Four Dangerous Words in Practice Building By Donald J. Moine, Ph.D. Copyright 2006 by Donald Moine.  One-time publishing rights and archival rights hereby granted to Financial Services Journal Online.  All other rights reserved.

I recently had the privilege of speaking to a couple of hundred bright, hard working financial advisors and insurance professionals. I spent some extra time at the convention and got to know a few of these advisors pretty well.

These advisors had very high integrity and were open and sharing. They worked long hours and seemed to genuinely care about their clients. They did extensive research before recommending any product and matched the product to the needs of the client.

I expected to meet some highly successful advisors at this convention. While there are many ways of measuring "success," if one uses the conventional yardstick of financial success, these advisors were not extremely successful. After paying for their office overhead, staff, advertising, compliance, etc. a number of them earned around $100,000 per year.

Not bad, but for all their hard work, they deserve to be earning many, many multiples of that.

What's Holding You Back?

What's holding some of these advisors back? What might be holding you back?

As I listened to these advisors describe how they work with clients, they seemed to be doing almost everything right. They ask clients about their goals and dreams. They ask clients about what is most important to the client. They assess risk tolerance. They offer outstanding service. They design solid portfolios. They work long hours.

What's missing? Why aren't they more successful?

As far as I can tell, the one thing they are neglecting is the lost art of salesmanship. I am not talking about product-pushing salesmanship. I am talking about the power to persuade—a power that extends far beyond the selling of any product.

In some cases, their lack of knowledge about persuasion and their lack of persuasion skills may be costing some individual advisors hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lost income. More importantly, by ignoring the crucial role that persuasion skills play in practice-building, they are severely limiting the number of clients they will ever be able to help.

The Most Dangerous Words in Practice-Building

The most dangerous words in practice-building are: "Don't be a salesman."

Notice that these words, along with the words, "I am not trying to sell you anything," are often uttered by someone who is trying to sell you something. In fact, the anti-salesman is often trying to sell you something that is very expensive and may even harm you.

But you don't care because the message is so seductive: you can become highly successful as a financial advisor without ever learning how to sell! Whoopee!

Only one problem with this: it counters what we all experience every day in real life. Show me any advisor or insurance professional who built a highly-profitable business, and I will show you someone who has mastered the art and science of persuasion. Without exception. All highly-successful financial advisors have very strong persuasion skills. They know how to sell.

This does not mean they are not great advisors. You can be a skilled advisor without being very financially successful. However, you cannot be a highly successful advisor without having mastered persuasion.

Unmasking the Anti-Salesman

Make no mistake about it: anti-salespeople are salespeople to the core. Some of them are salespeople on steroids. The anti-salespeople engage in virtually every sales behavior known to mankind.

Don't want to be too critical here. Just wish they would be honest about all the techniques they use!

To become successful, anti-salespeople exploit the following sales behaviors: they prospect, use scripts (often using the same words over and over again in hypnotic fashion), sign up people for free newsletters which are full of more salesmanship and then they offer free tele-conference calls. "The first taste is free."

They use emotion, stories, probing sequences (detailed lists of questions) and a huge arsenal of closing techniques to convince you to buy what they are selling.

Anti-salespeople do everything that all other salespeople do. In spades. In fact, it is all of their sales activity that makes anti-salespeople successful. Yet they don't want you to be a salesperson.

In other words, they don't want you to use the very same techniques that have made them successful. And to top it off, they have the audacity to ask you to trust them.

The Unlimited Power of Persuasion

Human persuasion is one of the most fascinating and profitable subjects you can study. Persuasion has almost unlimited power to change the world.

Warning: I am going to attempt to persuade you. In all of my articles, I attempt to educate, motivate and persuade. I occasionally take positions that challenge readers. If we didn't attempt to educate, motivate and persuade, then why bother to communicate?

I'm not always successful in my attempts. For many years, I have defended the great sales professional who contribute so much to the American economy. Yet I sometimes feel I may be losing the battle to the anti-salespeople. At many of the seminars at which I speak, I am the only person teaching sales skills and the power of persuasion. I've noticed that many workshops and conventions now offer no training whatsoever in the lost art of salesmanship and persuasion.

Why is it important to study persuasion? The power of persuasion is far greater than the power of our industry. Using the power of persuasion, people can be convinced to take actions that could lead to war or to peace. Persuasion can convince us that we should vote for one politician over another, that we should pursue a certain career, that we should marry a certain type of person, that we should buy one home instead of another or that we should invest our life savings in a certain way.

Almost every action we take or do not take is the result of certain persuasive messages to which we have been exposed. To live is to be persuaded and often those who persuade us have the best of intentions! One insight the anti-salespeople have never had is that the vast majority of those who persuade us genuinely want to help us. And we are grateful for their efforts.

We all persuade others everyday. Top advisors have much stronger persuasion skills than do average advisors. We are homo persuasis and our desire to persuade distinguishes us and elevates us from all other animals. Humankind has evolved because we have persuaded one another to work together to create a better world.

Even as very young children, we are extremely busy persuading those around us. A toddler who wants to play with a toy can exhibit awesome powers of persuasion. Frequently, the toddler convinces his parents to let him play with that toy!

However, as we grow up, some of us are exposed to messages that destroy our ability to persuade others. The most destructive message of all is, "Don't be a salesman!" After repeated exposure to such nonsense, our sales skills atrophy from neglect. Then we wonder why we are not more successful. We aren't persuading very many people!

To be human is to want to persuade and yes, to sell others on our beliefs and what we have to offer. We start persuading and influencing others almost from the moment of birth and we do not stop until we take our last breath. It is healthy and natural to persuade others (and to be persuaded). Think of what a terrible world this would be if no one sold anything to anyone else!

Many struggling financial advisors lack success because they are not selling. They drank the anti-sales Kool-Aid and they are paying a huge price.

Great News! IBM Fires All of Its Salespeople!

As I am writing this, the shares of Dell Computer are down sharply. Why? Several reasons, chief among them is that sales are projected to decline next quarter. Is "selling" important to our economy? You bet it is.

A few minutes after the market closed, $3.6 billion dollars of Dell's value was vaporized. Primarily because of lack of sales.

Those who peddle the anti-sales message would have us believe that selling is somehow evil or wrong. Where would our economy be without selling?

If IBM fired its salespeople, would you celebrate? How stupid do the anti-salespeople think we are? Face it, even the best products and services in the world need to be sold. That is the way the world works—and it is good news!

Almost none of us wants to invest our good money in a company with rapidly declining sales.

Why then do we want to create a business for ourselves in which sales is denigrated or ignored?

The anti-salespeople tell us that selling is beneath us and that salespeople are not to be trusted. Is it any wonder why you never read a book on sales or attend a seminar (if you can find one) on the art and science of persuasion? Is it any wonder why you can't sell?

The anti-sales salespeople draw a sharp distinction between being a salesperson and being someone who is worthy of trust. I've written a special report that goes deeper into this issue. In the report, you'll learn why you cannot separate sales and trust. You'll learn why there is absolutely no conflict between being a great financial advisor, a top sales professional and being completely trusted and admired by your clients. If you'd like a copy of this report, send your contact information to DrMoine@aol.com and request the report, "The Most Powerful Words in Practice Building."

Once a year, I offer a boot camp in which I teach how to sell with dignity, respect for other human beings, professionalism and power. Believe it or not, these are all related.

You don't have to give up on your ability to sell and persuade. You can sell with dignity, professionalism and power. It is a lost art but now you can learn it just as many million-dollar producers have.