In this blog category you will find blog posts with actionable information and tips how to hone your presentation skills, including but not limited to overcoming objections, improving your presentation, handling initial appointments with prospects, and more.

How to Respond to the Comment ‘I Don’t Want to Lose Money’

How to Respond to the Comment ‘I Don’t Want to Lose Money’

I received an email from John in Texas with an interesting question. He said, “Every time I go into an appointment now, the first thing out of somebody’s mouth is, ‘I don’t want to lose any money.’

And I’ve been saying, ‘I don’t know anyone that ever does,’ as an ice breaker but I don’t feel comfortable. Can you give me a suggestion how to respond to that comment?”

Watch the video or read the transcript below to hear Don’s thoughts on how to respond to this question.

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Four Common Client Objections and How to Counter Them

Four Common Client Objections and How to Counter Them

There’s so much uncertainty surrounding investing that people postpone the decision. Clients and prospects can think of a multitude of reasons not to invest: Whether it’s tax time, retirement looks too far away or they want to buy a new car or kitchen.

However, when clients say they’ll ‘think it over’ it doesn’t mean they’ve found a good reason to delay investing; perhaps it means they don’t trust you enough yet, perhaps they don’t understand what you said or perhaps you simply  haven’t  convinced them to act. So how do you get them to do the right thing and start securing their financial futures?

Here are some common objections you’ll face – and how to answer them.

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How to Get Your Point Across in Fewer Words

How to Get Your Point Across in Fewer Words

When you address clients and prospects, you are a techie talking to non-techies. There is always the threat that you will confuse your listener and we all know by now that people don’t buy what they don’t understand. Many are the Advisors who have talked themselves out of commitments.

One way to mitigate this danger is to get our message across in as few words as possible. Advisors who can do that gather a lot of assets.

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How You Present Is as Important as the Information You Are Presenting

Don Connelly tips on his blog

The facts and figures you present to your clients may not be as important as you think they are. Clients don’t want more information. Clients want someone they can trust. While you are giving your presentation, they are not deciding on the accuracy of the numbers. They are deciding about you. Can I trust you? Will you always do the right thing? What are your values? Are you on my side? They need to trust you, not the numbers.
How you say something is as important as what you say.

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Communicating as Intended Is Vital to Your Success

Financial Advisors Success - Communicate as Intended

Since it is your job to influence and persuade, what you say is not nearly as important as what the other person hears. To be successful, you’ve got to communicate as intended.

When folks say to you that they want to go home and think about what you proposed, they are most likely telling you that they haven’t fully understood what you said. They aren’t rethinking their decision to retire comfortably. They simply don’t want to buy into what they don’t understand.

Why are we misunderstood and what can we do about it?

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Every Advisor Needs to Bring Back the Story

Don Connelly audio podcast

The ability to tell good stories is vital if you want people to like and trust you. Your clients like you and trust you. They didn’t buy a financial plan or a managed account. They bought you.

People can’t ‘buy’ you until they know you and the best way to get to know you is to hear your story. And they can’t hear your story until you tell it to them. The better you do that, the sooner you open the account. As Peter Guber says, you tell to win.

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When Asking for a Commitment, Make Up Your Mind in Advance

Don Connelly tips on his blog

Of all the presentations given by Financial Advisors to prospective clients on any given day, how many end up with no commitment being made? We’ll never know. Of all the presentations which end up with no commitment being made, how many end up that way because the Advisor didn’t ask for the commitment? We’ll never know that either. But we can take a pretty good guess and we can also guess why.

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Overcome The Curse of Knowledge

Overcome The Curse of Knowledge

Financial Advisors know a lot about finance, economics, interest rates, taxes, estate planning, investing, the stock market and many other things. A whole lot. That knowledge comes with a price. When an Advisor knows his stuff, it’s hard to imagine not knowing it. So when an Advisor speaks to a client, the Advisor often forgets that he or she is drawing from an enormous reservoir of knowledge and speaking to someone of lesser knowledge.

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Can Charisma Be Learned?

Don Connelly audio podcast

Charismatic Financial Advisors are great communicators. They connect on an emotional level. They get people to buy in, to believe. Just imagine that you alone can make someone act and feel a certain way. No other Advisor lights up a room the way you do. Just being near you makes people feel important. That’s charisma. You would be untouchable if you had tons of charisma. Can you learn how to acquire charisma?

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