How Financial Advisors Can Effectively Handle Rejection

Rejection is a part of the human experience, and it comes in many forms. You may feel rejected by friends or family members, you will definitely get some rejection from your children (especially if they’re teenagers!), and, more than likely, you’ll also get plenty of rejection at work. Rejection can be difficult to manage, especially if you are just starting your entrepreneurial financial planning business and don’t yet have a solid base. Here are three ways that financial planners can effectively handle rejection without it holding them back.

Reframe Rejection

The fear of rejection often keeps advisors from reaching out enough times (and to enough people) to become successful. However, it’s important to realize that this fear is all in your head. If you simply reframe rejection, you can overcome that fear and remove one of the biggest obstacles to success. One way to do so is to think, “I don’t have their business now. The worst-case scenario is that I won’t have their business after I approach them.” This takes away that feeling of loss you experience when you do get rejected and makes you realize that you are no worse off after a rejection than you were before.

Another way to reframe rejection is stop looking at the end result and instead focus on the process. If you keep your eye on the ball and reach out to ten prospective clients each day and count that as a win (regardless of whether all ten say ‘no’ or not), you can take the sting out of rejection and realize you’re still making strides toward your goal even if you aren’t adding clients to your book of business.

Realize It’s a Numbers Game

Being a successful entrepreneurial advisor is all about prospecting and finding the ideal clients. I’ve been in the business for more than 15 years and I still prospect on a regular basis. To get comfortable with prospecting and to do it effectively, you need to realize it’s a numbers game. Something I always keep in mind that helps me is how many no’s I need to receive before I can realistically expect a yes. While this number will vary depending on your close rate, I’ll use the number 10 as an example. Every time I receive a ‘no’, I think, “Great, only nine more to go before I get a yes!” This simple shift in mindset can actually make it fun to go out there and talk to new people—regardless of whether they become clients or not.

Focus on Your Strengths

One thing I’ve realized working with new financial advisors is that those who are young or are new to the business tend to suffer from some confidence issues. They may think “I’m so young, why would anyone listen to me?” Or, if they’ve just started their business, they may wonder why anyone would work with them over a more seasoned advisor. My advice in these situations is to focus on strengths. In the case of the young advisor, he or she has the energy that many older advisors probably don’t possess any longer. In addition, the young advisor is probably more proficient with technology and will also be in the business longer than his or her competition.

If you’re older but still new to the industry, focus on your life experiences. Maybe you worked in different industries before you came to this one that can help you relate to your clients or see their financial situations in a different light. Perhaps you have family experience or hobbies that you have a wealth of knowledge about that can be an asset to your clients. When you start thinking about all the reasons why someone would want to work with you, your confidence increases—and so do your chances for success.

Rejection is never easy, but it’s a common and even necessary part of life. When you come up with effective ways of managing rejection, you develop an edge over your competition—and your business becomes a lot more fun. If you’d like to hear even more about this topic, please watch this video. Would you like to talk more about how you deal with rejection? Please reach out so we can chat more.