Selling can also these days appear to carry some negative connotations – overselling, mis-selling or sold out! – but that’s unfair. But selling done very professionally, some would call it advising, now that is something to be proud of.
High quality selling achieves a mutually satisfying result for both the seller and the buyer. The seller takes the time to establish the buyer’s needs, and then demonstrates how his product or service meets that need. In a good sale the buyer is left with a warm feeling that they’ve made the right decision. They understand the product or service they have bought and they understand the reasons they’ve bought it, rather than stashing another “something or other” into their memory. The seller leaves with the pride of a job well done, and some reward, either immediate or in the future.
In our industry, perhaps the best reward is knowing that you’ve found your customer the best possible solution to their mortgage borrowing needs, and have advised on the range of protection insurance needed to ensure they can keep and enjoy the home they have bought. If you have done your job well, your customers will tell their friends and family and your customer network will grow. Referrals will always be the most potent “growth” weapon a high class adviser has.
Why am I going on about selling now? Because in the months to come, with RDR changes now real, some people will have to rediscover their selling skills. For the first time in a long while many of them will have to get used to selling the services they provide, and more importantly, explain why that service is provided at good value for the charge to be made. They’ll have to sell themselves – as an excellent, knowledgeable adviser, worth the fee they are going to charge.
Really good sellers have always done this of course. But the first six or nine months of this new approach may shake a few people’s faith in the business models they have come to operate and rely on.
If you can build that empathy and trust with customers on investments, why not try the equally interesting and perhaps more fundamental mortgage and protection markets? This part of the market will always welcome good sellers. A good seller will always have options.
And in years to come we will have an industry which is ranked right up there with the accountancy and legal professions, one which provides a critical service for its customers and helps them with financial support to get them through the most exciting, and at times tragic moments in their lives. And more importantly we will have an army of high class advisers who will feel guilty or embarrassed if they leave a client having not done a superb job.
