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May 5, 2016 By Profeds Webmaster

Know you – Like you – Trust you

Know you – Like you – Trust you: 3 important aspects of sales (and life).

Lovingly known as “KLT,” these are 3 of the most important things that people in any type of sales need to know. Typically, these 3 things happen in order.

First, someone starts by getting to KNOW you and feel comfortable sharing (sometimes very personal) information with you. Perhaps they heard about you from a friend who had a great experience, or met you at a workshop where you talked about ways you can help people like them. They’re certainly not ready to do business yet, but we have to start somewhere.

They then begin to LIKE you because of your personality, sense of humor, and demeanor. They’ll know when you’re blowing smoke, so make sure this is genuine! Do you genuinely care about their experience, their happiness, and their satisfaction… or do you just hope they’ll like you so you’ll have a better chance at selling something? Be honest with yourself here — it’s this kind of introspection that will help you to identify the lack of authenticity in your business. Simply put — people do business with people they like.

Finally, they grow to TRUST that you have their best interest at heart and can help them accomplish their goals. People don’t buy from you because you have a cool gadget or service. They buy from you because of how they think they’ll feel after making such purchase. Building the trust and confidence in your professional relationships is so critically important. Without trust, a financial professional will flounder and wonder why nobody buys.

Are you nurturing each of these phases and giving your prospects a reason to become your clients? Once they become your client, are you reinforcing each of the KLT factors to strengthen your relationships?

Financial Professionals: Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Chris Kowalik of ProFeds to see if this proven, step-by-step system is right for you.

Ready to get started? The ProFeds Bootcamp is where all of the magic begins! This training program is limited to the first 10 financial professionals who qualify, so reserve your seat today! CLICK HERE for details about our next available class.

About the Author: Chris Kowalik, founder of ProFeds, is the industry’s leading business coach for financial professionals who specialize in working with federal employees. She is a frequent speaker for financial services firms and federal agencies throughout the country.

May 5, 2016 By Profeds Webmaster

What would Zig do?

WWZD? What would Zig do?

When it comes to sales, few people haven’t heard of the great Zig Ziglar. Zig died a few years back, but it’s amazing how his generous legacy lives on.

If you’re ever struggling with a decision regarding your business, I encourage you to ask yourself the very important question, “What would Zig do?” He won’t lead you astray.

Here are a few of my favorite Zig-isms:

You can have everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.
There’s no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.
The difference between WHO YOU ARE and WHO YOU WANT TO BE is WHAT YOU DO.

Be client-focused and run a business you’ll be proud to tell your parents (and regulators) all about.

When your values are clear, your decisions are easy.

Financial Professionals: Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Chris Kowalik of ProFeds to see if this proven, step-by-step system is right for you.

May 5, 2016 By Profeds Webmaster

Make raving fans

Do your clients blab to their friends about you? Do they go on-and-on about you and how great you are at what you do?

The idea behind making “raving fans” is that you want to create a client environment that causes them to FREELY and UNAPOLOGETICALLY tell their friends about you and how you’ve changed their life.

You certainly won’t get that if all you’re looking for is the sale, and you certainly won’t get that if you ignore goals or concerns that are important to your clients. So how do you get it?

Think back to times in your life where YOU have been a raving fan yourself.

Did you go to a new restaurant where the service was spot-on, the food was delicious, and you can’t wait to return?
Have you purchased a suit from a local retailer, and every time you put it on you feel like a million bucks?
Do you visit a chiropractor who does their magic with an adjustment that makes you feel 10 years younger?

Whatever the situation, there was something about the experience that causes you to tell friends and family so they can have a great experience, too. The restaurant owner didn’t have to beg you to tell your friends to eat there. The suit shop owner didn’t have to request for you to write down the names of 3 people in your office who also need a new suit. And the chiropractor didn’t have to ask you, “who do you know” who also need a back crackin’.

When you create an environment where your clients WANT to tell others about you, it’s magical. Brainstorm what that needs to look like in your practice. A few things come to mind:

Does your staff treat your clients like they’ve just walked into the doctor’s office (telling them to “sign-in, have a seat, and the planner will be right with you shortly”), or do they remember important things in that client’s life like a child’s birthday, a new promotion, or to thank them for introducing their friend to you last week?
Do you make things super simple for your clients (like having paperwork filled out correctly so that it doesn’t have to be redone 4 times)?
Do you care about your clients – for real? Do you pay attention when they tell you that their parents are in failing health, and do you check-in to see how they’re doing?
Do you make hard conversations easier with your demeanor? When you discuss recommendations, do you talk on a level that your clients can digest or do you talk way over their heads and leave them feeling stupid? When you talk about life insurance, do you make sure both the husband and wife’s perspectives are considered and encouraged?
Do you find that you judge people based on their current situation, or do you say, “well, the past is the past – let’s move forward and write a new end to this book!”?

In such a numbers-heavy industry, it’s sometimes surprising that to make raving fans out of our clients, it’s really all about how you make them FEEL.

Financial Professionals: Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Chris Kowalik of ProFeds to see if this proven, step-by-step system is right for you.

May 5, 2016 By Profeds Webmaster

Inspire action

Inspire action. Aim to move the needle in a positive way.

Information is not enough. Education is not enough. Knowing is not enough. Nike said it best — you have to DO IT.

If we want to help our clients reach for their own success, sometimes we have to inspire it out of them. Are you making it easy for that inspiration to take place?

Do you find yourself judging, jumping to conclusions, or writing off people because of their past mistakes before ever figuring out how to help?

What makes them tick? How are they motivated (is it the carrot or the stick)? Are there small milestones that can be identified to help them feel they’re making progress?

Let’s say you’re an investment advisor and you determine that your client needs to contribute $1,000/month to meet a very important goal that they have shared with you. Once you see all of the finances, you uncover that their budget is out of control, they continue to rack up high-interest credit card debt, and they feel as though they are falling further and further behind each month that passes.

What do you do?

Do you have the patience to inspire meaningful change in these people’s lives by helping them with baby steps? Much like an ER doctor must do, you must first triage the situation and do the most important things to get the situation under control.

In this example, your steps might look something like this:

get the budget under control,
look to solutions like a debt-consolidation loan to get the interest charges lowered,
build an emergency savings (to keep this from happening again),
begin a reasonable investment strategy, then
agree that each time a pay raise happens that the increase goes to boost the monthly investment

Someone who has struggled financially is used to being dismissed. Setting smaller, more manageable goals for them can inspire them to turn their life around instead of just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.

Although it takes time (and patience), if your clients are serious about making this a strategy, you look like a rock star for inspiring them to make these significant changes in their life.

Inspire action in whatever form it needs to take place.

Financial Professionals: Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Chris Kowalik of ProFeds to see if this proven, step-by-step system is right for you.

May 5, 2016 By Profeds Webmaster

Be generous

Be generous. Share your time, knowledge, experience and know-how freely.

One of my greatest (and most generous!) mentors has a philosophy: Even if they don’t buy, never let a prospective client leave without getting at least a happy meal. Are they better off having met you?

In other words, are you willing to help the people you meet even if they don’t buy what you’re selling?

Let’s say that you meet with a prospective client to do a life insurance needs assessment, and you mutually determine that they are woefully under-insured. When you dig a bit deeper, you uncover that they have a condition that makes them uninsurable. No matter what carrier you’d apply to, you know they will be declined for coverage. Sigh.

In this case, they wanted to buy from you, but couldn’t. So now what? Do you go the extra mile to help them with Plan B? Do you research their employer’s plan to see what group life insurance options they have, or what life events may trigger some options for them?

Are you eager to help your clients ONLY when you get to sell something? Are you just as eager to help them get (at least) closer to their goal when they met you? That’s the happy meal. It may not be the fancy steak dinner that you had originally imagined, but at least they don’t leave hungry.

Generosity can go a long way to building trust with your niche market. You see, when you’re generous with your time, knowledge, experience and know-how, people feel it. Prospects (and clients alike) can sense when you’re going the extra mile.

Financial Professionals: Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Chris Kowalik of ProFeds to see if this proven, step-by-step system is right for you.

May 5, 2016 By Profeds Webmaster

If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t know it well enough!

Bring clarity. If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t know it well enough!

Do you ever have those out of body experiences during a client meeting? Where you want to slap yourself for blabbing on and on about how much you know and how smart you are? Since you weren’t able to clearly articulate a point, you find yourself rambling and trying to explain away your inability to explain something?

Clarity is something we all need in life. There’s a lot of noise out there. One of your most important jobs is to cut through the noise and boil down complex concepts for your clients.

When all is said and done, clients want to FEEL GOOD about the decisions they make. Remember, confused clients TAKE NO ACTION. Break things down simply so you empower your clients to take meaningful action to better their financial situation.

If you work (or want to work) with federal employees and need help boiling down their complex benefits, there’s no better system out there than ProFeds.

Financial Professionals: Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Chris Kowalik of ProFeds to see if this proven, step-by-step system is right for you.