“I didn’t think I could do that?” my client responded when I explained to him that the reason he was not filling up his pipeline was because he wasn’t asking for the appointment earlier in the relationship. “I thought I needed to mail a prospect something of value at least twice before I could call back and ask for an appointment” he said convincingly.
I elaborated on my advice by saying that if he has qualified a prospect, uncovered a prospect’s need(s) and shared his solutions then this was the appropriate time to ask for and set the first appointment.
Amazingly, in less than an hour after discussing this, I received an email from him requesting a quick call. Curious, I called immediately and I was happy to hear that he had just qualified, uncovered needs, sold his solutions and set a first appointment…all on the initial cold call!
The following day, during a group coaching session my client told his success story to his peers and was more than happy to report that he had done it again! With this motivation, he was looking forward to the days ahead of finding additional success.
What occurred with this client is what I refer to as the “snowball effect of solutions”. It is the light bulb moment when you realize what the solution is and that you are able to make changes and apply a solution to get different (and hopefully positive) outcomes. Typically, it also corresponds with the moment that you make a course correction in your belief system; in my client’s case, this was about changing his belief system that he must mail a prospect something of value at least twice before being able or worthy of asking for an appointment.
I personally believe in my “snowball effect of solutions” theory so much that I wrote a 473 page book around the concept—101 Advisor Solutions: A Financial Advisor’s Guide to Strategies that Educate, Motivate and Inspire!—to help financial services professionals find their solutions and have their own snowball effect of successes.
So, what happened with my client?
He was so excited about his success that he volunteered to mentor anyone in the group and walk them through the process of how he did it. You see, he had spent over ten years reinforcing his old (and unsuccessful) belief system and he now knew that there were others who could benefit from what he had experienced.