A helping hand
The following is based on one of The Covenant Group’s clients. All of the names and telling details have been changed.
When we first met Erik, he was a young advisor, still struggling to find his feet in the business. Erik’s father owned a car dealership and had always expected that Erik would grow up in his footsteps. Instead, Erik wanted to break the mold. Rather than working in his father’s dealership network, Erik decided to become a financial advisor. In the years he had spent helping in his father’s dealerships he had seen many customers who had very little control over their financial affairs. They often had credit trouble or were leasing cars for monthly rates that threatened to bankrupt them. As unlikely as it may seem, some of the most troubled people were wealthy businessmen and women. These people had not adequately planned for their future and had cash flow problems. Erik entered the financial advisory business because he was attracted to the idea of helping those people solve their financial problems. Specifically, he hoped to work in the high net worth market, helping business owners protect their assets, and diversify their wealth to secure their futures.
That was a great plan, but when Erik first came to see me he was bogged down. He had received his license six months earlier but was struggling to make a living. In fact, at that time he was the least productive salesperson in his office. That’s why his manager sent him to The Covenant Group.
When I first sat down with Erik I asked him to describe his vision of where he wanted to be in ten years. Erik knew exactly what he wanted. He planned to develop a high net worth client base by marketing to high-income prospects connected to his father’s automobile dealership business. Eric's plan was very impressive. He was going to build on what he knew best and we were sure he would succeed.
Unfortunately, when we asked Erik to describe his current situation, a much bleaker picture emerged. He knew a lot of people in the auto business because of his father. He had drafted a marketing plan for targeting them as prospects. He had no trouble getting appointments, they were all happy to talk to Bert’s son. However, once he broached the subject of financial planning with them, their good humour instantly disappeared. They closed right down and stubbornly refused to discuss anything financial. After six months and dozens of appointments, he had yet to make a sale to the heavy hitters. In fact, the only sales he had made, were small ones to people in his peer group. Erik was perplexed. He had no idea why he was striking out with his father’s friends yet closing the small fry prospects that weren’t part of his market. He was so frustrated he considered abandoning his marketing plan altogether.
In working with him, we could immediately see what Erik’s problem was - he lacked credibility with the older generation of prospects. Erik was 32 years old, they were 55 plus. Erik was the son of a friend of theirs, someone they had known since he was in diapers. But when he came to their offices, they were only interested in talking to him socially. They didn’t respect Erik’s skills as a financial advisor because they only saw him as the kid who used to hang around the dealership after school. They had a built-in bias against working with him and it was the fatal flaw in his marketing plan. Luckily, we knew how to help him.
We explained to Erik that he needed some help to kick-start his marketing plan. Specifically, he would benefit from finding a mentor who would be able to introduce him to the high net worth market. Erik liked the idea of finding a mentor. He was desperate for help, but he didn’t think anyone at the office would want to work with him since his production was so low.
We explained to Erik that he had no reason to be embarrassed, he was just at an early and difficult stage in his career. Everybody had been there and could identify. In fact, his limited perception of himself was holding him back. If he wanted to find a mentor and revive his business, he needed to be more proactive. We explained that our mentors don’t choose us, we choose them. He was right that there was no way one of the senior advisors in his office was going to come to him offering advice. But, it was quite likely that one of them would become his mentor if asked. After all, there were benefits to working with Erik. He could open a lot of doors to high net worth individuals and would share the revenue if they were able to work deals together.
When we asked him who he respected most in his office, Erik told us about an advisor named Robert who was constantly one of their top producers. Robert had been in the business for over twenty years and usually took four months off every year to vacation in Florida with his family. Robert presented himself well, was confident, and knew the technical aspects of the business inside and out. Robert sounded perfect to me. We told Erik to approach him and see if he would be interested in becoming a mentor. As an incentive for Robert, we told Erik to set up an appointment with a prospect he had been trying to close. He would then be able to offer Robert a share of the deal if he agreed to help Erik prepare and present. Erik thought that was a good idea and we scheduled our next meeting for four weeks later.
The next time we saw Erik he was ecstatic. We knew that he had good news. As it turned out, he had called Robert the day after our last meeting and had booked a lunch meeting with him for later in the week. Then he had booked a sales appointment with one of his prospects, Theo, who owned an auto parts supply company. When Erik sat down with Robert, he explained his situation and asked Robert if he would help him with the Theo presentation. To Erik’s surprise, Robert saw the sense in his request right away. In fact, Robert was flattered that Erik chose him to approach him for help. No matter how well someone is doing they still like to feel needed and respected by their peers.
Erik and Robert worked together over the next few days to prepare for their meeting. Erik told me he learned a lot from Robert about proper preparation and attitude that was never covered in any of the training or licensing courses he had attended. He learned more about the business by sitting down and talking to Robert for five minutes than he had from the last four books he had read. And, when they went to see Theo together, Erik found that the meeting was completely different than those he had had before. Erik positioned Robert as his expertise in risk management and financial management. Theo was impressed. Robert had a perceived wisdom, experience and credibility that made Theo listen. This time, instead of leaving the prospect’s office without a deal, Erik and Robert easily convinced Theo to do business with them. And, over the next few months, Erik’s business began to soar. Under Robert’s tutelage he began to get clients that he never would have had before. In the twelve months that we had worked together, Erik has been increasingly effective in penetrating the high net worth market and in successfully applying his marketing plan.
Lessons Learned
Erik was a young advisor who had the contacts he needed to implement his marketing plan but did not have the credibility. His problem was that his prospects were biased against him. They only thought of him as their friend’s son. But, by finding and working with a mentor like Robert, Erik was able to reframe the way in which his prospects saw him. If framing is the way in which information is presented, re-framing is the way of looking at a situation differently or understanding it in a different way. Re-framing is often the key to turning hard to convince prospects into lifetime clients.
The power of working with mentors is that they can help us improve our business skills through an on-going dialogue. From them, we can learn to apply techniques and processes that they developed over their years in the business. Mentors are the keepers of our industry’s knowledge. As well, we can borrow credibility or ethos from our mentors when we work in markets in which they are already established. They are the foundation of a new generation’s success.
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The Covenant Group is referred to by many as where entrepreneurs go to become Business Builders. They are considered to be thought leaders and authors of the best-selling books, The 8 Best Practices of High-Performing Salespeople, The Entrepreneurial Journey, and The Business Builder.