Have you ever come across prospects who never showed up again? They expressed interest in your services when you first contacted them but now they do not return your calls or reply to your emails.
It is probably because you are missing some key elements in your conversation with them. Make sure your conversation with prospects has the following essential elements.
Tell a story
What differentiates a successful financial advisor from the rest is the ability to connect with clients. One of the best ways to connect is through storytelling. People love stories. Get others to empathise with your story by providing vivid details and emotions.
Stories can help you break down technical terms and jargon into simple, understandable concepts for your clients. The ultimate goal of storytelling is to grab the attention of your audience and convey your USP. The solutions offered in your story should portray the uniqueness of your service.
Shifali Satsangee of Funds Vedaa believes that adding a human angle in the story helps to connect better with the audience. “People get scared if you start your conversation with jargon. Instead, drawing analogies and parallels through narratives or stories help investors relate easily to what we want to communicate. Also, with stories, there is a higher probability of investors recalling what we conveyed to them,” she says.
Add value
You can provide services like taxation, estate planning, succession planning and so on to add value to your services. You can also offer products such as AIF and PMS to your wealthy clients. Also, continually update your knowledge and adopt new techniques and technologies to keep yourself ahead of the game.
Mahesh Gattani of Balaji Investments offers services such as equity broking and insurance services to clients apart from mutual funds. He believes that people want to work with advisors who provide one-stop solution, be it insurance or comprehensive financial plan.
Seconding Gattani, Khyati Mashru of Plantrich Consultancy LLP said, “Clients do not like to go to multiple agents to discuss finances. Providing a one-stop solution to them helps in easy conversion of prospects.”
Show commitment
Prospect conversion requires significant commitment. It is commitment to provide them timely and good services. If done well, it can be highly profitable. An advisor must always keep his commitment. It might be something as simple as calling a person exactly when you said you would, or managing an investment. By honouring all your commitments, you win your client’s trust and earn the respect of your peers.
Suresh Sadagopan of Ladder 7 Financial Advisories believes advisors need to have empathy for their clients. “One way to show commitment towards a prospect is by listening empathetically. Rather than selling the product, an advisor should make efforts to understand the situation of the client,” he says.
“Also, the financial advisor should honour his commitments to the prospect. Be it as small as calling them up or as big as sending them the documents on a particular date,” he adds.
Find your niche
When advisors identify and market to their ideal niche, they learn how to increase the value of their service/expertise to the audience and get more referrals because clients know who and how to refer.
Identify a niche that best suits your business goals and can lead to faster growth of your practice. The right niche will your practice a more solid foundation. Over time, a niche practice can help you acquire clients that you enjoy working with. By building a unique business model that fits your target audience (clients), an advisor can increase the odds of client conversion.
