As a financial advisor, you understand the importance of closing business deals today. You only have so many hours in a day, so your focus is going to be on the prospects who are in the appointment process right now. However, if you want to scale your practice and take it to the next level, you need to start focusing on list growth, nurturing, and following up. The failure to follow up is a mistake that many salespeople, including financial advisors, make.
Only 10% of salespeople follow up at least five times or more, according to a study conducted on salespeople from all different industries. Yet, the vast majority of buying decisions (81%) are made after the fifth follow-up attempt. This means that you need to put a system in place to follow up and nurture those leads at least five or more times to be in the top 10% of advisors that are positioning themselves to close 81% of the business.
Following up with leads and nurturing them is easier than you might think. As an advisor, you are likely used to public speaking. So, you can put together a list of the top 20-30 questions that you know prospects have about how to retire securely. You can then set up a video response to those questions and put an automated email campaign in place. Every new lead that you generate every week will get one of those video answers or tips that you can send out to them.
Over time, this will build connection and establish trust with those prospects that prior to becoming a lead didn’t know you, didn’t trust you, didn’t know who you were, or didn’t see you as a credible authority. And then, when they decide they want to take action, they’ll reach out to you because they’ve been consistently connecting with you through video and have had a chance to see you demonstrate your expertise.
This approach should be true of all your prospects, including those who call in from a radio show, anyone who registers to attend a webinar that you put on, or even those who attend your seminar but don’t buy. You can also run a lead generation campaign purely for a series of white papers.
The key takeaway is that while focusing on closing business today is important, it’s also crucial to focus on generating leads that may not be ready to buy today. As you nurture those leads, educate them, and warm them up, they will become ready to buy six, 12, or even 24 months from now. By following up with your prospects consistently and building a relationship of trust with them, you’ll be able to scale your practice in a way that doesn’t kill you from a cost perspective.
