12 prospecting ideas for advisors mp3 Archives

Your Biggest Prospecting Mistake: Calling Prospects Before They’re Ready

December 13, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

If you’ve been in this business for any length of time—one day to ten years or more—you know one thing to be an absolute certainty, that prospecting is your lifeblood. You understand the critical importance of filling up your pipeline and keeping it full of qualified leads that can be continuously converted into qualified prospects. But to identify someone as a qualified prospect, you have to contact them. So, you make the phone call.

If you don’t reach them the first time, you call back in a few days. After a third and fourth try, you dare to leave a voice message. Nothing. So, you recycle them in your CRM for a call two or three months from now. Meanwhile, your potential prospect has blocked future calls. Your CRM is now full of candidates who have refused and will continue to refuse to take your call. Where does that leave you?

If you are still counting them as potential qualified prospects, you are probably deluding yourself and diluting your pipeline with people who have no desire to talk with you. But what was your big mistake?

5 Cold Calling Mistakes Financial Advisors Must Avoid to Improve Results

October 11, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

For many financial advisors, cold calling does not play a dominant part in their marketing plans. Many feel it can be replaced by other prospecting methods, such as email campaigns, social media networking, or trade shows. But would it surprise you to know that cold calling still generates better results than those other methods? When you ask advisors why they avoid cold calling, you often get responses like, “It’s not working for me,” or “It’s a waste of time,” or “no one wants to talk to me on the phone.”

No one ever said cold calling is easy. But if your efforts aren’t producing results, have you ever considered it’s not the method, but how you’re executing it that’s not working?

4 Challenges Financial Advisors Face in the New Digital Environment – And Solutions

August 24, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

There’s no doubt about it: The past six months have changed our business. It’s not just because those of us in the financial advisory business have changed. Our markets and our clients have changed, too. Their habits and behaviors are different.

Case in point: Those of us of a certain age remember closing lots of sales at the kitchen table – often late at night. But with the pandemic, few people are going to invite a salesperson into their home. That way of doing business was disappearing even before the pandemic. Now it may be gone forever.

Here are four communications challenges your peers are facing – and a few words on some possible solutions. We’ll have more in depth content on each of these topics in the future. But here are the basics to get you started.

Becoming a Financial Advisor at 40? Yes, You Can!

April 27, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

This is for all you career-switchers, and those considering a career change move into financial advisory services:

Don’t listen to the nay-sayers and the haters: You absolutely can become a successful financial advisor as a second career. In fact, as a career-switcher, you’ll have many advantages over your younger peers in your training classes.

Here are some of the many pros of becoming a financial advisor mid-career – and a few of the obstacles you may encounter.

Best Target Markets for Financial Advisors: How to Choose The Best One for You

November 11, 2019 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

There’s no ‘one size fits all’ target market for advisors. A market that may be perfect for one advisor may be a poor fit for another. You need to narrow down to the best target market for you, based on your personal background, specialty, knowledge, interests, social networks and so on.

By identifying your perfect niche you’ll find it far easier to differentiate your practice and set yourself up as the ‘go-to’ expert.

If you’re struggling to identify the ‘right niche’ here are a few ways to get started.

Three Things Elite Advisors Love That Average Advisors Fear

November 4, 2019 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Average Advisors get held back by letting their fear of performing certain essential tasks take control. Elite Advisors on the other hand have learned that with practice and perseverance it’s possible to actively embrace previously daunting tasks.

Here are three challenging aspects of their job that Elite Advisors are keen to take on, thus guaranteeing their success.

5 Reasons Why Clients Might Not Want to Refer You

July 8, 2019 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship, Prospecting / 0 comments

The best way to gather new clients is via referral, especially since many wealthier investors find their financial advisors this way. If you are failing to acquire referrals, you need to address this issue as a matter of importance. Lack of success invariably boils down to a number of reasons – in particular an inability to get along with people.

Here are 5 reasons that could explain why clients aren’t lining up to refer you.

Why You Need to Find a Niche Market and How to Identify One

March 25, 2019 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 2 comments

The saying ‘you can’t please all the people all of the time’ is never truer than in this business. As a financial advisor you’re ill-advised to work with all and sundry – you’re far more likely to succeed if you can identify a profitable niche and become the ‘go to’ advisor in that area. Once you’re established in your target market potential clients will naturally head your way, keeping your sales funnel full.

You could base your selected niche on people you’ve enjoyed working with or those who share a similar background or interests. You could also decide to concentrate on working with people in a sector that is underserved. Here are three such niche markets you could consider.

Why You Need a Referral Strategy and How to Develop One

October 8, 2018 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 3 comments

Many advisors are uncomfortable asking clients outright for referrals, finding it hard to strike a balance between being aboveboard about wanting to acquire new business and being pushy or needy.

If that sounds like you, then you need to change your mindset because there are only three ways to gather new clients: From existing clients, people you know who are not yet clients, and people you don’t know yet. The best way by far to find new clients is via referrals.

Use Your Clients as Your Sales Force

September 24, 2018 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

Use clients as your sales force - welcome to Don Connelly 247

A few years ago I got a question from Ryan who was wondering if I could give him some tips on how to increase the word of mouth that his clients give on his behalf and perhaps help to bring in more referrals.

Listen to the recording of my conversation with Ryan or read the transcript below to learn what I suggest he does and how he can use his clients as his sales force.

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