Overcoming the False Dichotomy of the Expert Salesperson in Financial Services

Financial advisors face an unnecessary conflict between their first role as experts and a second role that is perceived to be wholly separate — that of the salesperson. This false dichotomy stems from the assumption that financial planners must adopt the persona of a slick salesperson in order to effectively build their book of business. This assumption is wrong. And it’s also why so many advisors, especially those early in their careers, are distinctly uncomfortable with their “second job”—that of selling their expertise.

Old clichés about what it means to sell have no place in the financial services sales process. Why? Approaching sales as a “salesperson” rather than an expert undermines your authority and professionalism. It creates conflict between the two roles, which impacts your ability to build authentic relationships and deliver value to clients.

To successfully build your book of business, you need to embrace the integrated role of the expert salesperson—an expert who also sells, and who performs both roles holistically and at a high level. Let’s explore both sides of the expert salesperson and, in so doing, uncover a better way to show up for prospective clients.

Expert You

At the core of your professional identity, you’re an expert—an authority whose knowledge and skills guide clients through their most consequential financial decisions. This version of you possesses an unshakable command of your domain, imbuing you with the natural confidence that can only arise from true expertise.

You know how an expert should behave, and you show up in your engagements this way. You advise, counsel and execute with skill. Your clients expect you to lead, and they’re grateful for the deep value you bring to their lives. They put their most precious assets—their wealth, businesses and long-term security—in your hands and trust you to rise to that trust. This is both humbling and empowering.

When functioning as an expert, you are the best version of your professional self.

Salesperson You

There’s just one catch when it comes to building a successful career as a financial advisor. Before you can deliver your expertise, you have to sell it. 

If you’re like most financial advisors, this part of the job feels like an enigma. There seems to be a separate sales playbook that is at odds with how an expert behaves. As a result, you don’t bring the same ease, confidence and authority to the sales conversation. Your discomfort shows up in the results, and the numbers don’t lie.

In the sale you feel a lesser version of your professional self. You think you have to pursue, to convince, to pitch. You search for scripts, hoping to learn exactly what to say. You seek to improve your presentation skills, and you work hard to build larger, more elaborate pitch decks. 

Even if you’ve never been trained to do any of these things, you intuit that this is the way it’s done. After all, salespeople behave a certain way. They give answers rather than ask questions. They present instead of converse. They bring urgency and leverage scarcity to make their pitch. And above all, they persuade.

Is there any wonder there’s a conflict between expert you and salesperson you? 

The Truth About Selling Financial Expertise

Selling expertise is not the same as selling products or transactional services. Playbooks for selling timeshares do not readily translate to selling ideas or advice. Any expertise-based engagement is built on a particular kind of relationship, and the dynamics of that relationship are established in the sale itself.

Sell like a needy vendor and you will be relegated to vendor status in the engagement. Do that, and you rob yourself of your ability to do your best work and command your highest fees.

Sell like the expert you are and the client will have the chance to “try on” what it will be like to work with you. You claim the high ground of the expert and spare both of you the embarrassment and unpleasantness of the clichéd sales experience. 

There is no need for you to show up in a way that fundamentally feels wrong to you. The ideal salesperson version of you is the expert version of you—you in the engagement, leading the client. You at your very best.

Here’s the good news. Expert You can become an excellent salesperson. You can enjoy better closing ratios, command higher fees and even have fun with the process of selling.

Flip the Sales Script and Sell Like the Expert You Are

To step into the role of the expert salesperson, you must first shed the role of Salesperson You and embrace the qualities you already embody as Expert You. To get a sense of what this means, take a look at the conflicting set of attributes below. Clearly, Salesperson You is a horrible advertisement for Expert You.

Strike every attribute under Salesperson You and replace them with the attributes under Expert You. This is how you should show up in the sale. This is how you should show up as an expert salesperson. 

It’s that simple.

And yet, no matter how simple this is, embracing your role as an expert salesperson can be challenging. Learning how to navigate the sales conversation differently takes concerted effort and lots of practice. 

Win Without Pitching can help you find alignment. Here’s how to take the next steps:

• Pre-order my new book, The Four Conversations: A New Model for Selling Expertise—coming in September 

• Register for a Win Without Pitching Workshop

• Explore more thinking from Win Without Pitching