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Prospecting in difficult times
This is a challenging time for financial advisors and wealth management. We have never seen this before, so acting on what we know and our gut instincts is a natural reaction. We sign up for webinars in the hope to change our thinking. But there is a reason why the average advisor is not calling prospects.
Why
The number one reason is guilt. They feel guilty that they should or could be doing more with their existing clients so they keep calling their clients to comfort them and themselves. I get it because as a practice management coach and trainer, I feel the same way. Get more resources to the people I work with spend more time with them first. When I feel better I will reach out to prospects. It is human nature again kicking in. But the second reason why is you don’t have a plan, a script and compelling offers to make to ideal prospects now.
How do you change it?
Make the calls with confidence. The elite advisors I coach are confident in what they are doing with their ideal clients who have a communication plan and have already implemented it. Read my last article on client communication plans. https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/client-communication-planning Elite financial advisors have little guilt, as they have a plan to do the best they can with their ideal clients. They have a written scripted communication plan and go forward process with clients and prospects. Because they have called all of their clients, they now have the time to reach out to prospects. Here are some cool prospecting ideas to help you grow your business in challenging times.
Video calls
First doing video calls properly with prospects with a solid value promise to illustrate online, as a presentation. Check out my checklist on how to do video conference calls effectively. https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/video-call-checklist
Webinars
I have to admit that sharing this idea with most advisors is scary, as they have never delivered a webinar before. Guess what, now is the time to learn. I do very little webinars for one reason. They work really well and I got too busy, with too many prospects and new clients. I offer corporate webinars instead. If your company wants to do a webinar, reach out. If you do group benefits, offer the firms you work with, to do a corporate webinar for their employees to help them during this challenging time. Offer webinars to your clients to do group communications. Offer webinars to prospects to demonstrate how people can plan and prepare going forward. I recently helped several advisors create their "Getting through the crisis process" webinars for prospects, and are getting great results. Do you have a process or program that you can share ( compliance approved of course) in a professional graphic format like PowerPoint to engage ideal prospects?
Call your centers of influence network
Most accountants are getting calls from people on what to do about the new government benefits and how to interpret them and implement them. Why are you not getting those calls? Probably because you are not seen as a resource with respect to government changes. Share your government changes bulletin with everyone you know, as it affects everyone you know. Then reach out and call your Centres of influence and see how you can help them during this challenging time. These will be extremely valuable conversations to have now and sharing potential mutual clients that need help.
Value-added website and newsletters
Add value to people by interpreting the government changes (or hire a firm like my friend Angelina Hung at FinancialTechTools.ca) to add to your website, to send to clients and prospects by newsletter, video post or social media. Put your own interpretation onto the government changes, don’t just send a bunch of links. See how I added resources to my website's main page.
See how my mentor Bill Bachrach added resources for financial advisors to his main page.
Sell insurance online
I was recently speaking on a global study group call, and successful advisors have seized the opportunity to sell more insurance doing video conferencing. One firm stated they had their best March ever compared to last year. This is because they trained their advisors on doing online applications and video conferencing. Talk about an opportunity!
Getting out of your own way
Let me give you a thought. You can get a hold of people like never before. When this ends and people go back to their active life, they may be impossible to get a hold of. The time is now to get out of your own way, get rid of your guilt and start calling people. Are you holding you back? It is like a person walking towards a mirror saying why doesn't that person get out of my way?
If you need help getting going
Three people have a puzzle. One has the full picture of the puzzle on the box. One person has half of the puzzle picture on the box, while the third has no picture. Who finishes first? Get a clear picture of your future so you can finish first. Reach out and talk to your mentor or coach or call me if you want to chat for 15 minutes. Click on my calendar link here.
Related: Advisors: Stop Sharing Content and Start Delivering Value