Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
We have had multiple conversations with our advisors about asking for more referrals. Our clients are older and more than 70% of them are 70 or older. We must start appealing to the next generation or finding additional relationships to even out our risk. To me this is a business imperative.
The advisors throw up roadblocks, saying the clients are older and don’t go out much, that they often live in assisted living and might not have as many friends or even family to go to for referrals. This doesn’t make sense. Everyone has someone in their universe of connections.
I’m tired of pushing. But I know I have to keep going. We will be in a tough place in five years if clients start dying and we have no replacement for their assets. I don’t mean to sound unfeeling or cold in my comment, but this is a reality of the business. What do I say to get these advisors to see the seriousness of this?
N.G.
Dear N.G.,
Have you given your advisors training on the best ways to uncover potential referrals when there are no obvious connections? Have you addressed the issues they are bringing up where they are not entirely wrong? It can be harder to uncover referrals when someone is isolated and does not socialize much or no longer works. Have you helped them with language to contact the next generation and become introduced where there is an opportunity to do this?
Most of the time advisors will push back on asking for new business, uncovering referrals and trying to expand client relationships because they are not confident in their abilities to do so. Your client base is older. I don’t want to make assumptions without knowing the facts. But your advisors could also be older and perhaps they’ve been working with these clients for many, many years. If so, this can be challenging to try and strike up a new conversation about referrals and other connections. Your advisors may well need guidance in being able to do this comfortably and without upsetting the client.
In many cases referrals are easiest when the advisor can make a clear connection for the client and identify a connection by name, or association. “I noticed you graduated from the University of Miami in 1997. I have been trying to reach a graduate from there who is also on your LinkedIn page. If you are pleased with the work we’ve been doing, might you be willing to make an introduction for me?” This is always easier than the general “who do you know?” conversation. And their struggle is real if they don’t have these clear connections to help guide the client’s thinking.
Generational planning is a whole different topic. They should have been reaching out to the children and grandchildren long ago in order to engage them in the process. This could serve as fertile ground for the starting place. Help the advisors see it is in the client’s best interest to have their loved ones know their advisor, be in touch and know who to speak with when something happens to the client and they can no longer care for themselves.
Stories can be helpful here. Talk about a family you knew that ended up with difficulty trying to navigate upon a loved one’s sudden passing. I understand they may not want to bring up something negative or speak about the death of the client, but there is a risk factor for the client that could be obviated by having contact with the next generations.
Dear Bev,
We have put our advisors through so much sales training. We’ve spent a fortune using outside firms every two or three years. And yet, even with the investment we’ve made (and it has been a significant investment), they don’t know how to find new business. They tell me they “are not networkers,” they “are uncomfortable asking clients for additional business,” and they don’t see it as their role to build relationships with COIs.
I’m stymied. We’ve had some great firms in here teaching good, easy-to-use techniques. What the heck is wrong?
S.E.
Dear S.E.,
Once the trainers leave, what are you doing for sustainability? Who is coaching the advisors helping them implement the new ideas and make sure what they have learned is “sticky” and lasting? Have the sales programs been aligned or are you asking them to learn new skills each time and then make sense of integrating them?
The best training falls flat when there isn’t continuity – tools, coaching, checklists, accountabilities, and commitment to change all have to be in place for it to work. The old adage used to be that it takes 21 days of a committed change in order to make it stick. But it takes much more than this when you have busy people who are used to doing things a certain way and this way works reasonably well and now you are asking them to make change daily. Add in the fact they may feel uncomfortable about the process of selling, so you are asking them to change something that they have an inherent resistance to.
In one of my client situations where they have a customized sales training program, they asked me to create a customized coaching program. They wanted to ensure their managers and leaders knew how to implement the changes they were asking their colleagues for. If there isn’t commitment from the leadership and, more importantly, the leaders don’t know how to coach to the changes (and perhaps aren’t even doing what’s necessary themselves…) you aren’t going to see change happen on the part of the advisors. Human beings like stasis. Unless there is a compelling reason most of us will sit with whatever we’re doing now!
To see the change – you need to do everything you can to help the change become real.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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