Selling financial services to prospective clients can be challenging on many levels. Once you’ve connected with a lead, you need to spend time nurturing that relationship and building trust. You also have to demonstrate your value to the client and why they should rely on you to help them manage their money. Some of the most effective sales tips for financial advisors center on these principles, helping you convert more of your leads to long-term clients.
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Understanding the Financial Advisor Sales Funnel
As an advisor, selling is often a marathon rather than a sprint. Your sales funnel plays an integral part in determining how often you win the race by converting leads into clients.
A typical financial advisor sales funnel may look something like this:
- Awareness. At this stage, the client is simply aware that your business exists.
- Interest. Prospects may express interest in what your firm does, though they’re not yet ready to commit to anything further.
- Decision. By this stage, prospective clients should have all the information they need to decide whether they want to work with you or not.
- Action/conversion. The prospect takes the final step to become your client.
Understanding the mechanics of the sales funnel is central to developing strategies and tactics that will help you close the deal.
Sales Tips for Financial Advisors
Each stage of the sales funnel requires something different regarding the way that you communicate with clients and the message that you’re sending. These sales tips are designed to help you build on the foundation you’ve already laid with your marketing and lead generation strategy to boost conversions.
1. Establish Authority
Prospective clients want to work with financial advisors who are knowledgeable and experienced. Selling to these clients begins with making a strong first impression.
Establishing an online presence that includes a professional website and social media accounts can help you build your authority online. You can underscore your authority by:
- Creating detailed bios or profiles that highlight your expertise
- Actively engaging with prospective clients through social media
- Writing or contributing to articles and blog posts in the financial space that allow you to share some of your expert knowledge
Showing prospective clients that you have a proven track record of assisting clients is the first step in building trust.
2. Choose Your Focal Point
Ask yourself this question: What makes my firm or services unique?
When you’re competing against other financial advisors for a prospective client’s attention, you have to be able to identify what sets you apart.
For instance, do you offer a service that other firms don’t? Are you taking the lead in utilizing the latest tech tools and trends? Have you created a workplace culture that promotes engagement and reduces turnover so that clients are less likely to encounter a revolving door of employees?
Find the thing that distinguishes you from other firms, and focus on that as your unique selling point.
3. Lead With Value
Once you’re on a prospective client’s radar, you have a golden opportunity to prove your value. And offering something tangible to your clients is an effective way to do just that.
For example, you might invite your clients to a free online seminar or masterclass, where you discuss a topic that’s relevant to your target audience. Or you may host a live stream on social media where you answer prospective clients’ questions about financial planning.
Case studies are another option for demonstrating value. A case study illustrates how you helped a client solve a particular problem. You can post these on your website or offer a downloadable PDF of the study as a lead magnet. The most effective case studies address an issue that’s relatable to the clients you’re hoping to convert.
4. Ask the Right Questions
Great financial advisors ask questions and actively listen to what prospective clients have to say. Here are some questions to ask clients that can help you better understand what they need and how you can serve them.
- What is your biggest financial concern right now?
- Do you have a mental picture of what your financial plan should look like?
- What are your short- and long-term financial goals?
- How satisfied are you with the progress you’ve made toward those goals?
- Can you tell me about your assets and debts?
- How confident do you feel in your ability to get to where you want to be financially?
- What are your reasons for seeking a financial advisor?
These can help get the conversation going. Once you’ve broken the ice, you can take a deeper look at the client’s situation, including whether they’re married or have children, where they are in the financial planning journey life cycle, and the degree of risk they’re willing to take.
5. Anticipate Objections
One of the most important sales tips for financial advisors is to be prepared for a client to offer some resistance. Client objections can arise due to a lack of knowledge or feelings of uncertainty.
It’s your job to talk through objections with prospective clients to get to the root of what’s holding them back from making a decision.
For example, a prospective client may claim that they don’t have enough assets to need professional advice. You could counter by pointing out that this won’t always be true if they’re interested in building wealth and that working with an advisor can help them realize that goal at a faster pace.
Developing some go-to scripts that address specific objections can make those objections easier to overcome and those clients easier to convert.
6. Skip the Hard Sell
Attempting to hard sell prospective clients on anything is a good way to lose their interest if they feel that they’re nothing more than a number to you.
Rather than launching into a sales spiel, allow prospects to get their bearings first. This goes back to asking the right questions to better understand what it is they need help with the most.
Once you know the problem, you can guide them into a discussion about workable solutions. Here, you have an opportunity to educate your clients and share some of your expertise so that they feel comfortable trusting you with their finances.
Taking these steps can prime prospects to be receptive to a sales pitch when you’re ready to deliver it.
7. Be Transparent
Transparency is critical in fostering trust with prospective clients. If a client comes to you with questions about your services, pricing, professional background or anything else, you should be prepared to answer them.
Pricing is often a central concern, as prospects want to know what they’ll pay for the services you offer. Making this information easily accessible on your website means prospective clients don’t have to chase you down to ask for it. They can see at a glance what it will cost to work with you.
That can help put clients at ease since there are no surprises.
8. Read Client Cues
Clients often send out signals that can tell you a lot about how they make decisions. These cues can be verbal or nonverbal, and it’s to your advantage as an advisor to learn how to read them.
As you meet with prospects, consider the following:
- Does what they’re saying align with what their body language is communicating?
- Do they seem hesitant, uncertain or defensive?
- Is their overall mindset positive or negative?
- If you’ve met with the client previously, is their mood or attitude the same or has anything changed?
When you can recognize client cues, it’s easier to assess how their mindset might be affecting their bigger financial picture. You can then help them reframe any doubts, worries or fears they might have by offering a realistic solution.
9. Follow Up
Prospective clients are busy people, and sometimes they may need some gentle prompting to stay in touch. Email is an excellent way to keep the lines of communication open and keep your firm top of mind.
Creating an email newsletter puts you in a prospective client’s inbox regularly. You can share a helpful tip, article or video, update the client on the latest happenings at your firm, or drop a simple note encouraging them to reach out if they have questions or are ready to start a deeper discussion on how you can help them.
Again, the goal is to build trust and add value so that prospects are motivated to get in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How Can a Financial Advisor Increase Sales?
Financial advisors can increase sales by tapping their existing client base to encourage referrals and creating sales funnels that are designed to convert. Social media can be a powerful tool for marketing that can help drive leads to your business. You can also consider partnering with an automated marketing platform to help you find qualified leads.
How to Find More Clients as a Financial Advisor?
Finding more clients as a financial advisor means identifying your target audience and defining how you can help them achieve their goals. Once you know that, you can develop a marketing plan to attract those clients. Your plan may include leveraging social media, building out a professional website and utilizing digital ads to increase your firm’s visibility. You can also use search engine optimization (SEO) to drive traffic to your website from local searches.
How to Market Yourself as an Advisor?
There are a variety of ways to market yourself as a financial advisor. Some of the most popular methods include social media, digital ad campaigns, email marketing and PR outreach. These methods are effective for online marketing, but if you’re trying to generate leads offline, you might consider direct mail marketing, collaborations with other local businesses, or print and billboard advertising.
Bottom Line
Closing sales is essential to being able to grow and scale your business. Putting these tips to work can help increase your conversion rates and build your practice at a steady pace.
Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business
- Before you can make a sales pitch to a prospective client, you need to have a steady pipeline of leads. Prospecting can be time-consuming, and you may be looking for a way to simplify or automate this process. SmartAsset AMP is an advisor marketing platform that helps you connect with leads. You can nurture relationships with prospects automatically while having plenty of time to focus on your current clients. Get started today.
- Advisors must ensure that their sales or marketing strategies adhere to compliance guidelines. Reviewing compliance rules for advisors can help you avoid making any mistakes that could draw unwanted attention from regulatory agencies.
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