No connection. No Conversion
- Aureko
- Dec 1
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Why Sales Efforts Fail
In my previous insights, I shared two main reasons why sales effort fails: lack of leads, lack of discipline.
Now, you’re getting the leads. You’re doing the meetings. You’re presenting your product’s strengths and features and the advantages of working with you… but somehow, only a few people are buying.
Frustration builds up and with it, anxiety about hitting your targets.
Stop worrying! This insight tackles the third reason sales efforts fail, poor conversion rate, and how to fix it.
Let me start with one principle I learned the hard way: your conversion rate is directly proportional to the quality of your meetings.
A conversion ratio measures the percentage of prospects who become clients.
It’s one of the most powerful metrics in sales. The higher it is, the more efficient you are at raising assets.
# Leads
x #Meetings/Lead
x Conversion Ratio
x Average Ticket Size
= Asset Raised
Double the conversion rate in the above equation, and the assets raised double too. This is in contrast to doubling your leads, for example which will mean doubling the number of meetings to a pace that is perhaps not sustainable.
A higher conversion ratio means greater efficiency. Plain and simple.
Let’s be upfront. You have a low conversion ratio because you have a poor connection with your prospect.
So, the question is: how can you actually create high-quality connections?
The Power of Connecting
For years, my conversion rate sat in the single digits.
One day, exhausted by my lack of results, I simply gave up trying to prove how smart or expert I was.
Let me tell you a story.
After a long day packed with meetings, I still had one more meeting to do. It was with Bob, a Pension Fund manager, I’d managed to book after a cold call. I’d never met him before and I’d forgotten my notes at the office (the ones I’d carefully compiled from his LinkedIn and the Pension Fund’s website).
As I walked into the meeting room, I remember thinking, “Here we go again, another meeting that’ll lead nowhere.”
I had no energy left to pitch. No clever slides. No persuasion tactics.
All I was ready for was… a chat. So, I thought to myself, “Alright then, who is this Bob?”
And that’s exactly what I did for about an hour: discovering who Bob was.
What was his job really about. How he made allocation decisions. Why he was no longer invested in Alternatives after 2008. We even drifted into lighter topics — mutual contacts in our network, and why he swore by Swiss wines over French ones (a bold claim, I know).
When I shook his hand at the end, Bob said something I would never have expected:
“Thank you! This was one of the best meetings I’ve had in a long time. I’m looking forward to our next one.”
Wait… what? What just happened here?
Driving back to the office, I couldn’t stop replaying the meeting in my head.
Why had Bob found it so good?
Back then, I summed it up simply: I had a real conversation with him. The kind of conversation where you are genuinely interested in the other person.
Today, I have a better word for it: connecting.
And in a world where AI is rising fast, genuine human connection isn’t just nice to have, it’s your biggest competitive edge.
How Conversion Rates Improve
Today, wearing my fund selector hat, I see too many salespeople rushing to showcase their “expertise.”
They jump straight into product pitch, serving me a salad when I’m clearly in the mood for a steak.
But here’s the thing: they almost never take the time to find out what I actually need.
They are driving the wrong way. They want to sell before they understand the need.
Would you like the waiter of a restaurant to tell you what to eat?
Here is another fundamental principle: get to know your prospects. Ask questions.
When I speak with a prospect about his alternative allocation, I keep investigating until I truly understand his situation and his needs.
Over time, I’ve realized something powerful: the quality of my questions determines the depth of my connection.
The epiphany I had with Bob is something the top 1% of salespeople figured out long ago.
In the 1990s, a consultant analyzed over 35,000 sales calls to understand what made the best performers different.
His findings were crystal clear: the best don’t start by pitching, they start with questions.
And the more specific the questions, the more likely you are to uncover a real problem, often one that carries frustration or even anxiety.
And no one enjoys negative emotions.
Successful salespeople ask a lot more questions during sales calls than their less successful colleagues. Less successful people tend to do most of the talking.
Neil Rackham
Find a solution to that problem, and you eliminate your prospect’s negative emotions.
Show it with subtlety and you’re very likely to make the sale.
The best part? Your client isn’t buying a product. He’s solving a problem.
That’s when selling starts to feel effortless.
I no longer chase sales.
I chase problems. The ones I know how to solve.
The Art of Asking Questions
“A good salesperson is someone who listens.”
That’s only half true.
Have you ever walked into a meeting with a new prospect and tried to just listen? It doesn’t work. To listen, you first need to ask questions. That’s the missing piece.
When I meet a prospect for the first time, I often start with a simple one:
“Why do you need alternatives?”
The answer usually goes something like, “To get uncorrelated returns and diversify our portfolios.”
At that point, most salespeople would jump right in to explain how their product delivers exactly that.
I don’t. I pause. And I ask.
“Wait that’s a lot of information. When you say uncorrelated returns, can you explain what you exactly mean? Many people define that differently.”
“You’re looking for returns uncorrelated to what exactly?”
“What’s your time frame when looking for this decorrelation?”
“Can you give me a bit more color: what would you expect an alternative strategy to do when equities are down -5%, -10%, or -20% in a month?”
“Can you help me understand what diversification means to you precisely?”
You see how just two words can spark five useful questions?
Stop convincing. Start digging!
Questions help understand what the prospect means and what he’s really looking for.
At best, I have a solution that fits. At worst, I don’t and I’ve just qualified out the wrong prospect and moved on. Either way, I win time and focus.
The goal isn’t to force a sale. It’s to find the prospects whose problems you can genuinely solve.
Active listening is key. When a prospect uses words like “uncorrelated” or “diversify”, I mirror those exact words back.
That does two things:
It shows I’ve really heard and acknowledged their perspective.
It allows me to step into their world, speaking their language, not mine.
If I jump too quickly into my jargon (correlation), I risk breaking the connection.
Another important aspect when connecting is how you handle objections during your meetings. Over time, I have learned to see them as a gift, they reveal what’s holding your prospect back. Each objection is simply information about what still feels uncertain for the person in front of you before they can make a decision.
What About You?
Very often, poor conversion rates prevent salespeople reaching their objectives. If you think you deserve a better conversion ratio, then Aureko’s workshops are built for you.
Many salespersons don’t realize the power of asking questions.
Every meeting is an opportunity to connect deeper. Make every meeting counts.
Who is the workshop for?
Seasoned Asset Managers who want their Sales Team to systematically reach their Net New Money targets
Wealth Managers who need to generate more qualified prospects
New Sales or Sales Leader eager to build the right foundation for consistent and sustainable asset raising
Aureko’s workshop will equip you with strategies tailored to your needs. You will also learn about tactics and hacks to close more often while others are still doing yet another pitch about their product’s features that the prospect doesn’t need.
Aureko’s workshop empowers every salesperson to push beyond his limits.
Aureko’s workshop will improve your conversion ratio so you can be more efficient.
When I started business development, I had a 1% conversion ratio.
Today, I can make a living because it is closer to 30%.
The framework I’ll share quite literally changed my life!
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