For this episode, we will answer the following question:

Why is it important to address investment goals and challenges before presenting the solution to potential customers?

This may sound obvious to address the goals and challenges of your prospects before presenting the solution, however there are many financial advisors who drive their sales efforts by putting all the emphasis on the solution.

For sure there is a time to sell the benefits of an investment opportunity, but without fully understanding the goals and challenges of your potential customer, they will not be as convinced that it’s the right solution for them and you may even waste time on leads who are simply not ready to buy.

This is how financial service firms typically interact with their leads who are looking to invest their money:

The lead may say “I am looking to invest in alternative investments”

The advisor would respond by saying “What are you looking for?”

The lead would reply by saying “I am not sure but something that will generate income”

Then the advisor would say “ Ok how about I present to you our different options and you can decide what the best solution is for you.”

This may work. But in most cases, the conversation will end with the lead deciding to go home so they can think about the different solutions presented to them and they will end up doing their own in-depth research online to make a decision. This whole process from starting the conversation to the lead finally making a decision to buy can drag on and take a considerably long time.

As you can see from this example, the solution-driven approach is very discreet. Advisors have been working this way for the longest time, but now that the buyer’s behaviour has changed, it’s time to rework the sales strategy by first exploring the goals and challenges that leads face before advising on solutions.

Therefore, I suggest that every advisor should implement an exploratory session with each of your leads to understand their current situation, where they want to go and how they are planning to get there. This includes identifying their goals and challenges and helping them realize what the consequences would be of not taking action.

The exploratory session will help in 3 ways:

1. You are building a relationship with your leads as they share about themselves.
2. You are able to guide them towards the right direction accordingly.
3. You will be able to provide a solution tailored to them which will help you sell much easier compared to showing all options at the beginning and hoping one will catch their attention.