Joe Bayliss & Roy Furr
It’s like taking all of your marketing dollars, and throwing them in the trash.
OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic. But we’re not far off.
Picture this…
You have a lead machine. You’ve got a winning marketing strategy. You’ve found a way to reach your ideal prospects through the right medium. You have engaging copy with an irresistible offer. The phones are ringing.
You’ve done everything right up to this point. In fact, you’ve tackled one of the biggest challenges in your business that could catapult your growth.
But your job doesn’t stop here…
Now you need a system or a process to convert these leads into first appointments, and then into clients. And everyone in your business who is responsible for lead conversion needs to be trained to follow this process.
If prospects are coming to you, they’re open to switching financial advisors. And they’re looking for a financial advisor who will give them a great experience. An experience they can trust and that makes them feel comfortable.
If there’s too much friction in the inquiry and client conversion process, you’ll lose the prospect. And all of that time, money and effort is wasted.
It’s like fumbling the football on the one yard line. 99 yards of progress. But no touchdown. And zero points.
On the other hand, it’s possible to double the effectiveness of every marketing dollar you spend – NOT by making the marketing better – but by doubling the effectiveness of the lead conversion process.
We had a few conversations with advisors this past week. And when we really dug into this topic, we didn’t get the definitive answers we wanted to hear.
So, we put together a quick checklist for you. Some of these items will be obvious, but others may be things you haven’t considered before…
How will you handle incoming calls (call center, recorded message, etc)?
How will you establish rapport, build trust and confidence with every prospect?
How soon should you follow up with each prospect?
What’s the process to re-engage them (frequency of calls, emails, etc)?
How will you qualify your prospects at the first point of contact?
What’s the reminder system for their first appointment (emails, text messages)?
What’s the objective of the first meeting? And what’s the next step?
And here are a couple of last points, which are critical…
Who “owns” the responsibility of converting these leads? (A must!)
Are you holding a weekly scheduled meeting with this person/team to improve their closing ratio and hold them accountable for their performance? (These meetings should never move or cancel unless the building is on fire.)
A wise man said… “people respect what you inspect.” Meaning… if converting leads is a priority in your organization, it will become a priority for your team members.
On the other hand, if you’re not measuring and tracking your success every week — if you move or miss weekly meetings with the person/team responsible for this role — if you’re not helping them improve their conversion — you’re sending a very clear message: this isn’t important. And if you don’t care – they won’t care.
We’ll leave you with two final thoughts…
One, try playing the prospect and put yourself through your own system. How did it make you feel? Would you do business with your organization? What needs to be fixed?
Two, if you refined your system and doubled your lead conversion, could you double your production this year? We’re confident you would.
If you’re committed to growing your business and dominating your market, we can help with a customized copy review. Just click HERE to schedule your 30-minute review.