BachrachBlog

Over the years, 20+ now, I’ve studied a lot, taught a lot, and written a lot about building high-trust client relationships. Lately I’ve found myself saying to our core group of committed advisors who implement the Values-Based Financial Planning™ turn-key business model that, “trust is not the objective, trust is a by-product of the other things that you do, like your behavior, your communication, and the quality of your work.”

 I’ve come to believe that if gaining your clients trust is your objective then the focus is on the wrong place: you. When, of course, the focus should be on them. When your goal is to establish trust it might be to further your agenda, like, “I have to get them to trust me… so they hire me… so they give me assets… so they buy my product or idea, etc, etc. etc.”

Consider this point of view instead:  “I am going to show up relaxed, be authentic, behave with an extremely high level of professionalism, skillfully execute my process for creating a great client interview experience or progress meeting experience, ask great questions, listen with empathy, be well-organized , be respectful of their time by not bragging about myself or my company or boring them with over-explanations of financial concepts and ideas, and be selective about only letting the truly right-fit people join my community of Ideal Clients. And if, in the process of behaving this way, they trust me and hire me, fine. If not, that’s okay too.”

Some advisors try to force things to happen with everyone they meet by using sales, influence, or persuasion tactics to “close the deal.” This is akin to a woman desperately seeking a husband because her “biological clock is ticking” instead of  looking for the right partner with similar goals and values who is best suited for the two them to create a life together of happiness and fulfillment.

I’m in the business of helping successful advisors double-quadruple their business revenue in 4 years or less, so what I’m writing about here is not purely altruistic. You may be concerned that “relaxing” or abandoning a more intense sales focus will diminish your results. Actually, the contrary is true. Which “way of being” do you think is more likely to attract successful people to want to become your clients, the relaxed Trusted Advisor or the intense salesperson? Relaxed doesn’t mean wishy-washy or lacking in passion for helping people make smart choices about their money. It means that you don’t show up with what we used to call “commission breath.”

Think of each client relationship more like a professional marriage. The objectives are for them to have the best possible experience, whether they become a client or not, and for only the “right-fits” to become clients.

Here are a few time-tested ideas for behaving in ways that create the by-product of trust and a few thoughts about not-to-do behaviors that erode trust.

1         Look for “right fit” people to join your client community versus a “they have money therefore I want them” mentality. Create an Ideal Client Profile where the personality element of the people you meet is equally important to the money element in order for them to earn an invitation to join your client community. Notice the difference in how it feels to think of inviting people to do business with you versus “closing the deal.”

2          Ask good questions.

1. Values (What’s important about money to you?)
2. Goals (What are your tangible goals that require money and planning to achieve? How much do you want to have for that goal? By when? What are two or three words that describe what you are thinking and feeling once you have achieved that goal?)
3. Does the idea of having a comprehensive financial plan which gives you a higher probability of achieving your goals and fulfilling your values appeal to you?
4. Would you like to join our client community and have us do this work for you?

3         Listen with empathy. The tendency, especially during an initial client interview with people you may have never met face-to-face, is to think more about what you are going to say next while they are answering your questions. When you do this you don’t really hear what they said, therefore it’s hard to be empathetic to things you weren’t fully present, mentally, to hear. The solution is to have your questions memorized so you don’t have to think about what you are going to ask next, thus allowing you to be fully present and a much more empathic listener.

4         Record your client meetings, especially the initial client interview. I’ve written in this magazine before about recording client meetings and to save you the trouble of searching back issues here’s a script for introducing the recorder.  “I appreciate the investment of time and effort you made to be here today. The fact that you have done so tells me that you must be serious about your money, is that true? (pause for answer) You’ll notice that I’ll ask many relevant questions, take copious notes, and I also record the meeting. (refer to the recorder and pause) The reason I record is because I’m very thorough. (pause) Do you know how you can watch a movie a second or third time and see things you missed the first time?” (Nice long pause for them to respond.) “Well giving you advice about your money so you can achieve your goals is obviously much more important than a movie, so I want to make sure our advice is right for you. If we choose to work together, I’ll listen to this recording at least one more time to make sure to get it right. ” (pause) Ask your first question. (See “ask good questions” above)

5         Give advice with conviction. Salespeople tend to offer alternatives and let the prospect or client choose. Trusted Advisors gather all the information they need, consult with other experts where appropriate, and give the best advice for the client… with conviction. There may be more than one way to achieve a goal, but there is only one best way. Find the best way and give advice with conviction.

6         Tell the truth even if doing so jeopardizes the relationship.  Serious and successful people don’t want to pay good money for a rubber-stamp, yes-person kissing their butts and telling them only what they want to hear. It’s your job to tell the truth, especially when it’s what they need to hear and not what they want to hear.

7         Avoid direct statements or indirect implications that you can do the impossible. Ie: beat the market. The primary determinant of a person achieving their goals is their own behavior. Your job is much more about managing your clients’ choices and actions than it is about managing their money. The bottom line is that there is no guarantee of anything. The best you can do is to help people get their entire financial house in order, make the best choices possible at the time, and be in the strongest position possible to adapt to whatever non-controllable events occur.  The less you play the predict-the-future game the more credible you are.

8         Be inspiring. Focus on helping clients and prospective clients create a compelling vision for their future and become their bridge to make it happen. Being a future vision creator is much more trust-building than being a problem-solver.

9         Avoid the use of the old-school greed appeal: “work with me and you’ll get a better return because our guru has a better beat the market black box.”

10     Avoid the use of the old-school fear tactic: “buy gold (or whatever) now because the big deficits and weak dollar mean inevitable inflation coming to erode your buying power! You could outlive your money and end up a burden to your family, living off community hand-outs, or on the government dole. How would that make you feel?”

11     Be a comprehensive financial professional. It’s interesting that most financial advisors claim to be comprehensive. But what does that really mean? What is “comprehensive financial services?” At the very least, comprehensive implies “everything.” Do you really help your clients take care of everything related to their money? How many things is that? I know of one advisor who has done such a great job of defining comprehensive financial services that many advisors look to him for leadership on this subject. Check out www.trustedadvisortoolkit.com for the best information I know of about delivering truly comprehensive financial services.

12     Put the client first.  Duh. I know. It sounds almost silly and certainly cliché. And yet there is a lot of discussion and controversy by the regulators and industry leaders about the fiduciary standard. Am I the only one who finds it absurd that legislation is necessary for our industry to step up and adopt a fiduciary standard? Isn’t that simply always, in all situations, and under all circumstances putting your client’s needs ahead of your own? Isn’t that what you already do? Do you really need a law about that? Apparently the industry does. The good news is that your competition needs somebody else to define integrity for them. And speaking of integrity…

13     Have no conflicts of interest. Notice I didn’t say “disclose conflicts of interest.” Run your business without any conflicts of interest. Why should there be any conflicts of interest to disclose?

Keep in mind that these are not “tactics” to build trust. These are the powerful behaviors of  financial professionals who are very good at what they do and who genuinely care about helping people get their financial house in order, achieve their goals, and fulfill their values.  By behaving at this very high level of professionalism trust is the by-product of that behavior.

The bottom line is that you can’t “technique” your way to trust. You earn it by who you are and what you do.

Bob Veres commented on Bill’s November article in FA Magazine: “Bachrach says that the important part of the communication process is not the data, it is the validation of the individual client sitting across the desk from you.  Those communication skills are the key to whether clients or prospects trust you and whether they follow your advice.  From there, he offers some quotes from communication gurus.”  Bert Decker, author of You’ve Got To Be Believed To Be Heard, says that the quality of your communication determines the quality of your life.  Patricia Fripp says that “Specificity leads to credibility.”  (In other words, don’t use words like “stuff” for the actual word you’re searching for, or words like “kinda” and “sorta.”  Motivational speaker Giovanni LIvera says “When you connect people to their heart, you connect them to you.”

Dianna Booher, author of Voices of Authority and Communicate With Confidence says that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth should not be three separate things.  The truth should not include spin, hype, exaggeration or embellishment.

“Bachrach suggests that you review the script for your meetings (do you have a script?), and see if you’re asking purposeful questions and listening with empathy.  Is the conversation valuable for the client?  He says the most successful communicators will record their meetings with clients with digital hand-held recorders.”  (Financial Advisor Magazine, November 2009 issue – p. 48)

To read the article: “Talking the Talk” published in the Financial Advisor, November 2009, go to:
http://www.fa-mag.com/component/content/article/4618.html?issue=115&magazineID=1&Itemid=73

How much of the winter Olympics did you watch?  Apolo Ohno was certainly a hit with winning so many medals.  During various interviews, he said a few things that I thought you might want to ponder and consider how you can apply what he said into your life for even greater success.

 “Before you go to sleep at night ask yourself one question: Did you do every single thing you could today to make sure that you did your best? It’s hard to answer ‘yes’ every single day.” Apolo Ohno; Short-track speed skater

“I don’t like to look at it as competition. It’s about me conquering myself… me being able to face my own fears, distractions, and weaknesses and say that I overcame them.” Apolo Ohno; Short-track speed skater

As the comedians like to point out, it’s because you stop looking after you find them, of course!

Perhaps the same could be said for systems and processes for building and running a successful financial services business.

- What do you do after you find a client service model that works?
- What do you do after you find a client acquisition process that works?
- What do you do after you find a system for building and leading your team that works?

If you are still looking, it’s probably because you have not yet found an integrated system that covers all the bases for building a highly successful financial services business. What are the bases?

1. A predictable way to be paid to deliver a superior client experience that is not dependent on events out of your control like the market or the economy or the underlying products.
2. A predictable way to consistently acquire new Ideal Clients.
3. A process to build and lead your team to help you produce results in both of these key areas crucial to being a highly successful financial advisor.

What is your predictable way to be paid to deliver a superior client experience that is not dependent on events out of your control like the market or the economy or the underlying products? How do you consistently acquire new Ideal Clients? How do you build and lead your team to help you produce results in both of these key areas for being a highly successful financial advisor?

While there are proven systems to produce these results, the bottom line is that there is no silver bullet. As the famous saying goes, “the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” Once you identify the process or the system or the method for serving clients, acquiring clients, and building a team, the real work begins to successfully implement these systems and methods. This may explain why so few advisors are producing consistent results in these crucial areas.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

Successful advisors accept that there is no silver bullet and are willing to do the work their goals require to achieve them. Maybe you already have a great system or perhaps you still need to find one.

The bottom line is that the sooner you find your keys the sooner you can drive your car. Looking for the keys doesn’t produce any desired results. It’s the driving that gets you somewhere you want to be.

To learn how our turn-key business model can help you have your Ideal Life in 4 years or less by building an Ideal Client Community, by referral only, give us a call at (800) 347-3707 to schedule a complimentary consultation. Or, go to www.billbachrach.com to schedule your complimentary Success Road Map® interview with one of our coaches.

Enjoy the interview with Rick Barrera about why he joined forces with Bachrach & Associates and the benefits to Advisors.

Rick is a marketing expert and author of “Non-Manipulative Selling,” “Collaborative Selling,” and “The Dollars and Sense of Service Delivery.”  Penguin has just released the second edition of his book, “Overpromise AND Overdeliver: How to Design and Deliver Extraordinary Customer Experiences” which has made both the Business Week and Wall Street Journal best sellers lists.  Each year he works with leading organizations such as Intel, Lexus, JD Edwards, Harley-Davidson, General Electric and Hewlett Packard helping them reach new levels of excellence. He is now working with Bachrach & Associates.

Find out for yourself the benefits of this joining of forces between Bill and Rick.

To listen to this interview with Rick Barerra, go to: http://www.baivbfp.com/assets/audio/mp3/barrera/index.php