Sales Solicitation Strategies For Financial Advisors That Work

From time to time, I receive solicitations from Financial Advisors who want to help me manage my money. 

In this short post, I’m going to share how I handle these offers as a potential client.

Three Bad Solicitations

Bad solicitations are outdated, generic, and ineffective, and yet many will still use them.

1- Cold calls

Easy ones, I don’t pick up the phone. Like 99.9% of their target prospects, I have a smartphone and unless the call is from someone I know, I don’t pick up. It’s just too time-consuming. 

2- Postcards

Come to lunch and learn about retirement at a nice local restaurant? I know I’m old and I may learn a little, but it’s gonna be a generic sales speech and my situation is clearly not generic. Plus, I work all week and don’t have time for that on weekends. Moreover, with Covid, I would rather not go to an inside event.

3- Anonymous LinkedIn Emails

Reject, Block, Report Spam.

Three Good Solicitations

A good solicitation is current, engaging, and effective. Successful Financial Advisors understand the power of social media and the importance of trust. Here are offers to which I might respond:

1- Network Introductions

Contacts from the French Network in California introducing an advisor. Although I no longer live in the Bay Area, I still have roots in that ecosystem, so I’d check them out.

2- Personal Recommendations

A recommendation from a friend, my CPA, or my lawyers (immigration, business, IP - yes that’s three lawyers and I’m very happy with all of them) is compelling.

3- Topic Relevant Messages

An advisor engaging with me about soccer, or another topic I find interesting, may get my attention. If the rest (i.e. relevance, competencies, and personal fit) is there, I might listen.

For the ones that make it to the “let’s check them out” phase, I Google them. My search will show me their LinkedIn and Twitter profiles and I will assess them by answering these questions:

• Are their profiles and photos unprofessional or generic with zero followers? 

• Is the content they share relevant to me?

• Do people like me follow them already? I’m not just talking about friends (which would be good), but people like me: expatriates in the US, business owners.

These would be the criteria to make it to the consideration pool.  Still, the advisors will have to respond promptly and appropriately when I seriously decide it’s time to work on my financial plans. That’s when their active listening skills would be the deciding factor. So when Financial Advisors write or say, “We develop a custom plan for any situation” before they’ve even met me, I want to say - good luck with that! At eCairn, we have learned a lot from working closely with Financial Advisors over the last four years. Our Find and Connect Applications have the features they need to discover the right clients and create trust through listening and relevant social media engagement.

Want to know more: Just book a 30mn call with us: https://www.ecairn.com/contact

Photo by Hassan OUAJBIR on Unsplash