October 14/2018

How to Have Better Meetings to Acquire More Ideal Clients

Do you get valuable information that you need when meeting with an ideal prospect?

Financial advisors spend time getting a meeting with a potential ideal prospect, only to find the prospect is very reluctant to share information with them until they prove themselves. It puts the advisor on the hot seat to answer questions that the prospect has. Questions such as, “What can I expect when I work with you? What does it cost? How are you different from my current advisor?”

While these questions are important to a prospect and answered when speaking about your value promise, they don’t help an advisor determine if this is an ideal prospect.

The opposite approach
The client thinks that the advisor has to impress or prove themselves first before the prospect will share any confidential information with them. It is the opposite approach of what “Future Ready Financial Advisors” do in a prospect meeting. They know that they want financial delegators as ideal clients, so getting the information is in the opposite way typical advisors go about gathering the information.

Let me explain. In workshops I do with financial advisors, I ask them “what is the benefit to me as a prospect of gathering all the information you need and bringing it to a meeting? “

The typical answer is “So I can see if you are a potential client and it is information I need to do a plan”. Wow, this is the exact opposite of what elite advisors do. It is not about you, it is about the prospect and the benefits to a prospect.

What are the benefits to a prospect?
Depending on what type of practice you run, and what type of information you need, the first key planning tool you need is your document checklist for ideal prospects. This is not a time to ask people a whole list of questions because that is what robo-advisors do but gather the information, so you can offer some benefits in the first meeting. It is an approach where the client will get a possible benefit or two out of the meeting, regardless if they do business with you or not!

Benefit questions
____ Simplify - We will show you a process for getting your financial documents simply organized if you bring in the following list of documents
____ Have your checklist ready to hand out, send out, download from your website, and list of benefits of gathering the information
____ Would getting organized in all six areas of your personal financial life be a benefit to you?
__ tax ___ estate ___ risk ____ Investments ____ Insurance ___ debt/ cash flow

If this is a business client, then change to what you may need for a business client such as group insurance and pensions, shareholders documents etc.
____ Would it be valuable to summarize your net worth on one page?
____ Would it be valuable to do a fee audit, to help you understand what you pay, what you get, and don’t get?
____ Is it about time you did a comprehensive review of your current quality financial plan? When was the last comprehensive update with all six areas of your quality financial and investment plan done?
____ Would it be valuable to see the current probability of success in reaching all of your financial goals in your life?
____ Do you have a checklist of all the documents you need to be organized in a binder to help you make better financial decisions? If not, we will provide a checklist at our meeting regardless if you become a client or not
____ Is there any other reason why you would not bring all your documents to our meeting, regardless if we work together or not?

What other benefits can you add?
Is there any other benefit that you would add to getting all the information? If you have one, send it to me by email at grant@ghicks.com and I will update this article in a future post.

Working with financial advisors, I get as excited as they do when they tell me an ideal prospect brought all their documents to the meeting and was prepared for the meeting. They tell me they acquire more ideal prospects through this process, than anything they have prepared before! Financial advisors are shocked at the information the prospects gather because the prospect already has a list of questions to ask the advisor. They come into the meeting already engaged, because they rarely bring their financial plan, simply because they don’t usually have one, or it is completely irrelevant and outdated. They think they know what they are paying, and do not want to be embarrassed by not understanding this, so they do some homework on fees, only to get completely frustrated. Then they realize it is not simple, and it is a mess of information. They are completely ready and engaged. It is the exact opposite of what average advisors do.

They see the benefits
Even before the meeting, they see the benefits of meeting with you, by gathering up all the information, and see you as a professional advice giver, not as a salesperson. They see the benefits of getting organized and gathering up the information. They already see the potential benefits, even if they choose not to work with you. They realize your time is valuable, understanding that if they don’t get the documents organized, there is no meeting. They are not there to be sold but to gain clarity around their future.

Your task is simple. Take the time to create your checklist of documents you need for an ideal prospect meeting. You may have a few different types of ideal prospects, so make sure it is designed for them. For example, an ideal document checklist for wealthy retirees will be different than an ideal checklist for a successful entrepreneur. Make the checklist customized to your target audience, showing in advance you understand the marketplace by having all of the critical documents you need ready.

Imagine better prospect meetings
Imagine if ideal prospects show up for a meeting, with most if not all of their financial documents, questions written down about how to put this information to work better for them, interested in having a complete transparency fee discussion, and completely engaged? Now go and build your questionnaires, checklists, and benefits for meeting with you today!

For a copy of our guide "Future Ready Financial Advisor" go to http://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/resources or http://futurereadyfinancialadvisor.subscribemenow.com/

If you would like more information about financial advisor workshops or want to build a better practice, email us at grant@ghicks.com for a complimentary discussion on how to build a better practice, with no obligation at all.

Enthusiastically yours,

Grant Hicks, CIM, National Director Practice Management
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

Suite 1625-246 Stewart Green, SW
Calgary, Alberta  T3H 3C8
Cell 403 970 8895
Email grant@ghicks.com   

PS Where do you want to be in 3 years?

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