While financial advisers have been figuring out how to get compliant over the last few years, consumers went and pulled a dirty trick while we weren’t watching closely: they changed how they buy stuff, including buying professional services.
The change has already happened of course.
The old world of “Push” selling to get prospects to engage is dying rapidly – if indeed it still works at all really. Instead we now have to “pull” them towards us with tempting content, stellar personal branding and perfect positioning.
So prospecting has actually become a marketing exercise now, rather than the personal selling exercise it was formerly. Our sales and marketing funnel has changed accordingly:
Our selling role really only comes into play when the prospect is already close to deciding upon whether to engage or when we are making recommendations.
Everything else is a function of marketing now.
Which means that today’s professional has to develop, or have, a wide array of, marketing skills as they are now probably far more important than personal sales skills. Marketing does not just focus on creating opportunities and initial enquiries any longer; it handles every step of the nurturing and engagement right up until the point where the prospect is signing engagement terms and stepping over the line to becoming a client.
Marketing is now the “make or break” skill set for professionals wanting to grow their business, and generate more prospects who can turn into clients. Building these new skill sets and the infrastructure to execute great ongoing marketing is where we need to focus resources and energy in our practice development because the consumers have already changed. We need to catch up.
