It’s a common experience for financial advisers – and one that I hear about all the time.

A client comes to you for help. They’re engaged in the meeting, they can see the value you offer, and it’s all going swimmingly… you think. 

But then, at the end, you hear, “I’ll think about it,” and you’re left feeling confused.

On paper, everything worked as it should – you explained your process, demonstrated value, and answered their questions – but it just didn’t land.

So next time, you prepare more, show them more strategy, and explain everything in greater detail, and it still doesn’t work. In fact, in some cases it even makes it worse.

Was sales really meant to be this hard? 

Why sales feels uncomfortable

For many financial advisers, the discomfort around sales doesn’t come from a lack of capability, but from how sales has been framed.

There’s a long-standing belief in professional services that “real professionals” don’t sell. They educate, advise and provide value, but sales is something separate – and often something to avoid.

In advice, that mindset has only been reinforced in recent years.

In a post-Royal Commission environment, there is greater sensitivity around fees, positioning and perceived conflicts. Many advisers are understandably cautious about how they present recommendations and next steps.

This results in tension. You want to help your clients and you know you can add value, but asking someone to move forward can feel uncomfortable, even when it’s in their best interest. 

How this shows up

This discomfort tends to show up in predictable ways.

Some advisers undercharge because they’re afraid of rejection, while others over-explain, trying to justify their value through detail.

Some overdeliver upfront, hoping that more work will lead to a clearer “yes”. And many avoid the moment of commitment altogether, ending the meeting with something like: “I’ll send this through and you can have a think about it.”

This feels low-pressure, but it often leaves the client without enough clarity to decide.

A common turning point

This is something I experienced early in my own business. 

My marketing was humming and I had a steady flow of prospects, but I was frustrated they weren’t saying yes. 

This led me to explore more traditional, American-style sales training, which felt very fake, uncomfortable and totally not me. It was scripted, overly structured and didn’t align with how I wanted to work. 

But then I researched sales psychology, and spent hours and thousands of dollars learning this skill – as well as how people actually make decisions. 

I got good at it. So much that I had most clients paying the upfront fee after a 60-minute meeting (without doing a fact find), with ongoing fees starting the following month. 

And it all started with redefining what sales actually is and rethinking my approach. 

Redefining sales

Sales is often associated with persuasion or pressure, but in financial advice, a more accurate definition is this:

“Helping a client make a clear, confident decision.”

That decision might be to proceed. It might be to wait. It might be that you’re not the right fit – but the role of the adviser is to guide the client to that point of clarity.

If a client genuinely needs help and you can provide it, avoiding that conversation doesn’t make the interaction more ethical. It simply leaves them the same position they started in. 

The client stays stuck. 

When viewed this way, sales isn’t separate from advice – it’s a core part of it.

What comes next

If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. It’s not a reflection of your capability as an adviser – it’s a reflection of how sales has been positioned within the profession.

The good news? There’s a more natural and effective way to approach it.

This is Part 1 of a four-part series on selling without awkwardness. In my next article, we’ll look at how clients actually make decisions – and why understanding that changes the way sales conversations feel entirely.

If sales has ever felt awkward, forced or out of step with the way you want to work, I’m here to tell you it definitely doesn’t have to be that way.

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