Financial advisors often make simple mistakes that they can correct to improve their businesses. These mistakes reduce their potential and can cause business to slow, or even worse, start to decline. Here are the top six mistakes you should avoid making in your financial services business.
Every time you meet with a new prospect you should have a consistent process. If you lack a consistent process, you may skip essential steps, give away too much time and information for free, or waste your valuable time. Having a process will make you more productive and make your prospects and clients feel more at ease when working with you. If you are able to provide your process to them, they will know what will be required from them at each step along the way and what to expect at the next meeting. Write out your process so you do the same thing 100% of the time with 100% of your prospects and clients.
Word of mouth alone is not enough to grow your business to its full potential. You can reach more prospects by creating a marketing budget and making the most efficient use of your marketing dollars. You should use this budget to advertise your business across different forms of media and host prospecting events. This includes spending the money to create "evergreen" marketing materials that do not need to be modified except for changes in contact information. You may not be able to outspend some of your competitors, but the quality and use of your marketing materials can be just as effective.
Do you stay in touch with the potential prospects who don't immediately set appointments at your workshops or seminars? You should and here's why: If you're not providing them with information and nurturing them, they may look to the first name in the phone book instead of contacting you when they're ready to make a financial decision. To stay in the minds of your potential prospects, you need to provide valuable information on a regular basis. You should consider using an automated nurturing system to send out newsletters and announcements to your prospects and clients so you're the first financial advisor they think of.
If you don't have a professional office to meet with your prospects, you're missing out on the opportunity to provide them with a first-class experience. You have complete control in an office.You give up control when you conduct business in the houses of your prospects and clients. Their homes are filled with distractions. Invest in an office to improve the quality of your meetings and increase the level of professionalism in your business. Not only will your prospects and clients benefit, but you will benefit from having office support staff to increase your productivity.
Prospects don't want to feel like products are being pushed on them and traditional sales techniques are not very effective. You need to implement non-traditional sales techniques to close more sales and make the prospects feel like they are involved in the decisions that are made. Prospects don't want to be told what to do, but they'll respond well to guidance if you address their questions and concerns. Let go of old sales techniques and transform your selling style to see an increase in production.
Many advisors are not sure what to look for in an Independent Marketing Organization (IMO). If your IMO doesn't provide assistance with prospecting, business management, sales training, branding, and marketing, you may want to look elsewhere. The right IMO can help you address many of the mistakes above and set your business on the path towards success. Your IMO should also provide access to product experts and mastermind groups that help you improve your product knowledge and learn from others in the industry about how to grow your business.