BachrachBlog

Near the end of one year, I called someone who had invested in a year-long program but had bailed out at about the halfway mark. As we talked, I reminded him that he had paid for a full year of training and coaching and offered to help him get more of his money’s worth before time ran out.

He declined and gave me a variety of excuses. But underneath the “Things are crazy right now,” “This was a bad year,” and “I have a bunch of legislative and administrative concerns,” the truth was blaring much louder than his words. He actually said, “I don’t really need to change,” “I’m a talker,” and “I’m good at winging it.”

Tucked in between his rap about how busy he had gotten, he mentioned that he had begun another program concurrent with the one he’d paid me for, and this other program taught presenting, convincing, and persuading skills—a.k.a. the advisor does most of the talking (traditional transaction –oriented sales). He obviously felt more comfortable with this approach.

The training we deliver and advocate at Bachrach & Associates makes it all about them, not you. It’s about asking questions then listening rather than talking. It’s about creating a profound experience for the prospective client rather than persuading and convincing everyone you meet to pay for your services. It’s about leading clients to draw their own conclusions on whether to hire you or not rather than persisting (or even stalking them) until they say yes.

But this fellow had decided he was more suited to the old-school sales model: He was simply more comfortable talking instead of listening. This wasn’t the first time I had heard someone prefer to present rather than ask questions, but thank goodness it doesn’t happen frequently, and the financial services industry is going away from this mentality. Most of the advisors in my programs had the sense to ask themselves, If I were considering hiring a financial services professional, what would appeal to me more: someone who extolled their own virtues and tried to talk me into hiring him or her because they scared the snot out of me or made me feel guilty (negative emotions), or someone who asked a lot of really good questions that helped me think, explore, and discover, then come to a reasonable conclusion about whether working together was a good idea or not (positively inspired me to take action)? Not How do I prefer to deal with clients? but instead How would clients prefer to deal with me?

When you put other people first, you get all the business you’d ever want to get, because that’s what they want. Yet there’s the paradox: You can’t be thinking I’m putting clients first so I can get what I want, because the dominant thought is get what I want. Although you accept this as a fundamental truth of your business—that putting clients first gets you what you want—you have to put that principle out of your mind when you are with clients. Focus only on putting them first and forget the rest. Trust the process, which means letting go of certain old habits that could be holding you back from realizing your true potential and developing new ways of being with people—ways that may feel more comfortable to you.

Yet there can be pitfalls. In my experience, advisors make three common mistakes, which can be avoided easily with a shift in skills and mindset. These mistakes are 1) most advisors talk too much, 2) many don’t bother to listen, and 3) even when they do manage to be quiet and hear what clients have to say, they don’t clearly communicate to the client the connection between their recommendations and what’s in it for the client. How can you remedy these mistakes? Simple.

1. Stop talking so much.

Stop rattling off your credentials, employing manipulation tactics, and jabbering on in the hopes that if you just say the right thing, they’ll buy. It’s simply not true that a sales-chatter method leads to a greater number of clients than a client-centered approach, so let go of the illusion that you can control the outcome of the conversation by doing all the talking. Learn to let the outcome just happen: If they decide to work with you, great. If they decide not to work with you, equally fine.

Instead, concentrate on learning about the person. The objective is not to win him or her over, but rather to determine whether there’s a fit with your business. You don’t take on all comers; you are selective and choose to work only with those people who will help you build a profitable, solid business so you can ultimately enjoy a great quality of life.

2. Listen.

How can you distinguish the best clients for your business? How can you communicate to people that they are important to you? How do you let people know “it’s all about them”? Simply ask questions and then listen to the answers.

This is different from asking manipulative questions to probe for pain and instill fear. The questions we teach advisors to ask in the initial client interview are designed to help the advisor and, more significant, the potential client make some discoveries about what’s most important to them: their core values. And as people respond, the advisor listens not only by hearing the words people speak, but also by being attentive to the experience they have while they talk. We use a tool called a Financial Road Map® to record people’s answers and demonstrate that they’ve been heard.

3. Make the connection between what you can do for your clients and what’s in it for them.

If, after this conversation, you feel there is a good possibility for a working relationship, then offering to work with someone needs to be phrased in such a way that people understand how you will benefit them, not the other way around.

The wrong way: “How would you like us to create a financial plan for you so you can make smart decisions about your money?” (Focuses on what you do and what you think is important to them.)

The right way: “Now that we’ve explored what’s important to you, we can see how I might be of service to you. Your financial plan will be designed to help you so you can spend more time with your family, build the retirement home of your dreams, help your grandchildren with their schooling, and lead a life filled with the happiness, freedom, spiritual development, and sense of balance that you identified are so important to you. Let’s say we create a financial strategy that has this kind of impact on your life, is that the kind of relationship you would like to have with a financial professional?” (Reiterates what they’ve said is important and connects your helping them make smart choices with their money to actualizing what’s really meaningful to them.)

Although all three of these actions clearly put the focus on clients, clearly this is not an altruistic business model. It’s simply that, because of your ambition to have a practice that yields the highest possible income, runs smoothly and efficiently, and serves clients who value your services enough to gladly make referrals to friends, family and peers, you are unwilling to put your desires (for momentary comfort or control) ahead of what’s in the best interest of somebody else and, therefore, the business. So you’re willing to walk away from people who won’t augment your business and welcome any opportunity to meet someone who might be just the client you want. But it’s always all about them.

Every successful company is built on principles. We run ours on 5 that you may find helpful in running yours.

#1. Serve clients. We think being of service is a good thing. I don’t mean subservient. I mean being of service, being helpful, and providing value. I’ve heard the business school maxim that every business is in business to make money and I recognize the importance of that, but there is no money to be made without first being of service. Your clients pay you for the value you provide so make it good. We recommend a full-service, comprehensive value proposition. For more about this subject, check out the complimentary webinar at http://www.baivbfp.com/video/webinar_right_value/index.php.

#2. Generate revenue. On the one hand you would think this could go without saying. On the other hand, when looking at the calendars of many financial advisors and seeing fairly sparse revenue generation activity one might wonder if more than a few financial advisors could use some training in running a business like a business with a clear objective to generate revenue. And it is a business. It’s a wonderful business where you help people and make a difference. However, let’s not confuse a business with a charity. You must run your business like a money-making business in order to be able to help people and make that difference in their lives.

#3. Be profitable. I don’t need to tell you, a financial advisor, about the difference between revenue and profit. And, yet, there are many financial advisors who boast big production, but not much profit. So, a friendly reminder to be profitable can’t hurt. Especially in an industry where one good measure of integrity is having enough profit to pay for a great lifestyle today, being completely insured, and having enough to fully fund your own goals and financial independence. People who give others financial advice for a living really should have their own financial house in order, right?

#4. Systemize and document everything. This is a very smart idea for several reasons. (a) It will make your life much easier. (b) It will help you serve your clients better, generate more revenue, and be more profitable. (c) It will make you much more effective at hiring, training, leading, and supervising your staff. (d) Your company will be far less dependent on individuals which improves your business valuation. For good information about building systems to run your business check out http://TrustedAdvisorToolkit.com/.

#5. Kaizen. This is the Japanese term for “continuous improvement.” As too many learned the hard way during the global financial crisis there is no status quo. You are either getting better or you are getting worse. And it’s unlikely you are improving by accident. If you are not consciously and purposely improving you are declining. Make a commitment, as the leader of your company, to continuously improve your business, your health, your important relationships, and your mental and spiritual well-being. Expect the same for your team. It’s like the old Nike slogan, “there is no finish line.”

Perhaps these principles and their explanation will help you run a better, more successful business.

“If comfort is your goal – success is not in your future.” Bill Bachrach, CSP, CPAE

Think about how this quote applies to you in your life.  Do you need to make any changes to how you do things that can have a significant impact on your success?

5. A Smart Script Has a Specific Call to Action

I’m famous for telling people not to reinvent the wheel. There are internal training programs and external resources that can help you develop a smart script. The key is to find a process or system that works for you. Most people have no process, therefore they have no script. The call to action is get yourself a system that works and fits with who you are and how you want to show up in the marketplace. Too many people try to take bits and pieces from a myriad of systems and make them into something for themselves, and that doesn’t work. Choosing and implementing one system as it is designed will produce results. Use the guidelines in this article as a tool for measuring a smart script.

The primary point here is get a system, have a process, and memorize that process. The script is what you say and do to make the process work, and there are plenty of them out there. Those of us who offer such systems are very easy to find. We’re not hiding! We’re writing articles in various publications. We’re speaking and exhibiting at the conferences. Some of your colleagues are already working with us, so ask around.

One final note. Make sure that when you choose a system, the people using that system are achieving the results you want to achieve. Plenty of systems can help you get clients, but you may end up with a business that you don’t want to manage. Stephen Covey says when you pick up one end of a stick, you pick up the other. I once talked to a financial advisor who said, “At my company, our role model does $2 million in production.” I asked, “How many staff people does he have? What’s his overhead? How many hours a week does he work?” The advisor replied, “Oh, he’s a working machine! He’s been in business 20 years and he still works five or six long days a week. He loves it.”

In truth, many advisors who make a lot of money don’t really like the kind of business they’re running. They work too many days and too many hours. They’re running what I call a dumb business. Wouldn’t you rather run a smart business where you make the kind of money you want, work as little as possible, enjoy the kind of lifestyle you want, and set an example for your clients? If so, then before you adopt a system or a process, look at the whole picture and choose the system and the scripts that will take you where you want to go.

4. A Smart Script Has a Clear Agenda

Many advisors think they have to recite the agenda to the client. You know the old high school format: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. A smart script does not describe the agenda, it lets you do the agenda.

When you make an initial contact, you should have obtained meaningful information about the prospect from the person who referred them. You can incorporate that information into your smart script. For example, if you know the prospect has four children, you might say something like, “Stan, your friend suggested we get together because there are some concepts in Values-Based Financial Planning™ that could help you provide a better future for your children, Mary, Jenny, Peter, and David. Did I catch you at an okay time?” Notice that I called the prospect by name, made sure it was an okay time, and stated my purpose clearly.

A dumb script often has a very different purpose and agenda: It’s designed to scare people into buying products designed to overcome their fears. For instance, a dumb script might be used to sell life insurance to address the fear of dying prematurely. Or it might be used to sell long-term care insurance to address the fear of not dying prematurely. I was trained by people who perfected those kinds of scripts. They taught mantras like: Dig ’em a hole and throw ’em a rope. Find a need and fill it. Paint them out of the corner you’ve backed them into with your product or service. Break their leg by asking questions that make them feel stupid, and then they’ll know they need you. One system calls it tunneling for pain. Another one of my mentors used to call it being a scab picker: Pick their scab, make it bleed, and offer your product or service as a Band-Aid.

I wouldn’t want to imply that dumb scripts don’t work. A dumb but well-executed script will make sales—but how does that bode for the long-term relationship? How do you think clients feel about having a regular meeting with someone who inflicts pain and makes them feel stupid? How do you think they feel about providing referrals to that person? Even if they’re happy with the products, they typically tend to buy what they need and then run.

At the end of the day, you can motivate people by fear, but most people would prefer to be inspired. A smart script talks about values, goals, and what’s important to the client. It offers to build a bridge to a positive future. A smart script is positive and inspirational, not fear mongering.

Stay tuned for the fifth way to tell a smart script from a dumb one.