Follow up without being a pest

The number of prospects in your pipeline doesn’t drive value in the short term, but is absolutely essential over the mid- to long term. While these prospects aren’t generating revenue today, they are a predictor of revenue down the road. The key to maintaining your pipeline is to have the right system in place to follow up without coming across as a pest.

The reason why the number of prospects in your pipeline is so important arises from length of investors’ decision-making cycles. This wasn’t always the case. In the 1980s and 1990s, prospective clients often made up their minds fairly quickly after initial conversations. At that time, a pipeline of prospects was much less important; when you met with prospects, they might not sign on, but at least you typically got a “yes” or a “no,” so you knew where you stood. In essence, client development was an event.

Although that’s still sometimes the case, prospective clients generally are taking longer to decide whether to work with an advisor, in large measure because building trust takes time and can’t be rushed. That’s especially true when you connect with prospective clients through broad-based marketing activity; but it’s increasingly the case even when someone is referred to you by an existing client.

In a world in which it generally takes prospective clients much longer to decide to sign on with an advisor, business development has become a process. And with that shift come some fundamental implications for how you follow up with prospects.

First, you are going to have to be more patient in communicating with prospective clients than was the case historically.

Second, the number of qualified prospects in your pipeline is a key measure of your future success. And, just like any other key variable, you need to set goals for the number of prospects you will have in your pipeline, put activity in place to achieve those goals and track your progress toward them.

Finally, you need a way to build trust and stay in front of prospective clients. Calling to say, “Just checking to see if you’re ready to buy yet” may be better than no call at all, but certainly won’t maximize the chances of those prospects becoming clients.

I recently made this point during a keynote talk at an advisor conference. Later that day, I got an email from an advisor who had been in the audience. His email explains why the “just calling to check in” approach risks positioning you as a pest – in the prospects’ mind as well as yours: “I worked for Xerox many years ago, where we made many, many calls on potential customers. I quickly realized that busy people running successful businesses – the ones we want to connect with – hate the calls that begin, ‘Just calling to touch base/ask if you are ready to sign up the paperwork yet.’

“If you are not bringing value to a prospect,” the advisor’s email continues, “you are wasting his time. Therefore, it was my goal always to have something of value to share with [the prospect]. In the copier business, it was some feature he might have missed and a new way I had thought his firm could take advantage of the capabilities. As an advisor, it was some fact about a company in his industry, something I knew the prospect was following or maybe currency changes if I knew he does cross-border business.”

The best followup happens in two stages. First comes low-key, foundation-building followup that precedes and sets the stage for the direct followup call. Then comes direct followup, the call that this advisor focuses on. What the two followup stages have in common is that to be truly effective, they both require permission from the prospect. If someone hasn’t given you permission to communicate with them, if all they are is a name in a directory or a casual acquaintance with whom you’ve never discussed financial issues, they aren’t a prospect; they’re a “suspect.”

– THE FOUNDATION FOLLOWUP

The lower-key, foundation followup keeps you top of mind, builds credibility and demonstrates value. The best form of this type of followup is to share with prospects the communications that go to your clients. Here’s what a conversation to get a prospect’s permission to send him or her that communication might sound like:

“Given turbulent markets of the past few years, once a quarter I invite clients to a breakfast to discuss recent events. As well, I send clients a twice-monthly email in which I include one or two articles selected from my ongoing research. I’ve had a great response to these breakfasts and the articles. With your permission, I’d like to add you to the distribution list for the articles and the invitation list for the breakfasts.”

Most prospects will agree fairly readily. For some, it’s a low-cost commitment on their part that holds the promise of value. For others, it’s simply the route of least resistance simply to say yes.

Note that you can’t expect prospects who receive this low-key followup to act on it; any direct action arising from this is a bonus. This form of low-key followup is designed to prime the pump, to lay a foundation of awareness and credibility for when you do call with a direct followup.

– THE DIRECT FOLLOWUP

In the direct followup, you pick up the phone and place the call. Many advisors shy away from these calls because this is the point at which it can feel as if you’re bothering prospects.

One key to getting past that reluctance is obtaining permission to call. Here’s how that might go:

“I hear, loud and clear, your concerns about ways to increase income without incurring additional risk. I’d like to think about this further and explore some opportunities that could meet your needs and, with your permission, check back in about 90 days.”

Then, pause and wait for an answer. Note that you’re not asking a question; you’re making a statement to which you’re asking the prospective client to respond. If you have tapped into a genuine concern, you’ll almost always get agreement that you can call. Ninety days might be too soon or too far away. What’s important is not the duration until the followup, but that you get the client’s permission for your call.

When you do call (and, quite likely, leave a voice-mail message), your followup should refer to your previous conversation:

“It’s Dan Richards. When we last spoke, we agreed that I’d be following up about now. I have a couple of specific strategies that I’d like to discuss in regard to the concern you expressed about increasing income without incurring substantially more risk.”

This is a classic needs-based sales approach, one that many advisors say they practice but few actually do. The reason is simple: it’s much more work to use this strategy than to say, “Just following up to see if you have any questions on the article I sent you” – which, in truth is a more elegant way of saying, “Checking to see if you’re ready to buy yet.”

To increase your chance of success, your call has to relate back to the specific concerns that the prospect had articulated.

Implement this followup process and your results will improve dramatically. All it takes is a few simple steps: getting prospective clients to buy into receiving ongoing communication, obtaining agreement to a followup call and ensuring that the call relates to their specific situation. In the process, your conviction and confidence in the value that you bring will go way up and the risk of being seen as a pest will go way down.

Dan Richards is CEO of Clientinsights (www.clientinsights.ca) in Toronto. For other columns written by Dan, visit www.investmentexecutive.com.

© 2012 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.