3 minute read
By Jeremy Nason
Do you conduct an annual review each year with your clients? If you do not meet with your clients at least once a year, then you are losing a lot of easy sales...new sales, repeat sales, and sales from referrals! Plus, when you do not meet with your clients each year, then you will lose them to your competition!
Consider in today's highly competitive marketplace, you will never significantly grow your sales and your income if you lose clients. More than ever before, your competition is going after people who are not happy with their current consultant because they want to steal your clients and replace your business!
That is why, if you want to succeed today in sales, then you must work to build client loyalty and develop lasting long-term relationships. Trust fosters loyalty and builds relationships. But how do you build that kind of trust with your clients?
The annual review with your clients is one of your best opportunities for you to build more trust. And yet, most advisors will downplay their significance.
The main purpose of the annual review with your clients is to meet any unmet needs, identify changes, and discover areas of dissatisfaction. Then, you will want to use this knowledge to help you to strengthen trust and deepen the relationship. Which means that you will need to do a complete fact find with every one of your clients.
Please Note: There is a lot more to you helping your clients, than just reviewing their investments. As a financial consultant your job is to help families… to ‘find the money’ to spend, save, invest, insure, and plan wisely for the future so that they can be financially independent!
Why Is An Annual Review So Important?
Peoples’ lives do change...they get married, they divorce, they die, have babies, kids go off to college, they get sued, they retire, start businesses, and they buy houses. And then, they lose focus on their goals. Every one of these events is a good reason for them to update their financial plan. If you do not see your client yearly, then you will never know about any of these changes! And you will never “get all their business”.
There are five key truths in this business...
First... No matter how good you are, you will not get all of your prospects' business during the first sale! There is always more business for you to write! (Disability Insurance, LTCI, Wealth Transfer, IRAs, 401k Transfers, Roth Conversions, Life Insurance, etc.) So, you must do a complete fact-find every time you meet with them! Second... Somebody else is always trying to steal your clients and replace your business! When your business is replaced, you not only lose that sale...but you lose future sales, renewals (trailers), and referrals!
Third... People are not really your client until they buy from you 3 or more times. The more people buy from you, the more loyal to you they become. Then the more they will buy from you in the future. Plus, they will refer you to more of the people they know!
Fourth... Peoples’ situations do change! They get new jobs, new dependents, and new homes. Their attitudes and concerns will also change, which will provide you with more sales opportunities!
Fifth... Most consultants are so focused and busy with bringing in new clients, that they are totally neglecting their existing clients. Then they wonder why they do not get any sales calls from their existing clients…or get any referrals!
Summary
Regular annual reviews with your clients are one of the main reasons why the top producers today... earn $300,000, $500,000, and more per year!
