A few years back, I worked with a financial planning firm that was spending 10 weeks to close a single client. Ten meetings per prospect. Travel to every appointment. A sales process that was grinding their team into the ground.
Within 12 weeks of implementing the changes below, they’d compressed that cycle to 10 days. Some deals closed in 10 hours.
Here’s how we did it — and the 10 strategies you can apply to your own sales process.
The Starting Point
This firm offered financial planning and buyers agency services. Good team, solid value proposition, healthy demand. But the sales process was bloated. Every prospect required multiple face-to-face meetings, long proposal cycles, and weeks of back-and-forth.
The owner told me: “We were trying to cut down from 10 meetings, and we couldn’t see how it could go to fewer than 7.”
We got it to 2.5.
Strategy 1: Shift Marketing Budget Toward Inbound
The firm had been spending heavily on trade shows and shopping centre displays. These generated foot traffic, but most of it was unqualified — people who were casually curious, not actively looking for financial planning help.
We shifted budget toward Google Ads, Facebook advertising, and SEO — channels where prospects are actively searching for solutions. The quality of incoming leads improved immediately because these people had already identified a problem and were looking for help.
Inbound leads arrive warmer. They’ve done some research. They have context. That alone shaves time off every conversation.
Strategy 2: Use Education-Based Marketing
Instead of expecting the sales team to educate prospects from scratch, we created white papers and webinars that explained the firm’s core strategies before the first meeting.
By the time a prospect sat down with an adviser, they already understood the approach. The meeting shifted from “let me explain what we do” to “let me show you how this applies to your situation.”
That’s a different conversation — and a much shorter one.
Strategy 3: Align Marketing Messages with the Buyer’s Journey
Not every prospect is at the same stage. We mapped content to three stages:
- Awareness: Content focused on the problem. “Here’s why your super isn’t growing the way you expected.”
- Consideration: Content showing how the firm’s approach solves that problem. Case studies, comparison guides, strategy breakdowns.
- Decision: Content addressing fit and commitment. “Here’s what working with us looks like.”
When prospects receive the right content at the right time, they move through the pipeline faster because they’re not stuck on questions that should have been answered two stages ago.
Strategy 4: Shift to Remote Appointments
This was a big one. The firm had been driving to every prospect’s home or office for meetings. Hours of travel per appointment, plus the no-show rate for in-person meetings was significant.
We shifted to phone-based consultations. The results:
- Travel time dropped to zero
- No-show rates fell (lower perceived commitment to a phone call)
- More appointments could be scheduled per day
- The sales team could cover a wider geographic area
Some businesses assume prospects won’t accept a phone or video meeting. In practice, most prefer it. It’s less disruptive to their day, and it signals that your process is efficient.
Strategy 5: Division of Labour
The financial advisers had been doing everything — admin, follow-up, scheduling, paperwork, and selling. That’s a recipe for a slow sales cycle.
We introduced a Sales Coordinator role to handle non-sales tasks: scheduling, document preparation, follow-up emails, CRM updates. The advisers focused exclusively on client-facing conversations.
When your highest-value people spend 100% of their time on selling rather than 30%, things move faster.
Strategy 6: Insist on Standards of Prospect Behaviour
This one takes nerve, but it works.
The firm started requiring both decision-makers to be present on calls. If a spouse or business partner wasn’t available, the meeting was rescheduled.
Previously, the adviser would present to one partner, then wait days or weeks for that person to relay the information to the other decision-maker. The second partner would have questions, which required another meeting. The cycle stretched.
By insisting both parties be present from the start, decisions happened in real time instead of through a game of telephone.
Strategy 7: Structure Your Sales Presentations
The advisers had each been presenting differently — different slides, different order, different emphasis. Some were better than others, but there was no way to know what was working because nothing was consistent.
We built a standardised presentation delivered via screen-sharing. Same structure every time. This allowed us to test specific elements — headlines, objection-handling slides, the order of topics — and improve systematically.
A structured presentation also keeps the meeting on track. No tangents, no rabbit holes, no 90-minute meetings that should have been 30.
Strategy 8: Productise Your Services
The firm had been creating custom proposals for every prospect. Each one took hours to prepare and weeks to deliver. And prospects often got confused by the options.
We packaged the services into three clear tiers — Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Each tier had a defined scope, a fixed price, and a clear set of inclusions.
The prospect could choose a tier in the meeting. No waiting for a proposal. No back-and-forth on scope. The decision became simple: which tier fits your situation?
Strategy 9: Control Next Steps
“I’ll think about it and get back to you” is where deals go to die.
We implemented a strict process: at the end of every meeting, the next step was scheduled before the call ended. Not “I’ll follow up next week” — a specific date and time for the next action.
When you leave the next step undefined, the prospect’s inertia takes over. Days turn into weeks. Urgency evaporates. Controlling next steps keeps momentum alive.
Strategy 10: Take Responsibility for Urgency
Most salespeople wait for the prospect to feel urgent. That’s backwards.
Urgency is your job. A structured sales process — with defined steps, clear timelines, and deadlines for decisions — naturally creates urgency. The prospect isn’t being pressured. They’re being guided through a process that has momentum built into it.
When your process moves with purpose, prospects move with it.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings per sale | 10 (in-person) | 2.5 (remote) |
| Sales cycle length | 70 days | 10 days |
| Fastest close | Weeks | 10 hours |
| Marketing cost per sale | Baseline | ~50% reduction |
| Salesperson time freed | — | 30+ hours/week |
The owner’s words: “12 weeks ago, we were trying to cut down from 10 meetings, and we couldn’t see how it could go to fewer than 7.”
What You Can Take From This
You don’t need to implement all 10 at once. Pick the two or three that address the biggest bottlenecks in your current sales process.
If you’re still doing every meeting face-to-face, start with remote appointments. If every deal requires a custom proposal, productise your offering. If your salespeople are doing their own admin, get them a coordinator.
The common thread across all 10 strategies: stop accommodating an inefficient process and start designing one that moves.
→ Apply for a 90-Day Growth Plan — I’ll audit your current marketing, identify the biggest opportunities, and show you exactly what I’d execute in the first 90 days.
