Influence training for financial services
Build a firm whose clients trust your advice and act on it.
Clients can rarely judge financial advice for themselves, so they judge the person giving it. Influence training gives your advisors an ethical way to earn that trust in every meeting, review and referral conversation.
Our clients in financial services include:
Why trust decides
Clients judge the advice by the advisor who gives it.
Most financial firms already compete on service: faster answers, better apps, fewer errors.
That work matters, and it has a limit. Fixing problems keeps clients from leaving. It doesn't get them to act on your advice, bring you more of their assets or introduce you to friends.
To get past it, your advisors need to understand why clients trust one person's recommendation and put off another's. That is what influence training teaches.
Where you are today
Move from a few trusted advisors to a whole firm of them.
The typical path a firm follows as influence moves from a few people to everyone:
- Instinct
A few people are trusted
A few advisors are naturally trusted. Nobody can say why, so nobody else can copy it, and clients get a different experience depending on who they see. - Scripts
The firm trains on objections
Advisors learn what to say when a client pushes back, but the conversation before the pushback stays the same. - Shared
Everyone learns one approach
Everyone learns the same seven principles of influence and uses them in first meetings, reviews and referral requests. Managers can coach to it. - Trusted
Trust is how the firm works
Earning trust ethically is how the whole firm works, from the first call to the annual review, and clients get the same experience whoever they see.
The goal
Earn trust in the three conversations every client relationship depends on.
What it looks like when it works:
- Your client understands the advice and acts on it.
- Your advisor is trusted, listened to and referred.
- Your firm keeps the clients it wins and meets the people they send.
It is hard in financial services, because the advice is complex, the stakes are personal and the client can rarely check the quality for themselves. Influence training helps your advisors in the three conversations every client relationship depends on:
The first meeting
Clients decide early whether they trust you. Liking and authority, used ethically, help your advisors show real expertise and real interest without sounding like a pitch.
The recommendation
A good plan only helps if the client acts on it. Commitment and consistency, and the example of clients like them, help a client move from “let me think about it” to a decision they're comfortable with.
The referral
Happy clients often don't think to introduce you. Reciprocity and a clear, easy request help your advisors ask at the right moment, without awkwardness.
How it works
Bring influence into your firm in five steps.
It works best when it is built in step by step, with leaders taking part from the start. Firms work through five steps:
Start with a shared language
Everyone learns the seven principles, so advisors and managers mean the same thing when they talk about a client conversation.
See where each person stands
The Influence Assessment shows each advisor how they influence clients today and where they lose them. Free result, $49 full report.
Practice on real client situations
At the two-day POP® workshop, at your offices and led by a CMCT, advisors work each principle on their own cases.
Make it part of how managers coach
Certified Influence Coaches on your staff lead a ready-made 90-minute session for new teams and refreshers.
Keep it ethical
Every use of influence passes one test: is it true, and is it in the client's interest? Your compliance team still approves the specifics.
Get those three conversations right, and clients have more reasons to stay and to send others your way.
What financial professionals say
What advisors and financial leaders say.
“I earned the biggest commission of my 22-year career from just one principle.”
Bill CampbellMagnolia Wealth Strategies
“Dr. Robert Cialdini’s information and “principles of persuasion” program are a terrific foundation for any organization desiring to improve its sales, negotiation, and change management skills efforts. Having attended his program, I highly recommend Dr. Cialdini as a professional speaker.”
Steve RueSenior Vice President of Administration, Arrowhead Credit Union
“I have attended many sales workshops offered by insurance carriers and this from start to finish, was the most enjoyable and useful course I have ever attended. The course WAS designed to provide useful tools that can be used to grow your business, regardless of carrier.”
Kenneth LawrenceProducer, Frost Insurance Agency
“Robert Cialdini is the world’s foremost expert on persuasion and the author of the book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” which is a classic no adviser should go without reading.”
Daniel CrosbyPhD, President, IncBlot Behavioral Finance
“If you are looking for a speaker with an important message for salespeople, Dr. Cialdini has some powerful insights on influence human behavior (customers, prospects, agents, employees, etc.).”
David SchmidtPresident, Nationwide Insurance
“Not only was POP one of the best workshops I have attended over my career, which is measured in decades, it is the only workshop that I have gone out of my way to promote to my associates and employees. I have purchased more than half a dozen copies of Yes as gifts (reciprocity) for staff and friends. I would recommend POP for any insurance professional, regardless of their job description.”
Brad GreerExecutive Vice President, Missouri General Insurance Agency
Go deeper
Read how influence works in client conversations.
Questions
Before you talk to us.
Every principle we teach only works when the claim behind it is true, which is the same standard compliance already holds. Your compliance team still approves the specifics.
Both. An advisor can take The Cialdini Method online on their own. A firm can bring the two-day POP® workshop on-site, give everyone the online program and certify coaches on its own staff.
The Cialdini Method is $1,497 per person, with a 7-day full refund. Programs for a firm are priced in a proposal, based on the number of advisors, the format and the timeline.
Yes. Train one office or team first, look at what changed in their client conversations, then decide on the rest.
No. Everything we teach uses only what is true and in the client's interest. Your advisors also learn to recognize manipulation, including the high-pressure tactics clients have learned to distrust.
Talk to us about your firm.
Tell us about your firm and your advisors. Fill in the form and the Institute will get back to you about what fits.