Three Reasons Sales Funnels Don’t Work Anymore

Sep 25, 2019

Sales Funnels Are Dead

 

Legacy sales practices are quickly becoming obsolete for financial advisors.

 
 

The three main reasons sales funnels don’t work anymore:

 

  • Time

  • Product Focus

  • Transparency

 
 

Time

There simply not enough time to try and be all things to all people in a sales cycle in which 50 no’s will render you one yes. Your website must become more than a mechanism to gather leads. You must design a user experience that overlaps the client and the prospective client journeys. Treating your engagement hub as a trap for gimmicky sales practices is a death sentence for your reputation. The marketing sales concepts that are being pushed on you (as an advisor) by marketers, are the same types of sales rhetoric you were probably taught in your rookie advisor training classes. The gimmicks they are peddling are built on a foundation of lies and opacity. You don’t have time to gather the metrics they need to justify their existence when they should be helping you discover the metrics you need to survive in a robo-world. There is no time for awareness, interest, decision, action… that mode of lead generation is no longer relevant because you are not selling products… which leads us to reason number two.
 
 

In a robo-world there simply isn’t enough time to compete in the arena of product sales for shrinking commissions.

 
 

 

Product Focus

You are not selling products in a vacuum behind a curtain of opacity surrounded by smoke and mirrors. The focus of the modern advisor must be on the services that he or she provides that are unique to the individual and relevant to his or her ideal audience. People can buy products from their smart phones Clients don’t need an advisor for that. They don’t need you to “sell” them anything anymore. What clients need is a trusted source of wisdom… which is what you are. Obviously, a trusted source of wisdom would never use anything as shady as a product sales funnel to convey their client-centered focus to their ideal audience. Because that would be impossible. Which leads us to why that would be impossible to pull off in the modern era of financial services… transparency… reason number three.

 

 

Transparency

 
In the digital age of transparency clients can see exactly where they are in the process of your sales funnel. They can see how full of shit you may or may not be… and they can see through your smoke and mirrors sales pitch as well. In a robo-world you have to become authentic. You must be able to convey your genuine concern for your clients 24/7.
 

 

Do you think you can convey that message?

In which you are using obvious sales tactics?

By using sales gimmicks from the late 1990’s?

Gimmicks to fill your sales funnel with leads?

 
They can see right through that… it’s not that hard to see your obvious lead generation and “sales marketing prowess” when you lock content behind gated walls on your website to gather email addresses.
 

The same transparency that is killing the sales funnel and traditional lead generation can make you irreplaceable if you understand how to leverage it for the good of your clients and for yourself.

Who you follow and what you like on social media is indicative of the type of services you offer your clients. If you are following sales gurus and liking their content, it is very simple for clients and potential clients to discover – what drives you is the commission – and not the well-being of the client.
 
It is this digital transparency that will be your end if you don’t walk away from the antiquated lead generation/sales funnel concept.
The same transparency will help you build filters to discover reputable digital marketing experts to guide you to the metrics you must gather to survive in today’s robo-word.

 

 

 

 

So What Can You Do?

Be proactive… be responsible… be yourself.

Your digital footprint tells your clients and your prospects exactly where you stand in relation to their well-being versus your sales commission. In a robo-world advisors must think differently and act accordingly, because sales funnels are dead. Advisors must first understand and identify their authentic relevant value before they can become and remain relevant to their ideal audience.
 

Right now we live in the greatest era of opportunity for financial advisors. WHY? Because… Your ideal audience is seeking a trusted source of wisdom… and that is YOU.

 
Discover more about how to shift your focus from sales to service, leverage your time efficiently, and take complete advantage of transparency to survive in a robo-world. You must become empowered to think differently about the value you provide. You must be able to rethink what might be considered as acceptable practices in the new era of financial services. Sometimes you just have to let go of the past to stay relevant.
 
 
One final thought from the author… If you don’t say goodbye to legacy concepts like lead generation and sales funnels, you can kiss your assets goodbye.
 
Keep it Tangible,
 
Grant

Your Future Awaits

Build My Filter

Advisor By Design

Sep 20, 2019

TOP TRAITS OF RELEVANT ADVISORS

 

They know they can’t be everything for everyone.

They use the word “no” as a strategy.

They are known for the quality of their questions.

They are never complacent.

Their reputation precedes them… digitally.

They have a defined process for their businesses.

They have work / life balance.

They are active philanthropists.

They work only with ideal clients.

They control exactly how their value is perceived.

They realize… their unique value is precisely what makes them relevant.

 

What is your unique, authentic, relevant value?

 

 

DESIGN YOUR VALUE

Take Control

Advisor Conversations that Matter

Sep 18, 2019

Topics

3 reasons to nail down your topics for meaningful engagement.

1 Content leads to your unique value. 
2 Questions lead to your value to filter. 
3 Conversations are competent and add to your confidence.

Your virtual value must be aligned with the human experience.

Topics are derived from your purpose, principles, values, beliefs, opinions, experiences, expertise, promised behavior, behavior you expect from clients, your philosophy, and your processes…

Those disciplines of your alpha must be defined (by you) before you can create categories for content topics for engagement and questions that lead to your value.

Topics Tie It Together

The medium is the message. Your digital experience must flow seamlessly with your daily behavior if you want to survive in a robo world.

This is how to do exactly that… quickly.

If you are thinking about outsourcing your content to a third party, think differently.
You don’t need leads for a sales funnel.

You need to filter in prospects and keep clients with personalized topics.

Cookie cutter content will get you washed away.

No more silos.

Your value must become tangible for clients and prospects to see and hear.

Nobody wants to be placed in your sales funnel. Transparency lets prospective clients know exactly what you are up to.

Think Differently.

Own the words. Design your topics. Get and keep ideal clients. In perpetuity.

Conversations that matter don’t happen “off-the-cuff.”

Most advisors have never been afforded the opportunity to discover and define their authentic relevant value… they were hired to sell products. To remain relevant and become irreplaceable advisors are going to have to think differently about their job description. You are going to have to think differently about sales… you are going to have to think differently about service… you are going to have to think differently about your unique value.

  • You can’t have a conversation about the solutions you provide without the courage of your conviction.

  • The courage of your conviction comes from well defined value…

The conversations of most advisors, up until recently, have been centered around either products or the trustworthiness of their firm. But now, the greatest opportunity in the history of financial services awaits you…

Owning The Words That Define Your Value

By owning your value you are creating opportunities to have conversations that matter 24/7

In order to engage in conversations that matter you must have a formalized process in place in which the client experience is never left to question. Your business must become designed to exude your value and leverage all of your resources to consistently improve your client experience while simultaneously engaging in (and improving) the conversations that matter. Essentially, the client experience and the conversations that matter dovetail to enhance the overall  development of your business. Owning your Advisor Alpha creates this opportunity.

Once you define your value… you own your Advisor Alpha

Owning your Advisor Alpha and making it tangible nullifies the element of desperation inherent in a business where you can’t exude your value.

Lacking the courage of your conviction to have conversations of your value is the number one killer of all advisor client relationships… If you can’t put into words why your clients should be paying you, you will neglect them… and neglecting your clients is still the reigning champ of client defection.

They need to feel it… and you need to know how it makes them feel… Tangible Alpha.

If you don’t own the words that define your value you will be destined to attempt to become a version of “all things to all people.” This version of you fails eventually… and this version of you fails more rapidly in a robo-world.

Not owning your value will be the number one reason behind your failure… hourly, daily, monthly failures will ensue… and eventually, not owning your value will be the end of your advisory business.

You must first own your value before you can engage in conversations that matter.

Owning the words that define your value enable you to create a business in which your conversations fuel the client experience and the client experience fuels the conversations that matter. Owning your Advisor Alpha and making it tangible will drive the success of your business in the future… by design. 

Ponder This…

How can you escape the trap of client defection due to advisor neglect? How can you empower all trusted partners to have conversations with the courage of their conviction? How will you remain relevant and become irreplaceable? 

 

 

Topics Must Be Defined

My Topics

McKinsey: Time to Manage Behavior, Not Just Portfolios

Sep 16, 2019

Big Data Kills

Curated Article Commentary

by Grant Barger

The big data that gets reported from McKinsey has very little to do with the success or failure of your business as an entrepreneurial financial professional.

The title of this curated article (below) has it right, but the content of the article gets it wrong. This is digital noise. 

 

Read The Curated Archived Story Here

McKinsey: Time to Manage Behavior, Not Just Portfolios

The low-hanging fruits in financial markets leading to easy investment profits are well picked over. Now advisors need to focus on blocking and tackling – the basics of wealth management.

At least that’s the insight many FAs glean from the latest market warnings from McKinsey & Co. After a fairly “stellar” era of investment performance across broad stock and bond asset classes over the past 30 years, the consultancy is forecasting “returns are likely to come back down to earth over the next 20 years.”

“Although we’re not necessarily in agreement with all of their numbers, we think that this latest market forecast by McKinsey is spot-on,” says Andy Kapyrin, a partner at RegentAtlantic in Morristown, N.J., which manages about $3 billion.

Still, Kapyrin is finding rather limited remedies in terms of portfolio moves. He’s tilting some clients towards small-cap domestic stocks and emerging markets. But only on the edges, he adds, making sure not to expose investors to greater portfolio volatility than they’re likely to feel comfortable accepting over time.

“A more fundamental solution we’re finding is to re-assess a common concern we’re hearing these days – that lower returns will leave couples short in meeting their retirement goals,” says Kapyrin.

So his staff has been analyzing spending patterns of the independent RIA’s 1,200-plus clients over longer periods. Supported by outside research from JPMorgan, among others, Kapyrin’s starting to share with his clients a reassuring message: Even in less rosy economic times, retirement might not be as scary as first imagined.

While expenses might go up shortly after leaving the workforce as couples take more trips and “celebrate retirement,” Kapyrin relates that most of his clients’ golden years are characterized by moves to downsize and live more simply.

Paul Bennett
“The McKinsey study is another good reminder of the need to lower investors’ expectations over the next few decades,” he says. “But what research like this leaves out is that most retirees aren’t likely to go on any extensive spending sprees that will bust their budgets.”

Taking emotions out of the process isn’t just a matter of developing more realistic views of what a family might need to save and spend going forward, points out Paul Bennett, an advisor in Great Falls, Va., with United Capital, which manages more than $15 billion.

“I’m readdressing with our clients the need to make sure they’re not falling into certain mental traps when making choices about how best to invest,” he says.

A major bias that Bennett is urging investors to watch out for is something he calls the myopia trap – when clients become so focused on one aspect of investing that they miss the bigger picture.

It’s a behavioral trait Bennett says he tries to avert by making sure investors aren’t creating “mental silos” where they’re “fixating” on a relatively small number of holdings or accounts.

Right now, he’s also finding many clients falling into what he refers to as the “confirming evidence” trap. This, he says, is where “people tend to remember things selectively and interpret information in a biased manner.”

For example, investors might emphasize one politician’s take on economics with relative zeal. The veteran FA isn’t trying to take sides, however. “In those situations, I think it’s important as an advisor to objectively point out that they’re effectively devaluing anything that might come along in the future that contradicts those preconceived notions,” says Bennett.

A good start is to make sure clients’ goals are put into proper order, suggests Michael Liersch, head of behavioral finance at Merrill Lynch.

“It’s common for people to have very implicit ideas about money,” he says.

During times of lower market expectations, FAs must strive to become even more articulate to flush out clients’ true bucket lists, recommends Liersch.

“The challenge is to refine your interviewing process so that a family’s goals are laid out in a more quantifiable way,” he says. “As an advisor, that’s going to allow you to align clients’ investment plans and track their progress in a more definitive manner.”

 

By Murray Coleman 

 

When someone uses the phrase “blocking and tackling” and they aren’t a football coach,  you know they are dead behind the eyes. The basics of wealth management? Really? Because it’s so simple…

It’s ridiculous that financial services publications continue to equate conversations about investor behavior with lowering expectations. Conversations that matter about behavior have more to do with the actions of investors that correspond with the overall success or failure of their goals and dreams. Advisors must stop allowing themselves to be measured by the antiquated metrics of an industry that continues to publish tripe (like this) that only adds more confusion to their daily lives. Advisors must start designing the metrics that matter (to the advisor and the client).

Your Reading Filter

This article is two years old… the financial services industry has been publishing shit like this for 40 years… you can find one just like it  anywhere you turn these days. The point of this post is to help you see what you are reading… don’t just go through the motions with the same old assumptions.

Some Good Thoughts

If the words in the article are highlighted in green the concept is sound… you might think about how you might implement those words into meaningful conversations of your own.

This isn’t about destroying the author who is just doing his job by interviewing an advisor about how they do stuff. This is about rethinking the status quo. 

Think Outside The Black Box

The concept covered in the article is sound… you have to become more than a portfolio manager to add value to your clients. Holistic is a term some like to use… I don’t. You are managing Net Worth. The net worth of your valued clients requires you to get off of your ass (mentally) and be proactive about setting and maintaining expectations. If you are unable to set and maintain behavioral expectations with your ideal audience, your chances for survival in a robo-world are slim to none. It’s time for you to think outside the black box of industry defined value which is focused on ROI from capital markets… you must become more than a middle-man to your clients.

Collecting Meaningful Data

To remain relevant there is a progression you can follow that allows you to collect metrics that are germane to your existence. The progression is outlined throughout this website. Your unique data will help you thrive in a robo-world but you have to learn how to get that data in the most effective and efficient manner. Stop wasting your time on big data articles published by the industry and start discovering your own unique KPI. Then you will be able to filter through the noise (the stuff in red) with a more efficient outlook and highlight the stuff in green on your own.

Rethink your value and formulate your own plan here. 24/7

 

 

 

Discover Your KPI

 

 

 

 

My Advisor Data

Drop the Value Prop

Sep 13, 2019

Your Words Matter

You have to own the words to own your Alpha… otherwise you’re just speaking with nonsensical catchphrases and corporate jargon.

(Props to AVAYA for this snarky promotional piece)

 

Catchphrases Don't Work

 

 

 

 

Own The Words