The Authority Positioning Coach, positioning you as an influencer in your industry to attract more clients. | Marketing Huddle, LLC.
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The financial services business thrives on a full pipeline of prospects eager to discuss their financial needs. Your experience and expertise place you in the unique position to address these concerns and craft solutions to alleviate financial burdens and create income and potential wealth opportunities.
The problem is, if you don’t have enough leads in your pipeline, you won’t be able to schedule initial meetings, probe for solutions and bring them on as new clients. This problem is exacerbated when you buy leads. These leads indeed represent a potential candidate to approach, but if they have also been sent to several other advisors, as with online lead sources, you get lost in the “sea of sameness.”
As a strategist, I am always looking for ways to solve problems. There is a solution that can help financial services professionals close these types of leads and traditional referrals at a higher percentage.
In the early 2000s, I spent 10 years with JP Morgan Chase as a mortgage banker, and I carved out a niche. I built a network of financial services professionals who understood their clients’ needs and the benefits of a home equity line of credit (HELOC). My production was $41 million in one year, and I became the number one producer two years in a row. By doing the right thing for the client, I was able to attract more work.
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Having written several books on Amazon and an award-winning podcast called Influential Entrepreneurs with over 500 episodes, I know how a properly structured Authority Positioning Portfolio™ can spotlight a brand. Permanent assets on the world’s most powerful platforms of publicity, podcasting and publishing create omnipresence to be seen as an authority so that your prospects are seeing you as the expert.
This will help you close more leads faster and easier.
If you have the opportunity to be seen as an expert by those purchased leads and referrals, you can outshine your competitors. You will have a commanding presence with your potential clients, including affluent families and business owners. You may sell life and annuity, or you may focus on assets under management, but you want to be able to close those leads with predictability.
The Glengarry Glen Ross Predicament
Famed New York playwright David Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross. The play (and subsequent movie) takes place in a real estate office, where the lives of four real estate salespeople are tossed into turmoil as they are asked to work a box of bad leads to make a sale or face termination from the firm.
The Glengarry Glen Ross predicament is one all salespersons face at some point in their career. Bad leads are bad leads. Simply receiving a name and a number on a card is not enough information to determine if you are looking at a prospect or a waste of time.
To overcome the problems with bad leads, you must begin by defining your value proposition. This is the expertise you bring to the table that is of great importance and value to your customers and is something a prospect wants from you. Whether in retirement planning, college savings, reducing debt or tax-savings strategies, defining your value proposition allows you to better define the types of leads you need to acquire, making it easier for you to approach, present and close.
There is a growing trend of financial services companies purchasing leads and having difficulty getting them to convert. Even though businesses are getting some word-of-mouth referrals, they are not closing them at a high percentage because there are so many options. Your best prospects might not know you exist, and they might even be going to a competitor because they view them as an authority.
What makes you think that your Facebook or LinkedIn post or your email will get read? Anybody can send an email, but you need your information to get read and remembered.
As a financial professional, you need predictability and consistency in your client acquisition. You must be seen as the top authority in your area, so your prospects have the trust and confidence to choose you.
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