Will Sales Pros Survive?
Will Sales Pros Survive?
Maybe...You are not going to survive in the digital age of financial services by selling products.
But you can thrive in the digital age by providing solutions to the people who need them the most.
Traditional sales concepts will tell you that sales has always been about providing solutions… you’re selling the hole, not the drill bit… sell the sizzle, not the steak… it’s a work of art to get them to say yes, isn’t it?
All that sales bullshit is over… In the digital age of transparency, the consumer is in complete control of the purchasing/sales/solutions process.
Your ability to close is no longer a viable skill set in the modern workforce.
But you can position yourself as a trusted steward of wealth, the only issue is this… do you care enough about your clients to do it?
If you do care about your clients and you do want to get paid for your unique solutions and you do trust the wisdom you can provide is worthy… yeah, you can really thrive in the digital age.
Curated Content
This is content posted by someone else… I get to share it with you… here, on my website… because the internet is awesome.
by Phil Stubbs | @philstubbs14
‘I love your closing techniques’? or ‘your novelty socks are so amazing’? perhaps it’s: ‘I wish I could sit through more of your huge PowerPoint presentations, I just love the way you cram so much onto each slide’? No?
One of mine was ‘Oh sorry, I always thought you worked here’. It happened to me a number of times when I was ‘social selling’ in the late 90’s. On one occasion it was during an internal, onsite, party at Panmure Gordon, a British corporate and institutional stockbroker and investment bank. The same party where I had been dancing on a chair in full view of a group of board directors.
I remember an old sales manager telling me that a ‘great’ salesman would have a desk at the office of his top clients. Well, I didn’t need a desk, although that may have been safer than dancing on a chair! At the time, I was selling voice and data to financial institutions in the City of London and whilst Panmure had been a client I changed company but it had zero impact on my relationship. It was business as usual, I was just getting orders signed under a different company name.
I was pushing 90’s style ‘social selling’ to the max – birthday drinks, leaving do’s, departmental celebrations, lunches, even Christmas parties – I was invited to them all!
The same was happening at another big client of mine, ABN AMRO Bank, who at the time were one of a handful of triple ‘A’ rated banks. When I switched jobs, I gave my new employers a presentation on how I was going to win the ABN account for them. I then went and did what I said I would and at the next sales conference I presented how we won it. It made me look a star but I knew the truth – I actually ‘bigged up’ what I had done to seal the deal. In reality it was easy, I told ABN I was changing employer and they worked with me to shift services.
Through that style of ‘social selling’ I had gained the trust of so many people – and they bought from me, Phil Stubbs. Even if we screwed up, one time I recall a Friday night stood outside a pub in Holborn as I rang directors of the company I worked for and got them to fix an issue, it was never a deal breaker. ABN had a big move that weekend and none of the voice circuits had been pre-provisioned – we solved it and no drama.
I was giving advice on data networks, when to be honest, my knowledge was limited – but I built a strong virtual account team around me that I had faith in and I encouraged them to develop their own relationships within ABN.
I was trusted and liked, not just as a person but also for my knowledge, openness and dependability. That speaks so much louder than what’s on a business card.
Looking back and comparing to what I do now – the similarities are easy to see. All that work I did at being ‘social’ can now be done online. I connect with people, I get introduced to people as my network grows. I share content, thoughts and views and I get asked for my opinion. Just like the 90’s without the late nights!
Using social media to sell is a must for us today. The buyer – seller relationship has evolved with the buyer now having the power. Social gives you the chance to get into your customer and prospects ‘inner circle’.
If you aren’t immersing yourself into the ‘social world’ of your clients and prospects then you don’t have the bond and level of relationship needed to win.
The Narrative
Crunch Time
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Simple Video Content
Adding content every day, even on the holidays, is what I live to do… this little gem should help make more sense of what we are trying to accomplish… with more simplicity.
Designations Should Mean Something…
Define Your Value
...or the industry will do it for youWhat do the letters that follow your name really mean to your clients?
You can NOT rely on industry generated campaigns to differentiate your value. You must become empowered to do this yourself. If you are lacking the confidence to define exactly what makes you so special, we have something to help you boost your confidence… enough to help you define your authentic relevant value…make it tangible for digital consumption… and maximize your relevance for years to come. If you have a minute, you have time to get started right now.
You won’t survive if you let this industry define your differentiation.
It’s nobody’s business but yours.
Curated Article
CFP Board’s new ad campaign to target client emotional well-being
By Kenneth Corbin
Published June 29 2018
The CFP Board is gearing up to launch a new phase of its marketing campaign, this time focusing on the emotional well-being of clients.
In the fall, the board plans to release a new wave of advertisements across multiple media platforms to tout the CFP designation as the gold standard of financial advice. The campaign builds on market research conducted on consumer sentiment of the planning profession.
In focus groups, consumers who worked with a planner reported feeling more “confident, optimistic, secure and at ease,” according to Kevin Keller, the CFP Board’s CEO.
“That is the opposite of the worry and stress that were cited by people who did not have a financial plan,” Keller said in an online presentation outlining the board’s business objectives.
“We’re finding that people realize they need help with financial planning, and they envision specific emotional benefits from doing so. That is quite powerful,” Keller said.
The CFP Board credits its advertising and public relations campaign with boosting awareness of the financial planning profession and the CFP credential.
The new campaign is scheduled to go into production this summer. It will hit airwaves, print media and online publications after Labor Day.
The Let’s Make a Plan campaign, launched in April 2011, has not been without controversy. Some CFPs have grumbled about funding the effort through a hike in their certificant fees.
To date, the board has spent $73 million on the campaign, which now carries a nearly $12 million annual budget.
That “might seem like a lot to most people, but in the world of advertising it’s just a drop in the bucket,” said Susan John, the chairwoman-elect of the CFP Board’s board of directors, during the online presentation.
The CFP Board credits its advertising and public relations campaign with boosting awareness of the financial planning profession and the CFP credential.
The board is also expanding its diversity initiative beyond the gender imbalance in the planning field to focus on racial and ethnic minorities.
Building on its Women’s Initiative, the CFP Board is now looking to promote the profession to other underrepresented groups, with a diversity summit scheduled in October in New York, according to John.
The board is also touting its new code of ethics and standards of conduct. The new code will take effect October 2019.It will require advisors to act as fiduciaries at all times, a stipulation that has met with some resistance among CFPs, many of whom are brokers.
“I would respectfully disagree that it’s going to be that hard for advisors to comply with the standard of putting your client’s best interest first any time you’re delivering financial advice,” said Richard Salmen, the chairman of the CFP Board’s board of directors, during the presentation.
Salmen rejects the notion that some CFPs will let their certification lapse as a result of the always-on fiduciary requirement. Instead, he argues there is emerging awareness about fiduciary responsibilities among investors spurred on by the highly publicized debate over the Department of Labor’s now-defunct fiduciary rule. He says he is frequently asked whether he is a fiduciary or CFP by prospective clients.
Clients ask whether their advisors are obligated to act as fiduciaries all the time, both Salmen and John say. They are also looking for holistic planning services more frequently, rather than just periodic investment advice.
“There are consumers that are now aware enough and educated enough to know what to ask for,” Salmen said. “And that, to me, is going to drive the future marketplace for financial planning advice.”
1 Comment
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The CFP Board is completely out of touch with it’s certificate holders. The CFP rakes in nearly $30M annually and in return the certificate holders get a tattoo artist inking a bullseye on our foreheads. I counsel young advisors not to pursue the CFP designation. I may soon surrender my credentials.