😼 Feline Full Send

Cats love to hide, but one feline's favorite hiding spot got her into quite the purr-dicament.

Galena, a six-year old cat from Utah, crawled into an Amazon box and got cozy. However, the box was also holding a pair of boots that her owner needed to return.

Not noticing she was in the box, Galena's owners packed her up and shipped her off to an Amazon warehouse, all the way in California.

Luckily, this hiss-terical horror story had a happy ending!

The kitty had a microchip and was found by an Amazon worker who was able to reunite her with her owners.

- Team Advisorist

In Today’s Issue 👇

• How to overcome four seasonal prospecting excuses

• Old school sales techniques to leave behind

• What Americans think their time is worth

🏖️ Avoid These Seasonal Prospecting Excuses

The weather is nice, your calendar is full, and as we head into summer, prospecting gets bumped off your to-do list.

It's also notoriously more difficult to reach ideal clients. But that's no excuse to put the brakes on lead generation.

We all have the same excuses this time of year to avoid making calls and setting meetings. 

However, you could take advantage of scooping up even more leads while your competition skips out for the season.

👇 Here's a few ways to turn those prospecting excuses upside down:

⏩ "I hit my targets for the year. I'm heading to my firm's annual meeting at a luxury resort. Prospecting can take a backseat."

Reframe: Enjoy yourself at the conference, for sure. Don't forget to network with other winners while you're there to gather new ideas. Celebrate, but use the conference as motivation to learn new tactics to bring in new clients.

⏩ "School's out. My kids are graduating and so are the kids of my prospects. I barely have time myself and I don't want to annoy prospects with too much on their plate."

Reframe: Kids are expensive and with graduations come new costs. It's the perfect time to talk to prospects about how they're going to fund their child's college education. You can bet money's on their mind.

⏩ "Summertime is for vacation. Prospects are heading to the beach with their families (and so am I). Their minds are on R&R, not financial planning."

Reframe: Right smack in the middle of the year is the perfect time to reach out and ask folks how satisfied they are with their current financial plan. Ask how their portfolio weathered the first half of the year and if they're happy with their returns. They may need your advice.

⏩ "With everyone taking time off for the summer season, decision-makers are out of the office. It's best to put off finding new clients until the fall."

Reframe: It’s tougher to get folks on the phone this time of year, so get creative with other strategies. Check out events in your local community to meet new people. When they ask what you do for a living, hit 'em with your elevator pitch.

Headline Roundup

🏠 Affecting Your Clients

• IRS Aims to 2x Audit Rate on Wealthiest Taxpayers [CNBC]

• Americans Were Paid an Additional $235B in Interest in 2023 [CNN]

• Mortgage Rates Jump Again to 7.22% [FOX]

📈 Markets & Economy 

• Intel Chip Fabrication Plant Selling $3.85B of Bonds [Y!]

• Car Sales in the U.S. Inch Up to Four-month High [MW]

• Oil Swings as Traders Weigh Inventory Gain, Potential Cease-Fire [B]

💼 Industry Roundup 

• NYC Advisor Gets 6+ Years For $6M Ponzi Scheme [FA]

• IRS Again Defers Minimum Distribution Penalty for IRA Beneficiaries [INN]

• Advisors Develop Coping Mechanisms for Polarized Political Landscape [AH]

🚮 Old School Tactics to Leave Behind

Old habits die hard, and so do old school sales tactics. 

We've all sat through a training or two with the same played out techniques. But that doesn't mean you have to keep using them.

If you wouldn't wear an ill-fitting, outdated suit to that client event, you shouldn't rely on ancient sales advice to win people over. 😆

Here are some old school selling skills to quit using ASAP 👇

🚫 Cookie-cutter convos: Relying strictly on a scripted pitch without customization is a good way to fail at establishing trust. People can tell if you're reading a script, which is both boring and ingenuine. 

To get the highest conversion rates, always do your homework. You'll make a much better connection with a prospect when you know a little about who they are. You'll also have a conversation they'll remember.

🚫 Banking on case studies: Case studies definitely have a time and a place, but overuse of them could backfire. 

If your client doesn't understand the value of what you're offering or what your offering isn't a good fit, showing them a case study won’t help. Use them only when you're sure it's what's needed to get someone over the edge.

🚫 Pushy, aggressive closing strategies: Intimidating or bullying someone into making a decision is super-outdated (and um, unethical). Aggressive approaches also make you come off as desperate.

Be in it for the long game and spend time building a relationship with a prospect. Look for ways to offer value to them outside of what you offer to help foster trust.

🚫 Cliffhanger meeting endings: Ending a meeting by telling the client you'll call them isn't memorable or specific enough. Back in the day, we didn't have the tech to set up an immediate follow up. Now, we do.

Open up your phone's calendar and send an invite before your client leaves. You'll have things locked in without having to chase them afterwards.

🗓️ Event of the Week

Virtual Advisor Power Hour: Wednesday at 12pm EST / 9am PST

This week our special guest is Curtis Nalley – an expert in the small business and startup lending space.

He has a really fresh perspective on debt, and how to use it to grow any business at 0%.

As an advisor, understanding how he does this can give you the toolset and knowledge to become a more valuable advisor – particularly for biz owner clients.

👉️ Click here to register for free!

🧮 By the Numbers

$240 an hour 

That's how much Americans think their time is worth.

Based on a standard 40-hour week, that puts their perceived value at $499,200 a year, or nearly eight times higher than the average U.S. salary of $59,384.

✌️Good Vibes

If you've ever wished for a speedier way to get from L.A. to Las Vegas, your dream's about to come true.

Ground recently broke for the Brightline West train, America's very first high-speed rail line. 

The train will travel at a speed of 200 mph alongside Interstate 15. The project is expected to be completed within four years.

Once it’s up and running, Brightline West will carry an estimated 11 million passengers per year. 

This new transit option will not only cut down on annoying traffic jams, but also on harmful emissions.

Each year the train is in operation, it's expected to save 400,000 tons of CO2.

Good news for gamblers and climate activists alike! 😎🚄

Sharing looks good on you.

When you copy that link at the bottom and share it with a few financial planning colleagues, you look like the smartest advisor in the room by keeping them informed.

Plus, you earn rewards. Sweet.