Read our article in Barron’s about Consultative Sales Method as the anti- Bud Fox!

Consultative Sales: The Anti-“Bud Fox” Method

☛ What is Sales Coaching?

Neuroscientist Gregory Berns has explained "A person can have the greatest idea in the world - completely different and novel - but if that person can't convince enough other people, it doesn't matter."

Research by the Sales Executive Council shows that no other productivity or marketing investment comes even close to coaching in improving a professional's performance pertaining to growth.  Yet, service providers spend thousands of dollars on expensive websites, brochures, technology platforms, search engine optimization, blog writing, and peer group discussions to grow their practice.

The end result?  Many advisors growing at less than 10% annually, or even worse, throwing in the towel, laying off talented planners from their team, merging with advisory firms unwillingly, giving up their hard-earned independence, or being bought out prematurely.

A CONSULTATIVE sales coach brings in an outsider's perspective inside your practice, providing a third party, unbiased viewpoint of your team and how you operate as sales professionals.  He or she also compares you to the industry benchmark of growth, which is comprised of years of research and observation of best practices in sales strategies within your particular industry.

With a full understanding of what you're doing right and where the potential weaknesses are, a good sales coach will be able to work with you and your firm to bridge the gap and help you become extremely competitive to win and maintain more business. Personalized sales coaching may be the best option for you and your practice.

Sales programs can help you and your team learn to better prepare and execute your sales and growth plans. When signing up for a sales training and coaching program, you can expect a range of resources designed to help your team learn the strategies that turn prospects into clients, such as soft skills, interpersonal skills, active listening, powerful email writing, virtual networking and a lot more.

So you may be asking yourself:

Who are the top coaches for financial advisors and wealth managers?

When looking for the best sales training and coaching programs, it’s important to choose a reputable course provider that is familiar with the type of clients you are looking to gain. For example, if you are a financial advisor seeking more investors, it’s important to work with someone with prior experience working with ultra high net worth investors. If your company works with RIA’s and your sales trainer keeps using the word “IRA” to explain your industry, you are most likely not in the best hands!

What are the different types of sales coaching and training out there for wealth managers, CPA’s and attorneys?

We understand that no two advisors are alike; Advisors have different goals and objectives.

Because of that, Select Advisors offers multiple types of sales coaching for financial advisors, and sales training programs for accountants.

The choices include are below.

Please select which one would be the best sales training program for you and your financial advisory team.

Our sales coaching topics for financial advisors and wealth managers include:

• Accountability and goal setting for financial advisors

• Firmwide sales manuals and sales process development, at RIAs and Wirehouses

• Scripts and messages for advisors to their prospects

• High Net Worth prospecting methods

• Personal branding to humanize your brand

• Seminar planning for advisors

• Referral program development

Read Some of Our Top Consultative Sales Ideas and Strategies for Financial Advisors

☛ Who is a good candidate for the Select Advisors Sales Coaching Program?

At Select Advisors,we believe that there is no “one size fits all” for everyone to grow their practice; it all boils down to personalities and what works best with your DNA. Some of us genuinely enjoy being the life of a party or networking event, but we have difficulties closing; others are great at researching leads, but they can’t articulate their value at a prospect meeting.

We have distilled people’s Sales Personalities into three categories:

• The Strategist

• The Charmer

• The Researcher

Once you take our Consultative Sales Personality Test™, we will know your lowest hanging fruit to growing your practice.

You will then work with coaches and experts who excel at working with personalities similar to yours, and you will develop a roadmap to being the best version of you in your practice.

☛ How do you select a sales coach?  Ask yourself, would I hire this person as my advisor if I was a prospective investor?

A sales coach is ONLY, repeat ONLY, as good as the coach behind it.  If you have respect for the person coaching you, and want to emulate his/her style and approach to growth, you should hire that coach.  If the coach irks you, or their style is unrealistic, trust your personal judgement.

At the same time, a sales coach should differ in their strategy from yours.  Otherwise, you would be repeating the same pattern of growth, which is most probably not as ideal as you'd like.

Another way to see if you want to work with a sales coach is to see how fast they have grown their own sales coaching practice.  If someone is a good sales coach, they can also sell their own business!  If they have been in business for 10 years as a sales coach and still working with only 10-20 advisors, that's not a good sign.  

☛ What are the credentials you should look for in a coach?

Some factors you should look for in a coach are:

• Their track record within your own industry

• The education and schooling of the coaches

• The way they carry themselves. If you were a potential client, would you select this person as your financial advisor? Why or why not?

• Are they ethical?

• Do they understand your industry on a very technical level, and/or can they learn quickly because of their robust background?

☛ Why Select Advisors as a Sales Coach?

Reason 1: Our Consultative Sales Personality test distills quickly what works best for you, not teaching you strategies that will potentially take years to come to fruition. We are impatient, and want to get you results fast!

Reason 2: We are not just coaches, we are sales managers.  Unlike most coaches who sugarcoat their discussions with you and tell you what you want to hear, we are big proponents of being as transparent as possible with you.  We have no qualms challenging you on your views on yourself or the approach you take with a prospective clients.  Sometimes, our discussions can become quite heated, so be prepared!  We like to keep our clients on their toes for their own benefits. 

Reason 3: We understand the client mindset, because we are still working with them!  Unlike most sales coaches you hear at conferences who speak at 100 miles an hour and sounds like a used car salesman, we take great pride in having been business professionals ourselves, having worked with billionaires and multi-millionaires.  We know what really works in the real world, and are still intimately involved in working with high net worth individuals through our various other projects, including our membership-only educational clubs for wealthy investors.

Reason 4: We don't just talk theory.  During our one-on-one coaching sessions, you will have your computer in front of you, and will be sending emails to prospects, finding prospective clients in real time, going through your calendar of lunch appointments, maintaining your CRM, updating your social medial presence, and systematizing your meetings with COI's. While we want to motivate and invigorate you, we think that implementation is by far more important than theory.

Reason 5: We are investment professionals first, marketers next.  Our founder and CEO taught derivatives and risk management as a faculty professor.  She understands the investments world extremely well. Why is this important?  By knowing full well the needs and objections of clients, together we can decide how to find the best solutions for them, not only from high level, but from a granular, product level that would satisfy their needs.