Do you have a script for appointment setting that works with a non referred client you are in the beginning stages with, that makes them feel comfortable bringing their large pile of documents to a first meeting?
Comfort really isn’t the goal. What if a person needs to do something to achieve a goal that is not comfortable? I suggest you tell people the truth about what needs to happen, and forget about comfort. The reason a person brings their documents to a meeting with a Financial Advisor is to have a better experience and so the advisor can do his / her work effectively. Just because weak, ineffective, Financial Advisors have not asked clients to bring their documents to the meeting in the past does not mean that was a good idea. It just means there a lot of sloppy advisors in the world who do a lousy job and waste people’s time. Bringing documents to a meeting with a Financial Advisor is like bringing your teeth to an appointment with your dentist. It’s that important. After you schedule the appointment for a week or so, ask: “In order for this experience to be successful for you, you will need to bring all of your financial documents to our meeting. I will send you a list of...
How do I get people to come to my office for the first meeting when they frankly sometimes don’t even know if they want to meet me AND to bring their documents? I know referrals are best and I am working towards referrals only, but this other prospecting method does happen sometimes and may be happening for others as they get started building their practices.
First of all, you hit the nail on the head about referrals. Traditional forms of prospecting are very difficult to get people to come to your office or to meet with you at all for that matter. Which is why most people who enter this business fail and why most who stay in the business are not especially successful. I’m guessing that you are still in the early stages of implementation with Values Based Financial Planning™ and the Financial Road Map Interview™ and have not yet put our referral process to work for you. That’s okay, all things in due time. However, when you are consistently implementing a proven referral system and your calendar is nice and full, you don’t worry too much about other prospecting or marketing systems or how to convince people you might bump into socially to come to your office. Your first step is to work with your Accountability Coach to establish a target list of people you can do Financial Road Map Interviews™ (FRMI) with. From there you will have...
When I am calling prospects (not clients) that are already in my company's database, is it better to use the Self-Referral Process or the Financial Road Map® scheduling script?
The better you know the prospective clients, the more likely you would be to use the Financial Road Map® scheduling script. It is more appropriate to use the Self-Referral process if you do not know the prospective clients that well.
I am a new adviser with a company where I meet with a lot of people who currently own a product with us and I do a review on that particular product ,which is typically life insurance. Is there a smooth way to transition from the review into a discussion about the Financial Road Map®?
Call them up and say, “We have an appointment scheduled to discuss your life insurance. However, I don’t think this is a very smart approach to me truly being able to give you good advice. Instead, I recommend that you and your spouse come to my office and complete your Financial Road Map® Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 . Having Financial Road Map® will help you make better financial choices in all areas, in addition to life insurance.” From here you can follow the scripts in the Mastery Series™ for scheduling Financial Road Map® appointments.
How do you "pre-qualify" referrals prior to the initial Financial Road Map Interview™ to see if they will be a good fit?
You could either go ahead and conduct the Financial Road Map® and make your own decision about this Referral. Or, ask questions to see if they meet your profile.
I gave a Values Based Financial Planning™ book to a prospective Ideal Client during a business meeting. I set up an appointment with him, however part of the purpose of the meeting is also to explore how he can help me build my business. When we have the actual meeting, should I do the Financial Road Map® with him or have the referral conversation.
Always start with the Financial Road Map®. Why not schedule the appointment with him AND his spouse so he can really understand? First focus on helping him and then worry about referrals.
Having met a group of professionals only 1 time at a small group meeting - what would you suggest I do to try and get these individuals as Financial Road Map® Clients? What is the 1st step?
Follow the process outlined in Mastery Series™ 2. It’s a self referral. Ask the questions to understand why THEY might get value from Values-Based Financial Planning™; offer to give them a copy of the book. If they accept, schedule the phone consultation, and proceed just as we teach.
What language do you use to set up a Financial Road Map® with prospects?
That could vary depending on how you are finding your prospects. When you and your Accountability Coach decide that you are ready for Mastery Series 2, which teaches our referral process, you will learn a complete system for filling your appointment calendar by referral. In the meantime, when you are scheduling appointments with your prospects it is important for them to come to your office with their spouse and bring their financial documents. This is so they can have the best experience possible. Communicate that they will get something, their Financial Road Map®, which will be valuable to them whether or not the two of you choose to do business together. They will experience a meeting where they will both have total clarity about what’s important to them, define all of their financial goals, and benchmark their current financial reality. This will help them to be in a position to align all of their financial decisions with their most important goals and their most deeply held...
Can you please help me with an appropriate Financial Road Map® appointment setting script that I can use with the clients in my tax practice?
We are expanding the value we provide beyond just doing tax work and I'm calling to schedule an appointment for you and (their spouse / partner) to come in to discuss it. (Any further details, if needed, for this script can be taken from the Appointment Setting script in the Mastery Series 1 pg. 29)
Can you please suggest an appropriate scripted reply, when my clients (often happens in the Values Staircase™ Conversation) ask me, "Are you a life coach or counselor?” I’m looking for a response that has a yes but we are also so much more impactful i.e. a wow factor that’s compelling, succinct and all about them.
"Nope. I'm just a really good Financial Advisor who will help you align your most important goals with your most important goals."
Someone asks me, “What do you do?” After I answer the question, what questions (impactful or otherwise) can I ask that would evoke an emotional response to move things forward?
One option: ask a question that relates to what you told them you do. eg: On a scale of 1-10, how confident you that you are going to achieve your goals? Another option: ask any question from MISC list: eg: wWhat are things in your life that you are most passionate? Another option: ask any of the Ideal Life Questions. eg: Tell me about your Ideal Life... wWhat does it look like?
When you are talking to people about what you do and using the 10 Pivotal Questions should your focus be on what the Financial Road Map® is or on Client Deliverables? It seems that many people find the 3-Meeting Process, 10 Client Deliverables more compelling than the Financial Road Map®, especially if they are already working with a broker or financial planner.
Start with the Financial Road Map® benefits and work into the others, if necessary, depending on the answers you are getting to the questions you are asking. If you are doing these conversations right, you are doing much, much more listening than talking. Ask your questions and go deep with clarifying, expanding, and impact questions to determine whether or not "the offer" should be made. If you are not certain what I mean by "the offer" listen to your Academy 2 recordings and review the flow charts for the Self-Referral process on www.committedadvisor.com.
When building our house I came across some people who ran successful businesses. I do not, however, know them that well. What would be a good script for talking to these people where I don't know much about them, they may not even remember me and I don't want to come across the wrong way when I talk to them.
If you don't think they will remember you have crossed the line to a cold call, or very close to being a cold call. We don't recommend cold calls. Check out the Self-referral flow chart on www.committedadvisor.com. 'Step 1: Opening and the purpose of the call.' You have to at least know enough about a person when you call them to justify the call and open the conversation. If you don't, don't make the call.
A number of my clients do not involve their spouse in the financial decision making to the point where the husband (typically) wants to be the only one present. While I recognize that this process is more about values than it is about finances, the husband refuses to let the wife attend because she isn't involved in that type of decision making. Should I insist that both spouses be there knowing that the husband won't 'open up' if the wife is there?
Yes. Neither you, nor he, really know how about "opening up" until the meeting actually occurs. It's a very cool thing to watch a husband and wife relationship shift for the better due to you facilitating their Financial Road Map®.
I have identified a script gap for when I am reconnecting with past clients and prospects and introducing them to Values-Based Financial Planning™. Do you have any wording that I could use to talk to people with whom I have no current relationship? I was thinking of something along the lines of, “Our office has been in contact with you in the past and we have undergone some major changes in how we serve our client community. On our way to completing our Ideal Client community, we know that we will positively impact all those along the way. Rather than just send you a copy of the Values-Based Financial Planning™ book, the purpose of this call is to see if Values-Based Financial Planning™ would be relevant in your world. Do you have a couple of minutes?” I would appreciate your input.
Hi, , I was thinking about you today because I remember that you (fill in the blank with something you know about this person that might, at least, be generally relevant to the benefit they might get from Values-Based Financial Planning™) Based on that, I think you might get benefit from some very interesting work that we're doing. I'm not calling to solicit your business, but rather to see if it would make sense to send you a copy of a great book called Values-Based Financial Planning. Rather than just send you a copy of the Values-Based Financial Planning™ book, the purpose of this call is to see if the content would truly add value. Do you have a couple of minutes?”
I am in a number of organizations; Rotary, Chamber, other service-type clubs. I have conducted a number of Financial Road Map® Phone Consultations and some in-person meetings with the people in these groups. However, there are a number of chamber members I have never met. There are some other service club members with whom I have never had a meaningful, important, significant and compelling conversation.
Prior to the last academy I had scheduled time on my calendar to call all the chamber members and self-refer. My coach suggested I need to be calling people whom I have met in person and with whom I have had a meaningful conversation and I agree. He also suggested that I go get involved in things I am passionate about where people have money. Our community is mostly a retirement community and they play dominos, bridge, and golf, and attend social clubs and service clubs. I am not passionate about most of these things and a number of the clubs are age restricted to those of senior age.
My coach also suggested that I look into Facebook & LinkedIn, but most of our base is retired, and a number of them don't even have a Facebook page. Some barely do email and some don't even own a computer.
I want and am willing to GO GET CLIENTS, but I am really struggling with who, where, when to go to self-refer and get clients.
Listen to the recordings from the January 2011 Academy 2 and review the corresponding slides about Self-Referral. We covered this in GREAT detail and everything you need to develop an effective self-referral process is there. You can call virtually anyone you know and strike up a conversation that could lead to a self-referral. My experience is that if you are "wimpy" with your existing clients in referral conversations that you will be wimpy implementing the self-referral process. Your goal should be to improve your expectations and your confidence in having Referral and Self-Referral Conversations with anyone, anytime, anywhere.
I have recently bought about 400 policy holders from another firm. These people have not had any contact or service for at least 2 years and up to 20 years in some cases. When they come to the meeting with me they are not happy due to the lack of service from the previous advisor but do want to discuss what they have previously set up. How do I commence the meeting to acknowledge the neglect and ensure them that I will be discussing the account that they still have with me now?
When you call to schedule the appointment have whatever discussion needs to be had so they vent whatever they have to vent BEFORE the Financial Road Map® interview. Only invite people in to do Financial Road Map® interviews who you believe are ready to have that conversation. I doubt that you want to do Financial Road Map® interviews with all of your newly purchased 400 policy holders.
I often use the question "Do you have someone walking you through the financial aspects of...?" during my initial conversation with potential clients when they tell me of upcoming changes in their lives. If they answer, "Yes", what is an appropriate response?
For example, Betty is telling me she is going to retire this week. I say, "Wow, Betty, do you have someone walking you through the financial aspects of retirement?"
Your question is not part of our process; therefore I have no coaching feedback for you. I suggest you stop asking that question and follow the script you have for conducting Financial Road Map interviews.
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