If you’re a financial advisor, then you know that selling financial services can be difficult. It’s not always easy for people to trust that you can help them manage, increase and protect their hard-earned money in retirement.
Unlike other industries, most registered financial advisors cannot use client testimonials to build trust because of compliance limitations.
However, with the right sales strategy, you can use many techniques to make it easier for your clients to say “yes” to working with you.
In this article, you will learn some of the best sales tips and techniques financial advisors can use to convert more leads into clients!
How financial advisors can close more sales
Here are some of the top sales tips and techniques for financial advisors looking to close more leads into sales:
1. Establish trust in your website
Over the years, I’ve done a lot of lead generation for financial advisors and I’ve seen how building trust with prospects can go a long way in helping leads convert into appointments and clients.
And one of the most important ways to build trust with leads is through your website.
Your website is one of the first things a potential client will look at before deciding to work with you.
For example, one financial advisor who had generated a lot of leads was struggling to get leads to convert into appointments.
After reviewing his website, we found many broken pages and that it looked like it was built in the early 2000s.
After updating the website with a blog, an about page and more relevant content about his services, we noticed a significant increase in appointments from his existing leads.
Here are a few tips for building an effective financial advisor website that builds trust with potential clients:
- Have clear and concise messaging
- Make your website easy to navigate
- Use a modern design
- Include trust seals and certifications
- Integrate BrokerCheck.org on the footer of your site
- Add a phone number and physical address
- Display an about page with info on you and your team
- Explain your investment philosophy as an advisor
- Include information on your services & pricing
The more trust you build through your financial advisor’s website, the easier it will be to increase your sales conversion rates.
2. Educate your clients
One of the best ways to sell financial advisor services is to educate your clients and prospects BEFORE you speak to them on the phone.
Think about it…
There are thousands of financial advisors out there!
So how do prospects know that YOU are the best financial advisor to help them?
Many people don’t understand how financial advisors can help them, so it’s important that you take the time to explain what you do, how you can help them reach their financial goals and why working with you is different compared to other financial advisors.
You can do this through blog posts, e-books, videos, webinars, podcasts, or even in-person events. The key is to provide value, build trust with your audience, and stand out as different from everyone else.
For our financial advisor clients, we’ve found that using an educational video presentation is the best way to generate leads and get leads to convert into high-quality sales appointments too.
Click here to see an example of how this video presentation strategy works.
If you can educate your clients and prospects about personal finance, retirement planning, insurance services, tax planning, and related services, then you are the one they will be more likely to trust to help them with these services.
3. Empathize with your clients
When you’re selling financial services through a sales appointment, it’s important to empathize with your client’s situation.
Many people are worried about their financial future and don’t know where to turn for help. As a financial advisor, you have the ability to help them plan for retirement and give them peace of mind.
However, before you can help them, you need to understand their situation and what they’re going through. Only then will they trust you enough to work with you.
Here are a few questions that will help you understand your clients better:
- What are your biggest concerns?
- What are your short-term and long-term goals?
- What is your current financial situation?
- Do you have any debt?
- Do you own a home?
- Do you have children?
- What does their dream retirement look like?
- What is their biggest concern in retirement?
- Do they want to increase their retirement wealth?
- Do they want to protect their wealth in retirement?
- How much risk are they willing to take?
Once you understand your client’s situation, then you can recommend the financial products or services that you think will best help them.
4. Be knowledgeable
When you’re selling financial services, it’s important that you’re knowledgeable about your products and services.
Many people don’t understand the different types of investment vehicles or how to choose the right one for their situation.
As a financial advisor, you need to be able to explain the different options and help them make an informed decision.
You can do this by explaining the pros and cons of each option and how it will help them reach their financial goals. The key is to be transparent and honest about the products and services you’re recommending.
If you’re able to provide value and build trust with your clients, then you’ll be in a much better position to sell them financial services.
Tip: If you use financial advisor software to help clients visualize their financial results based on different scenarios, this can help you increase your sales close rates too.
5. Be transparent with pricing
When you’re selling financial services, it’s important that you’re transparent with pricing.
Many people are worried about the cost of using financial professionals and don’t know what to expect. As a financial advisor, you must be upfront about your fees and how you charge for your services.
You can do this by explaining your fee structure and how it works.
The key is to be transparent and honest about the costs associated with working with you.
- Are you a fee-only financial planner?
- Do you charge a percentage based on assets under management (AUM)?
- Do you work for free and are compensated directly by the companies of products or services you recommend?
- Or do you do a bit of both?
If prospects understand how much you charge BEFORE you speak to them, you’ll be more likely to get a higher-quality appointment when someone schedules a call with you.
This is one reason I’m also completely transparent with my pricing and list it on the website for everyone to see.
Even if you don’t have set packages or your pricing “depends” on different factors, it’s still a good idea to have a pricing page on your site that outlines what could affect the price.
This will help to weed out tire kickers and those who are not serious about working with a financial advisor.
6. Use a consultative selling approach
When you’re selling financial services, it’s important that you use a consultative selling approach.
The hard sell turns many people off, and they just want to work with a financial advisor who they feel is looking out for their best interests.
Financial advisors need to be able to build rapport and trust with potential clients.
You can do this by using a consultative selling approach where you focus on understanding their needs and providing solutions that meet their unique requirements.
Follow these steps:
- Step one: Understand the client’s needs. This can be done through discovery questions and active listening.
- Step two: Present a solution that meets their requirements. This will involve customizing your financial services to meet their specific goals in retirement.
- Step three: Close the sale. The last step is to close the sale by getting the client to commit to working with you. This can be done by asking for their business or setting up a meeting to discuss further details.
Tip: Don’t feel like you have to go through all the steps of the consultative selling process in one appointment. You can spread it out over multiple appointments if needed.
7. Overcome common objections
Another way to increase your sales call conversion rates is to overcome common objections in an effective way.
You can do this by preparing for common objections in advance and having responses ready. This will help you to stay calm on the sales call, give a better response and increase your chances of closing the sale.
Some of the most common sales objections that financial advisors face include:
- I’m already using another financial advisor
- I don’t know if I need a financial advisor
- I’m not sure if I’m ready to retire yet
- I’m not sure if I can afford your fees
- I’m not sure if this will work
By preparing for these objections in advance, you can confidently address them on the sales call and increase your chances of closing the deal.
If you encounter a new sales objection that you haven’t heard of before, do your best to answer it honestly. Try to think of another client who had a similar sales objection and how they overcame it.
Here’s an example of a financial advisor sales objection:
For example, a prospect could say: “I think I might be able to do all this on my own without a financial advisor”
Potential response: “Yeah, no problem, I totally understand. A lot of people do try to do this on their own. The problem is, you only retire once and any mistakes can be costly. For example, one of my clients, John, actually felt the same you did. He tried to do it independently at first, but then he overpaid $20,000 in taxes by not timing his retirement withdrawals correctly. He reached out to us a year later to see if we could help and we were able to save him a lot more money in taxes using some of our income-shifting strategies. Needless to say he is much happier now that he has the peace of mind knowing he won’t be overpaying in taxes ever again.”
8. Be patient
Selling financial services can be a long process. It’s important to be patient and take your time with each potential client.
Many people need time to think about their finances and make sure they’re making the right decision. As a financial advisor, you need to be able to respect that and give them the time they need.
Don’t try to rush the sale or pressure the client into making a decision before they’re ready. This will only lead to anxiety and may cause them to back out of the deal altogether.
It’s important to build trust with your clients and show them that you’re looking out for their best interests. If you do this, they’ll eventually come around and see that working with you is in their best interest.
9. Follow up with leads often
Once you’ve generated a new lead or you’ve had a consultation with a prospect, it’s important to follow up with them via email.
Email is a great way to keep in touch with your leads and continue building relationships.
What do you email prospects?
You can use email to send them helpful articles, invite them to events, send them a new video you’ve recorded, or to check in to see how they’re doing.
Make sure you have an email list set up so you can easily stay in touch with your leads.
Email marketing is one of the oldest and still one of the best ways to nurture leads and increase your chances of making a sale.
How long do you email prospects?
To convert the most amount of clients from your leads, you need to follow up with leads via email forever (or until they convert or unsubscribe).
Automating your email marketing as part of your overall digital marketing strategy is a good idea to save time and increase efficiency.
Once you’ve set up an automated email marketing system in your business, you can focus on generating leads knowing all your leads will be nurtured and followed up with automatically each week.
See also: How to follow up with leads without being annoying
10. Know how to handle rejection
No matter how good you are at sales, you will face rejection from time to time.
The first thing you need to do is not take it personally. Just because someone says no doesn’t mean they don’t like you or that you’re a bad salesperson.
It could be that they’re just not ready to make a decision yet, they don’t have the budget for your services or they might not be a good fit for your business.
Whatever the reason, try not to take it too personally and move on to your next lead. Dwelling on every rejection will only bring you down and make it harder to sell.
Sales is a numbers game, so the more leads you contact, the more sales you’ll eventually make.
That’s why it’s a good idea to have a full pipeline of leads. The more sales appointments you have as an advisor, the less you’ll worry about getting a “no” on one of your sales calls. You’ll be too busy handling the next lead!
12. Use social media to close sales
Another way to increase your sales conversion rate is to use social media in your financial advisory firm.
Social media can be a great way to connect with new leads and prospects and stay in touch with current clients.
Platforms like LinkedIn are especially useful for financial advisors because you can easily find and connect with high-net-worth individuals who might be interested in working with you.
Potential clients are also likely to look you up on a social media network such as LinkedIn, so it’s a good idea to optimize your LinkedIn profile to look its best.
13. Have a full lead pipeline
To increase your financial advisor sales, you must always have a full lead pipeline. A full lead pipeline means you have plenty of new business opportunities with potential clients.
The more leads you have, the more sales opportunities you’ll get.
Although there are lots of ways to get financial advisor leads, here are the best three ways:
- Financial advisor SEO: Ranking first on Google for keywords related to your business
- Running financial advisor Facebook Ads
- YouTube videos answering questions prospects are searching for
14. Have a unique selling point
One of the best ways to sell your services as a financial advisor is to explain what makes you unique and different from other advisors. This is called having a unique selling point (USP).
For example, some of my financial advisor clients who generate annuity leads talk about how they are independent financial advisors. This means they are not stuck with using one insurance company . They can work with different life insurance companies to find the best annuity for the customer.
Other financial planners who get life insurance leads talk about how they use software or technology to find the the best insurance policies from a wide range of different insurance providers.
Here’s an example of software from Annuities Genius that can do this:
And some wealth managers I work with specialize in working with specific niches (e.g. federal employees, doctors, business owners, etc).
So, ask yourself, what is it that makes you and your firm unique?
Having a unique selling point (USP) will make it easier for you to sell your financial advisory services to clients.
Want to learn how we do this? Here’s a page that explains how our annuity appointment services are unique when compared to other lead generation companies.
How financial professionals win more clients
If you’re a financial advisor who needs help finding potential clients in an automated, predictable, and profitable way, check out my free training, which outlines the best strategy for getting 10, 15, 30, or more high-quality appointments each month.
If you need help implementing what you learn on the free training, check out our done-for-you lead generation services.
Ashley Davis
Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, Ash has been helping business owners get high-quality leads, appointments, and clients each month. He has extensive experience working with B2B & B2C industries in finance, insurance, marketing, sales and beyond. Learn more about the author here.
