A Sales Coaching Conversation... with a Financial Advisor 2

Well, it happened.

And it happens with a lot of sales people that think they are their own bosses??, like this financial adviser.

What I wanted to write about was that she finally followed her sales consciousness... and that she was getting a lot of results and that I transformed her.... but not, not in this case.

In fact, it happened the other way around. She was asked to lead a project for another insurance company and this project has nothing to do with selling (she says that yes, that it has to do with selling... of course... but she has to sell hard to herself the project so she can quiet her own sales consciousness and be comfortably uncomfortable) so she will be "distracted" during the whole year from her main selling activities.

Besides being distracted by not selling and not working with discipline, she will be distracted doing a project that has nothing to do with her nature and her business.

Is that too bad?

Well, she complained about it. She told me that she has been an underachiever, this meaning that she knows can produce a lot more compared with what she was selling right now and/or the year before. Also she told me that during the last year she was distracted by a lot of 'things' including those that sometimes 'appeared' in her office and by people that 'drained her energy'.

And that she was "fed up" so she was willing to do whatever it was necessary to 'change' BUT we understood later, that in 'necessary' weren't included the basic things that an insurance sales person must (if she wants the results she says she wants) do:

• find the hundreds of opportunities that she has in her own portfolio (remember that she has been selling for the last 8-9 years) by reselling to them or asking them for referrals (really, is that very hard action to take, really?)
  
• make appointments, have interviews

Instead of doing these 'easy and practical things' she choose to do a completely different thing, so maybe she and I are going to be talking in a year.

And about sharing an unsuccessful case?

Well, almost every coach that I have met has more that one stories of failures (more than one, are you kidding?). So, sometimes it is better to share some of them to help the readers (hoping that these are sales professionals AND coaches) to mirror themselves in them.

A Sales Coaching Conversation... with a Financial Advisor

(I'm grateful with Laura McCann, lauramccann@sympatico.ca . She helped to make this article readable.)

Two days ago I met with a client. It was our first coaching conversation. Her own diagnosis of her situation was:

"I know I can do a lot more but I can get easily distracted with a lot of unproductive activities and despite the fact that I'm a very well known and respected person in the community, I know that I'm barely making my monthly quotas. I want to make the money that I know I can. Please tell me what I need to do."

First, some background. She has been selling financial products for at least 9 years. She is very well known in the Hispanic community in Toronto. She has a lot of clients in her own portfolio.

Here, I will try to reproduce the most important part of our conversation as closely as possible:

Coach: -"OK. So you know that you can produce a lot more, you know that you can sell a lot more and earn a lot more money, don't you?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes, but I don't know what happens. For example (and this is important): I arrive at the office with a selling plan. I tell myself that it's time to produce more so I list some of the things that I should do in order to produce more, OK? That's easy, BUT, when I arrive at the office, I suddenly start doing other things, or even go out with my friend from another office to an event that has nothing to do with my business nor is the event in keeping or with what I've planned."

Coach: -"So you know what to do to sell more?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes of course but I almost always end up doing a lot of other unrelated things."

Coach: -"OK. Let me talk to your intuition."

Financial Advisor: -"With my what?"

Coach: -"With your intuition. The little, soft voice that talks to you every morning and tells you exactly what you can do to get better results, because she talks to you everyday, doesn't she?

Financial Advisor: -"Yes, but as I told you, I end up doing things that go contrary to what my intuition tells me to do."

Coach: -"Perfect, so you have it! Now, what happens when, lets say that your intuition tells you: 'Sarah (not her real name) you need to clean up your list of clients and you need to do it today' and suddenly "something" distracts you from that and you end up in, lets say, at an event that does not lead to being productive. Does this intuition make claims to you about that?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes, she tells me: 'What are you doing here? We are not going to get anything from here.'"

Coach: -"And?"

Financial Advisor: -"Well, I tell her that probably we might meet people that may eventually become clients and/or that could lead to future clients."

Coach: -"But you know that this isn't the case and when you say that to yourself you're sending to sleep, among other mechanisms and tricks that you use for that, this selling consciousness so she will stop bothering you with her questions about why you aren't doing what do you need to do to get the results you want."

Financial Advisor: -"What?"

Coach: -"Yes. Everyday, you know, because you listen to it from your sales consciousness, with precision, what to do so you can get the results that you want, don't you? (she nods) BUT (and it's a very BIG one), you almost always get distracted and end up doing something that has nothing to do with your selling plans. Am I correct?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes..."

Coach: -"So, what we are going to do in this coaching conversations is to help you to simply obey your selling consciousness."

Financial Advisor: -"..."

Coach: -"Yes, you have two thoughts. One tells you to sell. The other destroys that intention and send you to do anything related with sales production. And while you are listening to both, you end obeying to the one that destroys your intentionality, your constructive efforts. The purpose of my coaching is going to help you to obey your sales consciousness and to do what she tells you to do so you can do what you know you must do to get the results that you want. Am I clear now?"

Financial Advisor: -"Am I destroying my career?"

Coach: -"Are you?"

Financial Advisor: -"OK, maybe, the thing is that I'm not getting results. So now, how can I change?"

Coach: -"Let me talk to you sales consciousness and let us hear what she wants to tell us..."

From here, her selling intuition or consciousness gave her exactly the same instructions. These strategies are neither magic nor motivational. They are simple and very common sense selling tactics and strategies that when applied, produce the desired results.

And my point is to help her in obeying it and applying them.