Welcome back to the 236th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today's podcast is Shauna Mace. Shauna is the founder of Inspire Growth, a sales consulting firm that helps financial advisors establish and refine their business development processes to more systematically convert leads into clients.
What's unique about Shauna, though, is her focus on helping advisors achieve real growth results without coming across as “too salesy,” by instead teaching advisors how to create relevance for prospects by actively listening to their responses to open-ended questions, uncovering their needs, and demonstrating what working together would really entail.
In this episode, we talk in depth about Shauna’s three goals of listening during initial meetings with leads, which include determining if the lead would be a good fit for the advisor, uncovering their most pressing needs, and booking the next meeting to keep moving forward (if appropriate), the importance of asking the potential client for permission as they move through the four stages of the sales process from being a lead all the way to being either “won” or “lost”, and Shauna’s suggested cadence for following up with prospects… as many as seven times over the span of a month.
We also talk about the gaps that Shauna finds that advisors have in their business development process, particularly when it comes to overcoming the mindset that they simply “aren’t good at sales” (which can otherwise lead advisors to not prioritize developing those skills as a result), the ways that Shauna helps her financial advisor clients bridge those gaps by systematizing the workflows, templates, and execution of a sales process so they can feel more confident in their ability to grow, and the key performance indicators that Shauna feels best measure whether or not the dollars an advisory firm is allocating towards marketing are being used effectively.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Shauna shares her experiences going out on her own to launch her new consulting business just as the world was coming to grips with the reality of the pandemic, the importance of having an action plan for each and every day and executing on that plan (especially when you’re in the early stages of growth), and the emphasis that Shauna puts on prioritizing self-care and setting personal goals (both for herself, and the advisors she works with) as a means of managing the inevitable stresses that arise from being an entrepreneur.
So whether you're interested in learning about how Shauna helps advisors systematize their sales process, the prospect follow-up sequence she recommends, and the key sales KPIs that advisors should be tracking, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Shauna Mace.
