sales process Archives

If you want people buying your advice, then dumb it down!

by Tony Vidler When it comes to getting people buying your advice one of the best tips I can give is “dumb it down- but don’t treat them like dummies“. There is a big difference between “dumbing it down” and treating people as if they are dumb. The first is about simplifying the message in […]

Here is how to explain, and show, your value to a client in 30 seconds

by Tony Vidler I am a massive fan of using simple diagrams to explain technical ideas, but they are also a fabulous way of articulating concepts that people struggle to grasp. One of my favourites is a very simple picture that anyone can scribble on a scrap of paper in 30 seconds, which is […]

Paying COI’s: Should You Be Sharing Fees Or Commissions?

by Tony Vidler Is it appropriate to be paying COI’s a share of your success from their introductions or referrals? Should you share fees or commissions in other words. Personally, I think not. However, it is just a little more complicated than a simple “yes” or “no” because there are perhaps conflicting views. So […]

Lost Sales Skills: How to “get down to business” without drama

by Tony Vidler The advice industry has lost a lot of sales skills, and it needs them. If we are to help consumers make better decisions and change behaviour then we have to be able to help convince them to change. The first tension point for today’s professionals is how to transition from the […]

If you still need more clients then you probably need different skills

by Tony Vidler Financial advisers who need more clients need to be better marketers than salespeople in todays environment. For most that means they probably need new, or more, skills. Not more technical skills; more commercial skills. While financial advisers have been figuring out how to get ever-more-compliant and deliver yet-more-paper over the […]

You need to get selling

by Tony Vidler Advisers: Good advice process is not enough. Being technically competent is not enough. You have to get selling. I know that “Sell” is seen as a bit of a dirty word these days, but we cannot back away from the need for it. You have to sell if you are going to […]

How do you create an “Act Now” mindset with clients?

by Tony Vidler One of the ongoing challenge in marketing professional services is simply getting people to “act now”. We have to overcome their lack of urgency. Because our service will still be there tomorrow, right? And usually the need to be addressed by us is a future need, and maybe well into the future….so […]

Why we get fee resistance

by Tony Vidler Whether we like it or not there is always the possibility of fee resistance in delivering financial advice, and how we present our service is a large part of that problem. Price is always a problem in the absence of obvious value. It doesn’t have to be…we just need to think through […]

How can you be sure that your advice will pass the test?

by Tony Vidler The nagging worry for financial advisers in today’s environment is “how can I be sure that my advice will pass the test?” The concern is understandable given that policymakers typically do not understand the difficulty of applying any sort of objective assessment of suitability to professional opinions – which is fundamentally what […]

How to balance client time with practice development

by Tony Vidler An ongoing challenge for advice firms is balancing client time with all the practice development work necessary to have a better business. There are after all only so many hours in a day, but then there are deadlines for when new standards and rules have to be met if one is to […]

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