Planners’ personal sales pitch still winning clients
Persuasion skills have overtaken service value as a key determinant of picking up new planning clients, a CoreData report shows.
While the ability to “influence prospects” gives planners the strongest chance of winning a new client, the ability to “enthuse” the prospective clients is a close second, according to the data from the latest Financial Planning Shadow Shop.
Value of the planner’s service - the frontrunner for picking up new clients in 2012 - now comes in third, with “the ability to build relationships” and “trustworthiness” rounding out the top five.
CoreData’s head of financial services, Kristen Turnbull, said the results showed the importance of planners’ ability to market themselves to clients.
“Selling has become a dirty word in financial services, but with so much focus in recent years on compliance and regulations, there is the danger that first appointments become a tick-a-box exercise,” she said.
“First impressions are critical and planners need to sell themselves to prospects, by appealing to them on a personal level and engaging them in the advice process.”
The research was based on surveys of around 800 prospective advice clients.
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