New Member - Dan from Boston - I am having difficulty with closing

Hello everyone,

I am new to the site today.

I am struggling to come into my own with sales and am looking for any help available.

I work in the financial services field, but instead of selling to individuals, I sell to financial advisors.

I have worked on the retail brokerage side of the business for my entire professional career. For the most part I have always been in a supporting role.

When I have tried sales roles, I have been met with very limited success.

Recently I made the jump into a sales position (comission only - so I am finding out just what it is like to starve when you can't produce) I am part of a small company with an amazing service that can be offered to financial advisors who are insterested in growing their practice by working with business owners. I truly and honestly believe in the service, but for some reason, I am having difficulty with the close.

I need to find a way to bring my passion for this service out.

I look forward to meeting you all and hopefully finally getting over my issue with the close.

~Dan

Hi Dan. Welcome aboard.

What about closing are you having a challenge with?

I would like to know a little more about your selling situation. Is the product you are selling fairly straight-forward and typically closed during a telephone call? Is it more complex and costly and requires more than one visit with the prospective customer?

Either way, I have some thoughts, but they will be based on your answer to these questions.

Also, when you say you have tried sales roles before with limited success, what factors do you think have contributed to that lack of success?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your responses.

I will do my best to explain my selling situation.

I sell memberships to financial advisors. The membership consists of a month to month commitment (with a one month risk free trial - ie if the advisor does not see how this can benefit their practice after a month they can simly contact me and the 1st monthly fee will be refunded - which oddly enough as I am typing this I see that this risk free trial period may creating an objection - "I want to wait till I can really take advantage of the trial period").

The membership is designed to help financial advisors grow their practice by incorporating exit strategies for business owners.

The services provided include education on the subject of exit strategies (1.)what exit strategies are (2.)how they can be used by financial advisors to grow their practice and help them make more money. In addition to the education, advisors also have access to marketing and planning tools.

The exit strategies themselves are not at all straight forward, but the benefits should be fairly eazsily recognized.

Basically it is my job to find new members. Up till now I have been cold calling financial advisors. Once I have an advisor on the phone, I provide a brief benefit statement followed by the basic question: Is this an area of interest for you?

Because exit strategies are somewhat confusing (and some times the advisor thinks I am trying to get them to exit their business) The response is usually a question for clarification.

At this point I find myself launching into an explanation of the specific services and tools and how they can be used.

I often find myself telling as opposed to selling. I have not quite figured out how I should be moving the prospective member towards indeed becoming a member. I seem to always end up closing the call not entirely sure how interested the prospect is.

I need to figure out how to become better at assessing the level of interest for a give prospect. I also need to find a way to ask more questions (and more relevant questions) that will help move the prospect along the selling cylce.

I often find myself calling the prospect back in a week or so and seem to have very similar conversations still with the inability to move the process along.

As to the question should this be an over the phone sale or does it require a meeting? I am not sure. My business partner John seems to have no problem selling it over the phone, but he has suggested perhaps I should try to set face to face meetings. (which could be rather difficult because my pipeline of prospects is scattered across the US).

Dan,

My initial thought is that you are not providing enough "need development and satisfaction" to merit getting the business.

I would start by asking some of the advisors that you or your partner have closed why they decided to purchase the membership and what they have been able to get out of it. Get them to tell you a success story. Then, when you can get a prospect on the phone, you can have a conversation that develops need through a story.

For example,

Hello Bob. I'm Dan with ___________. We provide financial advisors with a capability to develop business exit strategies for their clients.

For example, I was talking with an advisor the other day who needed to [state the problem you solve] for his client. He said that if he could provide an exit strategy for his client, he could [state the direct financial benefit to the advisor – additional fees, new business, etc.] while he provided his client with an exit strategy that [state the direct benefit of the exit strategy for the advisor's client – tax financial benefits, etc.].

I was able to show him a solution that provided those capabilities.

As a result, this advisor was able to generate [state the dollar benefit your solution delivered – new business, additional fees from current clients, etc.].

But enough about me. Tell me a little about you. Are any of your clients looking to you to help them develop exit strategies for their businesses?

Build on a few more qualification questions and some brief statements explaining what the exact service you provide looks like. The goal is to develop data about what this kind of capability could deliver to the advisor. Then ask for the order:

"So, based on what I'm hearing, you think you could generate $X,XXX by being able to more effectively develop business exit strategies for your clients. How about if you tried this service risk-free for one month. If it doesn't deliver the benefit you think it can, then you can call me up and cancel with no further obligation and we'll part friends. Can I get you started?"

Then SHUT UP. The next person to talk loses.

You are either going to get an order or get objections. Have non-defensive answers to every objection they can throw at you and circle back around to your closing statement.

These are my initial thoughts. I'll 'noodle' on it a little more and see if anything else pops into my head.

Dan,

Any feedback on my advice? Just curious if it helped at all.

Jim

Not the original poster, but that sounds like great advice. Selling intangibles can be difficult. As jcundiff explains, he makes the service more "tangible" by citing examples. Great post.

New Member - Dan from Boston - I am having difficulty with closing

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