Can this career be saved?

Case Study: Jennifer *

Jennifer is a very intelligent and hard working sales professional. She also possesses a keen analytical mind and excels at identifying the complexities of advanced estate planning cases. Finally, her presentation skills are first rate and she is skillful when dealing with high net worth individuals. All in all, Jennifer is quite good in her practice. Given these facts you might ask: what is her problem?

One area which is obviously not a problem is her presentation and analytical skills. Yet she was barely meeting minimum production requirements and was worried that she would be able to break out of this rut. Like so many professionals, she was suffering from a hidden and pervasive case of poor prospecting. In fact her lack of knowledge of prospecting skills is just the opposite of her skill at analysis and presentations. Her options: Leave the business; team up with a good prospector, or learn to prospect more effectively herself.

Question: What advice would you give Jennifer?

Our Investigation

One very important rule I live by is to differentiate the symptoms from the problem. In this case it means we need to ask Jennifer: why aren't you getting more referrals? Is it because you don't ask - or is it something else? We needed to discover the root of her problem. We discovered several issues:

1. Jennifer felt as if she was begging when she asked for referrals. She hated this feeling and thus dreaded the prospecting process.
2. She didn't capture future prospect names in her Fact Finder.
3. She didn't have a smooth way of having an effective referral conversation.
4. She didn't allocate enough time for prospecting - it was not part of her regular marketing agenda (in fact - she had no organized marketing program).

Our Solution

1. Use one or both of my prospecting workbooks - "10 Steps to Building a Referred Lead Engine" or "Building a Center of Influence Engine: The Relationship System" - to help her improve her prospecting skills.
2. Revise her Fact Finder to help her capture the names of future prospects.
3. Allocate sufficient time in her sales process to have referral conversations, as outlined in Steps 3 and 7 in my workbook "7 Steps of Highly Effective Agents."

The Outcome

It took about 6 or 7 months, but Jennifer is much more effective because she has implemented the 3 step plan suggested above. It often takes time to correct deficiencies, but Jennifer found the effort worthwhile.

Would you like to improve your prospecting skills? Perhaps you know someone else who needs help. Helping financial service professionals prospect more effectively is one of my key services.

* Not her real name
Sincerely,

Nick Ray
Business Coach

Contact Nick today to see how his coaching services can help you or someone you know build their practice. A complimentary coaching session is available. Call 510.898.3245.

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Why Do Some
Good People
Do Poorly?

Do we really see and understand what's going on with under performing professionals?In my long career I've often been puzzled by the gap between a sales professional's apparent skills and their actual performance. Often they are attractive, intelligent, and well spoken- but they don't perform well.Far more than I would have thought, alcohol and drug addiction were occasionally the culprits. Sometimes it was a gambling addiction or perhaps it was depression. In some cases the problem was a lack of a good business plan.

But whatever the cause, if the problem was spotted early enough, more of these talented people could have had successful careers. This month's theme is how the hidden (but in this case not fatal) demons can hamper our effectiveness.