Cross-selling additional lines of business is one of your greatest opportunities. These types of sales are generally easier because you have already built a trusted relationship with the member.
Unfortunately you may be losing revenue and clients because your cross-selling effectiveness is below your full potential. On top of that you may find yourself spending more time than necessary prospecting for new clients to develop the sales you need.
Have you reached your full potential to cross-sell additional solutions to your members? If so, congratulations! If not, finding the answers to some simple questions will help you identify and avoid the obstacles that are holding your back.
How do your clients view your company? Most clients started their relationship with you with the purchase of one product. For example, it may have been a life insurance policy, an annuity or a mutual fund. Even though you have many other products and planning services to offer their minds won’t be open to working with you to fulfil their other financial needs until you bring your capabilities to their attention.
How much do you value your solutions? Many financial reps are naturally drawn to one class of products more than another. For example, you may be attracted to the benefits of risk products such as life, disability or long-term care insurance. On the other hand you may feel more compelled to help clients plan for retirement, allocate investments to grow wealth, or to develop strategies to create lifelong retirement income streams.
Have you thought about what draws you to one line of business over another? Perhaps you’ve had a personal experience where an insurance product impacted you or someone you close to you. You may have experienced the joy of guiding client’s investment decisions to help them realize double digit returns. On the other hand you might shy away from recommending equities without using an annuity that offers guarantees because you witnessed investment portfolios shrink to 60% or less of their value when the markets crashed in 2008.
How much confidence do you have discussing potential solutions with prospects? Developing adequate levels of product knowledge to recognize and fulfill needs takes time. Fortunately Thrivent offers you multiple learning opportunities to deepen your knowledge throughout your career. You have highly competent internal specialists to answer your questions and the opportunity to invite experienced FR’s with specialize competencies to help you develop sales through joint work.
How effective are you at ethically persuading your clients to discuss all of their personal risk and investing needs with you? Ethical persuasion is the art of influencing another person to take action to achieve an outcome that’s important to them, that they otherwise would not have taken on their own. This is a learned skill. If you believe in the value of your products and have the personal competency or joint work relationships with other FR’s but still find yourself not cross-selling as much business as you could then developing and periodically sharpening your communication skills will pay immediate and long-lasting dividends.
It’s as easy as 1, 2 3 to make more sales to your current members.
- Identify what’s holding you back from cross-selling more solutions.
- Decide what you will do about it. Consider one or more of these possibilities:
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- Reshape your client’s perception of what you and Thrivent have to offer in a matter of minutes using CAPS™ Transitions statements and Probing questions.
- Nurture your belief in risk products by using resources found at lifehappens.org.
- Advance your knowledge by pursing FIC®, CLU®, ChFC® or CFP® designations.
- Borrow the confidence or competencies you’ve not personally developed by teaming up with one or more qualified FR’s to serve your member’s needs.
- Sharpen your ethical persuasion skills by using the CAPS™ skill review tools and the client conversation coaching checklists before and after important client conversations.
- Develop your listen skills by attending SCOPE™ Listening Skills session
3. Do it!
