Whites Of Their Eyes

Only 6% of advisors in 2011 said that Social Media has helped them increase profits…that’s down from 16% in 2009. (source: Aite Group)

This 20-minute video will fix that and fill your calendar in the next 45 days.

The February 2012 issue of Smart Money Magazine did an article on the Financial Profession and its future. Here’s a glimpse of some of their findings:

• 250:1 — Ratio of baby boomers to financial advisors
• 55% — The pass rate for first-timers on the CFP exam.
• 30,000 — The number of financial advisors that leave the industry each year
• 2065 — After net losses (at current rates), the year that the country will run out of financial advisors
• $48,500 — Average first-year salary of an entry level financial planner

The take away from the article is that business will be good for us going forward because more and more people need us…but we have fewer people entering the business, than leaving it.

Put your marketing on steroids by creating a killer 5Q.

This guide will walk you through developing an “elevator speech” that you can use to generate more referrals in the next 6 months than you’ve had in your entire career.

Download the 5Q Guide here.

What two crises does every sale have? Objections and “the close”. It’s at these two places that the success or the failure of your sale teeters on the edge. What if you actually used these two crisis moments to create deeper rapport with your prospect instead of the stress they normally create? When you learn to do this, you’ll see an immediate doubling of your income.

Am I making wild claims about income? Award-winning research scientist Dr. William R. Miller found that if a professional mishandled just one client-voiced resistance in a meeting, it would cause the whole meeting to fail. I’ve seen this happen. I’ve seen a meeting going beautifully… The client and the advisor getting along like two pigs in mud… then, the meeting unravels in a second when the advisor fumbles an objection.  Handling resistance correctly will catapult your success and income.

Here’s how you get it right. First, don’t ever be surprised by an objection. Giving objections is part of a client’s decision-making process. Nobody is going to turn over their money to you without at least some question or objection. So the first rule is, don’t panic. Take the objection in stride. Take a deep breath and smile. Don’t let them see that you’re rattled. If the client detects any level of anxiety on your part, they’re going to wonder why you’re so worried about whether or not they take your advice. The conclusion they most often will come to, is that you want to get your hands on their money. And, that’s not good. So stay calm.

And if you think about it, there’s no reason to panic. We’ve experienced objections at every single meeting we’ve had our entire careers. And it’s the same objections over and over and over. In fact, I put a list together of all the objections that advisors get and came up with only 45 objections. And it’s really just the same 10 or 15 that we see most often.

Clients are going to give you objections, get used to it.

Is every objection they give you valid?  Yes it is. If you climbed into your client’s mind you would see that their objection, regardless of how ridiculous it is to you, makes total sense to them. And the last thing we want is for them to feel like we think their objection is not valid. If you do, you’ve taken a big step backwards. People don’t like people who point out that they’re wrong.

To get objections right, you must first understand the anatomy of an objection.

• An objection is the client’s declaration of free will–people don’t want to feel like they been sold, they want to feel like they’ve purchased of their own free will. Objections help them feel that way.
• When a client gives us an objection they know that we will likely “fight” or disagree with them
• The Client’s fight- flight syndrome kicks in… The adrenaline starts flowing:
  • Their blood pressure goes up
  • Their pulse rate goes up
  • They start rehearsing verbal comebacks to anything you may say, in their minds–they know you’re probably going to give them a rebuttal and begin immediately thinking of their rebuttal your rebuttal… and so on and so on.

And this fight-flight syndrome does not just apply to the client, you as the advisor are also likely to be experiencing the same fight- flight symptoms.

What do you think is happening to the communication process when you’re both stressing out? This obviously isn’t conducive to building rapport. Listening skills drop. Empathy drops. Willingness to be open to another’s point of view drops.

When two people have different agendas, the defenses are going to go up on both sides. If we do not immediately address this problem were going to sink the deal.

If you go back and read the last two sentences, you have discovered the magic to overcoming objections. You both can’t have different agendas.

So can we expect the client to drop their agenda and immediately adopt ours? Of course not.

Well if they don’t want to adopt our agenda, then we have to adopt theirs. Once they have been convinced that instead of fighting them on their objection… we are instead on their side and agreeing with her agenda, communication can once again begin.

Here are the three steps to getting the communication going again:

1. Acknowledge their objection
2. Parrot back their objection in the form of a question
3. Get on the client’s side

Let’s walk through each of these steps individually.

Acknowledge their objection

When you hear them give you an objection, pause. This is your moment to calm yourself. You don’t want to show your cards or indicate any worry about the objection. You also want to let the client know that you heard their objection. The easiest way to do this is to learn to automatically utter your “safety” word. It’s a word or phrase that you can use without thinking, when you hear an objection. It changes your train of thought from one of “wanting to correct the client” to one of “getting on their side”. Here’s a list of several “safety” words and phrases that I have my coaching clients use:

• absolutely
• definitely
• exactly
• without question
• very true
• unquestionably
• you bring up a good point
• you’re right
• I agree

At first this will be very hard, as our natural instinct is to immediately “correct” them. Instead, get used to using one of these words or phrases to get you in the mindset of agreement and bringing down the client’s fight- flight symptoms.

Parrot back their objection in the form of a question

Again, in the spirit of changing your mindset and assuring them that they are among friends, we repeat their objection back in the form of a question. What I mean by that is to simply take what they’ve told you, and turn it into a question that they can answer with a YES! This is easily done by simply adding the following type of phrases to the objection:

• Isn’t it?
• Doesn’t it?
• Wouldn’t you?
• Shouldn’t you?
• Don’t you?

For example, if they say, “This does not give me enough liquidity.”

You could say one of the following:

• “You don’t want to get locked into something that’s not liquid, do you?”
• “It would be a big mistake to get locked into something that wasn’t liquid, wouldn’t it?”

You’ve accomplished three things by parroting their objection back in the form of a question.

1. You startle them… In a good way. You see, they were prepared for you to fight back, but instead you agree with them. This breaks their disagreement mindset, and gets them listening again.
2. You agreed with them. By doing so, they believe you must have their best interest at heart. Great minds think alike. We all like people who think like us. You’ve taken them from a posture of ready to fight you, to a posture of, “Hey, I like this guy.”
3. And most importantly, you get them to say the magic word… Yes. See we’ve gone from them prepared to fight us, to them agreeing with us with one little sentence.

Get on their side

This last step of getting on their side takes a bit of practice. What you’re going to do is to start to argue their case for them. Start to tell them why their objection is absolutely correct. And remember it is… In their head. So climb into the clients head and argue their point of view for them. This does two things. First, it gets you thinking like the client… and if you want to be a very successful salesperson, learn to think like the client. Get out of your head and into the client’s head. Second, by arguing their point of view you’re solidifying the fact that you’re a “friendly” and not the enemy.

The best way to master this skill is in your car. Turn on the talk radio station. When you hear something you disagree with on the radio, turn off the radio and begin arguing for the point of view that you disagree with. Become an expert at arguing for a point you don’t agree with. Do this just 5 min. a day and within one month you’ll become a master at this skill. It’s not hard, it just takes some practice.

So at this point their fight- flight response has been eliminated, and so has yours. They know that you’re a “friendly” and not an enemy. But obviously, you are not any closer to overcoming their objection than when you began, right? Au contraire, you are much closer to overcoming their objection… Because now they’re of the mindset of respecting your point of view… Of listening to what you have to say… not immediately fighting everything that comes out of your mouth.

Now, both you and the client are communicating again and you can help them understand your point of view as well.

Another beneficial consequence of going through this three-step objection process is it puts some time between you and your client’s objection. Again, this is extremely important because nobody likes to be wrong. Going through this process will take generally around 5 minutes. This time works to our advantage.  After those 5 minutes pass, we can pretend like we don’t remember they gave us an objection in the first place. The benefit of this is that when we share with them our point of view on why that objection is not in their best interest, we can all pretend like they didn’t give us the objection in the first place.

It’s much like the way we act in real life. If somebody who we like makes a mistake, the polite thing to do is to pretend like a mistake did not occur. We’ve all done this, haven’t we? Your date has some food stuck in their teeth, what’s the polite thing to do? You don’t blurt out, “Hey! You’ve got some food in your teeth!”

No, instead you mildly gesture, with your own teeth, signaling them that they have food stuck in their teeth. And then, we can all move on and pretend like an embarrassing moment did not occur. It’s the same thing we’re doing here by putting some distance between their original objection and our sharing why their objection is not in their best interest.

This three-step process of overcoming objection works on any objection, and will make you both a lot more friends and a lot more sales.  And most importantly, don’t forget to use this new skill with your spouses!

A 2011 Pew Research survey showed that over 50% of adults in America now use Social Media on a regular basis.  You probably already knew that.  Here’s what you might not know…

What do you think is the most important Social Networking site to grow your business?  You might think Facebook or LinkedIn.  It’s neither.  The King of Social Medial for someone promoting a service based business (financial advisors fall into this realm) is your Blog. 

Yet, according to Registered Rep Magazine, only 10% of Financial Advisors publish a Blog.  Have you ever wanted to get a head start on all your competition?  Here’s your chance!  Here’s a list of the top 10 Advisor Blogs of the year.

Registered Rep Magazine’s Top 10 Blogs of 2011:

1. www.thecynicaladvisor.com
2. www.newworldwealthconcepts.com
3. www.financiallywisewomen.com
4. Blog.froelichfinancial.com
5. Financialawakenings.com
6. Keenerfinancial.com/blog
7. Adviceonlymusings.blogspot.com/
8. www.raymondjames.com/starnergroup/musings.htm
9. www.womenmoneyanddivorce.com/
10. Carverfinancialservices.wordpress.com/

Source: “The Blogging Basics.” Registered Rep Magazine, October 2011 pg. 61

Depending on the license you hold… you may or may not be able to use a straight client testimonial.  Registered Investment Advisors are barred from straight out testimonials by Rule 206(4)-1(a)(1).

Fortunately, some of the best ways to use testimonials are completely compliance friendly for ALL financial professionals, regardless of the license they hold.

Here are a few excellent ways to bring on some great clients by leveraging this excellent tool… without becoming afoul in compliance problems.

1. Put together birthday parties for your best clients.  Talk to your client’s spouse and let them know you want to throw a party for their spouse.  Ask them to put together a list of 10 to 12 of the friends they would like to invite and then mail out invitations.  You should do this at a nice restaurant.  The event should be all about the client’s birthday.  No presentation… No products… none of that.  You should toast your client at the beginning and let the client gush about you for the rest of the party.  I have an advisor client that brought on 10 new clients last year using this technique.  He made over $70,000 in income from these clients.  What did it cost him? Around $6,000 to do about 14 parties.  He plans on doubling that this year!
2. Do an exclusive client dinner for 5 of your best clients at a time.  This should be done at an exclusive restaurant.  The ticket into the event for your client is bringing a friend.  You just have to let your clients know in the invitation letter that you are doing this brief presentation for clients and their guests.  If you write the letter appropriately, your clients will bring guests. If you need the letter, send me an email at mikekaselnak@5QGroup.com and I’ll email it to you.  At the dinner you simply do a 30 minute presentation on something that’s been in the news that you can help them leverage to better their situation.  I have dozens of advisor clients that make this a monthly marketing plan and it brings in 1/3 to ½ of their yearly income.
3. Are you an expert?  If you are… write a white paper or record a DVD or CD on subjects that your target market would find interesting.  Think about what keeps them up at night, and then record or write the definitive solution to that sleep robbing issue.  Then give 5 copies to each of your clients and ask them to share them with people they think could benefit.
4. If you do nothing else… at least make sure you belong to the Better Business Bureau and have their Torch Award displayed prominently on your door or in your office.  Many advisors skip this because in their words, “It means nothing.”  Sorry, but it does.  It gives your prospects a sense of confidence in your service and reputation.

Postcards are fickle prospect generators… it’s all about timing.  Your postcard has to be about something that people want RIGHT NOW!  It can’t be about vague things like retirement planning or IRA’s if you want it to be successful.

So, what do people want right now?  This post card hits people where they are hurting right now… Interest Rates!  How much are people making in their cash accounts?  Diddly, right? 

Only if you don’t know any better!  Did you know there are completely liquid… FDIC Insured… accounts that are paying over 4% right now?  How many of your clients and prospects would be interested in that?  I’d bet quite a few.

There are several banks paying over 4% interest around the country.  Now, you’re probably wondering… how am I supposed to make money referring clients out to banks?  Simple, most of these high paying accounts only give you those high rates up to account values of $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the bank. 

So, once you help the client get a high rate of return on that $5,000 or $10,000… you can step in with ideas of what to do with the rest of their portfolio!

Here’s links to a few of these high interest FDIC insured banking opportunities:
www.centernationalbank.com
www.gibslandbank.com
www.Lnbok.com

Postcard verbiage:

           Looking for Higher Interest rates?

           How about an FDIC Insured checking account paying 4% Interest!

           Don’t wait. Call now.  Rates can change anytime!

                                <Contact Info>

It’s as simple as that.  Remember to check the websites prior to sending the postcards to make sure the rates are still valid!

How you describe what you do, can be the difference between a quick sale… and a quick exit.

When you have an astoundingly interesting “elevator statement”, you can hook people instantaneously. Your goal is to get them to say, “How do you do that?”

If you think about it, how do people know what you do? You don’t wear a label that they can read that tells them what you do…and if you let them make up their own minds about what you do…they are probably going to lump you together with all of your competition!

Saying “I’m a financial advisor” or “I’m a retirement specialist” makes you sound like every other financial advisor or insurance agent they’ve ever met. Conversation over.

You must immediately differentiate yourself from all of your competition. Get people to understand in 30 seconds that they don’t want to speak to you more… but absolutely NEED to speak to you more. You can best accomplish this by sitting down and creating a killer “elevator statement” using the 5Q Process™ outlined below or any other process that helps describe what you do in a manner that shows why you are different from your competition.

However, many advisors find it hard to get the creative juices flowing so I’ve included some examples of elevator speeches to get you started…BUT don’t just grab one of these to use – instead use them to create one that describes you and your practice!

“I have a team that specializes in building and preserving wealth for dentists by utilizing the recent Supreme Court ruling”

Would dentists ask, “What ruling was that?”

“I increase teacher’s pension income by over $250 a month using a special clause in the recently passed 2010 Minnesota Omnibus Bill.”

Would a teacher ask, “How exactly does that work?”

“I create tax free income for people born before 1961 using the little known exclusion clause in the IRS Code 1.72(c).”

Would anyone 60 years and older say, “How does that tax code work? Would it work for me?”

Did you notice how these really effective elevator statements are directed toward a particular target market? (dentists, teachers, people over the age of 60)

The more specific an “elevator statement” is, the more effective it is. Notice that the above statements not only carved out a target market but also hinted at a specific solution:
• Supreme Court ruling
• 2010 Minnesota Omnibus Bill
• IRS Code 1.71(c)

Specificity sells!

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

In this colorful approach, advisors relate their value to some vivid image the listener can picture immediately. What variation on this theme would you create?

“You know how the wind will blow a boat straight across the lake…but when a trained sailor controls that wind, they can move their boat straight into it successfully? I do the same with people’s taxes.”

“Do you know what a dream catcher is? I help people achieve their dreams either faster or cheaper than they ever thought possible.”

“Did you ever see the movie Top Gun? You know where they talk about the importance of a wingman protecting his buddy’s hind end when he is concentrating on a target? I do the same thing for small business people. I watch out for all the regulations, unforeseen events and tax problems that can sneak up on them while they concentrate on growing their business.”

“Have you ever heard of a liger? I am a “CPAttorney”! That rare but very valuable animal that can protect you from the tax beast! Truth be told, I am a CPA and attorney, I am able to manage my wealthy clients’ tax, legal, and financial strategies so we can work together to protect their financial futures.”

“I perform “stress-ectomies”. I work with retirees in showing them how to reduce their financial stress and anxieties, and how to enjoy their money.”

“Have you ever looked at the directions to put together an IKEA piece of furniture? I put together peoples “financial furniture”. I take the gibberish and complication out of people’s financial situations and put them together quickly and efficiently so they can enjoy them.”

The Rhetorical Question

Asking people questions that immediately paints a picture for them is a powerful way to get them to understand what it is that you do.

“Do you think billionaires do their own taxes and investments? Well, I do the exact same thing for people with $500,000 or more in assets and I can do that with some unique technology that I use.”

“What do they require of new buildings that are built on or near earthquake fault lines? I work with people that believe that our economy will have some bumps and grinds as well and want their lives to withstand any unforeseen quakes or shakes.

“You know when large ships or submarines are made with watertight compartments? One compartment flooding prevents the whole vessel from sinking – I do the same thing for my clients and it provides them peace of mind.”

“I keep people fired or retired. You know how a lot of retired people in today’s economy need a second job to make ends meet, such as McDonalds? I make sure that doesn’t happen by putting together a point-by-point, easy to follow plan that I measure with my clients 4 times a year.”

The Fixer

You fix their problems…make sure to avoid sounding too scary! You are there to Help – not give them a heart attack!

“I’m a moat. I ensure people who can be specifically targeted for lawsuits are not only adequately protected… but attack proof.”
“I’m mortar. I make sure a family’s wealth does not crumble between generations.”

“We help clients within 5 years of retirement. We are kind of what they call a closer in baseball. The starting pitcher gets the team to the last few innings…but when things really count at the end – we make sure we cover all the bases and make sure nothing gets missed.”

It’s Not So Hard to Create Your Own Killer “Elevator Statement”

You can create a statement that will immediately give you great results with your marketing and referral programs. After all, no one knows your target market like you do!

Developing Your Own Elevator Statement with the 5Q Process™:

1. Figure out what keeps your target market up at night. What:
       a. Frustrates them
       b. Scares them
       c. Fills them with greed
2. Find that one thing that you do, that NONE of your competitors do, to address that problem.
3. Be very specific about what you use to address that problem. Specificity is something that they can check on, like an IRS Code or a Supreme Court ruling. They’ll never check it out, but knowing they can gives you immediate credibility.
4. Make sure it is brief and easy to remember. Keep it to 20 seconds or less.
5. TEST it! Try your new statement out on family, colleagues and prospects. If they say:
“How do you do that?” or “Tell me more.”

You now have a killer “elevator speech” that you should use everywhere! On your letterhead. In your marketing. As a tagline on your emails. Everywhere!

You will soon have people approaching you to ask about your expertise, instead of you having to spend thousands on marketing each year.