The 4 Types of Prospects and How to Sell to Them

Bleeke Noel began training advisors as head of a bank’s human resources department. Now she creates training courses for financial services firms large and small. Her clients are mostly RIAs, along with some brokerages, and include Baird, Wealthstream Advisors and XY Planning Network.

In the interview, she reveals how to distinguish Tribe types in the very first meeting and discusses what she calls “the hardest skill for advisors to retrain themselves to learn”: overcoming objections. Then she reveals her method: “Stop, Drop and Roll.”

Here are highlights of our conversation:

THINKADVISOR: Please explain your strategy of collaborative selling.

NANCY BLEEKE NOEL: It’s working with a prospective client to guide them through a conversation to help them get what they need and how they need it in order to make a confident decision or commitment.

This is a nuanced, human-first way to approach selling.

Talk about how “conversation questions” turn the focus toward the prospect.

You’ve got to ditch the pitch in your vocabulary and mind. You have to get a conversation going, and it needs to be focused on the prospect — what’s in it for them — what they need and what they need to learn.

You categorize prospects and clients in a unique way. Please briefly describe the four different “Tribes,” as you call them.

A Commander is an analytical, logical, process-driven person. An Achiever is fast-moving and accomplishment-oriented with many priorities. A Reflector is consistent, detail-focused and prefers the tried and true. Expressers are people-oriented, talkative and “ask-oriented.”

How can an advisor scope out a prospect’s Tribe in the very first meeting?

The three key clues to look for are the pace of how they speak and move, their word choice — whether they use thinking or feeling words — and the level of personal connection they prefer.

Are they someone who wants to get right down to business, or do they want to talk about themselves, the weather, their experiences?

Some people don’t need to connect with an advisor; they just want to know their credentials. Others are: “Can we be friends, and maybe you can help me?”

When asking for a decision or commitment, “Adapt your questions to the Tribe,” you write. Please elaborate. 

We have to adapt every part of the conversation to the person’s customs to help them get what they need and the way they want it so they can confidently make that decision.

For example, Expressers need what some would call chitchat for five or 10 minutes. For Commanders, you should get to the objective and agenda as soon as you can.

What’s your problem-solving strategy for overcoming concerns or objections?

Stop, Drop and Roll. Working through objections is the hardest skill for advisors to retrain themselves to learn because we’re psychologically wired for adrenaline to kick in if we feel under attack.

And when someone objects to a financial advisor, they [and generally others] feel under attack and take it personally.

What does Stop, Drop and Roll entail? 

“Stop” and listen — and don’t interrupt the prospect. You’re giving them an opportunity to speak.

“Drop” is dropping your emotions, your agenda, your ego. It’s taking a breath and bypassing the normal fight, flight or freeze reaction.

“Roll” is acknowledging the prospect’s objection — “I understand you have a question about the fees” — and asking clarifying questions to get to the root of the objection.

What is it about the fees that actually concerns them?

What if the prospect just says, “Your fee is too high. I can’t work with you”?

Say, “I appreciate your letting me know that this seems like a stopping point for you. But before we end our conversation, can I ask a few more questions so I can best understand where you’re coming from about the fees?”

Most people will say OK. The questions should be non-threatening. You don’t say, “What fee do you think you should be charged?”

Don’t give them comparisons about fees because they’ll shut down.

Determine if they’re having this reaction because they’re not paying fees to their [present advisor] or that they’re cheap and don’t like paying fees or because they don’t understand that a percentage of assets is standard.

Or maybe in the past, all their fees were hidden.

Until we know what’s going on, we can’t give them helpful information.

“Digging for ‘pain’ isn’t the only approach to investigation,” you write. What else should advisors try to discover?

They need to look for situational items that allow them to provide opportunity to do something better, sometimes in a way that the client might not even know existed.

This could be something to help them as business owners; taxes, for instance. It’s not a pain point — it’s an opportunity.

You term “closing,” “consolidating.” What’s the difference?

To some, especially advisors that I call “reluctant” salespeople, “closing” seems very harsh. Consolidating is about bringing together all the information you discussed. Then the prospect or client needs to make a decision.

The advisor should remind them of the value of working together. The key is to bring up specific steps after the decision is made.

So, you don’t say, “Do you want to buy?” Instead: “Should we send the paperwork?”

Numerous financial advisors are retiring, and there doesn’t seem to be a slew of advisors rushing into the industry. What are you finding in your own business?

There’s more opportunity than I can ever capture. In the early days, it was smiling-and-dialing; and in general, the [rookies] learned to sell and deal with objections.

But in the last 15 or 20 years, especially with RIAs, a lot of advisors haven’t had to sell. They get to deliver great client service but aren’t responsible for bringing in new clients.

And now a lot of the firms’ founders are in their 50s or 60s and aren’t going to be able to continue to bring in clients; they’ll need to depend on their teams for that.

However, many advisors are entering the business without knowing how to sell. And many have a negative mindset around selling: They don’t want to be the “sleazy salesperson.”

So we spend a good amount of time talking about selling as problem solving and what the advisor needs to do first in order to give the prospect value to make a decision and get help.