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Prospecting: The Beginning of Rain Making
‘We are all salesmen every day of our lives. We are selling our ideas, our plans, our enthusiasm to those with whom we are in contact’ – Charles M. Schwab A rain maker is someone who generates revenue and profits by bringing in new business. The term can be traced back to the Native American…
Zero Marketing is Not An Option
You know you need to market yourself and your business. You also know you need to do it consistently, to drive growth. The problem is you’re not quite sure how to do it. With so many options, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and do next to nothing. The reality, however, is you need to do…
5 Questions To Formulate The Perfect Strategy
‘Never mistake activity for achievement’ – John Wooden. What is it that separates high performing firms from their peers? What do they do differently to achieve superior growth? The answer is simply this: they have an effective strategy. Strategy is business goal setting It’s amazing, but very few businesses have a strategic plan. They usually…
Stop Selling Products and Start Sharing Your Ideas
Small minds, discuss people, average minds, discuss events, but great minds discuss ideas – Socrates When selling, average producers discuss products. Top professionals share ideas. ‘Idea’ is a powerful word. It’s a clean four-letter word that can be applied to any product or service. No matter what you’re offering, you can connect it to an…
Yellow and Red Alerts
There must be some reason certain firms generate achieve better organic growth than others. Said another way, if two equally skilled firms compete, then why does one produce double digit growth and the other negative growth? The answer: pro-active management of red and yellow alerts leads to growth. To help my clients improve their sales…
Start Focusing on Sales Behaviours
Many firms mistakenly believe a good compensation program is the way to motivate professionals to achieve superior results. Wrong. Compensation programs do not motivate; in fact, some can be de-motivators. I speak with many professionals who don’t know about their compensation or about how it works. Worse still, I meet leaders who are unable to…
10 Steps For Running Results-Oriented Sales Meetings
The sales meeting is an effective way to build a culture of accountability. It helps individual producers, and the business as a whole, to stay on track to achieve growth goals. Unfortunately, sales meetings can also be a source of frustration for leaders, who often allow meetings to run them and to weigh everyone else…
5 Steps to Attracting High Quality Prospective Clients
How are your marketing efforts working for you? Are they filled with good intentions, but delivering few tangible results? I speak to financial services leaders and professionals every day. I know that attracting, and acquiring, new business is one of the toughest challenges they face. Even experienced professionals, who have grown their business organically, via…
How to Create a Proprietary Marketing Network
If you’re struggling to produce solid organic growth every year, consider creating your own proprietary marketing network. Financial services marketing falls into three categories: One-dimensional traditional marketing. The focus is on short-term tactics for client acquisition Two-dimensional relationship marketing. The focus is on client retention, achieved by building long-term relationships Three-dimensional proprietary marketing. The focus…
11 Ways to Leverage Prospects That Don’t Buy
A sales leader had the following conversation with a professional: Leader – I recommended you try referral marketing to boost your productivity. Professional – Referral marketing is not a reliable enough system. Leader – Why not? Professional – Because if you have a slump for a while and don’t make any sales, you run out…
