INTRO  00:08

This is the ultimate advisor podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful and scalable practice. Each week we'll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets, and to create the advising practice that you've dreamed of. You'll be joined by our hosts Bryan sweet, who is moving fast towards a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to improve their operations and company culture, and Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing and to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let's jump in to another amazing episode of the ultimate advisor podcast.

Brittany Anderson  01:07

Welcome back to your ultimate advisor podcast. Brittany Anderson here with you again with Mr. Bryan sweet and Mr. Draye. Redfern. And we're continuing on this journey of talking about ways that we can actually hinder our own success, things that might get in the way from you reaching the level that you really strive to reach. So we've talked so far about fear, we've talked about avoiding the whole cost idea versus, you know, investing into your future and making sure that that's a conscious decision we make. Now we're going to move into a little bit more of a technical or I guess, even some tactical things here. But one of the ways that we can really hinder our growth and hinder our success is by having a lacking sales process. So you could be an exceptional advisor, one for the books, right, somebody who you're relatable, and your relationship based on your wonderful. But if you are not a good sales person, you're actually missing out on a ton of opportunity. So when I say sales, we're not talking here necessarily about just shoving ideas down somebody's throat about making sure that you're asking for the sale. And you know what the past was, that was all feature benefit, feature benefit, you know, you need to have two benefits to every feature. And you know, that's all stuff that may be good for laying the foundation of what it means to sell. But we want to reframe our thought process that selling truly is serving. So that's the foundation that we're going to go off of today is that if you don't embrace the notion of making sure you have a seamless sales process, one that feels good to the end user, one that feels natural and comfortable, and like you're addressing their pain points, like you are solving their problems on that receiving end, then we need to put our time and attention to it. You know, one thing that's come about, we had one of our mastermind members recently tell us, you know, one thing that's really been a big benefit to them and going through our program and looking at their sales process is they've actually been able to say no, to more non ideal clients, because they've gotten so clear on who they're best set to serve. So we all of a sudden going from we go from Yeah, their ideal an ideal client when it comes to their assets. But maybe their demeanor doesn't match us. Maybe their attitude, maybe they're not delegators, you know, maybe they you know, don't trust our process, and they want us to do something totally one off. Could we do it? Absolutely. That's totally, you know, something that we could handle? Should we do it? No. So when you have that clearly defined sales process that lets you ask the right questions, lets you push on the pain points, lets you gain clarity around who you should actually be serving. It's a game changer for your business. So the thing to think about when we look at selling versus serving, or selling being a function of serving, those that are actually exceptional at selling, are the ones who believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're doing a disservice by not selling to those who they know are going to benefit from their services. So you're sitting in front of a prospect if you don't have total conviction, that how you can help and or serve them is just so far beyond anybody else out there. It's going to be hard for your passion to come through. You know, if you have doubts in your mind that you know, through that process, like guy down the street probably deliver the same equal value, it's going to show through, so you have to lead into this understanding how you serve what capacity You want to serve that, and really how much of a differentiator you are or can be for that person. But we tend to leave opportunity on the table by not mastering this. And by not knowing how to get to the core of what makes people make decisions, uncovering again, their fears, no, we talked a couple episodes ago about how you as an advisor, you want to make sure that you put your fear to work for you and not against you. Well, think about that, from the shoes of your prospect, you know, they're coming into the conversation with maybe some preconceived notions, with maybe some fear, with uncertainty. So all of those things that you may face as you grow your business they're facing in basically turning over their life savings to somebody who's maybe a stranger, or maybe has a little bit of a warm introduction, because a friend or family member of theirs have done business with you. But again, they've not had that experience, they've not had that interaction. So when you look at your sales process, and how you been bring people through, you know, as advisors, we can get in our own way, by falling too much in love with our own darn process. So we get so excited, we have conviction and energy around what we do. And we go into that mode of wanting to just talk about all the great things that we do for people. But in that presentation, if we totally miss the problems and our pain points that our prospect is facing at that time, even though we might know we solve for those, if we're not articulating that and uncovering that in that meeting, and then speaking to that with their language, again, opportunity left on the table. So sales or selling in general is not just trying to convince somebody of something, it's trying to show the value you provide in a very easy to digest, easy to understand way, and helping people work through basically their own self discovery process. So that at the end of the conversation, they're basically the ones telling you that they want to work with you and all the reasons why. So instead of getting so caught up and saying, alright, well, I have a process, I have a service, a product, whatever it is that I know is just going to be so great for this person, let them speak to their pain, you know, ask them what's what's one of the biggest challenges you're facing right now, when it comes to retirement, when it comes to selling your business? When it comes to you navigating a tough transition? What are the things that are keeping them up at night? What are their the things that they are losing sleep over? Like those are the things you need to get to and uncover in order to make sure you can actually overcome some of those objections, some of those fears, some of those frustrations, and create a space where you can solve for their problems. So Bryan, I would love to hear, you know, thinking back over the years, what are some of the maybe foundational sales approaches that you use when you first got into the business and talk about how that's evolved and changed over time?

Bryan Sweet  08:07

You bet. Bernie, I, I find this really interesting, because I think you covered this so eloquently already. But going back to the the original days, I think a lot of the success that I had one related to a comment that you had earlier, where I always had the belief that I could be the person that could help them overcome whatever that issue is that they had. So I think that came through or I exuded that in the conversation. And they felt that and we're comfortable making the decision. I think the other thing is enthusiasm. So if you're talking about something and you're talking about it very positively, even if the client or prospect doesn't understand it, if you say it in such a way, that gives a lot of belief or conviction or positivity. Sometimes that's really all you need. Now, you got to be doing it for the right reasons, and, and all of those things and not, you know, making up fabrications. But I would tell you, those two things have served me very, very well. Because people felt that what I was recommending, I was very, very much believed it and whether they understood it or not, they trusted me to, you know, move forward. I think the other thing is at times when I first started, you know, definitely product oriented and some of the, you know, like you said the features and the benefits and those kinds of things. And I also look back, you know, when Didn't you have very good success that was probably when I focused on on those kinds of things. And if you just make it a conversation where it's all about the client And nothing about you. And you just keep asking questions that go deeper. I will put it this way. Normally, the question that a client asks isn't the question, it's normally something different. But they're gonna come out the first time with this because it's safe. And if you just keep going deeper, the true benefit, or the true reason they're looking or needing something will come out later in the conversation. It's just that you got to control that, and ask those kinds of questions. And Brittany has used this before, but not in this podcast. So I'm going to borrow this, in that, you know, if client said, you know, tell me about your fee schedule, instead of just pulling out your fee schedule and saying, Well, you know, this point, it's 1.25, or whatever it happens to be. Why don't you try this? Gee, that's a very interesting question. May I ask why you asked that. And it's really interesting, because it might be their neighbor said something that, that our firm is very expensive, or some preconceived notion that they read about, it could be anything, but then you're more likely to get to the true question within, you can answer it. And what will happen is, you'll be able to tell them that the fee for the value that you deliver, makes the fee really insignificant. But if you just go in and say, I'm 1.25, and everybody else, and their brother is 1.25%, there's no way of one differentiating yourself. And two, you're really not getting to the true crux of the problem. So I thought, I thought those were kind of interesting. And today, I would tell you, we have, I wouldn't say down to a science, but we're as good as we've ever been at this. And I think we finally have found the system that seems to work. And I'm going to give some credit to somebody that we brought into the office, Chris Smith, who runs a company called the campfire effect. And he has really helped us hone our story. And master how you do the transitions and how you get clients involved and how you get the client story out and how to get the connection so that it matters to the prospect or to the client. And once you kind of get that story down, then the key is to practice that. And so one of the things we have is our ADM meetings, which is advisor development meetings, and one of the things we're trying to do more often is practice, given your story and practice, the key things that you'd want to say in different, you know, circumstances. So somebody brings up a comment, and they're not really sure best how to answer it, then they'll bring that up at the meeting, then we'll have a system or a session where we'll practice that. And the only way you get better at anything is just to do it more. And so if you're not doing that, even if you don't, if you're the only advisor, practice with your assistant or practice with somebody, but that's really, really key. But it's all about making the client feel that all you care about is them, and helping them and serving them and giving them some direction. So that whatever their problems are, you're going to be the resource that helps them overcome that. And that issue in a short period of time will not be an issue because they engaged your services.

Brittany Anderson  14:12

Hey Brittany here, stopping and pausing for a moment to talk about something that we've had so many of you inquire about and that is our ultimate advisor, mastermind. Now I'm going to start by saying if you are not a growth minded individual, if you are not somebody who is focused on taking your business to the next level, if you're not focused on engaging your team, and helping them to help you in turn, level up the business, the service model, how you provide that wow experience to clients. If those things are not your focus, just fast forward right now, because the ultimate advisor mastermind would not then be for you. However, if you are looking to to take your business to the next level. If you want to experience exponential growth and feel supported along the way, if you want to start working smarter and not harder, if you want to help your team members to work within the God given talents that they were provided, and use those skill sets in a way they haven't yet to help support you in your business, to help them realize their biggest goals, their biggest dreams. If you want creative approaches to marketing, I know that can be an intimidating word. But we're not talking here about the fancy Facebook stuff, or, you know, the latest and greatest, but rather looking at how you can market what you do, how you can express how you're different, and how you can truly differentiate yourself in a crowded market space. If those are problems you're looking to solve, then you absolutely want to go check out ultimate advisor mastermind.com to learn more about how we can help you on your path and journey to growth.

Bryan Sweet  16:12

So Draye, what words of wisdom can you add to that?

INTRO  16:16

A lot there, Bryan, I think that I'll just add on to that. And a little bit that in my own little way. But there's a lot there that man, if we were to end it right here, like the people would get their value out of this episode, I'll say is it's sort of, you know, along the sweet financial ADM side of things, we do a lot of roleplay. Like a lot, especially, I mean, for our sales team, this would be advisors, you know, for front end prospecting meeting, in many people's cases, if they're listening, having someone in the office to practice, you know, trial runs, it's like, you know, you want to have get some of those jitters out, you want to have some more confidence on your meetings, your calls before they actually happen. And doing it in an environment in which you can control in which people are not going to judge you, but will help you level up significantly faster, is something that can go a long, long way. Because you know, you don't want to the metaphor I was going to give is probably a little crude, but you don't want to mess it up when you're actually in the real deal. So that's incredibly beneficial for junior advisors, or people who are newer to the game is you know, the role plays and rehearsing and just the back and forth, they enter around this. The second is I mean, our sales process is going to be a little bit different than most but it's it's similar. We run at this point in time, we're spending $1,000 a day on ads and traffic. So as our friend processes ads, then go to a call booking a 15 minute call booking so very low barrier call, and which we just want to get information from people. And then after that, once the call is booked, we have them set on the calls booked on a calendar set on the calendar, they immediately are asked to fill out an application or a questionnaire and these sorts of things. That goes a long way. Because then if they're on the call, and we don't know any information, the sales process fell off a cliff as far as results were closed rates were low, all of these sorts of things. Whereas if we knew the questions ahead of time, or at least had some information from them ahead of time, it was significantly greater in which we could then close more business. But it also and I think this is the reason why it comes down to having more educated, beneficial conversations with people where you can genuinely and honestly serve that much like what Bryan said. So even if we're you know, we get on the call, and we're you know, realize we're not going to be necessarily a great fit. Given the information that they shared ahead of time, we could steer them in the right direction in which they can best achieve the result that they are looking for. I don't ever want to just kick someone to the curb and say, you know, figure it out on your own. Because, as we said in the previous, you know, episodes, I play the long game, I don't know if that person may be a client in another year, two years, three years, five years, who knows, I want them to have an amazing experience with our company. So once that initial initial 15 minute call happens, that's basically just a validate, verify that to see if they're even a fit to work with us. And then one of our sales advisors hop onto like a 45 minute call to an hour call after that. Now, take that adopted, modify it, model it whatever you want to do to your own sort of stuff. But that's a scalable method that's worked for us as we scale our company and we've for extra in size in the last year. They can work. The other thing in the sailing process is that we incorporate a lot, a lot, a lot of video. Video is the next thing. It's not and it's not new. It's been around for a very very long time but it is the next thing especially in the selling process. So a lot of times, what our sales advisors will do is before they get on their 45 minute or hour long call, they send them a video of themselves walking through the agenda of what they can expect on the call and walk you through or any high level action items that need to be discussed, that they don't want to waste their 45 minutes to our bit discussing on, they also send a homework video. We call it homework, we don't call it homework to them. But basically, you know, all of the ins and outs that they need to know, before we have our meeting. And that's background. That's credibility. That's a lot of these sorts of things that can save time in an actual online meeting in order to establish some of those that credibility. Another thing that we do is when someone says yes, or they're ready to move forward, we create custom pages just for them. So this is like read for media.com forward slash their first name dash their last name. People eat that up, because it's like Dale Carnegie said 100 years ago, and how to win friends and influence people. The sweetest sound to someone's ears is their own name. Use it use their name all over the place in the URLs in the video. So if your name was Tom, I'd be like, hey, Tom Draye, Redfern here. And I had to go on and on and on about whatever it was. But in those videos, you also want to restate what you talked about, meaning you actually paying attention. My goodness, it's crazy. You actually were paying attention. And when they share stories, you either remember them or have them jotted down, and you regurgitate that back to them in these videos. So hey, Tom Draye. Here, I really enjoyed meeting you and learning more about your great aunt Jane. And how she was the reason why you have the visitor all the restating it back to them, you were absolutely paying attention. Now, many FA s can use this exact model, we have our contract on the page, everybody could just get on board and go straight into it that way for us. But that's an easy strategy that many phas can adopt. After an initial meeting, or you know, the there's a variety of ways you could probably take it and adapt it to fit your specific needs. Even if it's not entirely personalized, maybe the videos not personalized, the page can be personalized, because all you would be changing is Tom to bill to Jane to Susan, to whatever the other names would be. So these are all things that can go a long way to having a really clear sales process like in our instance, ads, call booking application, 15 minute call, 45 minute call our our call, but being really clear on what that process looks like for the sweet model. It's the office tour, and it's the graphics, and it's the whole meeting the team. And it's the custom, or the coffee, and it's their name shown at the front door, all of these sorts of things that are very carefully curated processes that make it so much more impactful for that person. And it makes the results much more predictable. So Brittany, with that, I'll I'll turn it back to you to wrap us up for today.

Brittany Anderson  23:14

Now, Andre, I'm glad you you went a little bit in that direction was you know, the follow up and that differentiation there. You know, one thing that I keep thinking about, and that's been part of the training we've received recently is understanding that literature is dead. So what I mean by that, and I think his advisors were really great at this, I mean, I have so many advisors that are like, I have the best one pager on my services out of anybody out there, right? So we get so hung up on having this pretty thing to put in front of somebody, when the reality is if you're leaving somebody with a one pager with a PDF with some sort of sales type material, if they're not making some form of commitment, or engaging right there on the spot, that literature probably just went out your door and into their recycling bin. And that's just that's just the fact of the matter. So I think that if you are having an issue because again, you know, we're in a service business, not just a product delivery, but if you're having an issue with trying to close and you don't want to just leave them with some proverbial piece of paper, you know, these tips that Draye talked about with personalization, with making sure that your follow up shows how much you were listening. You know, there are some limitations depending upon where you're at, if you're under a BD or whatever, you know, certain limitations we can and can't do it to make that video process seamless. But regardless of how it goes out, I think that what Draye is talking about there was making it so personal, that they feel like wow, they heard me they saw me they address those issues. They know how to solve for those pain points. I feel really good about this. And like Dre said, If nothing else, they're left with a great day. in their mouth, and they understand either how you can serve them or how you maybe can't, right depending upon the situation. So I think that's just so relevant and something to be mindful of that you have one chance, right. So when you're selling, when you're serving, you've got one shot in front of that individual to make a lasting impact. So Draye, Bryan, before I go into a few top takeaway is anything else you want to add?

INTRO  25:24

My only encouragement here would be it's sort of uncomfortable to make a new sales process, when it comes to making something and clearly defining and sitting down and a lot of people don't like sales. So they just try to avoid it just be like, if the prospect comes in, and I try and sell him. So I would say, embrace that uncomfortability, as we say, all the time, you know, be comfortable being uncomfortable, and really take some time to mold and carefully craft and create a sales process that fits your specific needs, whether you know, you're almost entirely virtual, like some of our mastermind members, or you're almost entirely in the office as COVID restrictions start opening back up again, these sorts of things. But something that works for you, that's unique, and makes them feel like they're an actual amazing person that they are, makes them feel warm, because I promise it you can do that the sweet team has got it nailed in person, we've got it nailed virtually and over the internet, find something that works for you, model it, create it dial it in, and that's a could be a huge unfair advantage as you grow your business over the next year.

Bryan Sweet  26:31

Yeah, try I couldn't, I couldn't agree more, having just really spent a lot of time and money. Getting that fine tuned and seeing the results can't tell you how much benefit it's been and well worth the time, energy, money and whatever efforts you have to put towards it. So well said,

Brittany Anderson  26:51

I love it. Alright, so the top three takeaways from today. Number one, make sure you're focused on uncovering your prospects problems. And that goes along to with your clients, I'm sure you've got plenty of clients in your book of business right now, then have other opportunities, you know that have other maybe it's additional assets, additional funds they could bring in. And if you're not focused on having that continual conversation of uncovering their needs, and making sure you understand their pain points, again, you're leaving opportunity on the table. The second point would be to understand embrace, engage fully on the whole notion that stories are everything, you know, and when you think about storytelling, I actually I think back, you know, before I got into this industry, I actually sold jewelry, like high end diamond jewelry, and they did teaching there and I won't name names of the business, the corporation or whatever. But they taught a lot on features and benefits, and how you needed to have how many benefits for every feature. And that was an area of focus. And I'll tell you that one thing that I learned quickly, was that only got you so far. And the corporate world didn't really love that I didn't love their methodology. But I was one of the top sales people in the whole entire nation. And I truly believe it's because of one thing and one thing only, I loved digging into their story. So instead of going into being focused on the rain, and yeah, it has this cut this clarity, this gradient, whatever it is, and then oh, well, a benefit to that would be that it sparkles when she shines it in the light. That's all fine and good. And for a girl, you're probably going to get Oh yeah, that's cool. That looks pretty for a guy coming in completely clueless not really knowing what to buy, you know, I would ask questions of, hey, how did you guys first meet? Tell me about your first date? What do you think the look on her face is gonna be when she sees this ring? Do you think? Is she a cry? Or is she gonna cry? Like Tell me like, what have you gone to plan? What have you decided to do? All of those things are what created an experience for them. And I'm not saying this in a boastful manner. But what attributed to me being one of the top sales people and we're in a very rural, not super, highly populated area. So you know, it's those things if you can get to the core, and you understand their story and their history and what makes them make the decisions that they make. You create an experience. And you go from just being a transactional advisor to being somebody that they trust and that they look at as a friend and a confidant. And I mean, if you think about it as an advisor, you really owe your clients the unwavering ability to learn their stories, you're going to be with them for some of the biggest, most challenging life events that they will ever go through. I mean, if you think about it, when do we end up as advisors or as a wealth planning firm, bringing in more assets and creating more opportunity? It's When somebody passes away, somebody leaves a job, somebody loses a job, somebody loses a parent, somebody has, you know, an empty nest, all of a sudden, there's all these things that happen. And you have to know their stories to understand the life event triggers, and to see opportunity and to add even more value. So master your stories, know your client stories and figure out a way to let them in a little bit on yours. It just deepens that relationship. And then finally, embrace the thought process that you are focused on serving, because the right kind of selling is in turn serving. That's where your energy and attention should be. And if you have true conviction for what you offer and what you do, that's where you make a massive difference in the lives of your clients. So that wraps up today's episode of your ultimate advisor podcast. We will be right back with you on the next episode. Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you're hearing on our ultimate advisor podcast, don't keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is to simply send them to ultimateadvisorpodcast.com. And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com. As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the ultimate advisor community and we look forward to a continued relationship.