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.

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.

As a financial professional, your initial contact with potential clients will almost certainly be a telephone conversation. To maximize your results and progress to the next point of contact, do what the most successful advisors do: Have a smart script and be prepared to use it.

To avoid sounding canned, follow these two simple rules:

1.   Read the script so many times that you no longer sound like you’re reading.

2.   Practice in the real world. To master anything, you have to be willing to look foolish.

Advisors who choose to “wing it” often sound wishy-washy, uncertain, and unsure of themselves. Prospects sense their uncertainty and unconsciously judge their ability as an advisor by how they communicate. On the other hand, well-prepared advisors sound smart, articulate, confident, and certain. They give the impression that they know what they’re saying and they’re saying it on purpose.

Practice and preparation are only half of the equation; the other half is having a smart script.

Here is one of the five ways to tell a smart script from a dumb one.

1. A Smart Script Arouses Interest

A dumb script (such as, “Hi, I’m a financial advisor”) causes people to say, “I already know what you do and I already have one of you. I don’t want to talk to you because I’m afraid you’ll try to sell me something.” A smart script causes your listeners to be curious, interested, and eager to talk. When you tell them what you do, you articulate it in a way that will cause them to ask, “Oh, you help people make smart choices about their money. How do you do that?” “You’re a life advisor who specializes in money. Tell me more about that.”  A smart script triggers a conversation instead of a preconception.

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

And that some things that you don’t believe to be true actually are?

I’m not talking about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy. I’m talking about crucial beliefs about what is actually true that you believe is not true and what you believe to be true that is false. These are called limiting beliefs. Sometimes referred to as baggage. Some of them are harmless and others can have a devastating impact on your success and happiness in life.

For example, most advisors believe that it takes many, many years to build a clientele, any clientele. Or that prospecting is a lifetime activity. Many believe that having a community of ONLY Ideal Clients, people who you LOVE doing business with and LOVE doing business with you, who appreciate your service so much they will help you build your Ideal Client Community by referral only, and happily pay you exactly what you need to fund your present lifestyle and future goals is a pipe dream. Many advisors believe this kind of clientele is an impossible level of financial advisor Nirvana that is unattainable. Most advisors don’t even know where these limiting beliefs came from. These limiting beliefs just live in their head, directing their choices at an unconscious level, from many years of failing to achieve certain goals, listening to the endless blather and excuse-making of mediocre advisors, and ineffective managers who simply don’t have the vision or the skills to actually help advisors be successful.

We have a compelling vision for where your business can be in 3-5 years, or less, that you may find hard to believe. More importantly, we have the tools and experience to help you make it happen. Can you set aside your limiting beliefs long enough for an objective analysis? What if it’s true? What if we’re right? What if you really can have the business we describe?

Go to www.baivbfp.com and read my message on our home page, several times. And try not to let your limiting beliefs get in your way. It’s a great time to be a Financial Advisor!

“I thought it was impossible too, before I did it.”
LANCE ARMSTRONG
7x Tour de France champion

I sometimes hear people refer to continuous learning and continuous improvement as though they are the same thing. They are not the same.

Can you learn without improving? Certainly. Can you improve without learning something new? Definitely. Does all learning create improvement? No.

Before you read that next book or attend another webinar or seminar or conference, ask yourself a couple of important questions: “Am I doing this to learn or to improve?” “What will I be able to do to be better as a result of reading this book or attending this webinar or seminar or conference?” “How quickly will I be able to implement what I learn to produce results in one or more key areas of my personal or professional life?”

If we’ve done your Success Road Map®, you can give it the Success Road Map check with questions like: “How will this help me bridge the gap between where I am now and where I want to be with one or more of my success metrics?” “How will this help me achieve me goals?” “How will this impact the fulfillment of my values?” (Go to www.baivbfp.com to learn more about taking advantage of your complimentary Success Road Map® experience.)

Professionals at the highest levels are masters at refining what they know to approach perfection at their craft. Through diligent practice and repetition they become virtuosos. While this term is normally used to describe musicians and singers who operate at the highest levels of technical proficiency, could it apply to you as a Financial Advisor?

In Music in the Western World by Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, we find the following definition of virtuoso: “…a virtuoso was, originally, a highly accomplished musician, but by the nineteenth century the term had become restricted to performers, both vocal and instrumental, whose technical accomplishments were so pronounced as to dazzle the public.”

Wouldn’t it be great to be dazzling at the key elements for building your community of Ideal Clients? Ie: Conducting a brilliant initial client interview as well as effectively asking for and receiving referrals. Also, being good enough on the phone, when you make your follow up calls to your referrals, so they call you back, and when you do speak with them you are articulate and compelling. Maybe you have some learning to do. Once you learn how, then continuous improvement applies until you are producing the desired results.

My advice: Learn less. Apply more. Continuously IMPROVE. Get great results. Repeat.