The CFO and the owner of a company become dissatisfied with the blue chip vendor servicing their 401k program. They put out the word of their unhappiness and before you know it, the CFO gets a call from Mark Gajowski, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), who is all too happy to fix their problems and get the business.

Before Mark makes the call, he does his homework and finds out from his sources providing the lead that the CFO and owner greatly value their employees. They are very frustrated that their employees are not getting the kind of service they deserve. During the call, Mark quickly gets into a brief discussion regarding their concerns. While the CFO is unhappy, he believe the timing is not right to make a switch and blows Mark off.

A few months go by, and Mark has been following up on a consistent basis. Finally, when the time comes to make the change, who do you think gets a call to come in and present their solution? Our friend, Mark Gajowski. As they say, tenacity pays off.

Even though Mark got the call, so did a couple of other financial planners. He still has to differentiate himself from the competition. To do this, Mark focuses on the customer in the meeting by discussing what the prospect is looking for and how they can fill the gaps. As he works on putting the proposal together, there are a number of follow-up phone calls and e-mails to clarify exactly the needs of the customer. Mark believes this is crucial because “there is always an unlimited number of ways on how to do a presentation, but none of those ways matter unless the topic material is important to the client”.

The finishing touch in customizing the proposal is as simple as putting the logo of the company on the Powerpoint slides and handouts. Mark understands that “the sweetest thing you can hear is your name. To an owner its his company name and logo. It is a matter of recognition and pride”. Mark is so right on this point since this is the way I managed to hear of this success story. The CFO, a friend of mine, was commenting one night how this guy came in and had their logo on the presentation. It was a small gesture that had great impact.

Mark gets all of his business from referrals and using the sales process outlined above. His closing ratio is a whopping 95%! But how does he get the referrals?

He never stops doing what got him in the door to begin with. He constantly finds ways to increase his value by identifying areas he can further assist and fill in the gaps of what’s missing for his clients. That is exactly why the initial blue chip vendor lost the business to begin with. They stopped doing what got them the deal in the first place.

Thank you Mark Gajowski, our Titan Profile of the month. You have provided us with a stellar case study on how to sell value and equally important, how to maintain and grow a business by continually giving clients what they need, in the way they want it.