Getting the prospect’s attention is the big hurdle – but what happens when you have a meeting or a conversation with a prospect, and the deal falls flat? There are numerous ways to deal with this but in this blog I’m going to provide you with two non-blowoff-able ways for financial advisors to follow up with prospects.
But first…
For those of you who are new to my blog, my name is Sara. I am a CFA® charterholder and financial advisor marketing consultant. I have a newsletter in which I send you one actionable, practical marketing tip a day. Please sign up here!
Here are the typical situations where you must be skilled like half ninja, half financial advisor with your follow-up.
How should financial advisors follow up with a prospect who has gone dark?
Try this.
#1
Find out their interests on social media (more likely Facebook) and send them something in the mail related to it.
I once had this client that I just couldn’t close. I called up his office and asked the office manager what his hobbies were. She said he loved motorcycles, so I sent him a book about the history of motorcycles. The agreement was signed within two days.
#2 Invite them to an event.
This is a low pressure way to get them to engage. Call them personally and invite them to a webinar you are having. If they don’t answer, leave a voicemail so they hear your voice. Don’t talk about the deal, don’t try to sell them, just make a nice gesture and leave it where it is.
#3 Send them a blunt email.
If they have gone dark, you don’t have that much to lose. Just be respectful about it.
I send this: “Forgive me for bugging you but I was curious if you’re interested in talking more or if I should close the file.”
The subject line of the email should be: “Close the file?”
This will for sure get their attention and if they continue to ignore you, it’s a pretty good sign you should take them off your list at least for a while.
Alot of times people appreciate that you aren’t beating around the bush and will provide clarity about what is holding them back.
What is the best way for financial advisors to follow up with prospects who do NOT sign up?
Start here.
#1
Confirm that they have actually, in fact, rejected you. Often we assume that somebody isn’t interested because they are ignoring us, when in fact they are just busy or it’s not a priority at that moment.
Ignoring does not equal rejection!
Say this: “I’ve reached out a few times and haven’t heard back. Did you still want to speak or did you perhaps decide to go in another direction?“
Call them; and if they don’t respond, then email them.
#2
Let’s say they do in fact reject you. Now you have to find out why.
Make your questioning:
- Humble
- Brief
- Easy
- Two sentences ONLY! (see two sentence rule below)
Most people will be glad to provide feedback provided that you ask the right way.
Ask this question:
“If I may humbly ask, what would you see as the main reason you decided to take a pass? I’d very much appreciate any insight, so I can do better. ?”
Use a smiley emoji here to convey good will. People are more likely to respond if you are cool with the rejection.
Make it easy, folks!
After you have done the hard work of getting someone’s attention to the point they want to talk to you, don’t mess it up by making it hard to reach you.
Today, take a minute to review the contact fields on your website, email, and social media.
This stuff drives me nuts:
- Your phone number is listed in the signature of your initial email, but not on email replies that you send. This means clients have to fish around or look you up online if they want to call you and it’s stressful if I need to talk to you in a pinch.
- Check the “contact info” field of your LinkedIn. Do you have an email or phone number from a past job? If a prospect wants to email you, they’ll send it to the wrong place.
- Any email address you use for work purposes should be configured so that your first and last name show in the recipient’s inbox. I’m constantly getting emails with sender names like “Mike” (Mike who?) or “CFP”. It decreases the chances I’ll respond, or be able to scan and find it quickly if I have to refer back.
- Phone and email should be both in the header and footer of your website.
- Don’t call someone from a number that they can’t call you back on.
- When you text someone, say who you are. Don’t assume they have number saved in their phone. It’s embarrassing to ask, “who is this” and most people will just ignore the text if they don’t know who it is from.
Are you really make it as easy as possible for someone to get a hold of you?
It may seem superficial but it’s a source of tension, even subconsciously. Reduce friction with prospects and clients by making it effortless to get in touch with you.
What if nobody reads my emails?
Okeeee, here’s a simple way to fix that.
Give your email subject line more urgency.
Instead of this subject line: Retirement Account Changes for 2024
Try this:
Action required: your retirement account is changing!
Seeeeee?
- The use of “your” makes it more personal
- The colon chops the sentence up and catches attention
- The use of a gerund conveys that action is happening
- Exclamation point creates excitement
You could have also said:
“Pls respond: your retirement account is changing!”
“Pls review: 2024 changes to your retirement accounts”
Here you are positioning the verb in the beginning of the subject line which gets attention right away.
What if you get discouraged because you keep getting rejected?
Negative mental hijacking strikes us all, my friend.
Now, what I am about to tell you is wild, but I have evidence that it works.
If you have time to think about how you got rejected, you’re not busy enough. The only cure for negative mental hijacking is…
ACTION.
Do this TODAY
Take so much action that your entire mental capacity is consumed by what actions you are taking, or are about to take.
Almost like…an addiction.
Get addicted to taking action so there is literally no time to let these negative thoughts enter your mind.
- If you are getting negative thoughts during lunch break, stop taking lunch break. Track down a younger person in the industry and volunteer to mentor them during lunch break for 20 minutes.
- If you are getting negative thoughts during your drive to work, start listening to YouTube videos or podcasts while you are driving in your car.
- Or start calling old clients just to say hello.
- Or call 5 people you are connected to on LinkedIn and thank them for liking your last update.
- Or call 5 CPAs who sent you clients years ago and give them an update on how the relationship is going.
- Be overly nice to the people who run the car wash you stop at on the way to work. Make them think you are on crack that is how happy you are when you thank them.
- Include smile emojis on every single email you send that day.
- Send a random email to someone you work with and say, “You know, I never told you I appreciate the way you always send me the electric bill on time. Thanks for your professionalism.”
- If you want to stop just say these words to yourself, “Gotta keep going, can’t get hijacked!”
GET OUT OF YOUR OWN HEADS, PEOPLE!
It is the only way to keep the hijackers out of the cabin.
Now, you’ll know you’re doing this right when everyone around you starts saying things like,
- “You work too hard!” ,
- “What has gotten into you today?, or
- “Slow down, there!”
Wife, husband, friends, coworkers – you want them all thinking you’ve gone nuts.
Good.
They’ll change their tune and imitate you once they see the results. Heh, heh, heh (evil laugh).
Sara’s upshot
When you are mentally hijacking yourself, push the negative thoughts out of your head and replace them with positive actions for other people.
Get out there and lift other people up today!
Yeah you heard me – lift them up with your heart – ready, set, sprint! Run to the positive today, people.
Are you ready to go out a prospect like crazy, whoo hoo?
Alright that’s all for now. I hope these financial advisor follow-up tips were useful.
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Or if you want more…
Learn what to say to prospects on social media messenger apps without sounding like a washing machine salesperson. This e-book contains 47 financial advisor LinkedIn messages, sequences, and scripts, and they are all two sentences or less.
You could also consider this LinkedIn training program which teaches financial advisors how to get new clients and leads from LinkedIn.
Thanks for reading. See you in the next one!
-Sara G
