Sales:

While many entrepreneurs focus their marketing and branding efforts on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, they often neglect sites like LinkedIn. However, this social media channel can have tremendous branding power and offer business owners a new way to learn more about potential clients, enhance their brand exposure and connect with even more consumers. There have recently been big changes within LinkedIn...

The client acquisition process is about helping your prospect buy rather than selling them a product or service, but many people in the business of sales tend to forget that. A salesperson's chief responsibility is not to hit his or her quota, but to educate potential clients about how a particular item or service can offer a solution to business problems. By working first educate yourself on the latest developments in your industry and then share that...

To advance prospects through the marketing pipeline and eventually guide them to the sales process, salespeople in any industry need to keep their targets "warm." Do you have a strategy for how you ensure you are at the top of prospects' minds? What have you done to guarantee that they associate your name with a particular service or product? Maintaining contact is only half of the sales process - you also need to constantly evolve what you are...

Some of the most valuable business prospects are already your clients. Because you have already succeeded in converting existing clients, a major portion of the marketing process has been completed. It allows you to build upon your past successes and the fact that the existing clients are already familiar with your work. Get information on past actions for future success To get insight into how you can do that, however, you must undergo periodic reviews. As I...

Perhaps you're familiar with the AIDAS theory in selling. According to the Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction model, a prospect will experience all five emotions, and it is the salesperson's responsibility to ensure that the potential client passes through the stages in the correct order. The sales story that you tell can significantly impact whether you are able to lead a prospect to a positive sales cycle outcome - specifically, him or her becoming...

Especially in an industry such as financial services, it is vital to be as above-board and transparent with your clients and business partners as possible. Financial services professionals' relationships with the people they serve depend on more than just delivering results. Representing yourself as someone they can truly rely upon and confide in are main features of an effective, sustainable partnership. As Neal Rodriguez recently pointed out in a piece for the...

Digital networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we interact in the business and social worlds. Now, we can communicate with the click of a button, and we can learn about each others' interests, work histories and more without ever having met in person. This level of personal and professional access is a boon for marketing and sales operations (which are intertwined, not separate actions as some may believe). It allows salespeople to...

I recently pulled up an old New York Times blog post written by Tom Szaky, the CEO of recycling specialist TerraCycle. His words about sales resonated with me, and I drew a lot parallels to what we do here. "Sales is not about what you are selling, but about making friends and about getting someone to see the world the way you do," he writes. "If you do that, everything else will take care of itself." Through our financial advisor...

When hiring salespeople, financial advisors often look for top performers who can deliver high sales numbers. However, it's not enough to hire great people and then leave them to their work. Even the most capable people need input, productive criticism, guidance and, when merited, praise from their managers. Do you have a system for recognizing when an employee is struggling? Have you set up a mentorship program that pairs workers with colleagues for performance...

Securing the initial sale is one of the early stages of the sales process. But after a new client has agreed to do business with you, the sale is not over. Rather, it is just the beginning of the cycle, and when managed properly, it can lead to ongoing sales spanning many years. It is necessary to position yourself as a trusted advisor rather than a salesperson, which involves shifting the focus of your client meetings from the sale at hand to future deals. Norm...

No sales strategy is static - it must constantly evolve and transform to fit each individual client's needs. Creating a sale requires convincing yourself and your prospect of the product or service's value and why you are best suited to deliver it. Among our top sales tips at The Covenant Group is the concept of knowing your client. The sales process you apply will vary by situation and individual, and your level of preparation will impact how it moves...

The sales process in the financial services industry is more complex than in other sectors, as the ability to secure a deal is so dependent upon the personal understanding between the salesperson and the buyer. Entrepreneurs who are able to build momentum by using one strong client relationship to lay the groundwork for the next often have greater success in the process. How do you leverage your current relationships in order to amass more client capital? What...

If you've been struggling to complete sales, know that you are not alone. A recent study conducted by Senior Market Advisor magazine surveyed licensed insurance and financial advisors and subscribers in an effort to gauge the current state of the industry. Out of the respondents, 30 percent named the economy as the main reason they lost sleep at night, while 29 percent said lead generation was the No. 1 issue they worried about. The good news is that the rate...

Sometimes it can feel like you are just racing in place with your business - that the office is the one running you, rather than the other way around. Stopping for even a minute to catch your breath would mean falling behind the pack, yet you don't have the energy to sprint to the finish line and pass competitors. For financial advisors and other entrepreneurs , it is necessary to look beyond survival mode to how you can guarantee sustainable and strong growth...

Challenging a prospect's thinking can sometimes involve asking him or her to think about something they would prefer to ignore. Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, who co-wrote the book "The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation," explain in an article for CNBC that focusing too narrowly on building a relationship with your clients can actually get in the way of completing a sales agreement and establishing a client partnership as...

For financial advisors, the most effective way to control the growth trajectory of their business is to align five financial levers with their marketing, sales and service initiatives. The five financial levers are: Product & Service Mix Size of Sale Number of Sales Seasonality Cyclicality Let’s look at them in more detail. 1. Product & Service Mix The first lever is your product and service mix. As a...

Recently, I was reminded of a March 2009 article for the Harvard Business Review , where Todd Hewlin, Geoffrey Moore and Philip Lay explained the way some firms get their customers to act - in the midst of a downturn when no one is in the mood to spend, and even in the good times. If this situation sounds familiar, they advise provoking your business customers, even if they make the excuse that they don't have the budget for your services or the money to be...

Does it feel like the number of prospective clients in your pipeline is drying up? Have you hit a wall when it comes to closing on a deal? Perhaps it seems as if no one is in the market for financial advice. You are not alone in thinking there's less demand. A survey commissioned by the Main Street Alliance, the Small Business Majority and the American Sustainable Business Council found that 34 percent of small business owners felt weak customer demand was the...

In prior blog posts, my colleague Shauna has communicated the importance of leveraging social media as a means of building your Client Capital , allowing you to do research on those in your network and engage existing and prospective clients. Business social media is often discussed from a marketing point of view, but what can go unmentioned is the channel's potential for closing on sales leads. After you've made the connection, how do you convert that into a...

We live in a hurry/hurry, go/go world. It seems as if most of us are in a hurry to get somewhere. Yet, we know that there are times when the slower you go, the quicker you get there. Let’s use a simple example. The quickest way to communicate an idea is to tell someone. But this method is often the slowest way to obtain buy-in. People are more comfortable with their conclusions than ours. You are more likely to win someone over if they are given an opportunity...