I have a simple Principle which may not be good for a Sales Person like me. (Whether I like it or not, I have to admit that my income comes from the sales that I made, not the advice I provide)
When I recommend a proposal to my clients, I always asked myself if this is the best value that my clients can get and am I able to return him with good value with what he pays me for.
When my heart is able to give me 2 "yes" answers, I can talk very convincingly. If there is a "No", I will talk confusingly.
In order to get 2 "Yes", I will likely be paid lesser for the benefit of the client. My only hope is that my clients and prospective clients understand and appreciates this.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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6 comments:
If you are confident that what you are advising is good for your customer, you should concentrate on selling your advices and not products.
You should consider joining a Financial Advisory company that supports your thinking. This way, you differentiate yourself from the many product peddling advisors and deliver a real value added comprehensive financial service to your customers.
Just read today's ST front page story about how some financial advisers are churning their client's CPF money. Sooner or later, these evil advisers are going to land on the wrong side of the law. The irony is that, without such churning, these so called advisors may not be able to earn a decent living at all. Do you want to join them?
Of course talk is easy. Not many people can afford to be a fee charging financial advisor. You need to be real competent, confident and qualified so that people can trust your advice. Otherwise it is difficult to convince people to part with their money when there are so many "free advice" channels out there.
You are blessed with an honest character and that already put you in a good position to become a real good financial adviser. However you need to show more self confident, more knowledge and more enthusiasm to excel in this line. Perhaps also to join a company that recognise that financial planning does not really mean you have to sell something.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
From a long lost "customer"
You got it wrong.
The two YES should be coming out from the client's heart ..NOT YOURS.
When you do presentation, it is about asking yourself when you say this and show this graph would the audience agree with you.
PRESENTATION IS ABOUT CONVINCING PEOPLE , NOT YOURSELF!
Hi Vincent, its over a year since I met you. I was only barely 2-3 months in the FA then and was still confused with the many systems within the company and with all the insurers. I had gained a lot more since then and will continue to work hard. Thanks for your comment.
As for Mr Anonymous, when a product is introduced by the insurer, they have to convince me first before I will even talk about it with my clients. If I'm not convinced that this brings good value, I'll not even care to convince them. Many advisers will find ways to convince themselves especially when the insurers pay good commissions. I was unfortunately not so easily convinced most of the time.
The tough part is always to get the 2nd "Yes". Am I able to provide the value that they had paid me for. This stems down to the confidence I have on myself.
Some says their time is worth $1,000/hour. Some says $100/hr. I couldn't find an answer as of what is my value of my time yet.
ADRAIN, correct to say due diligence msut come from us first before a product can be recommended to our clients.
It is different with tied agents. The agents must first pyccho themselves that the products are good and all products from the company are good and all they have to do think is how to bullshit or lie to the cleints to get them to buy.
You are doing the right thing, the first line of check .
Adrian,
What's the difference in charing your client say $500 for advice verses earning $500 in commission for selling a product?
Numerically there is no difference to the client but there is a huge diff to you. For the former - you are selling an advice while the latter you are just a salesman:
1) If you sell advice, you automatically filtered off clients out to take advantage of you which appears to be happening quite often.
2) Moreover, you can concentrate in improving your advisory skill rather than convincing the client to buy a product.
I remembered you mentioning a few times that there is no standardization of charging fee. Don't wait for any standardization because it will never happen. Due to anti-competition act, it is not permitted to have prices that are "standardized" among industry players. If any fee-based financial practitioners would to enter into any agreement with each other to standardized their fees, they would run against the law like what had happened to bus operators, pest controllers, etc
Never give up what you believe.
You will reap what you sow.
Insurance agents will reap what they con from their clients.
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