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.
