In the financial service industry, what's the difference between pleasantly PERSISTENT, and annoyingly PUSHY? I suppose that if people start to hang up on you...you have your answer. However, the more likely scenario is that your phone calls are never returned. How do you overcome this?
Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, says that continued follow-up without a prospect/client response is not a problem...it's a symptom. The problem is no perceived value or perceived need. He draws the distinction between a "values-based" follow-up, and a "money-based" follow-up. A "values-based" follow-up is prospect-centric, and focused on the need or concern that they have articulated. A "money-based" follow-up is driven the the salesperson's need to sell something, ignoring what may be going on in the prospect's world.
How does one know the needs and concerns of prospective investors? Asking good questions is a good start. An oldie but goodie is, "What concerns you financially?" Or expressed somewhat differently, "What keeps you up at night?" A more comprehensive way to pose this question is to look the prospect in the eye and ask, "When you consider your entire investment picture...your equity portfolio, your bond portfolio, your retirement plan, your insurance portfolio, your health care exposure, etc....where are the gaps?" The beauty of this question is that it can be applied to a lot of people. Heck...you could probably ask this question of Bill Gates, phrased somewhat more elegantly, and get an answer. Of course, Bill Gates' answer is likely to be somewhat different than most everyone else.
Once a prospect has identified where the "gaps" are in their investment picture, you will have a sense for their specific concerns and hot-buttons. Presumably, this will make your follow-up more interesting to them.
The other challenge with any sort of follow-up today is that the sales cycle seems to be much longer than it once was. In the 1990s, Sales and Marketing Management magazine did a survey as to how many contacts, on average, it took before a cold prospect became a client. A contact is defined as any sort of communication that "touches" the prospect. The average number of contacts was somewhere between 7-8. I haven't seen a more up-to-date survey, post 9/11 and market bust, but I would highly doubt the average contact number is still at the same level. My guess is that it is easily in double-digits.
This makes follow-up even more problematic. If you will need to "touch" a prospect 10-20 times before they become a client...what the heck do you say without sounding like you are always trying to sell something? Again, I think that if your communications are more client-centric, and you are committed to building a personal relationship, the manner of prospect contacts will be more obvious.
Jim Cecil, a sales and marketing expert out of Seattle, recommends an approach that he calls "nurture marketing." Nurture marketing assumes that prospects don't have needs that are consistent with the first time that the salesperson makes contact. Therefore sales success results from carefully nurturing prospective relationships over time. True relationship nurturing takes a well-crafted blend of persistence, gentle persuasion, and respectful patience. In fact, Jim Cecil has "101 sure-fire tips for nurturing customers and pampering prospects." Something to talk about in future discussions.
That's all for now. Have a great weekend. The Tour de France is in the Pyrenees this weekend. If Lance emerges on top on Monday...he has his seventh Tour victory. If this transpires, this would rank as one of the all-time greatest athletic feats.
Allez...Allez...Allez!
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