So you've gotten the call. Your new prospect is sitting across from you expectantly. You clear your throat, open your mouth and proceed to lose your opportunity before it ever even had a chance. How?
If you start your meetings with potential clients with a prepackaged phrase like, "What are your financial goals?" there's a good chance you're setting yourself up for failure. For sales coach Cheryl Clausen, there are several pressing issues with this question.
First, clients can smell a coming sales pitch from a mile away and thoughtless, trite openers only speed up the process. When a prospect can pin a pitch to a million other advisors, you've got to come up with something a little more inventive and a little less expected. Clients want to be impressed, not have their skepticism reinforced.
