Throughout modern corporate America, untold billions in sales were lost because someone didn’t listen. Think back to your own lost sales. Did you miss something, misunderstand something, or fail to hear a message critical to the sale? In selling, there’s no greater asset than our ability to actively listen, understand what’s said and apply what’s heard. This is painfully true in financial and professional…
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Transforming B2B Sales
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How to Solve Marketing Overload: Automate
A recurring theme in my blog underscores how the sales cycle has become increasingly complex for financial and professional services firms. The buying process can be tough to decode, and the decision cycle involves groups of executives with multiple perspectives and cross-cultural experiences. The hard part comes when advisors must solve multi-faceted problems for business owners who don’t yet fully understand the solution being…
Flabbergasted by a Big Loss in Financial Sales?
Everything’s on the line. It’s a seven-figure sale that’ll put you back in the black. You’ve been a wreck all week waiting for the 10.a.m. Friday call. You answer the phone, exchange pleasantries, only to hear, "After thorough consideration, we’ve chosen our advisor. Sorry, he’s not you.” Ouch! That was your hottest prospect, a must-win in your strategic marketing plan. Now what? Not only…
MERGE Fall 2012 Newsletter
Why Change? Why Now? Answer Earlier in Buy Cycle to Close More Deals Are your prospects already deep into their buying process by your first meeting? Do they already sense how to solve their business issues? If true, allow me to simplify your sales timing. Like you, your prospects run businesses. They’re alert to challenges and solutions. Research on the internet. Contact with competitors.…
For Professional Consultants & Financial Advisors: Bill’s Top 7 Email Bloopers
Sending email this week while on vacation, I realized how many mistakes many of us make when using email as a marketing tool. Humbly, I offer my unscientific Top 7 Email Bloopers to avoid in email, as I’m learning to do in mine. Hope it’s helpful. 1. Limp Lists When building your email list, add only those who actually want on it. I’m on…
E-Mail, Schmee-Mail . . . Who Cares?
You do. Hands down, email marketing campaigns rank in the top three most cost-effective ways to reach B2B prospects, right behind pay-per-click campaigns and online display ads. For every one dollar you spend, email marketing returns an average $44.25, calculates the Direct Marketers Association. Say again? Are you overlooking this Seal Six tactic in your marketing arsenal because you believe it’s too much trouble?…
Sure Way to Secure First Meetings – Change Your Message
Your initial approach to prospect companies can create the very objections you disdain. Ever heard these brush-offs? “We’re already working with another company.” “Uh, we really don’t have any interest in your products or services right now.” Sad but true, you may be the cause? Let me share how to eliminate these objections by changing how you approach the buyer. Unless your product or…
Three Reasons Why Advisors Shouldn’t Generate Leads
In most financial or professional service firms, lead generation programs are built around websites, e-mail campaigns, trade show attendance, even direct mail. If this is your firm, and you are anxiously waiting for better results, don’t hold your breath. Research proves that a scattered, old-school approach offers little value in pursuing the complex sale. Today’s effective lead strategies stretch far beyond the ability of…
The Double-Edge Sword of Lead Generation: Attention and Action
Run by founders, most financial and professional service firms capitulate to the founder’s beliefs on how to sell. Usually, he or she launched the practice with key contacts, and the panache to open and close business. The firm may exhibit good technical skills, bring in new clients, and enjoy a solid reputation but, as a whole, I observe many firms stumbling to grow beyond…
How to Find Your Ideal Client
In previous blogposts on the complexity of selling financial and professional services, I emphasized the importance of your value proposition and key differentiator. Now that you know how to translate these elements into your competitive advantage, how do you identify those prospects most likely to respond to your message? And once you identified the ideal prospect, how do you find large numbers of them?…
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