Scouting for new clients is something most advisors do continuously throughout their careers. However, generating new business for your practice takes experience and finesse, and many advisors find themselves falling into a few common pitfalls. Here are five mistakes that could keep you from prospecting productively — and ways to avoid them.
1. Focusing on Lead Quantity Over Quality
As with any sales or marketing outreach, prospecting for your advisory practice begins with identifying leads. But just because you have a lot of leads doesn’t mean you’re likely to end up with a lot of new clients. Rather than trying to find as many new contacts as possible, focus on the quality of the leads you generate. A quality — and qualified — lead is one who works well for your business model and your areas of expertise. This could be specific industries you know well — or plans of certain sizes
2. Not Being Persistent Enough
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is giving up too early on a lead. A quick online search finds the typical number of required touches to close a sale ranging anywhere from five to 20, with seven being a widely reported average. But wherever the actual figure lands, don’t be discouraged if you haven’t closed a deal after a discussion, or two — or even three. If the conversation is still going with a qualified lead, that lead is still on the table even if you’re not signing paperwork yet.
3. Trying to Sell too Early
Don’t generate resistance to your pitch by making it too early. Prospect relationships need to be nurtured, and prematurely asking for the sale can end a conversation before it even starts. Think of your initial prospecting as an evaluation period for both you and your lead. Taking time to familiarize yourself with a client’s business, their concerns and their goals — and getting to know them personally — can help you both determine whether you’re a good fit for an advisory relationship.
4. Failure to Differentiate Yourself
Always showcase your unique value props and differentiate your service offering. For instance, if you provide comprehensive financial education for participants, or if you benchmark plan fees more frequently than every three to five years, these kinds of differentiators can make all the difference to the right future client. Highlight how your services are specific to your prospect’s needs, such as investment management for startups or health care firms. Your leads have no doubt received pitches by a number of experienced and qualified advisors — what turns a lead into a client are services and results they believe their organization can get from a relationship with you.
5. Not Offering Immediate Value
First impressions are crucial to every business relationship, and that includes retirement plan clients. Right from the start, demonstrate to prospects that you can bring value to the table. PlanFees offers a customizable, two-minute benchmark of retirement plan investment, recordkeeping, administration and advisory fees based on just a handful of data points. Our accurate, on-demand and revealing reports can be created on the spot, right from your laptop or mobile device — in real time during your next prospecting meeting. Gain a competitive edge by using PlanFees data to lead a more insightful, substantive and productive conversation. Help determine whether your prospect might be overpaying in fees before they’re even a client — and demonstrate your value to plan sponsors straight out of the gate.
Prospect better with PlanFees.
Source:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140515154931-96757-how-many-touches-make-a-sale/
