I was discussing some training and coaching strategies with a client yesterday. The company provides financial services and advice. They have a large number of Advisers who they categorized as Farmers. The majority of their Advisers were excellent with client service and always looking for ways to create value for their clients. This was evidenced by the high percentage of client retention.

The problem the company faces is a lack of growth through new and referral business.

“Can we turn our Farmers into Hunters?” was the question that I was asked.

Now this is a question that I have been asked in a number of different ways over the past two decades….. “Can you really teach someone to sell?” and “Can service people become salespeople?”

Yes…..but….

I am convinced that the answer is yes……but only if the ‘farmer’ is significantly motivated and energised to want to become a hunter. If they are not, and the decision is to ‘force train’ them into learning and implementing the skills and strategies of sales hunters, they may become de-motivated and stressed about the pressure being put on them to implement proactive selling strategies and as a result, become less effective in their more comfortable role of sales farmer.

So what’s the answer?

There are two approaches. The first is a long term process involving a series of training and coaching and mentoring interventions focused on changing the sales farmers’ belief about the value of the sales hunter strategies….the value that can be created from proactive sales and marketing strategies for their clients.

The second is to not try and turn the farmers into hunters, but rather help them become Sales Trappers.

The Sales Trapper strategies look at using the individual strengths of the Sales Farmer and creating sales and marketing strategies based on those strengths, that the Sales Farmer will be comfortable and confident in implementing.

For example, if a Sales Farmer is not comfortable in making ‘cold calls’, perhaps they are comfortable and confident in running client meetings. Therefore, we build on their strengths of client meetings and create some ‘public meetings’ where small groups of prospects are invited and the Sales Farmer chats about the value that can be created for those prospects through their products, service and advice.

This is just one example for illustration purposes, and by completing what I refer to as a ‘sales skill and comfort audit’ many Sales Farmers can identify proactive sales and marketing strategies that they are confident and comfortable to implement, that they enjoy, and more importantly, that will result in more new, repeat and referral sales.

The article quoted the AFA CEO as saying “We don’t call it sales skills because I think our profession undersells or undermines itself with that language. They’re high listening skills, questioning skills and articulation skills to empathise with clients and help them with their journey.”

Now, ignoring the irony that Mr. Klipin sees that referring to sales skills as ‘underselling’ the finance profession (sorry Richard, that’s gold!), the real issue here is not the skill of selling.  The real issue for the financial planning industry is not the ‘salesperson’ tag.  The real issue is what’s driven the financial planning industry toward such a tight compliance and regulatory environment.. .and that is the minority of financial planners who have tarnished the reputations of professional financial advisers with poor advice, a lack of belief in their own value, a lack of confidence, and a focus on pushing commission based product as opposed to selling advice.

This ‘soft sell’ reference is problematic.  There’s nothing ‘soft’ about selling.  That’s a myth!

Successful salespeople, regardless of industry, are confident and competent advisers.  They articulate the value of their advice, not just the products or services they provide, and they never need to defend their value or the price they charge to deliver that value to their clients.

To learn more about myths that can impede the success of a salesperson go to Sales Coach Central’s Report on Selling Truths.