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You Don't Have a Leads Problem — You Have a Pipeline Problem with Lisa Mohammed

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You Don't Have a Leads Problem — You Have a Pipeline Problem with Lisa Mohammed

This episode of the Finance Marketing Podcast features host Hillary speaking with Lisa Mohammed, a financial industry veteran with over 15 years of experience. The conversation centers on the critical distinction between marketing and sales, and why conflating these two processes can stall growth for financial advisors. Lisa explains that advisors often jump to lead generation before defining their ideal client profile, which leads to wasted spending and poor fit prospects. She emphasizes starting with a clear vision of the desired business and lifestyle, then identifying the types of clients who support that vision. Lisa shares a client analysis exercise that helps advisors uncover common traits among their best clients. The discussion then moves into what a real sales process looks like, from initial meetings through discovery, homework, recommendations, and referrals. Lisa argues that most advisors have a pipeline development problem, not a leads problem, and shares a cautionary tale of an advisor who spent $50,000 on lead generation with poor results. She highlights the value of centers of influence, follow-up strategies, and building referral systems. Lisa also describes her ten-week Pipeline to Profit workshop, which covers the full sales cycle from mindset to prospecting.

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Unpacking Marketing, Sales, and Client Conversion Welcome to the Finance Marketing Podcast, a show that empowers finance professionals to market their businesses in ways that feel good and actually. Speaker 2 Achieve results. Speaker 1 I'm your host, Hillary. Speaker 3 I've been. Speaker 1 Working with folks in financial services to develop marketing strategies that work and create results oriented marketing content since 2020 and I've learned a lot about what works in finance marketing, what doesn't work and where financial. Speaker 2 Services pros get stuck. Speaker 1 Join us each Friday as we explore. Speaker 2 Real, effective ways. Speaker 1 To market your finance business and connect with folks who truly embody your ideal clients. Speaker 3 This week I'm sitting down with Lisa Mohammed, A powerhouse in the financial industry, Lisa comes with over 15 years of proven success across banking, insurance and financial. Speaker 2 Services. Speaker 3 And with the dynamic background is both an independent financial advisor and a corporate banking manager. Lisa now empowers advisors to. Speaker 2 Scale their. Speaker 3 Business and master the art of client conversion. So Lisa and I dig into something. Speaker 2 That I think. Speaker 3 Often gets conflated by business owners, which is the difference and the relationship between marketing and sales, and why conflating those two things can stall growth if you're not careful. Speaker 2 So we talk about how to actually. Speaker 3 Identify your ideal client. What a. Speaker 2 Real sales process looks. Speaker 3 Like from the first conversation with the prospect to then getting a referral? And why so many advisors chase more leads when what they actually need is a stronger pipeline. I feel like you're hearing me speak. Speaker 2 About this a lot over the last few. Speaker 3 Weeks and it's something that I really do strongly believe in that there's so much untapped opportunity in your existing pipeline in your existing CRM list of. Speaker 2 Prospects. Speaker 3 That I see a. Speaker 2 Lot of advisors. Speaker 3 Not taking full advantage of and so. Speaker 2 Lisa also shares. Speaker 3 A pretty good cautionary tale about what can happen when you throw money at lead generation before you've done this foundational. Speaker 2 Sales process. Speaker 3 Work and really documenting how you take. Speaker 2 Prospects through the. Speaker 3 Journey to becoming a client with you. Speaker 2 So if you've ever. Speaker 3 Felt like your marketing and your sales conversations aren't quite connecting or you're wondering whether? Speaker 2 You have a leads. Speaker 3 Problem or something else entirely this episode? Speaker 2 Will give you a pretty clear picture of where to focus. Speaker 3 Your energy to convert more of the. Speaker 2 Leads you do have. Speaker 3 Becoming clients. Speaker 2 So without further ado. The Critical Difference Between Marketing and Sales Let's dive in, Lisa. I'm so. Speaker 2 Excited to have you. Speaker 3 On this episode of the Finance Marketing Podcast, this conversation has been a long time coming. How are you? Speaker 4 I'm doing well, Hillary, and I'm super excited and honored to be part of your podcast as well. So thanks for having me. Speaker 3 Yeah, my pleasure. I'm excited to dive right into it. Speaker 2 Because you're a. Speaker 3 Person in this industry. Speaker 2 Who really sees? Speaker 3 Some of the mismatch that can happen between an advisor's marketing and. Speaker 2 The sales side, I think a. Speaker 3 Lot of times we conflate these two processes within when it comes to growing a business of marketing and then selling and actually getting clients and they're. Speaker 2 Actually 2 totally separate. Speaker 3 Things. Speaker 2 So I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about what you see. Speaker 3 The differences and the gaps between marketing and sales for when it for. Speaker 2 Advisors. Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm actually really glad that you brought this up because it has been a topic, a hot topic for a really like the past year with advisors. I would say in terms of, you know, Lisa, how do I market, Lisa, how do I get more leads? How do I go get prospects? Lead generation is like probably the number one, if not like it's in the top there for sure challenges that advisors have, especially those newer and developing advisors. And I always say this, I say, you know, like you don't have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing because you don't even know who you're targeting yet, right? And so where I like to start with advisors is, K, let's figure out first like what does your business look like? What do you want it to look like when you're running it? What do you want it to look like in the next three to five years? What is your vision for yourself, your personal life look like and your business look like? And then what type of clients are going to get you there? Like where are you going to find those people? And we start to identify from their who their ideal client profile is. And that's really where the start of everything comes from is who are the people that you want to work with and where do we find them? And then from there, yes, we can have some marketing strategies. We can have some branding strategies. You can tailor your elevator picture, your unique value proposition, because now you have a target audience and you're specific and target to how you're making your marketing efforts. Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. I I. Speaker 3 Couldn't agree with you more that and you know, maybe this is like some marketing jargon that I lean into, but it's like you really have to know who your niche is, who your audience is before you want to go out and start posting all of this content. Or I mean, most younger advisors that I know aren't thinking in this space yet, but if we think about like running ads somewhere or like whatever it might be, you really need to have a. Speaker 2 Clear idea of who? Speaker 3 You're wanting to reach 1st and how you can best reach them. How Niching Down Sharpens Your Sales Process And so I think another thing that is important and important piece of this conversation is that you can. Speaker 2 Do you can technically do sales without? Speaker 3 Doing any marketing right and for newer business owners who are just getting established, that's often the place to. Speaker 2 Start. Speaker 3 Before you invest in marketing because you learned so much about yourself and the types of clients that you want to work with. Speaker 2 Through just. Speaker 3 Focusing on sales, but then the question becomes, well. Speaker 2 How do I start? Speaker 3 Those sales conversations if I'm not doing any marketing? Speaker 4 Yeah, that's a, that's a really good question, Hillary. And So what I tell my advisors that I work with is this is once you know and you identify the type of business you want to run and who your ideal clients are, you can like if you have that niche of people that you're working with. So say, let's say business owners, for example. So I worked with an advisor who he identified his ideal client profile as business owners. And I take them through, it's called a client analysis. And we take what their top ten clients look like. And then we put them all down. Like we have a lot of all these criterias and checklists. And then we see what they have in common and what some of their common gaps and strengths might be with these clients. And what he realized, and the reason I'm telling you the story, there's a point here. And what he realized was that within those business owners that he was talking about, they actually ended up being professionals between their 40s and 50s. One was a mortgage broker, 1 was an accountant, one was a doctor. And what they had in common was that they were all running their own businesses. They were all independently contracted to themselves and incorporated, but they were considered small business owners. And in his mind, a small business owner was someone with Mama pop shop with maybe several employees that needed group benefits. But when he really looked and then and analyzed his top clients, they were in this certain niche. And so we started to hone in. Yeah, we started to hone in on. That was a big aha moment for him. But we really started to drill down on these types of clients and looked at what did they have in common, both on the technical side but also on the qualitative side. So what were their personality traits? Were they funny? Were they admiable? Were they more technical or analytical? And the reason that was important was that so he could understand how to work with those personality traits. And so the point that I'm making here is that once you can leash down like that, you don't have to get that specific early on. But I just wanted to give the advisors out there an idea of once you can start to figure out who those types of people are, 80% of their pain points are going to be the same. And that's super important because that's really how you're gonna start to tailor your sales conversations, all that your, all your processes, your marketing, your everything when you're out networking your value proposition because you're going to be speaking specifically to those pain points that these people have. The 20% is going to be the more personalized stuff that you add to your services. But this is how strategize and make your business when you want to build it smart and not have to spend hundreds of thousands on marketing ads targeting everybody, but really finding where these people hang out and targeting them specifically, if that makes sense. Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean. Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. And that gives. Speaker 3 It just gives so much insight to where you should be focusing on your attention because you know that those types of business owners are more likely. Speaker 2 To be a part. Speaker 3 Of maybe B and I groups in your community, so that might be a good place to go and start networking. Speaker 2 Right or. Speaker 3 They might be those types of business owners might be more likely to be on LinkedIn looking for their own clients versus like a mom and pop business owner, like a local type of business. So it just really, it really informs where you should be so that you can get in front of those people and start those conversations from there. From Prospect to Referral: A Complete Sales Process So I love that. Speaker 3 Approach and you mentioned something to this informs all of your sales conversations and your. Speaker 2 Sales processes as a. Speaker 3 Marketing professional myself. Speaker 2 Sales processes. Speaker 3 Aren't necessarily my. Speaker 2 Area of expertise so I'd love you to walk through like what? Speaker 3 A sales process might look like for an advisor and. Speaker 2 Because I think. Speaker 3 Too. Sometimes we think, Oh well, I have one discovery call and then they'll become a client. But that's not. Speaker 2 Actually the case. Speaker 3 A lot of the times, a lot of times you have people at different stages in your pipeline. What are those different stages look like? Speaker 4 Yeah, that's a good question. Because I, you know, you look at that sales process. What does that even mean, right? Like, what does sales process mean? A lot of people think of sales as the smooth talker, the smooser, the person who just naturally has like character and they're charismatic. And yes, that's part of it, but it's not like the whole package. And it's a skill that can be learned, but the most successful advisors I've seen out there, they have processes for everything. So when you think about being, and I kind of want to bring you back to the mindset. So when you think about being an advisor, a financial advisor, naturally the sales term does not come into anyone's mind when you think of financial advising, right? We're the people that we sit down, we went through all the schools, we got these degrees, and we're sitting down with people to like map out their entire financial future and know the markets inside out. So yes, there's that technical side, but you're also selling a product and a service like you're selling yourself. So I want advisors to start thinking about it that way is you are an entrepreneur, you are running a business, so you are out there selling your services and your products. And so it's really important just like any business owner to have processes in place from beginning to end. So from the time that you meet somebody, what are you doing? What are you saying? What do you do after you meet them? So there's a process behind that. Then there is like what you talked about the discovery meeting, I like to call it the right fit meeting and that's a quick 3 to 30 minute call or meeting with somebody to see if this is even a person that you want to work with. You feel them out. Are they part of your ideal client profile? How do you feel when you meet with them? And so there's questions in place that you like, certain questions that you'd want to ask them, check boxes you want to check off to determine is this, are we going forward or not? And then there's the problem. What do you do after that? So then that's where the discovery meeting, if they decide to move forward, you, you decided this is somebody with potential to do business with. Now you give them homework. Now you send them off, they come back and meet with you. Hopefully they've done their homework. So it's a little test a little bit along the way as well, right? And you're building that relationship. So as many touch points as you can have the better because this is where you are solidifying that relationship. You're building rapport, you're getting to know each other, you're building that trust. And you're not just asking for the business right away. You have your discovery meeting, you take that away. You're asking questions like what are you doing in the discovery meeting? There's a whole process for that now across the discovery over now there's a whole process for what you're doing afterwards and then to keep carrying forward until you make that recommendation, answer questions, overcome objections, finally close them as a client. And then what once they become a client, business doesn't stop there. Relationships don't stop there. Now there's a whole process for how do we continue this? How do we search for future opportunities? How do we find more clients like you and get referrals? There's a whole process for that as well. And so that's it's kind of a high level overview of like what a sales cycle should look like the whole way from beginning till end and and what you're doing between the questions you're asking and etcetera. Speaker 2 I yeah, I love that. Speaker 3 And I think. Speaker 2 Too. It does. Speaker 3 All come back designing and developing these processes. It becomes a lot easier when you know who what type of person you want to go. Speaker 2 Through all of the processes, like all of these? Speaker 3 Touch points in between you can really tailor. Speaker 2 To your specific ideal. Speaker 3 Client you. Speaker 2 Really should tailor to your specific ideal. Speaker 3 Client. And if you're still in that phase where you're serving everyone, you can't build tailored touch points into your processes. That becomes a real problem. Speaker 4 Yeah, it does. You're, you're absolutely right. It becomes a problem and you're not going to be the most effective advisor that you can be because you're literally having to switch your brain from one type of client to another type of client. You might not even specialize like they say, like you're Jack of all trades, but a master of none and you want to be known in a community it as that go to person for accountants or that go to person for the grandmas or the widows or people who have specific needs. Because ultimately that's how you're going to build a successful practice and and business and be your happiest self. Speaker 3 What I'm curious. Why You Have a Pipeline Problem, Not a Leads Problem Lisa, what do you say to advisors who say? Speaker 3 Well, I'm too early in my business to be turning away potential clients. Like, I really just need to bring people in to get the revenue up. Speaker 2 What do you what's? Speaker 3 Your response to them and how early do you think you should start niching down? Speaker 4 Yeah, I do get that a lot from those new advisors and I I do agree with them. You do have to get yourself out there and talk to as many people as you can. That's the only way really that you are going to discover who you want to work with at the end of the day and how you want to run your business. You have to get out there, expose yourself to many different types of people. You might already know that coming in, but if you don't, I say go for it. If there is an opportunity to do business with somebody and you truly enjoy it, go for it. And this, when you think about you running a business every year, you do a year end review, right? You sit down with your clients anyway and you're doing your end reviews with clients to make sure they're still on track to see if there's any changes they need to make in their financial plans. As an advisor, you should be doing the same thing as well, looking at your revenue, looking at your income streams, looking at your client base, looking at your processes and systems, looking at everything. And part of that process is looking at your current client base. And from that you would have built up hopefully enough clients. So now you can say, okay, who is, who is bringing me revenue? Where are your future growth opportunities who are just transactional clients that maybe I can phase out or give to another advisor or, you know, segment, right? Like this is where you start to segment your clients into different categories so that you can keep building your business up the following year. And then you do the same thing again the next year. And then eventually the forge is a little way and you start creating your own client base of that ideal client that you want. I hope that that makes sense. Yeah. Speaker 2 Yeah, it absolutely does. Speaker 3 Thanks for answering that the next question I want to ask. Speaker 2 You Lisa, going back to this idea of the the the sales processes, the. Speaker 3 Different phases and thinking about developing your pipeline. Speaker 2 Before you go out. Speaker 3 And chase more leads, can you? Speaker 2 Talk about what that really looks like, because I happen to agree with you. Speaker 3 I hear from. Speaker 2 Advisors a lot that. Speaker 3 They just want more leads. They just want more. Speaker 2 Leads but I actually. Speaker 3 Think advisors don't have as much of A leads problem as they think? Speaker 2 They do I. Speaker 3 Think they have more of a pipeline development problem and there's marketing that you can do that that can support your pipeline development. But a? Speaker 2 Lot of that too is like for. Speaker 3 Lack of a better term. This is just popping into my brain, the development of that pipeline and that prospecting. Speaker 2 Is a lot less sexy. Speaker 3 Than going out and saying I'm going to run an ad campaign and get like 3000 leads in a month or two months, right? And so can we talk? Speaker 2 About what that? Speaker 3 Means to to focus on developing your pipeline and doing some of that prospecting. Speaker 4 Yeah, absolutely. So I'm gonna tell a story. I have one of the advisors we work with actually spent, I think it was upwards to $50,000 on one of those lead generation type of marketing ads. And I know there's a lot out there, not to knock them 'cause like they've got their, they've got their specialties out there and they're definitely valuable in certain areas. But this advisor ended up spending $50,000 on this lead generation company and got 2 leads from it and none of them were a good fit for his business. So to answer your question or to kind of add story to your comment of what you're saying about strengthening your pipeline, I wholeheartedly agree. When an advisor comes to me and they say, you know, Lisa, I need more leads. I'm all more leads. I came to you because I'm having a leads problem. How do I get more leads? Leads, leads, leads, right? It's always about the leads. And I always like to bring it back to the basics, like keep it simple. And I always bring them back to, OK, let's sit down. What does that mean? You need more leads? Well, I need to, I need more clients in my calendar. Why? Why do you need more clients in your calendar? Well, I'm not making money right now or not bringing in the revenue that I want. That's an awesome starting point. OK, what type of revenue do you want to be bringing in? If you look at your calendar, what's going to make you happy? And then we start from there. And then we say, well, who? Who is it that's going to help you get that revenue? How are you going to find people like that? So again, you just niche it down and bring it back to the basics. What does that mean? You need more leads. And that always is a big eye opener for a lot of advisors because they think they need like a walk in business where they just need as many people coming in as possible when that's not necessarily the case. And so that's how you start to strategize and build your pipeline out. Speaker 2 Yeah, I, I always. Building Stronger Relationships with COIs and Referrals Try to talk to my advisors around. You have more leads than you think you do. You have conversations from the past six months, the past 12 months. Speaker 2 That started out, really. Speaker 3 Well, and then didn't go anywhere and develop. Speaker 2 Those people first see if you can try to. Speaker 3 Revive those conversations by remembering what they came into you with, asking them how it's going, looking at the. Speaker 2 Resources you've. Speaker 3 Created in the past 6 to 12 months and sending those to them. That might be. Speaker 2 Applicable to their situation. Speaker 3 Right. And then doing referral campaigns with your client so that you're not just trying to bring in new strangers, but you're trying to develop your warm sources first. Speaker 2 But I, I. Speaker 3 Find that. Speaker 2 A lot of people. Speaker 3 Aren't even thinking about. I'm curious if you see something similar. Speaker 4 Yes, I'm so happy you brought that up because one of the things I did want to talk to you about as well is when you talk about a sales process, follow up process as part of that sales process. So, yeah, yeah. So to your point, who's in your natural market? Who are the people that you may have let slip through the cracks? Let's look at your prospecting list because like you said, you have a leads list or a network out there that you're probably not aware of or maybe you just don't know how to work it. So let's create some strategies around that, right? How do we approach them? What do we say? A lot of advisors are a little bit uncomfortable going to friends and family to talk about their services. So what are you telling them when you do approach them? Maybe you don't target them, but you say like, do you know anybody who has these needs XYZ? This is how I help people, right? The other thing too, and that's really important that a lot of advisors miss are your centers of influences. If you have voice when our influence is, is that as a person who you can have a partnership with that doesn't specialize in what you do, but you can create a referral system between the two of you. So perfect example is an accountant. And if you can find an accountant that you know, you can tell them these are the people I want to work with. Do you have anybody within your, your current client base? Or if you come across anyone that you're working with currently, you know, I'm, I'm happy to be introduced to them or whatever the case is. And vice versa. You also help the accountant with clients who need those tax planning strategies and accounting services. And if you can find even one good center of influence and have a really strong relationship with that literally can make your business. And you can get some from just that one center of influence. But especially, you know, in the summertime. I'm not sure when this podcast is airing, but summertime is a great time to sit down with your centers of influences because chances are their business has also slowed down for the summer, just like yours has for the summer. I mean, this is a great time. Go for coffee, go for breakfast, go for walks, do whatever, right? And, and just start those relationships as well. And that is part of a sales strategy, right? So add to that I. Speaker 2 Love yes, I love that what you're. Speaker 3 Saying this can be done even if you're not doing any marketing yet and because of my. Speaker 2 Specialty I really focus. Speaker 3 On like content marketing and building thought leadership for your niche and having and. Speaker 2 Building resources. Speaker 3 That you can share with. Speaker 2 Leads. Prospects. Speaker 3 Clients, all of these things and so my marketing brain as you're talking. Speaker 2 Through this it always goes to OK if you're already. Speaker 3 Doing that before you even start marketing and then you're continuing to do that when you're building your marketing content and your resources, all of that can strengthen what you're doing with these COI relationships. Speaker 2 Like I love to. Speaker 3 Tell my advisors when we create a lead magnet for them so that they can start building their e-mail list is one of the first, earliest things you can. Speaker 2 Do is go to your Cois and say hey I've created this resource. Speaker 3 If it's helpful for any of your clients, I'd love for you to pass it along and then you can. Speaker 2 Start to gather. Speaker 3 If any of their clients opt into your lead magnet, now you don't even have to have a wait for an introduction. You can just kind of start a conversation with those clients of your COI and vice versa. Offer to do a little lead magnet. Speaker 2 Swap if you're COI has. Speaker 3 Something a resource? Speaker 2 That they'd like. Speaker 3 To share with your clients and so. Speaker 2 I I just I. Speaker 3 I hate this term but I've noticed myself using it more and more. Is this? Speaker 2 Idea of a flywheel. Speaker 3 So the things that you're doing early in your business to build your pipeline and then as you layer on more sophisticated strategies of marketing and things like that, it just strengthens the things that you've already been doing all along. Speaker 4 Yeah. Yeah, exactly that. And to that, that point that you're making, I have something or we at the personal coach have something it's called the competency ladder. So, and you want to think about as an advisor is OK, where is my competency and confidence level in what I know and what I'm doing and find people that are within that same wheelhouse as you? Because the problem is, is if you go out and you go general marketing or general get leads and you don't kind of think about where they're coming from. Some of those people coming through might actually be at a higher complexity level than what you can actually deal with, which is something I hear coming from advisors is how do I get over imposter syndrome? Or I'm younger and I'm dealing with these older clients who have these complex needs. And like, I'm, I'm scared like I'm straight up, I lack the confidence deal with these people. And I always say, well, they're probably out of your competency level and your confidence level. And so that like to your, your flywheelhouse analogy, I really love that because as you grow as an advisor, your competency and confidence level also grows because you are building on those basic foundations you started with. And then your clients will then also grow with you And your marketing strategies will grow, your leads will grow, your prospecting will grow, your network will naturally start to grow as well. But you have to get the basics first, then be comfortable and competent in those basic areas. And also when you are like, my advice to those younger advisors just starting out is if you do find a center of influence to find somebody who's also in the same competency and confidence level as you are. So again, the example of accountants find a somebody who's within the same career as like, you know, the time frame in their career as you maybe they're just starting out, they're also just running their business and their confidence and competency is kind of the same level as yours because naturally they're probably going to be dealing with people in that same level. And you guys can now have that opportunity to create a beautiful and long term partnership where you both growing together and your clients are growing together. Speaker 2 Yes, I love that. Building a Lifestyle Business with Pipeline to Profit That kind of picture that you've painted here and it's just everything that you're talking about that I'm talking about, it's kind of the most perfect mirror of compound investing. Speaker 2 Right the the big. Speaker 3 Result at the end. Speaker 2 Is built over years, decades right of these. Speaker 3 Small little actions taken consistently over every single day. Speaker 2 So, Lisa, as we start to wrap up. Speaker 3 I know you. Speaker 2 Have a really great. Speaker 3 Workshop coming up that I want you to share about. Is there anything else that we haven't covered yet that you think would be really pertinent to this conversation or or just anything worth mentioning? Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. I one thing I want to add is, you know, as an advisor coming into the industry, you got this like, you know more than you think you know, and you like just have that confidence in your ability. This is not the easiest industry and like it is a tough industry to get in, but it's also the most rewarding. And I just want to remind your listeners about that This is one of the only industries that you can make as much money as you want, but also still have a lifestyle and a time to enjoy that. And so one thing I will say to keep in mind about is how do I create a business that's going to support the lifestyle that I want? And you do have to grind it out in the early days. Like no one's denying that. When I was an advisor, I worked seven days a week. I ate, breathed and sweeped my business for the first three years. But then guess what happened, right? Eventually I got to a place where you, you know, you don't have to work those long hours. You start seeing income coming in without even turning the key in your door. You can have those Fridays off, You can take weeks off from the store. You can leave the office by two, 3:00 because you have been strategic about how you built your business and the type of clients you bring in. But you do have to go through the grind and the pain at the beginning. Every business takes about three to five years to to get going and build successfully. But it's totally worth it in the end. Speaker 3 Yeah, I love. Speaker 2 That so tell us about your workshop. Speaker 4 So my workshop is called Pipeline to Profit. So along the theme of us talking about pipelines and it is a consultative sales training program. So a lot of the concepts that we talked about today in in your podcast, Hillary is talked about in the Pipeline to profit workshop. And so it's 10 weeks, that's one hour every week virtually 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. I am looking to open up another cohort at the end of September and we basically cover 10 steps at the sales cycle. You can find more information on the link that I've shared, but essentially we talk week over week on different topics from the mindset of an advisor and creating your ideal week and structuring that out all the way to the psychology behind selling and what do consumers think and how do you actually get into the mind of a buyer and why do people buy? We talk about follow-ups, creating a follow up structure, creating your scripts. What are you saying when you're when you're calling people or emailing them? How many follow-ups does it actually take to those rapport building tips? You know, what are you doing in those first 7 seconds of making a first impression with somebody? How are you creating an environment that's positive and that's impactful for both you and your client or prospect rather? And we talk about, you know, overcoming objections. We talk about like how to make that recommendation, how to create a follow up now that your client is a client or your prospects a client to referrals and to finally prospecting. So I have added a 10th week all about prospecting and networking and using your centers of influence. So a lot of what we've had talked about today. So that's it in the kind of yeah. Speaker 3 It sounds so good. Speaker 2 Well, like you said. Speaker 3 That link is in the show notes and if anyone wants to get in touch. Speaker 2 With you, Lisa. Speaker 3 Or learn more about. Speaker 2 You where are the best places for? Speaker 3 Them to do that. Speaker 4 Sure. So I've got my e-mail, so Lisa Mohammed at the personal coach.ca. I'm also on LinkedIn and that would probably be the best places on LinkedIn or through e-mail. And I also do have an Instagram page. It's sales dot reveler. I don't post as much on there. I do post more on LinkedIn, but those are the three main places that you can find me. Speaker 2 OK, great. Speaker 3 Well, I will link to all of those in the show notes. Speaker 2 As well. Speaker 3 Thank you so much Lisa. This has been such a fun conversation. Speaker 4 It has been Hillary and thank you so much for having me on and enlightening and lightning me on some things as well. I thought this was a great back and forth. I loved it. Speaker 1 Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Finance Marketing Podcast. If you're eager to market your business in a way that feels good and. Speaker 2 Actually gets results. Speaker 1 Sign up for the Finance Marketing Podcast newsletter in the show notes so you never miss another episode. Speaker 2 If you liked what you heard today, please be sure to subscribe to the. Speaker 1 Show on your favorite listening app and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We'll see you back here next Friday.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Marketing and sales are distinct processes that are often conflated, and treating them as one can stall business growth.
  2. Advisors should define their ideal client profile based on business vision and lifestyle goals before investing in marketing.
  3. Niching down allows advisors to tailor sales conversations, value propositions, and marketing to specific client pain points.
  4. A structured sales process includes stages from first meeting through discovery, homework, recommendation, and post-client referrals.
  5. Most advisors have a pipeline development problem rather than a leads problem, and should focus on existing prospects and CRM contacts.
  6. Centers of influence, such as accountants, can generate consistent referrals through mutually beneficial partnerships.
  7. Building a business requires grinding through the early years, with compounding results over three to five years.
  8. Lisa offers a ten-week virtual workshop called Pipeline to Profit covering the full sales cycle.

Summary:

This episode of the Finance Marketing Podcast features host Hillary speaking with Lisa Mohammed, a financial industry veteran with over 15 years of experience. The conversation centers on the critical distinction between marketing and sales, and why conflating these two processes can stall growth for financial advisors. Lisa explains that advisors often jump to lead generation before defining their ideal client profile, which leads to wasted spending and poor fit prospects.

She emphasizes starting with a clear vision of the desired business and lifestyle, then identifying the types of clients who support that vision. Lisa shares a client analysis exercise that helps advisors uncover common traits among their best clients. The discussion then moves into what a real sales process looks like, from initial meetings through discovery, homework, recommendations, and referrals.

Lisa argues that most advisors have a pipeline development problem, not a leads problem, and shares a cautionary tale of an advisor who spent $50,000 on lead generation with poor results. She highlights the value of centers of influence, follow-up strategies, and building referral systems. Lisa also describes her ten-week Pipeline to Profit workshop, which covers the full sales cycle from mindset to prospecting.

FAQs

A right fit meeting is a short 15-30 minute call to determine whether the prospect is someone you actually want to work with — checking if they match your ideal client profile and how you feel about them. A discovery meeting goes deeper into their situation and only happens after you've decided they have potential.

The homework acts as a small test of whether the prospect is serious and willing to engage in the process. It also creates another touch point that builds rapport and trust before you ever ask for the business.

The competency ladder suggests matching yourself with clients and centers of influence at your own confidence and complexity level. If you take on prospects with needs far beyond your experience, you'll feel like an imposter — but if you work with people at your level, you grow together naturally.

Seek out COIs who are at a similar stage in their career and confidence level as you. That way you're both growing together and likely serving clients with comparable complexity, making the referral relationship more sustainable long-term.

Create a resource your COI can share with their clients, and offer to share theirs with yours. When a COI's client opts into your lead magnet, you can start a conversation without waiting for a formal introduction — creating a 'flywheel' effect that compounds over time.

Summertime is ideal because many professional businesses slow down then, just like advisory practices do. It's a great window to grab coffee, breakfast, or a walk and start building those relationships.

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