As a financial professional, answering this question is critical to your success, maintaining a strong mindset, and protecting your most valuable asset, your time: “Interested or Motivated?”.
Interest drives a lot of deal activity. But by itself, it never drives closure unless it’s a “closed lost.” Interest is a state of wanting to know about someone or something.
Motivation is a reason for action.
Many financial professionals are good at uncovering interests or even problems that clients or prospects are experiencing. Exceptional advisors are good at uncovering or enabling motivation to act. The key to unlocking motivation is getting to the layers below the interest or problem.
SANDLER’S PAIN
Sandler’s core concept of pain is the first step of qualification. It’s about uncovering a prospect’s emotionally compelling reasons to act.
Pain has 3 levels:
- Surface level problem
- The impact the problem is having on the person or the organization
- The stakeholder’s personal attachment to the problem i.e., their motivation to fix it
Too many times in developing opportunities, when a problem is uncovered, a solution is quickly presented with hopes of gaining a commitment to move forward. Unfortunately, what’s ignored is the impact of solving this problem.
SHOW AND TELL
We live in a show and tell world. Success happens when the advisor is talking roughly 49% of the time. But show and tell caters to interest which is intellectual. People aren’t motivated to act until they are emotionally attached to fixing the problem or to your solution.
It’s OK to tell people about your offerings’ features and benefits. Then ask a few of the questions below to gauge the impact and their potential motivation to solve it:
- Would that solution help?
- How would it help you?
- What would the solution allow you to do that you cannot do today?
- How important is achieving that outcome to you or your team?
- What would happen if you left the current process in place?
- Is correcting this problem on your list of priorities?
- Can you live with that result?
These questions will help you get closer to their perceived value of your solution and unlock their motivation to act.
Don’t settle for uncovering surface level needs or trying to corral interested prospects. Take it a step further and find out if the motivation to act is present.
If not, focus your time and attention elsewhere.
SANDLER TRAINING SERIES
Join DMI + Praxis for an exclusive three-part webinar series designed specifically for financial professionals. Attend all 3 webinars and gain access to online learning and additional Sandler training for free or at a reduced cost.
MAXIMIZE ENGAGEMENT
Get People to Act on Your Advice
What You’ll Learn
- The underlying psychology of establishing mutual agreement
- How to comfortably set the stage for a productive conversation
- How to position for next steps
UNLOCK CLIENT COMMITMENT
What You’ll Learn
- The 3 factors that motivate a commitment to change
- The psychology behind a person’s willingness to make changes
- How to qualify if your client or prospect is interested or motivated to take your advice
MASTER DISCOVERY
Leverage Questions to Educate and Gain Commitment
What You’ll Learn
- Why we’re hesitant to ask hard questions
- How to structure questions effectively
- How to get honest answers
- How to gain a deeper understanding of client goals
DMI Partner Contributor: Eric Warner
President/Owner, Praxis Growth Advisors, Inc.
Eric Warner, the founder and president of Praxis Growth Advisors, is an award-winning sales trainer, leadership development specialist and accomplished sales process strategist. He has more than 25 years of experience leading teams, building businesses and driving complex sales processes. Eric’s philosophy on selling is focused on moving people in the direction you want them to go and have them feel good about going there.
