Do you have to be good at selling to be a successful financial adviser? This is our latest poll question, and we are seeking your views.
When applied to financial advisers, the term ‘salesperson’ is seen by many consumers as a negative attribute. This perception has been reinforced in recent times by events stemming from the Global Financial Crisis.
But regardless of whether or not financial advisers embrace the term, does this make any difference to our question of whether you can be a successful adviser without being good at selling? Does it depend, at least to an extent, on how the term ‘selling’ is defined?
What do advisers ‘sell’? In the past, many advisers have sold products. But in the natural maturing of the financial advice industry, most financial planners/advisers are now selling the value of their advice.
If advisers are paid for the value of the advice they deliver, then the equation of success becomes a function of how well the adviser can ‘sell’ that advice to their client. Therefore, the better you are at ‘selling’ your advice, the more successful you will become as a financial adviser.
Do you agree with this line of thought, or do you hold that you can indeed be a successful financial adviser without first being a good salesperson?
We acknowledge that the question of associating the terms ‘salesperson’ and ‘financial adviser’ can be difficult and more involved than the simplistic argument we have set out here. And we accept that each person will have a different vision of the meaning of success. We’re running this poll to offer you an opportunity to consider what, if anything, this issue means to your own approach to serving your clients’ needs.
Let us know what you think…
As we run this latest poll, dealer group Synchron will be conducting its 2012 Conference in Hawaii. The Conference will include a full day sales workshop for advisers, to be presented by Tom Hopkins, acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost sales trainers.
I saw Tom Hopkins very early in my career almost 30 years ago and he had an acronmyn STP (See The People) I have always used this with new recruits to this wonderful business.I therefore believe if you know what you are talking about the advise process will produce the sale as long as you earn your prospects trust and i still do not think of myself as a “Salesperson ” but as as an advice specalist to provide for the prosects family in the event of one of them passing.I think some advisers may not use the correct questions and do not have the empathy with their clients.
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