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| Fundamental Sales Skills for Selling Financial Services |
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Last Updated
17th o March, 2009
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 For ideas on how to coach these fundamental selling skill click here
Periodically, we have someone call looking for advanced selling courses. They mention all they have done in sales training development and they are looking for something “new”, something “different”, something more advanced.
The Fundamentals
Now, we do have those courses, and they are good, and they are advanced. However, many times when we drill into what that person is currently doing we find that they don’t really have the foundation of sales skills necessary to build the advanced training on. Oh, they have been to all of the courses, but how many of you know there is a HUGE difference between going on a course and DOING what they taught in the course? Although they may have heard the basics, they are not doing the basics. They have become bored with the basics and are looking for the next new thing in selling. They are looking for more information they can spend money on learning, but not using.
Lots of Bad Sales People
Think about all of the bad sales experiences you have had with mediocre or downright horrible sales people. They are not bad because they have not taken advanced sales training are they? No, they’re bad because they are lacking a simple understanding of the fundamentals. They have no drive to improve or a willingness to practice those skills on every sales interaction. One thing can be said about all successful people regardless of whether it be in sports or business, they have mastered the fundamentals. It’s amazing how people over-complicate the sales process even before they have a firm grasp of the basic steps that can easily lead clients to a sale.
See how many of these fundamentals you use every day, every sale:
People buy solutions to their problems, not products.
Successful sales people adopt this attitude and let it drive their behavior. They make it their goal to get the client talking about problems that their products can solve. Their logic is, that if they can get the client to acknowledge a problem then they know that they will be more inclined to want to hear about a solution. The best part about approaching sales this way is the client sees them as a service provider – someone that is trying to help them, and NOT as a sales person.
Let the Client Go First
We don’t just mean listen to what they want. No, we mean get a full understanding of where they are coming from. Where are they dealing now? What is going on in their life that prompted them to come see you now? Why have they selected the product they did to ask you about? What prompted them to choose your company over all their other choices? Point: go beyond asking about what they came in for and get them talking. If you ask the right questions, these conversations usually lead to other problems being uncovered. That, of course, gives you an opportunity to be of greater service to your client by presenting solutions that can make those problems go away.
Client Focused Presentation
Tell them how your product solves their problem specifically. Too many sales presentations are just a mindless regurgitation of product features. These sales people make their clients work way too hard trying to decipher which features are most applicable to their circumstance and why. When presenting the product build value by starting with how the product solves the problem the client just told you they had. When you can make it specific to them personally, how can they argue with your presentation? They essentially designed it!
Ask Them to Buy
It’s appalling how infrequently this happens. Again, it’s the most fundamental of all sales skills. Everyone knows it, few actually do it. It doesn’t get much more straight-forward. After you have told them how the product will solve their problem, ask them if they can see how your recommendation will in fact help. If they do, then ask them to make a decision; ask them if you can go ahead and “get that started” for them. People need to be asked. If people are not asked most will procrastinate. What’s the risk in asking? That they will say no? Rejection? Consider this: If you have done all of the steps leading up to this correctly your odds of getting a no are higher when you do not ask then they are when you do. Do you want less rejection? Ask for the sale.
The Basics
So here is your goal: Don’t get side tracked with anything else in selling until you master these fundamentals. Don’t get bored with these things. Through a sheer force of your will and through consistent practice and repetition you can develop the habits that will guarantee your success in any sales role, regardless of the industry.
- Look at your products as solutions to people’s problems.
- Get really good at asking questions that get clients to open up and acknowledge problems.
- When telling the client about your product, customize the presentation with how your product will solve their problem specifically.
- If they acknowledge that they can see how the product will help them (because you asked), ask them to make a decision to buy.
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