Stump The Guru Podcast

As an advisor, the last thing you want is to be labelled as a stereotypical “sales person”. But when your prospects don’t give you enough information in your initial conversation, you begin educating them and fall into “free consulting” mode. You’re a fiduciary, you have their best interest at heart, but they keep you at bay shopping around, seeing other advisors. In this month’s Stump The Guru sh...

Your prospect won’t allow you into their world unless they perceive you as being selfless in your intentions. But unless your advisory practice is a non-profit entity, being selfless in your intentions is completely at odds with your need to make the sale. How do you reconcile this paradox? In this month’s Stump The Guru show, I spoke about “Does Being Too Friendly Come With Downsides?” I've...

Many advisors have been conditioned to believe that their prospects must like them first before they’re willing to become a paying client. If you eavesdropped inside a typical initial conversation between an advisor and their prospect, you’d probably hear a lot of chit-chat about trivial things, that may not relate to their challenges. The problem with rapport-building on its own is that your pros...

When there is an abundant supply of advisors in your local market, it becomes harder for you to differentiate yourself. As a result, it’s easy to let your guard down and adjust your fees downward (or add more pre-sale “meetings” to your sales process), out of fear you might lose a new client opportunity. But if you allow yourself to become commoditized in this way, you open yourself up to being “s...

The life blood of your practice depends on you bringing in new paying clients, consistently. So, why is it that so many of your new client opportunities end up disappearing on you? You’ve done everything “by the book”. You’ve built a relationship, provided value, education, and given them plenty of room to make a decision without any pressure…then poof, they’re gone. In this episode of Stump The G...

Are you overcompensating by going heavy on relationship-building in your sales process? Building deep trust with your prospects in your sales process does not require you to build a relationship with them. That's a BOMB in the entire traditional selling industry. If you have a very clear process on how to create trust in your sales process, based on their deep issues, then you don't have...

 Let me be blunt ... The number one goal is not to promote your product, brand or solution – but rather focus in on, and understand the problem your prospect is trying to solve. It is only then, when you have demonstrated your genuine concern for the problem your prospect is trying to solve, that you have the trust needed to offer a solution.   Traditional selling methodology suggests a sale is lo...

You’re coming to the end of an initial conversation with a potential new client, and everything seems to be going well. You’ve invested time with them to understand their issues and provided information and education to address their needs. But as the conversation naturally closes, there’s an awkward moment, an empty space, where you and your prospect don’t know what to say next. They haven’t indi...

Are you tired of chasing prospects who seem interested in what you're offering, only to end up going silent or ghosting you altogether? It's a frustrating experience that can leave you feeling burnt out and disheartened. But here's the thing: what if I told you that some prospects may be giving you a "smoke screen" – a misleading impression that they're interested whe...

The life blood of your business is your ability to bring in new clients, consistently. Why is it that so many new client opportunities end up disappearing? You’ve done everything “by the book.” You’ve built a relationship, provided value, education, and given them plenty of room to make a decision without any pressure…then poof, they’re gone. Why does this keep happening if you honestly could have...

What could be worse than having a qualified prospect slip through your fingers and vanish? You did everything right in the initial conversation. You were friendly, gave them great information, and you didn’t pressure them to move forward. But at the end they said: Thank you so much for your time. Let me think about it, and if I’m interested, I’ll get back to you. Do you let them go, or do you chas...

It's commonly accepted in the sales world that chasing prospects is an essential part of the game. However, this approach is rooted in a macho sales image that suggests that giving up on a prospect is equivalent to admitting defeat and failure. But let me tell you, that's far from the truth. The real objective should be getting to the truth if you are a fit or not, not simply making the...

With typical traditional selling, when you get an objection, you’re supposed to overcome it. We’re taught that by all the gurus. The problem with that is if they’re giving you an objection that they believe is true and you try to overcome it with them, you break trust with them instantly. The sale is over right at that moment because you’re trying to overcome something that they believe is true. Y...

You’ve probably heard this over and over: “If you hear an objection, immediately overcome it and move towards making the sale.” That’s a very one-sided approach to a moment that could get really awkward quickly.  Objections are challenges raised by prospects. They put pressure on you, and they can bring your conversation to a halt, or help it grow.  In this month’s Stump The Guru show, I spoke abo...

Building trust during the sales process between you and the buyer is more important than selling and pitching your solution. By focusing on your buyer's needs in a conversation using specific languaging , you can bring out their truths, thereby deepening your connection with them.    It is a hard sell to persuade, pursue, and convince people today. No one wants to receive another sales pitch....

The secret to avoiding falling down this rabbit hole of chasing is to let go of the sale in your mind. Letting go of the sale simply means being genuinely comfortable with waiting for your prospect to take the next step in the conversation and doing nothing to intervene until they do.  Your only goal in an initial conversation is to listen to your prospect’s problem, expand their awareness and und...

Are you overcompensating by going heavy on relationship-building in your sales process?  Building deep trust with your prospects in your sales process does not require you to build a relationship with them.  That's a BOMB in the entire traditional selling industry.  If you have a very clear process on how to create trust in your sales process, based on their deep issues, then you don't h...

You know the drill, you schedule a call with a potential prospect for your offering, you have a great conversation with them, they give you positive signals they are interested in working with you, then you hear “I need to think about it”.   What the heck is going on with that?   If you are hearing at least one of these after your initial consultation with your prospect, something is seriously wro...

Have you had a sales conversation that felt just “perfect?”  The chemistry between you two was solid, their problem was clearly articulated, you helped them see that you can solve their problem and everything just felt “right”.  Then at the end of the call, they surprisingly say: “This has been really helpful, let me think about this and I’ll get back to you.”  That’s when they fall into the “blac...

Linear selling models create mistrust in a split second - the moment prospects sense that, although you seem to be interested in their problems and issues, you're actually trying to lead the discussion toward a close. When you do this, you’re coaxing, persuading, and pushing things forward ... Which will cause the prospect to put up a wall, the opposite response to what you want. In this epis...

The traditional sales formula looks like this: Qualify the lead + Present your solution = New paying client  That’s basic selling 101, isn’t it?  But if this formula, which has been taught by the “sales gurus” for decades, is bulletproof, then why doesn’t every single person who is qualified become a new paying client?  In this month’s Stump The Guru show, I'll be talking about the missing pi...

If you’re chasing somebody and you don’t hear back from them for a while, you will probably feel like you’ve lost them. And, you know you can’t chase them anymore because doing that will inevitably burn the relationship with them, right!?    Have you had those days where it feels like every sales conversation ends in rejection!? And how confidence shattering and exhausting that can be. Well, you k...

Most of us who sell get caught up in “hopeium,” a comical term that means we focus our hopes and desires on making the sale. But hopeium can be a trap, because it's impossible for you to keep in mind your most important goal: to learn your prospect’s truth. When we fix our minds on the outcome -- making the sale -- we automatically begin anticipating how the process will go, and we also begin...

You’ve probably heard this over and over in your career. “If you hear an objection, immediately overcome it and move towards making the sale.” That’s a very one-sided approach to a moment that could get awkward quickly.  Objections are challenges raised by prospects. They put pressure on you, and they can bring your conversation to a halt, or help it grow. The traditional sales mindset will have y...

We have been taught to chase opportunities, play the numbers game, and pursue prospects. But it turns out that if you stop doing those things, which extend your sales cycle, but instead focus on building deep trust with people, you can actually shorten your sales cycle dramatically! In this episode of Stump The Guru show, I'll be talking about how you can shortcut your sales cycle.    I'...