Financial planning as we know it today has grown out of, or blended from the insurance industry, the investment industry and the accounting profession. You can probably throw in a little of the legal profession as well. And it’s probably reasonable to assume that many of the older generation of financial planners have evolved from the insurance industry, which ‘in the day’ was very much a sales-based business.
However, nowadays, if you talk to many of the industry’s practitioners, they seem very keen to point out that they are not salespeople but professionals. In-fact some seem to go to extreme lengths to distance themselves from the concept of selling completely.
Unfortunately the reality is we are still salespeople! Ok granted we are not selling in the manner of the old insurance agent, but we are selling. We’re selling our services, our professionalism and ourselves. And the sooner we understand this and learn to develop and hone the skills, the sooner we will be able to embrace the benefits that will flow our way.
Gone are the days of a prospective client bowing to our superior knowledge and simply accepting whatever we say (if there ever were days like that). Today’s client is coming to us pre-armed with a wealth of knowledge on the services and strategies available to them and in many cases these days, we are the ones being interviewed by them… and if they are not sold on us being the right person or the right business, they will simply go elsewhere.
So here it is; we must be salespeople if we want to have a successful practice. We need to learn and understand properly how to sell our services and ourselves and we need to learn how to do it in a way that does not come across as selling.
No cheesy ‘pitches’, or hard selling skills are needed. They went out the door with the ‘old’ insurance salesperson. Today we need the soft selling skills; empathy, friendliness, listening and understanding, and also confidence, reassurance, professionalism and the ability to show them that we are the best person to help them. We need them to leave that first meeting believing that they are dealing with a successful and knowledgeable professional that knows and understands them and their circumstances.
But don’t show off and don’t try and fake it. Today’s consumers can see right through you and will have dismissed you almost immediately. There are studies that show our brain makes a decision within 30 seconds of meeting someone as to whether or not we like them.
Modern consumers don’t want the technocrat with no charisma sitting at their desk poring over statistics and algorithms when they’re meeting you for the first time, although they do want to know you have those wonderful skills. The financial guru that you are needs to sell themselves first and leave the other for when the client has gone.
Don’t confuse sales with the ‘good ol’ days’ or the flogging of products, embrace the modern sales concepts and sell your professionalism, your value and yourself. Be a salesperson and be a more successful professional.
David is the founder and principal at SIRA Group. He has twenty five years’ experience in the financial services industry, and is an expert in tax and superannuation strategies.
