One of the most common things I hear from advisors is that they want their team to be more effective at converting the leads coming into their practice from seminars, radio, and television. I sat down with one of our top advisors and discussed this very subject. Here is what he had to say:
If you have someone in your office who is part of your operations team and answering calls, you should consider the fact that you are asking an administrative person to shift into a sales mindset. Having a sales conversation may not come naturally to them. Understanding this will help you assess how much training they need.
There are seven key points you should consider when training your team on lead conversion.
1. Know your target market. Before your team can know it, you must know it. Who is your ideal client? Who is your client base mostly made up of? How can you vet callers to get qualified prospects scheduled? What do you say to the callers who do not fit the target client profile? When you know the answers to these questions, they will become a critical part of the script used on the phone with callers when your team qualifies your leads.
2. The first three seconds of the call are critical. They set the tone and mood. Your team must sound likeable and positive in their greeting and response to the caller.
3. Comply. You’ve promised the callers something. The very first thing you want to do is deliver on that promise in the call. We suggest you restate the offer or call to action from your show, tell the caller, “We are happy to get this for you,” and then go right into the information-gathering phase.
4. Discover and build trust. Once you’ve delivered on your promise, transition the caller into a conversation by saying something like, “Tell me, what have you done to prepare for retirement?” The only way to find out what matters to people about their retirement is to get them talking about it. The goal of this step is to discover the concerns the caller has by asking questions and having a conversation. There has to be something that drove them to call your office, and you want to find out what it is.
5. Show concern to create desire. When a caller begins talking about their concerns, you should agree with them by using intentional pauses and a genuine concern statement. This will show empathy and create urgency in the client to come in for an appointment. An example would be, “You know, based on what you’ve told me, I think you really need to talk to [agent name].” With this consultative approach, the closer the caller is to retirement, the more likely they are to pull the trigger and come in for an appointment.
6. Overcome objections. The most common two objections that we hear are, “I’m too busy,” and “I’ve already got a guy.” Reassure your caller that if their guy was meeting their needs, they wouldn’t be calling you. We’re all busy, and that’s why your practice works by appointment only.
7. Set the appointment. Give the caller two choices of appointment times. “I manage <agent name>’s calendar, and I see he has Tuesday morning and Thursday morning available. Which one can I schedule you for?”
If you liked what you read, there is more. I took the above information and combined it with the tricks of the trade from other top advisors who consistently convert leads to create a Lead Conversion Training Manual. You can download it for free on our Agent Portal. Do you need access to our Advisor Portal? Call your Marketing Manager today!
For financial professional use only. Not for use by the general public.
