Getting turned down by a prospect is a golden opportunity to learn. Unfortunately, most advisers and planners let it slip through their fingers like a dodgy goalkeeper dropping the ball on a soggy Saturday.
It’s no secret that advice/planning firms with high conversion rates spend less money on marketing and are more efficient operationally.
Despite that, converting every new enquiry is a pipe dream. Some fall at the first hurdle because you can’t book an initial meeting, and others aren’t right for your service. Then, there are those who would make perfect clients but decline to work with you.
It’s this final group I want to talk about today.
In my experience, there are two danger points when a prospect might turn down the opportunity to work with you:
- After an initial “get to know you” meeting
- After paying for a financial plan but then declining to implement it or take an ongoing service.
When we are turned down (because it happens to us all), we have two choices:
- Bury our heads in the sand
- See it as an opportunity to learn.
As Steven Bartlett says in The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business & Life, failure is feedback, feedback is knowledge, and knowledge is power. So, option two is undoubtedly the better choice.
Unfortunately, in my experience, very few advisers/planners actively ask prospects who turn them down for feedback. This feels like a massive missed opportunity to learn and improve.
So, what should you do when a prospect you’ve met with or written a financial plan for doesn’t convert into an ongoing client?
Ask them why they chose not to work with you.
Simples!
To do that, you probably have two options.
Option 1: Online form
The easiest option is to set up a simple form in Survey Monkey (or similar) asking a few questions to help you understand why the prospect chose not to become a client. We recommend including both open and closed questions designed to garner information you’re actually going to use to improve your business.
Then, the next time you are turned down, email the form to the prospect and explain how their feedback will improve your business. If you’ve given them time and guidance for free, tug gently at their heartstrings, explaining that you’ve invested time into them, and you’d appreciate them returning the favour.
This method is simple and easy. Once you have the form and the email template, you can use it multiple times with minimal effort.
Option 2: A short phone call
Instead of sending an email and asking the prospect to complete an online form, you could ask the questions and seek answers during a short telephone call.
While you’ll probably ask the same questions, this option means you’ll hear the tonality in the respondent’s voice. You’ll also be able to tailor any follow-up questions to their answers.
If you choose this option, we suggest that it isn’t the adviser/planner the prospect turned down the opportunity to work with who makes the call. It might be somewhat awkward, and the prospect will likely be more honest with someone they don’t know.
Whichever option you choose, remember that the purpose of the prospect survey isn’t to convince them to become a client; it’s to learn why they didn’t.
The perfect companion to a client survey
Client surveys are becoming the norm, and there’s no doubt that the feedback helps advisers/planners improve their business. However, they only give part of the picture because people who’ve experienced your service are providing the feedback.
In contrast, your prospect survey will give valuable feedback about your:
- Pricing
- Proposition
- Initial meetings
- Prospect’s mindset
- Onboarding journey.
You won’t get this information from your client survey.
I hope we’ve inspired you to open up your feedback loops to people who don’t become clients. As always, we’d love your feedback on this idea.
Please email phil@theyardstickagency.co.uk, alternatively call or send a WhatsApp message to 07785 284429.
