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 Readers,
I just finished an incredibly inspiring call with a “fave” advisor client, and it prompted me to write about the experience in this week’s column. I’ve worked with this advisor for over three years. When I first started with his firm, he was extremely reticent about my growth programs. The goal was to turn him into a salesperson.
This comes up with non-sales professionals all the time when I talk about sales, business development or even growth initiatives. The perspective I hear is that to sell effectively, you must become a pushy individual who is asking their clients to help them grow their business.
Watching this advisor today glow with his successes and talk about how he did it without betraying who he really is, and in a comfortable manner, prompted me to share some insights to be better at selling. Here are seven considerations:
1. There is no one-way to sell. You might know someone who is very outgoing and assertive in nature, and they may be an excellent salesperson overall, but that doesn’t mean everyone who sells effectively is wired the same way. You can sell effectively in your own style; it is a matter of figuring out what your style is and how it can work for you.
2. The one consistent theme among successful salespeople is they are good listeners. They operate with a true curiosity and interest in the person or people they are talking with. While the impression might be you have to be an extrovert and a “talker” to be good, the advisor I spoke to was a great example of someone who is a self-proclaimed “introvert.” When I ran the DISC profile, he was proven as a very low “I” (influencer), which means more skeptical, not as verbal and not as anxious to interact with people he doesn’t know. But it also means he is an excellent listener and with his keen interest in truly helping people, clients and prospects respond to this. In many cases with more quiet people, it is a matter of focus, identifying people to talk with and using some different language in the interactions.
3. Learning how to present an offer or opportunity without being uncomfortable does take practice. For many years I’ve been trying to get the advisory profession to move from “client referral” language to “client introductions.” Doesn’t it seem much less intrusive to ask me who I might be able to introduce you to, just for purposes of a conversation, rather than who I can refer you to who may or may not be a fit for your firm? The referral language is very off-putting to both advisors and clients. You are trying to help people who matter to your clients achieve their financial goals. You want an introduction to someone who might have interest.
4. Have a plan. Yes, many introductions happen organically because clients are happy with what you do and how you do it and someone asks them who they know or talks about financial considerations with them. But if you want to have consistency in new opportunities, you have to plan for it. This takes the form of reviewing your client relationships on a periodic basis to see who you might want to approach in a different way. Identify COIs who could make for good partners. Consider how to re-tell and re-sell your clients on what you do and how you do it. It takes focus. It won’t just happen so if you want to commit to growth, you need a plan – and make it a written one.
5. People like to be asked for their help. You might think clients know exactly what you do and how you do it, and they know how to talk about how you have helped them. You might extend this to believe they would therefore talk to others about who you are and what you have done for them. But this often isn’t true. I have lost count of the number of times I have pushed my advisor clients (in a nice way of course) to step out and ask someone if there is anyone else the advisor could be introduced to for potentially helping them, too. The responses vary from, “I didn’t know you had capacity” to, “I don’t know how to talk about what you do” to, “You had never asked me before so I didn’t think you were interested in growing.” This is not always the response, but it has happened in my career enough that it makes me push even harder when an advisor resists doing this.
6. Get good at telling stories. Stories are compelling and a much less pressure-filled way to talk about what you do, who you do it for and how it could benefit someone. Your client might not be comfortable giving out your business card or sending someone to your website (and by the way, is your website up to date, just in case a client does send someone there?), but they will be very comfortable repeating a story. Stories are underrated in this business. They grab people’s attention, paint a picture in two minutes or less, and create a scenario that can be passed along. Use stories to help your COIs see how you can help them, and for your clients to have a non-invasive way to talk about what you do.
7. Every day you are selling. We sell ideas, concepts, viewpoints, information, education, a belief in our abilities and on and on. Presenting something to someone is often a form of selling. Do not underestimate the skills you used to present the portfolio and the financial plan to your client and have them walk away feeling good about what you are doing for them. It is a form of selling. You are doing it now; focus on honing the skills to become more adept at doing it when new opportunities for growth are on the line.
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. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022 and 2023. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She 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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Read more articles by Beverly Flaxington
Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
