REQUIRED READING: If you are like most financial services executives, when it comes down to it, you are downright scared of being direct and to the point and telling people in no uncertain terms, ‘Here's what I want!’
Think about it. There's a conspiracy that encourages people to bury their most important wants and desires. Marketing trainers use consultative selling to draw people out. Social media consultants say, ‘Selling directly is suicide!’ People hem and haw, and they are often afraid to ask you what they want to ask you the most. They feel vulnerable about being honest and up-front. Hey, it petrifies even the best of us!
Yet when it comes to being successful in the financial services business, being frank, open and clearly asking people to give you what you want is what wins.
Quite frankly, people do not know the best way to get what they want. The simplest tactics and strategies used by people who were getting exactly what they were after is earth-shattering in simplicity: They ask for what they want. Then, they give the three very best reasons that explain why it makes perfect sense to say yes.
Here's an example. A sales executive has met with a prospect three times. He understands the client's fears and goals relative to developing a business plan and has invested a lot of time in developing one that is addresses the client's concerns and needs. It's been six weeks since the last meeting, and he's had a few follow-up calls with the client and still isn't sure if he will move forward to with the plan.
Even experienced business executives are often stumped over asking someone for the order. They stumble and bumble their way through touchy-feely talk about their hobbies, the weather, their pets, family or weekend plans – anything but what they are really after.
Oh sure, all sorts of experts tell you that it's important to build a relationship, or you have to draw out the prospect, listen for buying clues, among other items, but the crucial, bottom-line issue is that they never get around to asking the big question.
Yet the quickest and best way to ask for the order is to go right up to the client and say, ‘What do we need to do to get your business? Would you please let me know specifically? I want you to know what you need me to do to move things forward. You've seen how everything works, how well integrated it will be, that it's going to make a real difference. Can we meet at 10:00 a.m. to close a deal?’
It is crucial to identify the most important request and brainstorm before you decide on the best reasons. Each reason needs to be carefully selected from a larger number of options and be backed by three important facts.
It's about that easy, and the power of this strategy is more than a little amazing. And it really helps if you put your money where your mouth is.
‘Let's implement the plan as follows,’ the aforementioned sales executive will say in closing the transaction. ‘We'll meet again by the end of the week. We'll develop a transition plan, identify the new acquisitions, and the turnover schedule, and make the purchases. Then, we'll watch the results. I bet this will improve your portfolio's performance in ways you've been hoping for and more – and it will happen in less than a month!’
Ultimately, the best business conversations require three steps:
- Only offer information that is meaningful; the rest is trivial.
- Get to the point, and ask for what it is you want.
- Be quick about it.
Building a relationship is great, but overdoing it turns you into a nuisance. The biggest problem with consultative selling, for example, is that it gets in the way of the selling. It's technique overload. It targets intimacy over decorum, allows for procrastination and enables salespeople to avoid rejection. After all, if you are busy probing the needs of the prospect – you don't have to risk asking for the sale.
Imagine if a vendor at a ballpark were to consultatively sell you a hot dog. It would sound like this: ‘On a 1-10 scale, rate your level of discomfort with your hunger?’ No one would disagree that the vendor is more effective when he just yells: ‘Hot dogs, hot dogs – come and get your hot dogs!’
John Baker is a former senior vice president and chief operating officer at American Express/Ameriprise Financial and is author of the new book "The Asking Formula – Ask For What You Want And Get It," which is scheduled for release this fall from Wonsockon Press. He can be reached at (612) 227-9126.
