Podcast → Episode No. 41

Convert Financial Planning Leads to Clients

With Nancy Bleeke Noël, MBA

December 17, 2025

Featuring

Nancy Bleeke Noël, MBA

Genuine Sales & Sales Pro Insider

The word “sales” makes a lot of financial advisors cringe, especially fee-only planners who’ve worked hard to distance themselves from product pushing.

But here’s the truth: even if you don’t sell financial products, you do sell. You sell your advice, your expertise, and your services. And for many advisors, the hardest part isn’t generating leads, it’s turning those leads into actual planning clients.

In this episode of Behind The Advisor (previously known as XYPN Radio), I sit down with Nancy Bleeke to discuss why sales doesn’t have to be a dirty word and why mastering it is essential to running a sustainable, values-aligned firm.

Nancy is a sales enabling coach and the founder of Genuine Sales. I’ve personally gone through her course twice, and her work has been instrumental in helping me build a clearer, more confident approach to converting prospects into clients, without feeling pushy or inauthentic.

If you struggle with lead conversion, Nancy breaks down how to build a thoughtful, effective sales process that actually reflects how advisors want to serve. She shares the powerful frameworks she’s developed and used with advisors around the world to help them have better conversations and close the right clients, the right way.

If you’re ready to feel more confident about how you bring new clients into your firm, this episode is packed with insight you can put into action right away.

XYPN Radio Blog signature (1)

Listen to the Full Interview:

Watch the Full Interview:

Featured on the Show:

Nancy Bleeke Noël, MBA | LinkedIn | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Google+
Conversations That Sell: Collaborate with Buyers and Make Every Conversation Count by Nancy Bleeke
FREE On-Demand Webinar | Ditch the Pitch: Mastering Genuine Conversations to Hit Sales Goals
Blog | 3 Tips to Fly Under the Radar While Planning Your B-D or RIA Exit Strategy
Blog | How to Activate and Accelerate Your Financial Planning Firm's Growth
Blog | 6 Tips for More Productive Sales Conversations
Behind The Advisor | From Serving in the Marines to Building a Hyper Growth Financial Planning Firm
Behind The Advisor | An Inside Look Into Carl Richards’ Financial Planning Process

This Episode Is Sponsored By:

Read the Transcript Below:

00:00:01

welcome to xypn radio where your host Alan Moore brings you into a community of Fe only financial planners who want to profitably and successfully serve Gen X and geny clients if you're ready to get the knowledge you need from leaders in your field learn from Forward Thinking advisors and take action on your own goals xypn radio is the show for you here's your host hello and welcome to this episode of xypn radio I am your host Alan Moore and I am so so thankful that you have taken the time to

00:00:29

join us today today is an interview with Nancy Blakey the founder of genuine sales so Nancy is a sales enabling coach I want to call her a sales trainer but she hates that term and I think appropriately so I have been through ny's course twice actually the first time when I launched my firm back in 2012 and more recently in 2015 as a refresher but Nancy helped open my eyes to how I could be a much more effective salesperson and I know as fing advisers we say well we don't don't sell anything

00:01:01

but we do we sell our service and we sell ourselves and we have to be good at sales if we want to be able to bring clients on and I get a ton of questions from advisers saying I'm good at generating leads and I know I'm a great planner but how do I turn those leads into clients well this interview helps lay the foundation for developing an effective sales process for your firm we walk through the method that she has developed and trains advisors on and I can tell you from personal experience it

00:01:27

is highly highly effective as always you can access the show notes and additional resources at XY planning network.com 41 and be sure to join our VIP community at XY planning network.com viip all right without any further Ado here is our interview with Nancy Blakey hey Nancy welcome to the show thanks so much for being on thanks for having me Alan so it is Nancy Blakey we always have to pronounce last names very clearly because people always mess them up so it is not Bleak it's not bleaky it

00:02:00

is Nancy Blakey that was our first ever episode was actually Michael kitus and that was like I feel like the number one takeaway was how to say his last name no one actually so it was great so I am so excited to have you on for our listeners Nancy is my sales enabler coach she does not appreciate the term sales trainer because she actually does so much more than that and so just a a quick background and then we'll jump in was that actually when I launched my business back in 2012 Nancy you emailed

00:02:30

me and said hey like I have a one slot maybe somebody had dropped out in the sales course that you were teaching and said do you want to come down and I did and honestly it really turned my business around I guess the way that I thought about sales and communicating to prospective clients it really changed my entire process and then I actually went back through the course this past year and took Stacy who does all the sales for uh for XY pin so very familiar with the program so again thank you for

00:02:59

taking the time to be on I'm so glad to be here you really are like one of my shining stars from the last few years oh thank you absolutely so I guess just a little bit of background how did you get into this profession I mean what is your background that led you into kind of being a sales coach and or sales enabler I'm going to continue to call you a sales trainer by AC but a sales enabler like many people I never sought to go into sales I mean like many of the advisers that I've worked with over the

00:03:29

years they wanted do good planning they want to help people you know manage wealth differently and live better Lifestyles and don't think that sales is part of it and I was the same I I was in business I got my Master's Degree and I shied away from sales because those were the you know unethical pushy obnoxious people that nobody wanted to talk with and in my career in management and financial services and in human resources in hiring the right people and bringing in good training Solutions I

00:04:02

started really appreciating sales and that any company that is selling well grows and so over about a fiveyear period of time in hiring a national Salesforce and you know equipping them with the processes and the training and such I thought I can do this and gosh they've got better schedules than I do they can make a lot more money than I do and you know I need to jump on this sales bandwagon and so I you know over the years had sold in a jewelry store as extra income when we first got married you know to be able to

00:04:40

put in our new driveway and so I would I was dabbling in sales but never committed to being a professional salesperson and so that all changed in 1997 when I was introduced to a sales methodology a way to have the conversation and the way to approach people and help them you know get to decisions and it just changed my world and since then I have embraced it I study sales I study sales people I study sales organizations and I have the privilege of not only my own experiences but the privilege of working

00:05:19

with thousands of salespeople and learning the best practices and the things that that really get in people's way and then be able to help them be more skillful and willful in how they do it and so I was a reluctant salesperson and now I think everybody should embrace sales because that is the difference in growing your business and being successful and not it's so true and I don't know why it fascinates me just to hear how people get to where they are in their career because it is always a a

00:05:53

twisting and winding path and especially because we do have a lot of listeners that are still in college or just starting their career and I always want them to hear these stories because I want them to know it's not a straight linear path like we're led to believe and you have to chase opportunities and try new things and you'll learn that what you think you're good at or what you enjoy doing when you're 18 or 20 or 24 isn't necessarily what you'll enjoy doing throughout your entire career but

00:06:19

I imagine that there are some listeners out there that are having the same reaction that I used to anytime we use the word sales and part of that is because you know the listeners here are financial advisers and many of them potentially most of them are fee only and one of the things is that you know our industry as you know came from product sales it came from insurance sales which I mean I don't know who I'd rather go see an insurance sales guy or a used car sales guy but they both make

00:06:46

me you know want to never ever have insurance or drive a car ever and that's I think what people think of when we think of sales you know and so the FY advisers out there say I don't sell anything I don't sell any products and they're correct they don't sell insurance but they still have to sell and it's one of the I don't the hard I think the difficult hurdles to overcome is that anytime we start to feel a little salesy like oh no I'm pushing my services we can get a little squeamish I

00:07:14

think that's just cultural in financial and that leads then to being not confident which is felt by the other person but they don't know what not to trust they don't know what not to feel confident in they just know something's not right here and so you know the first cell has to be to yourself that's a really good point you know I love working with college students and people early in their careers because um one of the first things I'll say is you know in a group how many of you chose a sales

00:07:47

career and hardly anyone raises their hand whether they're 55 or 25 and and two weeks ago I was in Washington DC with a software company and we had about 18 one to three years out of college people you know they got to come into a room for an hour and pick my brain as the owner said and I asked you know how many of you thought you'd ever be in this role and nobody raised their hand not one of them I said how many of you think you'll be in sales in three years nobody raised their hand and it was a fascinating discussion

00:08:24

on why are you doing this then you know what do you want out of this point of your career and we got into talking about how much parental influence has on career choices which I've always known but it was fascinating to hear them talk about how they feel they're letting their parents down by being in sales so not only do I work with financial services people I actually work with engineers and I have had more than one parent when I've said listen there's a great program at Rex Nord manufacturing

00:09:01

for engineers and it takes them into the sales engineering route and the parents will say to me well my my son's an engineer not they're not going into sales and and right away they're putting a barriers and I remember about seven years ago I heard one of the big Financial companies started doing PR and marketing to the parents of college students because they realized if they can't get the parents to accept it they're having a harder time recruiting the students and so if any of you are in

00:09:33

that position where your parents are telling you you know sales isn't the way to go you know you're you've gone to college for goodness sakes you know don't let them deter you from the parts of your job that are sales because the sooner you embrace it the more successful you're going to be and Alan that is why I say you're one of my shining stars because you very early in starting your firm accepted the opportunity to be skillful in selling and immediately were making the connections on oh if I get better at

00:10:10

this it helps me do this and this and this and as you said you know you redid your process and and if I recall correctly you know one of the things that you wrote way back then was that in those months you were closing 100% of your opportunities because yeah you're absolutely right so I mean by embracing that it allowed you to ramp your business and be able to help people with their finances you know you bring up a couple of awesome points and one being parental influence that's a whole other

00:10:40

oh yeah conversation around that I remember when I was in grad school I taught a couple undergraduate classes and I had to literally write into the syllabus your parents cannot contact me because it had been a problem with parents calling going why did Johnny get a B minus you know and like I am not going to talk to your parents but I think people think of careers as we're going to get into sales or we're not going to get into sales and while there are some positions that have the word sales in in the title there are some

00:11:05

positions that involve more selling than others we're always selling I mean and the techniques that you teach while I think the process is more geared towards you know maybe uh Stacy on our team doing you know talking to a prospective member and walking them through that process I think about other members of our team like Maddie who handles all of our member services and signing our members up for services that we offer getting them involved selling them on the value of a study group I mean these

00:11:32

processes you're always selling and I mean and even if it's not in business you're selling in your personal life after all these years of focusing on sales it's I'm in my 19th year now of of helping people be more effective in selling conversations and process it was just a couple of years ago where I thought you know everyone is in s i mean I've always thought everyone's in sales and I remember when I was first exposed to sales training I was in human resources and realizing how I was

00:12:01

selling job opportunities and I was selling policy you know compliance and I was selling all the time but it was only about two years ago that I realized what I believe is the true definition of selling and that selling is simply helping someone else do or decide so helping someone else work through whatever decision making they need to to make a commitment or a decision to something or to take an action and so like you said Maddie and M Ser I mean absolutely is selling and most people would look at her job and go well she's

00:12:38

not the one in sales that's only Stacy but it's so not true I mean like you said everyone is in sales in so many facets of our life and again whether that's professionally or personally uh you know probably our personal relationship is all a version of sales in many ways so if we just look at I guess as a whole it's so critical and again you know for for the FY advisers out there that are cringing at the word sales ultimately we are selling and in many ways I think it's harder to sell what we

00:13:07

offer than selling an insurance product sometimes I wish that I could be in the business of selling tangible assets like a house or an insurance policy because the relationship sales and selling a service is just I think it's a challenge I think that it absolutely can be done but I think it's even more difficult and requires a lot more time energy effort but one of the things I'll clarify that you had said was early on you know me going through the course and the effect that it had and it's absolutely true and

00:13:36

I think the big piece was that I remember being told when I was very young that there was like 8% of the population or whatever percentage it was that was wired for sales like that they were going to be the good sales people because they had the personality for it and that they were going to be good at it and everyone else is going to be bad at it I remember thinking you're either naturally gifted at sales and it's a personality or you're not and we talk to people all the time we think wow you're

00:14:03

really good at sales we talk to other people think wow you would be really bad at sales and yet I'm not and I think that was the myth that I brought in whenever I was first starting my business was that either I was going to be good at it or bad at it and what I learned by actually going through your course which is basically it teaches a process of sales and it basically and we'll talk more about that but that you could actually get good at sales you could get better at it and you could

00:14:29

become great at it if you put in the time and energy so I think that was the big mindset shift for me was it wasn't a from birth gift it was something that you could develop oh my gosh and you know the problem is is when people say that it's an at Birth gift they're usually thinking about someone who's a good talker you know they're just they can talk to anybody and they can do this and you know they're gregarious and those personality traits do not make a great salesperson and often can get in

00:14:58

the way of being a good sales professional that is helping other people get what they want in the way they want it so I just cringe when people say well you know they're natural they're just a natural well it's a skill it's a skill set that we can learn to be successful at and I'd be interested to know if there are personality traits that kind of Drive gift for sales and I'll I use my dad as an example if you meet my dad he's actually fairly quiet and reserved but if you drop him into a conference

00:15:31

setting he sells police cars and he exhibits at like Sheriff conferences who knew those existed and dad is known as the guy who will literally talk to every person in the building which is so funny because people view me as more of the talker and the gregarious one and you drop me into a conference and I'll talk to like three or four people it's just not my personality and so but I look at him and he is a phenomenal salesman but he's not gregarious he's not the most outgoing guy but he talks to everybody and he

00:15:57

talk about he can make friends anywhere so I do wonder if there's like a component of Personality that helps and some components that are challenging but I've seen great salespeople that are introverts that are extroverts that are talkers that are not talkers so you know your point I do think it's a learned skill I think that you know more than personality traits it's about qualities having the right quality so when you talk about your dad he probably is a great listener you know so he's able to

00:16:27

connect with people and make them feel important and make them feel comfortable you know versus that it needs to be about him but I would say his characteristic you said that he can talk to everybody is he doesn't have a fear of approaching new people which is different than being talkative and gregarious and also you know the type of sales that you're doing I could see being driven by the personality so because he's in government sales he does a lot of contract work and basically building relationships doing big

00:16:57

contracts and then selling hundreds of cars at a time whereas a retail sales guy has to be able to walk up to somebody random in the middle of a parking lot make a quick connection and sell to them he hated retail car sales and yet the used car sales gu even different so I do wonder if you know there's a right sales position fit for certain personalities as well yeah definitely in our assessments one of the first things we do is they have to identify the profile of the type of sales you know are you calling on an

00:17:27

individual in a business setting or in your world are you calling on couples very different selling to couples than it is to a purchasing manager in a business so knowing you know who would you be calling on who do you need to get decisions from how strategic is the sale you know what's the followup that happened all of that I contributes to the right person that can be successful in it and so you know with advisors there's nuances because you're selling a service to a consumer you know

00:18:01

it's not a businesses to business s it's to a consumer and yet there's a decisionmaking process there if they have a spouse or significant other there's two factors you know of people to keep in mind and have to you know be able to work with both of them bring them together on a decision there's definitely some nuances there that in some typical product or business sales is not as complicated and it's kind of funny because I think what we sell is amazing I mean really you know the

00:18:34

benefits of financial planning are just so overwhelmingly valuable and yet I think as financial advisers we are just awful at articulating the value of planning and I don't know why that is I don't know if it's just those of us that get into financial planning just aren't the best at articulating it or we haven't defined it well enough or what it is but you know we have something amazing to sell and that's what I always ENC encourage people and they say I'm not in sales like you are in sales and

00:19:02

you have something amazing to sell because you're helping people right and until you can get them to make a decision to do something you're not helping them right you know one of one of the other interesting things whenever I went through your sales course and something I had never thought of was actually having a process and I think this was the number one takeaway that I had among many from I guess going through sales training was that sales is a process it is not something you just have Hazard do and I'm not a process

00:19:34

driven person at all my team just would tell you that I can't follow a process if you paid me to do it but that was one of the big things that I forced myself to do was sit down and have a process and and you advocate for a very strict process really because you know it becomes replicable and you get good at it but then you can test it and you can see what's working and what's not working and then fix pieces of the process but if you don't have have a process how are you supposed to know

00:20:00

what's working so is that a fair explanation of genuine sales well I'm going to step back the process that you're talking about so there's two processes well there's several processes in sales but you know there's your sales process of you know Discovery meeting you know presentation or recommendation you know implementation Gathering the data you need to actually set up their accounts and such that's you know the overarching sales process what you're talking about I think that it's a little

00:20:30

different that people don't think about is that the conversation has a process that there's there's a framework and a flow to good conversations that have a beginning a middle an end and that's where people are ineffective and inefficient is that we go into it maybe having planned out some things but not thinking about the conversation from start to finish and what do I need to accomplish along the way to earn the right for that other person's time and attention for the next part and so you

00:21:07

know by giving it a framework and you say it's very structured and very Rous it's it's a framework but the key is making it your own so how you start a conversation there's there's a couple of guides there but the words you use are going to be different than the words Stacey uses Stacy can't replicate you and so many times people who are really good when they bring people on their team are like well they just need to listen to me and do what I do that's great if they're you you know

00:21:40

but if they have a framework that they know I need to this is the next part I need to you know I need to start by making a connection with them and breaking their preoccupation okay there's a multitude ways of doing that what's comfortable so that I come off as as genuine and approachable and trustworthy then how through that do I earn the right to ask them questions and find out what are the problems opportunities wants or needs that my service might help them with and and if I can't get them to articulate

00:22:11

that and ask the right questions that they'll answer I can't start telling them what I can do for them because it's premature and they're not going to listen there's not going to be value there I'm going to you know set up the wrong situation and then that leads into then being able to share your Rec recommendation and connect it to them which leads to oh what concerns do you have how do I work through that with you and then how do I then ask for your decision or commitment to what's next

00:22:37

it's a process but along the way we can't lose ourselves in it and it's funny with financial services I tell people you are talking to people about what I hope is the third most important thing to them in their world their money you know I hope there's other things more important but there's no doubt that it's really an important thing to people and and to pay a fee for something that they don't know that there's value in or white I have to pay for something I thought you're going to help me manage

00:23:11

my money I thought maybe you'd help me invest it or you're GNA you know help me get more money away for retirement but if I'm paying you a fee that's counterintuitive maybe to me to do that and so we're asking them to part with something really important to them and we have to be able to paint that picture and connect it to what that value is which you said is is harder to articulate because it's not as tangible it's not a if you do this here's what I can guarantee you it's you know I'm

00:23:44

going to walk alongside you on your financial journey and I'm going to you know help direct these different aspects and ask you questions and get you the right things and when your career takes a different turn in 5 years will be right alongside you so that you can look at your options but there's no guarantees there you're selling your expertise and your service and your relationship with them so it's it's still a conversation but it's not where you can just plop a product in front of

00:24:19

them right it's not tangible and yet it is so valuable and you just touched on so many awesome things and one I want to dig into each of those steps of the process so listeners kind of know a little bit more about each of those pieces because we're basically trying to cram a a two-day intensive course along with seven or or eight followup days of information into you know obviously just just chatting here for an hour but you know I think the typical sales process for a financial planning firm and this

00:24:48

is just from my own anecdotal experience others uh you know may have a little bit different story is that ultimately we know the final goal the goal is to get people to sign on to be a client too often and this is what I found was that once I refined my sales process I started signing up I literally went for like two months where every Prospect signed on that was the 100% close that you mentioned and then I realized one I was undercharging and two I was working with the wrong types of clients I wasn't

00:25:14

doing a good job of filtering out who is going to be a good fit for me but we tend to just say like anybody that walks in the door if they can fog the glass we'll work with them so we know that's the close and I think the typical Prospect meeting is tell me about yourself tell me about your money you know why did you call a financial planner and then we throw up a bunch of big charts and graphs to say this is what we do this is our service model this is how much we charge wildly ineffective and so to your point and

00:25:39

thank you for the correction that while it is a stringent process in terms that you're following the same process every time it's you're following the framework every time but you can make it your own and so ju let's just kind of dig into each of the steps because I think they're so important and you have an acronym to help listeners remember the process and what is that what's in it for them what's in it for them I love it I right so the W so let's start there well just one thing about the what's in

00:26:08

it for them as you are working with people the more that you focus everything you do or say on what's in it for them you're going to make it a great experience for them and make sure that they're getting what they need to feel comfortable and trust you to keep moving forward so that to me is the foundation to it all everything we do everything we say if we can't come up with an answer to what's in it for them we shouldn't be having the conversation so but by using that wi F

00:26:48

that also then becomes the framework to the conversation so as you said it starts with w so the W is the weight step and it's it's weight waiting to initiate a conversation and waiting is preparation and so it's making sure that we know who we're talking to what can we find out in advance and today with everything on social media there's so much more that we can find out about people before we ever meet with them to start getting those insights into what are their Hobbies where do they spend

00:27:22

their time do they have a family is education important to that I mean there's so much we can pick out I remember finding a prospective client's Instagram page one time and they uh you know cuz whenever they were booking with me I got their name their you know email address their their mailing address and for whatever name reason her Instagram popped up and she was a big crossfitter and I remember feeling a little creepy about it because I'm like this is on the internet and I found it but I was I didn't say hey I I

00:27:49

saw you were on I see you're a big crossfitter but I was able to work in the fact that I am a member of the CrossFit cult uh at some point in there and make that connection but but I think that as advisers we don't do a very good job one of preparing and really understanding who we're talking to but also just pausing and giving ourselves some time to really gear up for the perspective client meeting or that perspective client call we tend to rush into things I think and we don't take

00:28:18

time to just kind of clear our heads clear our schedule and really just focus well and thanks for you know bringing that up because it is preparation with the pap you know or technology where we're looking at things and we're making notes and that's a level of preparation that most people don't make the time for but then what you just brought up is so key before picking up that phone or connecting you know walking into that person's office or opening your door for them to walk in it's those final moments

00:28:50

of clearing your head and focusing on them and ignoring everything else so I always call the myth of multitasking if you remember our brain cannot do three things at one time it cannot and so we have to put everything else on pause when we're ready for that actual conversation so we got to do our prep and that actually helps us Focus during the conversation but then that mental pause right before and so then so it's with it what's in it for them so wait is the first step what is the the next step we

00:29:22

got to initiate the conversation and I think that that's one of the things that people wing a lot you know it's like I can Wing that I can talk to anybody or you know I'm gonna ask them about this but we really have to be purposeful in our initiation and and knowing that people have three questions in mind when we first talked to them you know who are you can you know are you credible and you know is there something you can do for me and we have to be able to very quickly eliminate those answers so that

00:29:54

they're open to a conversation and one of the key things is to not talk about the pitch and I know sometimes you still mention that Alan but you know I believe that you know pitching I just wrote an article about it this morning for a magazine pitching when you're getting pitched at you've got four choices the recipient has four choices right they can bat it away whatever is being pitched at them they can catch it which is what we would want them to hear us they can duck or they there's a fourth

00:30:22

option I can't think of right now duck hit it away catch what's the fourth what's the your fourth option or yeah right you can just kind of like try to avoid or or something so when we're pitching at somebody they've got a lot of choices of what they can do with that information that's flowing at them and so instead if we don't think about it as a pitch and we think about it like you know what I'm starting a conversation with a person or a or people a couple or a family or whoever it is we need to

00:30:52

start that conversation where now that we're ready and we've broken our preoccupation we need need to help them do the same we have to connect them to why are we here why is it valuable for them to take this 15 20 our you know meeting with us and what's our agenda and making sure that it aligns with what they were thinking we're going to do now we're like okay so this is what we're going to accomplish and then we can make that connection so we can say you know and I don't think there's anything wrong

00:31:21

with saying you know as I was getting ready for our meeting you know I always see what I can learn about you ahead of time to make the most use of your time and I found that we have in common a CrossFit and it's now a perfect segue into what got you into CrossFit or something where we're connecting with them and we're confirming that they have the amount of time so the initiation is helping them get centered in the conversation and set the stage that you know what this isn't going to be what

00:31:52

maybe you're thinking where I'm going to talk at you and Pitch at you I'm setting up a conversation to determine whether or not what you need to accomplish I can help you with so we've set up the conversation we've kind of gotten ourselves ready we've gotten our our prospective client ready we've set up the kind of everything for the meeting so then we move into the third step the next IE in with it the investigation and the investigation I mean you talked about it everybody knows

00:32:19

we have to ask questions but we have to ask very relevant questions that they want to answer so we can start drilling off the you know tell me about yourself you know tell me about your financial situation and and if we do a lot of those very direct sometimes they become rapid fire questions where they know you're checking off a list it starts feeling like an interrogation and and what happens if you're on the receiving end of an interrogation what would you do Allan you shut down start protecting yep yeah

00:32:56

and again you've got you know you're talking about people's money you're talking about some things maybe they're not proud of choices they've made in the past and so they're not going to just blurb all of that out necessarily to you or they might not have thought about their goals with what they want to do with their financial you know aspect of their lives and so we've got to ease them into that by being purposeful with the questions that we ask and so we give a framework we want to find out about

00:33:24

today we need to learn what they want to do tomorrow and then we really need to ask them questions about risk you know what is their risk tolerance what are their fears about money what are their fears about working with somebody regarding their financial you know health and get them articulating that because then we can work with that but really importantly we also have to talk to them about the rewards that they're looking for what are the things that would make it easier for them you know

00:33:51

in their life regarding their financial not only you know future but how they are approaching it so when I go back 20 some years ago to when we uh selected a financial adviser you know one of the key things that I hadn't thought about because I loved playing the stock market and I loved figuring out you know all of these things was what was the amount of time that I was spending on it and was the amount of time in connection with the other goals I had in my life with a young family and a business that was

00:34:25

starting and all of those things and even though I enjoy doing it I consider myself a smart you know person to be able to do it I could see he helped me see that in the next 20 years I wasn't going to have the time to do what I had done in the last 10 years and so so holy crap that made me really nervous like you're you know like I'm gonna start making bad decisions and you know because I'm not going to have the time to spend you know an hour a night or two hours on the week weekend reading about

00:34:58

this or doing that and so to me that was a huge motivator on why we needed outside help so you know we can hire people to clean our house and save us time that way and we can hire people to mow our lawn we can hire people to do this but I hadn't thought about Outsourcing basically Financial aspects for our family it's a really good point and use the term risk tolerance and I know financial planners are like anytime we use the word risk tolerance people switch to investment risk and that's not what we're talking about here

00:35:32

we're talking about the risk of not hiring a financial planner so basically what are the risks and the rewards whether the benefits and the potential loss you know in really keeping clients one figuring out what concerns them and connecting what we do with those with those concerns I love that you have a lot of acronyms in the training because it really helps to remember everything and one of those is pawns p w n s problems opportunities wants and needs and it really comes down to that's what

00:36:02

we're trying to address we're trying to figure out what are their problems what are the opportunities what are the wants what are their needs and then connecting what we do with what they're looking for and I think that that is a huge misstep that so many advisers make is we just assume everybody's looking for the same thing and they all get the same they all get the same pitch in many ways is that they're all getting the same hey this is what I do and is who I do it for and

00:36:28

this you know and it's not catered to the specific person that's sitting in front of you right so then they're not paying attention right because it doesn't apply to them exactly and the other thing is you know and this is that the next part of the conversation is you know once we get them to talk about their pawns and and so often people are like focus on their needs focus on their needs well wants are the emotional aspects those are more powerful often than a need and if we ignore those which

00:36:56

is the risk and the reward board we don't have good positioning to the value that they're going to get so finding out and getting them to verbalize things that maybe they've never thought of or maybe are really deeply kept close to them because they don't want to look stupid I think that's a big thing with finances people don't want to look stupid they don't want to admit like I said past mistakes where it might be like why the heck would you have mortgaged your house in this way or why

00:37:29

would you have you know put your money in this they have to know that they're not going to be judged I think that's a huge fear so I constantly even you know in Social settings when people will be talking about getting close to retirement or whatever I'm like well who do you work with oh no we do all that ourselves and I'm like oh my gosh you know are you sure of this and this and and I'll give them you know my story of the advantages over these 20 years that working with the financial advisor has done and

00:38:02

they're and they always are like well we've made some really stupid choices and I I don't want to be lectured you know I don't want to be lectured or I don't they don't want to feel bad about their past and it keeps them from getting the help that could help their you know that could make their future so much better so if we're ignoring those wants we're missing out on where we might really be able to position the True Value in working with us so the ponds is such an important thing you

00:38:34

know what problems are they having financially but what are the opportunities or the the dreams they have that just seem like they could never achieve that with good you know fiscal responsibility in their own family they could achieve but they don't even think of it as a real possibility all of those things those dreams mes can help us position our value to them so pawns very very important so then moving on to the fourth step the F yes facilitate facilitate make it easy that's what the

00:39:10

word means make it easy for them to find out how what you do helps them personally so get rid of the laundry list of the 12 things you can do and focus on the three or four that they just told you are most important and that's where you're going to help them make a decision to work with you and you brought it up earlier you know when we're giving them information we have to connect it back to them and if we can't make a connection I call it the you know what do they need to know connected to

00:39:43

the what's in it for them then it's information we shouldn't be wasting their time with and that's where the real I think expertise comes in and I really don't think I've ever met a financial advisor who wasn't knowledgeable about finances about right but what happens is the challenge comes in using that knowledge expertly in presenting it and making it relevant to the specific person the specific situation you you've heard me say it rightsizing I got to rightsize the information I'm going to

00:40:22

share in every conversation to what I know about them what they've been willing to admit what's most important to them and that means I've got to take 12 bullet points and cut it down in the moment so that we're still in a conversation and they're listening because as advisers we do so much and we meet all of the needs of the client I mean anything that touches their money we can do and we can list out that whole laundry list but to your point I have always found clients never

00:40:52

walked in my office and said I woke up this morning decided to hire a financial planner usually something something happens a death a divorce a birth a new job something has happened and clients many times come to us in transition and just like something has sparked their desire to come talk to a stranger about money which is a huge deal uh that we should not take lightly and yet if I give them the laundry list of all the things I do why not just focus to your point on the one or two things that are

00:41:20

really really stressing them out show them how we can meet those needs how we can help them address those take that stress and that anxiety away and then kind of move them through as part of our actual service model the rest of what we do we don't have to explain it all upfront in order to get them to sign on uh to be a client because honestly it's those wants it's those anxieties that they're that they're coming to us with if we can show them that we can meet those that gets them into our process

00:41:48

and financial advisers has such high retention rates with clients because once clients are in the system and they're in the process they love it and they see the value of it and so it's in many ways just meet those initial concerns and then get them into the system right don't oversell that's what I say you know don't oversell or overt tell you know so don't think you have to give them every piece of information you have to show your expertise because it's been proven that asking good questions

00:42:19

listening reflecting back on it asking them followup to those questions position you more as an expert than you giving them a 10-minute dissertation on some kind of financial topic very true you know if you notice I'm sure that everyone has so much information these days that I think that the successful professional is the person that can help their buyer you know their potential client sift through and get to what's most important and make a decision to do something because they can get so stuck in in analysis

00:42:57

well I you know what I've read this article and this article I've talked to this person this person this person this person everyone's got their opinion but helping them cut out all of that and focus on for them what's most important there is so much value in doing that and when someone tells you this has been very helpful that is a perfect time then to say are you ready to work together should we get started it's not a big sale absolutely we had Carl Richards on back in episode 2 and then again

00:43:30

recently and I remember him telling and he was just a phenomenal conversationalist and just really good at I think identifying the wants he always used to joke that uh he would tell prospective clients somebody's going to cry in this meeting and it's not going to be me and he was usually right because he was just so good at getting to the core beliefs and like the core wants that a client had one of the things that he said was it was amazing that he realized uh he was having a a conversation one day it was in a

00:43:57

prospect meeting and he just made a point to just talk as little as possible and he said almost nothing I mean he said he talked just very minimally just asked good questions got them talking and whenever they were leaving they said gosh you're so smart and he just laughed because he didn't say anything I mean he he wasn't he didn't prove how smart he was he just helped them kind of walk through the process uh you know through his sales process and it was anyway it's just kind of a funny

00:44:27

right I tell a similar story that I was given a referral and I really do focus on letting them talk most of the time and he all of a sudden had to go so our time was cut short and I remember hanging up this was years ago and thinking gosh I didn't get to position our value at all I didn't get to I didn't get to tell him anything about us and so the next day when the person who made the referral said how did it go you know I I was just about to say well I'm really not sure because I didn't get to

00:45:00

tell him anything he goes cuz I don't know what you did but he thinks you're brilliant I love it and it's like oh my gosh but in a in a sales process not the conversation but in the sales process it's okay in a first meeting If all we're doing is data Gathering and we're not starting to position it's it's okay to just gather information and say this is you know I'm going to you know really you know look at this more closely and I'd like our next meeting to be to

00:45:33

discuss how we might be able to you know address some of these things and and we summarize and take off you know some of the pressure of you know here's what I heard you say and now I'd like to think about it and when we come back together dig into this a little more and then we can look at how can we help you and the decision you're getting at that point is the next meeting and some people like oh that's stretching things out but for the right people that is comforting hey I wasn't pitch that hey it you know have

00:46:04

to make a decision today someone trying to right it's I and we don't have to push it we can get the next commitment or the next action that keeps us moving forward and not pushing a sale or a buying decision in that moment so then what is the final step so the the T in one last thing about the facilitate is that as we are talking about what we can do and doing that what's what we can do connected to what's in it for them is often when we're going to hear an objection or we're going to see a

00:46:39

concern on their face or hear it in their voice and so what happens Alan when you're feeling under pressure and you're there's a concern what you shut down hide back in the you know it's like a turtle going back in their shell and it's hard to get them back out well it's a fight or flight I mean just physiologically our body either wants to fight it or we want to avoid it but uh what are you supposed to do then you remember this part Circle back to investigate and stop drop and roll in

00:47:09

that moment stop drop and roll so we have to work through those concerns and and often people are like oh if I let them verbalize a another fear or a concern it's not going to get us forward but we've got to work through that and let them talk through whatever that concern is and help them with whatever information they need to be comfortable and through that we might be learning more about their real risk tolerance their real fear about working with somebody else maybe we're going to

00:47:43

uncover something that's happening within the family Dynamics that's the concern and then you can move forward to then consolidate and so instead of thinking about closing every conversation we have to consolidate we got to tie all the pieces together and let them know they've been heard we can you know so we can say you know what what I understand from what you two have told me is that having money for your trips that you want to take every year you know is something really important

00:48:14

to you you don't want to be thinking in May how are you going to fund your June trip you want to you know have that as part of your you know Financial Outlook every year and that down the road you're looking at a vacation property or you're looking at you know purchasing uh hunting land or whatever it is and so in working with you we can you know take a look at you know this this and this which will will help you there so we summarize it bring it all back together remind them again of hey this is what

00:48:47

you want to do and here's high level how we can help you are you ready to take the next step or you know what's the way I'm not sure it's ever occurred to me before but it's like a good English paper we were taught in in middle school and high school I mean this whole process is tell them what you're going to tell them and then you work through and and work with them and then you tell them what you told them I mean that was the process for that we grew up on right with a Twist recap what they've told you

00:49:17

let it their word yeah but it it is you know set the agenda up front make sure that you know they're on board do your investigation bring out the information and then at the end bring it all together in a nice summary which then leads to what's next and be very clear what's going to happen next so what's interesting to me and I've seen this over and over with some of the financial advisers we've worked with is that sometimes making that decision what becomes the biggest fear point for that

00:49:49

client is now the paperwork that's going to come afterward what's now going to happen if I say yes I want to work with you now oh my gosh what do I have to pull together you know are you turning me over to somebody else and so being very clear on what process follows to alleviate those fears is a huge part of them not second guessing any decisions afterward how are you going to make that how are you going to make that painless and efficient so that you know it doesn't now bog them down I think it's

00:50:25

such a great point I'm not sure I've ever really thought about that because as it's such a black hole of kind of what comes next I know there are some marketing coaches in financial planning that really advocate for infographs and and simple graphs to say these are the next steps and really outlining the process of financial planning from the end of this meeting a client or you know with a follow-up a client says okay I'm ready to get started all the way through the end of the planning process you

00:50:50

really can Define every step of it and simplify it and maybe your process is too complicated if clients are continuing to run away from it out of fear so these are all the things that kind of get tied together but again if we get through a very successful meeting and the the ultimately the reason they don't sign on is because they don't understand the next step or the next step seems too confusing or too hard or scary then we've lost a perspective client uh on something that that honestly is addressable well and going

00:51:18

back to the weight stuff of preparation we need to be ready to lay out what's next very clearly so you know if if we're looking for this outcome from this meeting what's the next step now what if they say we're not ready to make this decision yet we need some more information then you've got to be very clear on what's next for that what information would be helpful for you to reference back you know I I want toize this point because I think this is huge and that is how we close out the meeting

00:51:52

if they're not signing the paperwork in your office which I I don't know very many ad advisor that push a contract in a client in their perspective client's face in that first meeting and so what is your recommendation for I guess how do you train advisers on how to close out the meeting because I think this is just so critical so and closing out the meeting it's being very clear on what decision or action is next and are they committed to it then clearly identifying the next steps who's doing what by when

00:52:22

so are you sending them some more information are you handing them something if it's face to face where their commitment is they're going to read it and getting that next appointment so let's talk next Tuesday you'll have a chance to have looked through all of this and give it a time frame and then you know the last thing is once again reassuring them that you're there to help them achieve what they want to and that your phone is open your email you know to to be in contact and that you're accessible and available

00:52:55

so that they're leaving feeling comfortable that you're approachable after they leave but they know when they're talking to you again and you know some people will be like well we just want to think about it and and and then we'll get back to you be assertive at that point and say you know what I find that that you know can get us both in a life get in the way you know and it's going to be hard yeah yes so it's it's you know you know let let's just next 30 you know 30 minutes next Tuesday

00:53:28

and our objective for that meeting is to discuss so you're not is to get your decision that will freak them out our objective for that next meeting is to answer any of the questions that have come to mind because we've discussed so much today it's bound to bring up some more discussion between the two of you you're going to start thinking about this so it's a an opportunity for us to get back and answer your next layer of questions and determine what you know is the next p possible step so we set the

00:53:57

agenda right then and a time now correct my numbers but I remember uh last time I I went through your course you threw out a number that was a percentage of additional sales that happen when there's a follow-up process put into place what was that number again I'm think it was like 30% I mean it was ridiculous it was over a third and and that so many people stop they have the meeting if they don't have the next appointment set up up then they're on the Chase and then they they just they

00:54:29

give up too soon and that people that do appropriate followup and get those next meetings and you know stay on top of it get it was it was a little over 30% it just over yeah it was around little over 30% more decisions because here's the thing is that they might not respond to your next couple of emails or phone calls because they might be stuck in analysis you know they might just be stuck with I'm not sure I you know I've got more questions I want to read this I want to ask somebody this and so or

00:55:02

something comes up that just pulls their attention and whatever they were talking to you about now is less of a priority so our persistence which I do think is one of the qualities of really good salespeople is really important and that might take six to 10 follow-ups six to 10 and most people prob St at one to two absolutely and well because then people are like well how of do I do that I mean do I contact them every day no that's a stalker do I you know do I touch Bas every month no that's not long enough I

00:55:34

think that you have to find is it once a week and if you can call them one week then the next week maybe it's an email mix up the different ways that you're doing it and do not say or write touching base that's an interesting one why is that well it's it's been shown psycholog logically to be a very nonevent you know there's no urgency to that there's no conviction in that instead we have to be very purposeful when we last spoke this is what's going to happen let's schedule

00:56:11

time to talk for this purpose we need to be very purposeful the other thing that I was talking to a marketer recently was is that as much as people think oh I'm going to be too pushy that in today's world of over information people do appreciate having a very clear action to take so do this call me back easily respond to this email here's two options of time for us to talk make it an easy action for them to take but very clear on what you want them to do and I think the final recommendation I would have in all of

00:56:51

this is if you can define a really clear follow-up process and sometimes you have to cater it you know to the prospective client but if you can say if you can literally just list out after you know I'm going to contact them via phone call after a week email at week three followup phone call at week eight then you don't have to think about it you don't have to think oh is this too often is this not often enough if it's just your process then you just do your process and then you don't have to you

00:57:18

don't have to be stressed about it or concerned about it it's just it's another to- do for you it's another action step and in the follow-ups maybe what something of value you can give them at that time you know here's a recent article that relates to what we were talking about or you know here's a recent blog you know or a podcast that I found really interesting I think you might find some value in it you know based on what you're trying to accomplish give them something of value

00:57:46

that shows that you're not just looking for a decision that benefits you but you're still trying to help them get to their decision I love it you know one thing I want to say say is that you know as we talk about what are the steps of a conversation it just seems like it's so cumbersome and so comprehensive and and don't forget that you're a person and they're a person and it's okay to enjoy the conversation and have fun and go off script and you know tell a story that's

00:58:14

relevant to that or ask them for you know the story of well how did you get to that and and make it make it people talking to each other and enjoy it because when you enjoy it and and your passion comes out they're going to enjoy it too so don't lose yourself in a robotic process have a framework know that that's you know you know your overview of where you're going but you know enjoy the journey along the way totally agree we are not advocating for a a call center script here this is not

00:58:47

a they say this so then I'm going to respond with this answer it really is a conversation but allowing yourself to have some structure which is very awkward the first couple of times you do it I mean I I know anytime you're thinking about things like this in a conversation it can be a little awkward but you get used to it very quickly and it just gives you a framework for the conversation but it is not a script scripts don't work well you know it's funny because I had a huge debate a

00:59:11

couple months ago with some other sales thought leaders about scripting and and they're like nope you know people need to be scripted I'm like and that's great if the buyer is following the script you know but if the buyer goes off the script and we don't understand why this part of the conversation because here's the thing is you know what the buyer is going to go off even that script they're going to start asking you questions before you've done a full investigation

00:59:37

and having that framework helps you go on that tangent for two or three minutes and maybe give them a bit of information but then you know you got to go back and ask more you know so it's not a uh A to B to C to D to e you might go a b c b b c b you know and that's okay cuz it's a conversation but you know where you're going I love it well you have an awesome newsletter and do the sales course which we never actually said the name of which is genuine sales we'll say I'll say it

01:00:12

in the intro uh just to be sure people know where to find you but where can people find more information about you and your company and and everything that you do and be able to stay in touch via the newsletter well go to www. salespro insider.com you can sign up for the newsletter there my contact information is there I'm very active on LinkedIn Twitter so you can connect with me at any of those at Nancy Blakey B ke or at salespro Insider and you know we can start a conversation you genuine sales

01:00:43

is about helping you build these skills but making them your own so when you bring your authentic expertise to potential clients in a very proactive way you're going to earn that trust and earn the right to have the right conversations to be able to help them and we will put links to all of this in the show notes as always so you'll be able to uh just go to our website and you'll be able to check out all of the information so Nancy thank you so much for coming on and giving us just so much valuable information it's

01:01:17

always fun again to try to cram two days worth of training into an hour but this was just such an awesome overview and I think it's going to be really really helpful for listeners so thank you I believe in Fe only financial planning I believe everybody should have one so there is so much opportunity out there for you if you add that selling effective you know that effective selling into what you're doing you're going to get to help more people because they need you totally agree so thanks

01:01:44

for having me Alan it's been fun yeah thanks so much now I know we moved through a ton of information and covered a ton of ground in an hour but I wanted to be sure everyone got a great take taste a great overview of what an effective sales process really looks like and honestly if you want to see an amazing sales process contact Nancy about her course because she will sell you on it and you will see her effectively implementing her own sales process as you're buying from her she's great at sales and great at conversation

01:02:13

which is just awesome to see it's simply amazing how much more effective you can be when you just sit down and really think through how that intro meeting is going to go develop a process for the meeting and as we mentioned at the end of the episode actually follow up which is a huge issue I think with financial advisers remember you can join our VIP Community to ask xypn members guests we've had on the show kitus myself as well as other listeners questions that you have and all the members of our VIP

01:02:41

Community to get their perspective at XY planning network.com slvp thanks so much for joining me today we'll see you next time you're not alone and you're not crazy it's scary starting building and growing your own financial planning firm and that's why we put together a free private Community just for you the cuttingedge financial planner go to XY planning network.com viip or text xypn radio to 33344 and join a network of thousands ready to change the lives of Gen X and geny

01:03:14

[Music] clients

Unlock behind-the-scenes content—subscribe now!

Featuring

Nancy Bleeke Noël, MBA

Genuine Sales & Sales Pro Insider

Share

See all