CHRISISM #79 - Post Mortem of the Lost Sale

20 November 2018

In the event of you failing to do business with a potential new client, how analytical are you with regard to identifying the reasons why that business did not eventuate? Or do you just shrug your shoulders and move on to the next prospect?

I reckon it’s time for another checklist! When I first started in the business, I used to have a checklist for ‘Do’s & Don’ts on the Phone’ when looking to make a first appointment and ‘Do’s & Don’ts of a First Client Meeting’. If I failed to make a first appointment over the phone or if I failed to get a second appointment at the end of a first client meeting, then I would immediately refer to my checklist and more often than not I could identify what I had done that I shouldn’t have done or what I hadn’t done that I should have done!

If you make a habit of doing this every time, then before too long you can throw away the checklist because doing what you should be doing and not doing what you shouldn’t be doing just comes naturally.

So what I want to do in this Chrisism is to create a checklist of what I believe are the most common reasons for losing business that should have eventuated, and I’m going to place them in chronological order throughout the client engagement process. Most of them have been identified in previous Chrisisms, so you can flesh out the content of any particular reason by referring to that Chrisism.

So here comes your checklist:-

  • Original phone call – failure to create a favourable impression (see Chrisism#74)

  • Lack of ID/rapport – N.B. the importance of that first 5-10 minutes when you meet someone for the first time. Remember:- people buy people first and then they’ll check out what they’re offering.

  • Telling not selling – not using your ears and mouth in the proportion that they were given to you (see Chrisism#54)

  • Confusing the client – getting too technical (see Chrisism#24)

  • Stopping at green lights and crashing red lights (see Chrisism#13)

  • Not painting enough pictures – client can’t visualise the benefits (Chrisism#11)

  • Lack of waterproofing – post purchase remorse (see Chrisism#25)

So when you fail to do business that you reckon was there for the taking, make a habit of referring to the checklist and identifying where you went wrong, and before you know it your conversion rates will go through the roof!

If you have found this Chrisism helpful, then you should definitely come along to my upcoming Sales Skills for Financial Planners Workshop in your capital city in the next couple of weeks. Just click on the link below for all the content and registration details in your location.

Just click on the link below for all the content and registration details.

The Sales Skills Workshop is on in all 5 Major Capitals in November/December 2018.

Click here for details.

The Risk Workshop by Chris Unwin

Are you a financial adviser who would like all of your clients to have appropriate types and levels of personal protection? But perhaps you feel you need a more structured and client friendly engagement process?