How to prospect your network (without being salesy)

Your social network may be an untapped and robust source for uncovering prospects. While you may be suffering from COVID-19 fatigue, we believe prospecting and having introductory conversations about the services you provide could be one of the best uses of your time.

I want to share my top five ideas to help you prospect your own network. As you start using this guide, remember to keep compliance in mind.

1. Overcome your fear

• Many advisors avoid prospecting for two reasons: Fear of rejection (we’ll talk about that later) or lack of preparation.
• Take the time to think about potential questions. Consider the salespeople calling you. What would make YOU interested? Preparedness will give you more confidence in your approach.

My personal tip: A special prospecting technique I’ve used is watching myself talk. Recording and listening to your own pitch helps you genuinely assess it. Also, try a positive spin. Whenever you catch yourself thinking, I hate prospecting, try to reframe it as, I gladly choose to prospect today.

2. Start with sharing your value proposition

• Do you have one? If not, connect with us and we can you help you craft one through our value proposition exercise. I’ve done this with many advisors and would gladly work with you.
• Sharing your value proposition lets you do three things. It lets you:

• Shine the right light on the conversation
• Share your passion around a subject
• Tell it like it is

My personal tip: With a truly good value proposition that you believe in, you don’t have to fear prospecting. You’ll likely increase your chances of winning over prospects when you’re able to articulate your distinctive value—and when prospects can easily recall and repeat it.

3. Offer to talk to your family and close friends

• Demonstrate how you are guiding your top clients financially and emotionally through regular rebalancing, behavioral coaching, investment selection and financial plans. Connect with us on how to create a custom client engagement road map. We’ve previously written how this easy-to-use tool can help your clients remember your valuable guidance.

My personal tip: I’ll say it again—when navigating uncertain environments, people simply want to have human, calming conversations with a professional. Let your family and friends know that you welcome these opportunities and give them a chance to hear what you have to offer.

4. Create and invite people into a forum for professionals and business owners

• Give like-minded clients the opportunity to meet, support each other and share referrals.
• Reach out to us for additional guidance on how to create and host these virtual forums.

5. Host a webinar series

• Pick a date/time and for the next four weeks, we can help you host a series of 30-minute webinars. The typical series follows these four topics:

• Economic and market review
• Investor behavior
• Women and investing
• Retirement reality check

• You can invite your family, close friends and acquaintances to these webinars as a pure value-add. Allow them to see the things you do above and beyond for your clients.
  

My personal tip: I have done this with several advisors and it works quite well. It requires minimal effort on either of our parts. Connect with us to get more information on these prepared presentations.

The bottom line

Prospecting isn’t always easy, and sometimes we need a guide to help us in the journey. These five ideas can give you a solid foundation to start opening your prospecting pipeline.