Prospecting Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

In the Prospecting blog category you will find blog posts about prospecting. Don’s tips would include but may not limited to prospecting for new clients, leaning on your clients, researching for clients, how to ask for referrals, and more.

How to Get Your First Client as a Financial Advisor

August 7, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

All financial advisors start in the same place—with no clients. Getting that first client (who’s not a relative) is a significant hurdle but not insurmountable. And, as many successful advisors will tell you, once you clear that first hurdle, it’s off to the races.

While getting your first client can be a challenge, you can succeed with the right skills, a solid game plan, and a hefty dose of persistence.

How Newer Financial Advisors Can Build a Solid Client Base

July 10, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

There’s never been a better time to build a financial advisory practice. More people than ever are clamoring for quality, objective financial advice to guide critical life decisions. It’s also a very challenging time for newer financial advisors as the competition for quality prospects is fierce.

However, unlike fledgling financial advisors of yesteryear who worked with little more than a reverse phone directory to find clients, advisors building a practice today have the advantage of years of hindsight along with some cool technology to get them over the proverbial hump.

Rather than applying a dated “all of the above” approach to prospecting that included endless cold calls, direct mail, and even blast emails, newer financial advisors can systematically and incrementally build a solid client base using a proven marketing and sales framework fit for the digital age.

5 Essential Lead Generation Tools for Financial Advisors

July 3, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

A common mistake many advisors make is to look to lead generation as a short-term solution to a dwindling pipeline, with bursts of activities such as cold calls, direct mail, email blasts, or scheduling webinars. While these can sometimes work to fill the void temporarily, they can be very time-consuming, inefficient, and unpredictable.

To ensure a constant flow of qualified leads, lead generation must be built into your daily practice as a machine continuously attracting leads to your pipeline. Fortunately, with digital technology tools, generating qualified leads is easier than ever.

Here are the essential tools available to any advisor seeking to create a systematic process for generating non-stop qualified leads:

Best Referral Sources for Financial Advisors

June 26, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

Any financial advisor who’s been in business for more than a minute knows the best way to grow a practice is through referrals. We’re taught from the very beginning that the best source of quality referrals is from clients. Advisors who focus on differentiating themselves by delivering exceptional, highly personalized services to their clients are often rewarded with referrals.

But clients aren’t the only source of referrals. Many highly successful advisors create a comprehensive referral marketing strategy that taps multiple sources. While building a fruitful referral network can take time and effort, it is the one sure way to establish a steady stream of qualified prospects.

Here are five of the best referral sources financial advisors can develop.

Building Resiliency Through Successful Calling Habits

February 13, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

I think it’s safe to say that most financial advisors don’t like making prospecting calls. Many even detest it. At best, it’s a necessary evil.

However, some advisors not only welcome the challenge of call prospecting, but they also thrive on it. One advisor I know considers each phone call he makes as the potential to uncover riches like scratching off lottery tickets. He said, “I could win the lottery at any minute, and if I scratch off enough tickets, believe me, I will win the lottery.”

That’s one way to stay motivated. But there is an element of truth to it. Ambitious advisors will do whatever it takes to build a resilient mindset, which is critical to success in any endeavor. They’re not afraid to risk rejection because they know it will lead to wins, and that’s what they live for. However, for resilience to be sustained, it must be built on solid habits that eliminate the overthinking that leads to call reluctance.

Here are the essential calling habits—several of which occur before the call—you must develop to grow your businesses successfully:

For Financial Advisors, the Road to Success Begins with Solid Prospecting Habits

February 6, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

For financial advisors, there’s nothing like the thrill of signing a new client. But it doesn’t take very long in the business to realize that, without prospecting, those thrills can be few and far between. While signing new clients is the opportunity all advisors relish, they must first create those opportunities, which can only be done through continuous prospecting.

Most advisors consider prospecting to be the most challenging aspect of their work. The challenge for many is doing it consistently and effectively enough to produce sufficient opportunities. For some advisors, prospecting is an afterthought, only becoming necessary when their pipeline dries up. But with the typical lead-to-prospect conversion process lasting as many as six months, that could mean weeks or months before signing a new client.

Successful advisors know that the key to sustainable growth is a constantly replenished pipeline through persistent prospecting. The only way that happens is by building solid prospecting habits.

Here are the essential success habits advisors must develop to become effective and consistent prospectors.

How to Get More Unsolicited Referrals from Clients

December 19, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

Ask any successful advisor what the key to their success is, and they’ll tell you—referrals. You can’t grow a profitable practice without a steady stream of referrals. When you ask for and receive a referral, it’s an indication that you impressed your client enough to act on your request. But what if you didn’t have to ask for referrals? What if your clients were so impressed with you that they took the time to share their experience with someone without you having to ask?

You know what that feels like if it’s happened to you. But, for many advisors, it happens so rarely that it’s a major shock when it does. So, how do you make it happen consistently enough to make it an expectation?

Presenting the Strategy Paper to Turn Prospects into Clients

November 28, 2022 / by Russell Collins / Connelly Corner, Prospecting / 0 comments

In my previous guest blog post, I explained how I dissected the confirmed file note by dividing it into four separate quadrants in order to create a strategy to take to my next meeting – the Strategy Paper Meeting (SPM), It should lead to a “yes”, the prospect agreeing to do business with me.

In summary, the primary purpose of the SPM is to highlight a problem; get their agreement to the problem; that they want to solve it; and then involve them in the decision-making process. That way the decision becomes theirs and all I had to do was the numbers based on their ability to pay. In relation to the latter, I found the best time to do that was after I had proceeded through the strategy paper up to the point of discussing the shortfall with them. More on that later. Now let’s focus on the strategy paper itself.

Agenda for the Strategy Paper Meeting (SPM): What Is It and How to Prepare It

October 3, 2022 / by Russell Collins / Connelly Corner, Prospecting / 0 comments

By now you should be familiar with the concept of the File Note and how it helped me increase my closing rate to 9 out of 10 in life insurance sales. I found that the reaction to my file notes was one of people looking forward to our next meeting and how I was planning to deal with their particular situation. I called that meeting my Strategy Paper Meeting (SPM.)

Within the file note that they had previously confirmed, were a number of answers to my questions that highlighted problems to which they were not even aware existed at that time. My dissection process was to draw attention to those questions and their answers in such a simple format that would allow for frank discussion.

So, generally, the format for the SPM would look like this:

Nail the First Meeting with a Prospective Client: Address What Your Prospects Want to Know

July 18, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship, Prospecting / 0 comments

It takes a lot of time, patience, and effort to move a prospect through the funnel to the point when they finally agree to meet with you. For every prospect that makes it that far probably six to nine fall by the wayside. That makes that first meeting ever so crucial. There’s a lot that must be accomplished. It has to go perfectly. There’s a minimal margin for error.

Every advisor has their own formula for constructing a perfect prospect meeting. It invariably includes a polished presentation and ample opportunities to present oneself as a likable, competent professional.

However, ensuring that first meeting is a success comes down to how you structure it to address all the prospect’s questions and concerns. They’re meeting with you to find out who you are and why they should work with you. They need the answers to very specific questions on their mind even though they may not ask them. So, why not structure the meeting around what your prospects really want to know?

Here are a few such questions they are asking themselves.

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