Disturbing Questions: How to Steal Business from Your Competitors
To become a top professional, you must learn how to sell. It’s actually surprising how little attention professionals give to their sales techniques. A study conducted by Reagan Consulting tracking the performance of financial services professionals over a four-year period (2008–2011) found that top professionals produced annual growth of 8.4% vs. 1.3% of the industry…
Read MoreWhat Do Women Leaders Want
Guest Post By Patricia Wheeler It’s a fact….women make up over half the workforce. But only two in every 10 middle managers are women. And at every turn of the leadership pipeline on the way to a corner office, the number of women occupying leadership slots gets smaller and smaller. A recent McKinsey study found…
Read MoreProactive Referrals: If You Could Only Do One Type of Marketing, This Should Be It
The fundamentals of marketing and growing a financial services business, getting in front of the right people, and building trusting relationships have not changed. Professionals who do this on a consistent basis are able to build a thriving business, regardless of the market conditions. After 9/11 the travel industry went into a downturn, several businesses…
Read MoreHow to Steal Your Competitor’s Top Account
Fly fishing is a favourite pastime of mine, whenever I get the chance. I once learned from a fishing guide that fly fishing techniques are similar to sales prospecting: you look for clues on the water indicating where fish may be feeding, instead of just casting blindly and hoping for the best. I learned that…
Read MoreNo End In Sight For Soft Market Conditions
It has been predicted that the soft market currently curbing industry profit is settling in for the long haul, with nose-diving premiums putting pressure on insurers to perform more than ever. Marsh has released its 2015 Insurance Market Mid-Year Update predicting current drivers of the soft market to continue despite insurers anticipating a break in slow pace….
Read MoreWhen Your Supplier Becomes Your Competitor: How to Outthink and Outsell Them
A client recently asked, “How do I compete against a supplier who has become a competitor?” This is a continuing problem many professionals are facing today. This is not new; however, with industry consolidation it is becoming more common as product manufacturers seek new growth opportunities. First, it’s important to understand that the major reason…
Read MoreAre You a Hunter or Trapper?
There are basically two ways to build a successful financial services business: the hard way as a hunter or the easy way as a trapper. What’s the difference? Hunters are product centered; they concentrate on anything that moves. In the process, they invest a lot of time and energy but get little return on their…
Read MoreHow to Attract High Quality Prospects
Have your previous marketing efforts have been filled with good intentions, but are delivering little tangible results? Finding, attracting and acquiring new business is still one of the toughest challenges for any financial services professional. Even experienced professionals who’ve grown their business organically (via referrals, word of mouth and personal contacts) are finding new business…
Read MoreThis Is the Marketing Business
How much time do you spend each day on marketing? After you’ve selected your marketing strategy and approaches and determined your inbound to outbound ratio, the next important step is determining the amount of marketing that will be required to achieve your business goals. Your marketing efforts (inbound vs. outbound) will vary according to the…
Read MoreIdeal Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing: How to Find Your Ideal Mix
A common question that I’m often asked is, what type of marketing activities should I be doing each day? You have two choices There are really only two types of marketing activities: outbound and inbound marketing. There is no 100% right or wrong answer; it depends on your comfort zone and capabilities. Outbound marketing is…
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