unlimited.  Everyone it seems is getting into the investment business.  Banks and Insurance companies have been in it for years.  Discounters with Advisor Alliances now offer investment advice.  Lawyers and CPAs are becoming Registered Investment Advisors.  Can it be long before someone does actually hang out a shingle at a barbershop making The Wealthy Barber seem like a prophecy?    Most of the time we will begin the conversation with "near-zero" credibility and very little time left on the shot clock to earn some.  I am not trying to be negative, just realistic.  When we call on a prospect, we are saddled with the sins of every sales person that came before us that was pushy, fuzzy with the facts, or reneged on promises they had made.  When we come at the client with a "Bud Fox from WallStreet" sales pitch, I suggest that in the prospect's mind, doors are closing, not opening.

The typical opening for most advisors is solution centric and is really focused mainly on what they do.  It often sounds something like this:

            Hello Mr. Prospect.  I am Mike Marvelous with the XYZ Brokerage firm, as you probably know we are a nationally recognized leader in research and money management and we pride ourselves on the outstanding level of client service and the holistic approach that we take to investing. 

Think about the transaction for a second, from the client's point of view.  I don't know about you, but when I am on the receiving end of the fact onslaught, my tendency is to pull back, not open up. 

A better way, we find, is to bond with the client with their problems, not your solutions. Clients are only interested in what we have to offer when painted against the context of a specific need they have.  Let's look at the old school first:

IA:       Hello Mr. Prospect I am Mike Marvelous with the XYZ Brokerage firm, as you probably know we are a nationally recognized leader in research and money management and we pride ourselves on the outstanding level of client service and the holistic approach that we take to investing. 

Pros:    Mike, good to meet you, perhaps you could help me with my situation, I am saving for retirement and these volatile markets over the course of the last three years have really thrown me for a loop.

IA:       I am not surprised sir, frankly I hear that a lot.  At XYZ we take a top down approach to investing, making sure first that you investments are in line with your risk tolerance and time horizon and that you are properly allocated across the style boxes, I would be happy to give you a free review.

Pros:    Wow, that sounds like just what I need Mike.  Could you do that for both my qualified and joints accounts?

IA        I would be happy to, would Tuesday be good or would Thursday be better?

Once you stop laughing, think about two things.  First, the only time that a conversation ever follows this pattern is in role-plays in training rooms.  In the history of all prospecting, the total number of times that real-life conversations have gone like this could be counted on one hand.  Second, does it seem odd to anyone else that most traditional training is geared toward this conversation, when we know it will almost never ever occur?

Think, for a moment, of a transaction where you are the buyer.  Regardless of what you are buying, most of the time you want to know:

Ø  You are getting the right solution for your problem.

Ø  You are getting a good value for your money.

Ø  If there are problems, this company will make them go away.

But it all begins with the problem.  If you walk into a store looking for a computer and the guy starts pushing you toward the televisions, odds are you are going to get ticked off and leave, regardless of what a good deal televisions happen to be. Clients and Prospects have no interest in your solutions except to the degree that it is painted against an issue that they face.  They are not interested in finding out about your solutions, until they view you as a valuable resource that will be able to help them. 

Financial Advisors have been taught to ask open-ended questions in order to engage the prospect in a deep conversation that can focus on their goals and objectives.  The problem is that people are going to be reluctant to open up and share their thoughts, desires, and concerns with people that they do not yet know and trust.  Frequently, an open-ended question can backfire.  Imagine walking into your local sports car emporium.  You have hit your goals for the year, and your reward is going to be a convertible for weekend romps.  The salesperson materializes and asks how can he help.  You say, "I am looking for a convertible".  In an effort to engage you he asks, "Is value important to you?" While you might not say it, you could easily be thinking, "no, what is important to me is that you find me a salesman who doesn't ask overly rhetorical questions." Anyone who has ever tried to start a conversation with the first question being, "What are you financial goals over the next 3-5 years?" knows that there is risk in asking for too much too soon. 

There is a lot going on at this point in the sales conversation.  How long does it take for a prospect to begin forming an opinion of you?  Will the words that you say help him to form that opinion?  Haven't we also demonstrated, so will the questions that you ask?  We need to get to their problems, but they will be reluctant to share with somebody that they don't yet know and trust.  So how do we cross this gauntlet? 

At this stage of the sales presentation, assuming that we have used some of the techniques outlined in the previous article, we will have earned a small window of time.  If we use it to toot our own horn, all too often the prospect will say, "I have heard that tune before".  If we open things up with open-ended questions, we risk the client thinking that we are asking for too much too soon.  The path that you want to use here is a series of very narrow in scope, closed-ended questions that are designed to do four things.

1. Kick off the needs development conversation.
2. Establish your credibility.
3. Gather some information.
4. Gain permission to escalate.

We call these Diagnostic Questions.  The key to diagnostic questions is that they are short, easy to ask and easy to answer.  At this stage of the conversation, brevity is critically important, because the window of opportunity is a short one.  At this point in the conversation, assuming that we have successfully piqued the prospects interest, they might ask, "Well what kind of problems do you solve?"   A very natural response would be, "I'll be happy to tell you that, can I ask you a couple of specifics about your investment situation?" In the world of question asking, this is about as close as you can come to a sure thing.  Assuming that you get the "yes", which is a very good assumption, you now have a short window of time to move forward. 

In selling traditional investments, you could ask some of the following: 

When you invest, do you look more for safety of principal or upside potential?

Do you like current income or growth?

Is managing timing of the taxes from your investment an issue?

Are you managing your estate inside or outside of a trust?

Are you getting advice from multiple sources or just one?

You will notice that these questions have several things in common.  They are simple to ask and answer.  They are brief.  In fact you could probably ask these questions and hear the answers in less than 30 seconds.  They give you some good information to have, without asking questions that the client might feel invasive.  They suggest an expertise in several different areas.  Your prospects will assume that you know something about investments, tax planning and estate planning, otherwise you wouldn't have asked these questions.  Imagine the difference of having them arrive at the conclusion that you must have some specific expertise, from the questions that you are asking, rather that having their mind filled with doubt and questions from the things that you have been saying.

This is a sampling of what you might ask.  If you have a particular area of expertise and focus, use these as a guide to develop questions even more suitable for your needs.  The key is that as you run through these questions, they are short, easy, pertinent and non-threatening, thereby opening the door to move to the next stage, the needs development conversation (covered in the next article).

Many times you won't even be able to get all the way through your questions.  An interesting thing can happen on the way to the transition.  Have you have ever been in a survey that you wanted to take part in?  If so, have you noticed that the available choices for your answers don't really allow you to convey everything that you want to get across?  In the survey, you might want to give an answer, but also clarify it just a bit.  In the survey experience, you are typically told, "Just pick a number, we don't have room for you to elaborate".  The same thing often happens in these conversations; if the questions are broad and you hit a nerve, the client will feel a natural overwhelming need to elaborate.  The obvious difference is, not only are we going to let them elaborate, that is actually the outcome we are shooting for. 

If you say the same thing that everyone else is saying; if you sound exactly the same way they sound; you will very quickly find yourself lumped in with everyone else, fighting against all the prospects' conditioning from years of experience dealing with sales people.  You'll be fighting an upstream battle, trying in essence to say, even though we sound the same, it will be different this time with me.  The trouble is, of course, that's what they all say.  By using these questions and focusing on the client's problems and incorporating the skills that we will give you next week, you will not only sound different, you will effectively position yourself as diametrically exposed to the legions that came before you, in the only place that it really matters…in the mind of the client©