Five Fundamentals for Winning in Financials Services

As a woman working part time in the financial services industry there are often times that I feel myself becoming unfocused and overwhelmed with duties of being a Mom and a full time job. Continually building my business and delivering great service to my clients is a priority and after attending a training this last week on the fundamentals I felt inclined to share what I feel are the top five to keeping your business on track.

1. Prospecting. Working through your warm market and referrals is a great way to secure more business and potential new hires but don't forget how important just getting three names a day in a cold market will allow you to open up new appointments and potential future clients and/or partners in your business.

2. Making Appointments. Funny how we can forget that actually setting appointments and sometimes double booking so you are sure that if one cancels another is there to keep you in business is something we forget must be done on a daily basis as well. It's easy to do a lot of "activity" but if you aren't sitting down with people you'll never be able to take it to the next level.

3. Presenting. Your presentation is everything and nothing. If you have a great presentation but you don't show how much you care about your clients they won't become emotionally involved. The easiest way to do this in a presentation is to ask questions and get them thinking about their situation and find ways to offer solutions to your client. This is also the best way to get referrals as well.

4. Overcoming Objections. There are usually only a few main objections clients have with going forward. If you can overcome them before they come up you'll spend a lot less time going over concerns and objections during your presentation. For instance if a potential client is concerned about the fact that the economy is unstable and have a fear of investing, you can explain dollar cost averaging and systematic investing to the client to put them at ease and understand the importance of long term investing for retirement.

5. Learn the Products. Understanding how your products work and which ones will serve your client the best and is key to winning in your business. Remember that you need to understand concepts or features and benefits more than technical details. Customers make emotional decisions based on features and benefits and if you understand those options you'll be one up on your competition.

Getting back to the basics in your business will help you stay focused and do the best job possible for your current and future clients.