Easy selling in a recession

As a result of this colum you and your Financial Services organization will discover that:

Rewarding people on client satisfaction, not the average size of the sale is good business.
Under promise and over-perform, always placing your client needs ahead of your need for front-end profit makes sense.
Giving everyone the same fair deal so you don’t overcharge some to make up for the profits lost on others, is only fair.

Client satisfaction is everyone’s job. It has to be on the minds of each party to the transaction every time they interact with a customer. Financial Service professionals must remember that the easiest client to sell is the one you’ve already satisfied.

Satisfying clients is not to be considered a distraction from selling Financial Services products or services. It is ultimately how you sell more. Fix problems, satisfy clients, and they will buy from you again and again.

On the other hand, once someone feels they’ve been cheated, you’ll never get a chance to earn that person’s business again…that’s far more costly than any one-time profit you can make.

The first rule is to never gouge a client by encouraging them buy more than they can afford right now. If you do, and they come to realize it (and they will), they will tell their family, their friends and just about anyone else who will listen…and you will have lost a considerable part of your potential market share.As regards to your team, reward people on volume and customer satisfaction, not on the size of the average sale. When people are rewarded with incentives for customer satisfaction, it’s a win-win situation for everybody.When a customer has a problem, it’s a problem.

Fix it!
Replace it!
Refund the customers money!

Under promise and over-perform. Always treat your client as king. Place their need for happiness ahead of your need for front-end commission. Ask what do they really need… not how much can I sell them?

Financial Service professional and their organizations must not try to make up for their own business problems by using their clients. It’s always smarter to select the product or service offered to suit the current market, and then sell a lot of it.

Take care of your client at the lowest level of management. No one should have to appeal to you if a bank change is needed or a beneficiary designation needs to be modified. Everyone on your team should be authorized to satisfy the client and to fix it right the first time.

Accept getting beaten sometimes. A small percentage of people will take advantage of your commitment to client satisfaction. To treat the rest of your people fairly, you must take that risk.

Whenever you have a choice between losing a client and losing a commission, lose the commission. The client will come back to you again and again, which means that the commission will return as well.

Never cut your commissions to boost your sales. Instead, increase your value. A college student started a small business by “souping” up stripped-down IBM computers with simple plug-in components. Merely by customizing a common product, Michael Dell tapped a broad market of eager computer buyers. How can you attract a broad market of Financial Service buyers?

Financial Service Professionals and their organizations shouldn’t think about the cost of pleasing a customer. To quote an athletic apparel company, just do it! By managing all of your costs very closely, you can afford giving “outrageous service” to satisfy people…and satisfied people are repeat customers…the easiest to sell in a recession.

This article is provided by Joe Murtagh CLU, ChFC, CFP, “The DreamSpeaker” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com a 37 year veteran and past top producer in the Financial Service. For keynotes, workshops, consulting, facilitation and questions…or a free report titled The Three Biggest Mistakes Financial Service Professionals Make, email us at email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

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