Knockout Networking for Financial Advisors and Other Sales Producers

More Prospects, More Referrals, More Business

Michael Goldberg

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781119649090
• eBook ISBN: 9781119651925
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

90% of financial advisors fail at being financial advisors. Why? Because advisors, brokers, reps, and agents need to see more people to make more sales appointments. And nobody in their firm, agency, branch, or shop trains them how! Knockout Networking for Financial Advisors is the only book written for sales producers in the financial services industry focused on making more connections through networking

In the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, networking, developing relationships, generating referrals, and making important connections are as important as ever. The ideas and approaches in Knock Out Networking for Financial Advisors can be applied immediately to virtual meetings, online networking groups, social media, podcasts, and of course, phone calls. The problem is, most advisors and sales producers are not born networkers; they develop the skills and confidence through education, training, practice, and having a positive attitude.

Knockout Networking for Financial Advisors covers everything you need to know about going to the right places (virtual or not!), saying the right things, and meeting the right people?essential skills for a financial advisor or sales producer that's serious about making more and better connections! The result? More prospects, more referrals, and more business.

Author Michael Goldberg is a networking specialist, speaker, trainer, author (and boxer!) focused on helping financial advisors, brokers, agents, reps, wholesalers, and other sales producers grow their business or practice through networking.

In this must read if youre a financial advisor book, you will learn how to:

• Confidently meet and greet new people in business settings
• Further define your Target Market to establish more and better connections
• Deliver a knockout elevator speech (not a script!)
• Generate more prospects and referrals from current client base
• Establish important relationships generating more business opportunities

Bottom line, networking is the most effective way to attract more prospects, more referrals, and more business to your corner. Rememberkeep the left up!

Part 1
Opening Rounds

In boxing, the opening rounds are usually the time that both fighters are getting warmed up while getting a sense of their opponent's style, speed, and power. Rarely does anything significant take place in the first couple of rounds (like a knockout), although fighters like Mike Tyson made knocking out their opponents in the first round part of their style. (Tyson knocked out 22 opponents in the first round, which is second most all time among fighters who have won a title.)

Well, unlike in boxing, as we get into the opening rounds here, I'm going to get right into it!

I'll discuss why networking is so important if you're in sales, especially if you're a financial advisor, broker, agent, planner, or product wholesaler. The reality is that you won't be very successful in your business, practice, or job if you don't know how to connect with people you meet for the first time, develop relationships, and add value to your clients.

After reading through this section, you might discover that you weren't as good at networking as you thought. (This is the most common revelation financial advisors share with me after they have attended one of my Knock Out Networking seminars or keynote talks.)

Of course, you might also realize that you're better at networking than you thought you were.

Even if you are a knockout networker, you might wonder why you don't connect with as many prospects, clients, and referral sources as you would like. Or why they might not connect with you.

Remember, networking, like boxing, is about the connection. And in Part 1, you'll learn how to make more of them in the opening rounds.

Ding‐ding!

CHAPTER 1
Networking Is the Key to a Successful Career: (Especially in Financial Services)

“Networking allows you to build strategic relationships where you can ‘nest’ and become a valuable resource within target markets.”

—Susan Cooper, Managing Director, Prudential

Why Financial Advisors Should Network

A position in sales is hard. Really hard! Especially sales positions that offer a very low barrier to entry, high turnover, an expensive product, compensation that is commission only (no salary), an important product that is often intangible and difficult to sell, limited training in sales and marketing, and very little risk to the organization.

Welcome to the insurance and financial services industry! If you're a financial advisor, broker, planner, agent, or rep, you know what I'm talking about.

Of course, sales positions in other industries offer similar challenges, including real estate and distributors that sell products through multi‐level marketing (MLM) channels, but sales positions in insurance and financial services are like no other.

When you think of major insurance companies and financial services firms, you can't help but picture well‐known logos posted on the sides of office buildings, nice dark brown furniture, waiting areas with actual printed copies of the Wall Street Journal on the coffee table, flat‐screen televisions with MSNBC and ongoing stock updates, conference rooms, and lots of people walking around in business suits.

Everyone here must make a lot of money!

But the reality is that a very small percentage of insurance and financial services sales producers become successful. And by successful, I mean growing a thriving practice, business, or career where you can come and go as you please and the money keeps coming in.

Industries like banking, private equity, technology, pharmaceutical, telecommunication, food and beverage, and even wholesaling financial services products like mutual funds often provide a generous salary to salespeople with a commission structure. The salary component alone changes the game completely. In these types of positions, you're more of a corporate employee than a sales producer, business owner, or entrepreneur who needs to sell to survive. Of course, positions in some of these industries are in high demand, so in many cases (though not all) there is pressure to succeed.

I'm not judging. It's just the way it is.

In fact, in many industries, you can be a bad sales producer, or worse, not care that you're a bad sales producer and get away with it – for years and years and years.

As a trainer and coach, I've been hired to consult with banking teams whose sole purpose is to provide loans and other related banking services to either businesses or individuals. Some of those bankers have been allowed to remain in their positions for years and fail. In fact, I know struggling bankers who have been in their roles for over ten years.

Here's the thing. If you're a financial advisor, broker, planner, agent, rep, or other type of sales producer in the insurance and financial services industry, you must be successful at producing sales, otherwise you won't put bread on the table. Simple as that. No salary. No income. No commission. No más.

It's the same story if you're an entrepreneur or business owner starting a business from scratch. Being on your own with no salary puts a lot of pressure on you to sell – and sell now.

Networking is the answer!

The need to make money now makes networking so important – essential, really – to a sales producer in the insurance and financial services industry.

As a financial advisor, once you learn about the products and services you'll need to sell, pass a test, and earn a designation or two, you're all alone out there. Once you talk to your family and friends about buying life insurance from you or having them allow you to manage their money, invest their money, take their money, and even borrow their money (until you get your practice off the ground), it's all about you asking for other people's money. And that's the only way for you to make your money.

As a financial advisor you must network to be successful. In fact, financial services firms should make networking acumen a requirement. I'm not sure why they don't.

If I was managing a firm and recruiting, hiring, training, coaching, and retaining productive sales producers was important to me, I would assess a candidate's ability to communicate verbally, to network, and to build relationships.

Many firms assess a candidate's natural market (their friends and family), and their network (often called their Project 100 or 200, depending on how many people are in their network). What happens when a brand‐new financial advisor runs out of family and friends to sell to?

On the other hand, if an advisor or sales producer has the skills to network (or works with a firm that helps them develop those skills), they can develop their own database ‐ forever. The “teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” proverb comes to mind.

Think of how much better prepared a financial advisor would be if armed with the ability to go to the right places, say the right things, and meet the right people, all while developing the right relationships.

Financial firms are doing new sales producers a disservice by not teaching them how to network to grow their business. And that is why most of them fail.

Top Producers Should Network Too

Top producers are the financial advisors (or other sales producers) who generate the most sales. Obvious, but thought I would put it out there like a stiff jab. Top producers win all the awards, go on all the trips, get the corner offices, have the ongoing praise and respect of management, and don't have to do anything they don't want to do. Meetings tend to be optional for them, so when a top producer goes to an office meeting or event, it's a pretty big deal.

In fact, top producers rarely need their managers for anything. That's why they're top producers.

Top producers set their own hours, play as much golf as they want, get the support of management for almost anything they want to do, have the admiration of their peers, and get the attention of any product wholesaler (those selling mutual funds, retirement plans, annuities, exchange traded funds, etc. through financial advisors) they want.

Top producers also tend to make a lot of income. So there's that.

Where do I sign up?

It's a pretty cool deal. Not bad being a top producer. But also not easy. It requires a lot of work and being a top producer is well earned. If you're a top producer, feel good that you sit on top of the food chain. You absolutely have my respect. I congratulate you on all of your success. You are in an elite club.

Most importantly, being a top producer means that you provide an excellent service to enough people to make a difference. More people are hopefully becoming more profitable in their retirement accounts, investments, and protection of their assets. That's a big bravo!

Now I'm going to shift gears on you. Ready? There are two types of top producers.

Serious, but Not Committed (SBNC)

There are top producers who feel they have earned the right to be on cruise control. They come into the office whenever they get there, do what needs to get done to support their clients (maybe), stay in the know, and go home. These are the top producers who are content with their assets under management (AUM), renewals, or any referral business that happens to come in. They have plateaued.

And you know, all of this is just fine. These top producers have earned that right to keep the button set on cruise control. They paid their dues.

If this is you, all good in the hood!

Serious, but Committed (SBC)

If you're a top producer and you're ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Part 1: Opening Rounds
• Part 2: The Rules of Networking™
• Part 3: Where to Go, What to Say, and Who to Meet
• Part 4: Special Topics
• Part 5: Developing and Implementing Your Networking System
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Index
• End User License Agreement