First of all, they don't meet your Ideal Client Profile. Ideal Clients hire you when you invite them to join your Ideal Client Community. So, the real question is, "how long and to what extent do you pursue non-Ideal Clients to try to get them to join your Ideal Client Community?" In the future I suggest that when they say they want to "think it over" that you say, "No problem. I’ll leave you two alone for a few minutes to talk it over.” Come back in five minutes and see what happened. We’ve been teaching this for years, and usually they just want a moment alone to confer that they are on the same page about wanting to move forward with you. As far as following up with these non-Ideal Clients, I wouldn't bother. At the end of the first conversation where they tell you they don't want to hire you, say something like, "I enjoyed meeting you and I'll leave my offer for you to join our client community open for another 2 weeks. Please don't infer from the fact that I will never call...

It's exactly the same. When they ask, "How much does it cost?" Tell them the truth about how you get paid.

Exactly, move on to someone who "gets it."

All or nothing.

You are correct. Take them through the Financial Road Map® experience. The level of detail you get into about what you do, how you do it, and how much you charge will be in response to their questions after Commitment to Hire™.

That's a great question! I think it will be very easy for you to quantify your Return on Investment in terms of quality of life. The benefits of having a Values-Based Financial Planner™ are freedom and confidence. The physical freedom from having to do the work to learn everything you would need to learn and do everything you would have to do to be your own financial advisor; mental freedom from worry, stress, and anxiety about your money; and the confidence that your financial choices are in alignment with your most important goals and your most deeply-held values. You will have the confidence that comes from getting your entire financial house in perfect order and keeping it that way forever and the confidence that comes from knowing that you will achieve your goals regardless of what happens in the financial markets, the economy, or world events. You have this confidence because you have a Trusted Advisor, that's me, supported by a Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts in all...

I think we covered this very well at the last Academy (January 2012 Academy 2). I suggest that you listen to the audio recordings about the Commitment to Hire Conversation™ where we discussed the use of the diagrams to make your points visually about what you do for your clients. These were the 3 Meeting Process™ and the Conceptual Deliverables Team structure diagrams. You might also use the chart (created by Mark Scorer) that illustrates cycling through the 143 Deliverables Check Points in the first 59 days and then cycling through them again as part of the 3 Meeting Process™ that follows the Implementation Meeting and Initial Progress Update meeting (the first 59 days). The written explanation from the Trusted Advisor Toolkit Kit™ about the 10 Client Deliverables™ could also be used, but it's a little text-heavy for my taste. If I felt that I had explained what we do well during Commitment To Hire Conversation™ already, then I might ask this question of the person who claims that...

My favorite way to be a Financial Advisor is to deliver truly comprehensive financial services, as we define it with our complete deliverables checklist, and charge a flat fee between $20,000 and $50,000 / year. $36,000 is a good number because it easily divides as $3,000 / month or $9,000 / quarter. I believe you know where to find people in your community who can afford this fee. The challenge isn't finding financially successful people. The challenge is having a value proposition that would impress financially successful people and the communication skills to articulate that value proposition to financially successful people so they will meet you in the first place and subsequently terminate their relationships with other advisors and institutions and do all of their business with you. Our forte is providing you with such a value proposition and teaching you to be this good. Most advisors make this transition by simultaneously building their Ideal Client Community and...

Ideal Clients won't ask that question. They will answer your question and will talk about their commitment to implement their plan.

Answer the questions that actually come up during Commitment to Hire Conversation™ with the truth about what you currently do for your clients.

That sounds great!

"I can appreciate you wondering how you'll have a 10 level of confidence given all the negative events happening in the world. You look at these events through the lens of a person who does not yet have their entire financial house in order with all of their choices about money aligned with their most important goals and their most deeply held values. Over the next 12-15 months as this changes for you so will view about those things which are outside of your control. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts about your confidence a year from now. Are you ready to get started?" Or: "No one can control all of these events that are outside of your control. All you can do is hire me to help you make sure that all of your financial choices are aligned with your most important goals and your most deeply held values and get your entire financial house in perfect order. And when you are certain that you have done all that you can do you no longer have stress, worry, and anxiety over what you...

You are offering to be their personal financial advisor. You may interface with their business advisors or key employees, like their CFO, but you don't replace them.

Consider these two people as two separate prospects. You will conduct two separate Financial Road Map Interviews and they will be two separate clients if they both choose to hire you.

These are two separate issues. One issue is YOUR compensation and the other is the money manager's compensation. You can charge your clients a flat-fee for YOUR services and embedded within the investment management deliverable there could be basis points for expenses related to the services of the money management subject-matter expert, none of which are paid to you. These basis points for money management come out of your client's assets and are paid directly to the money management Subject Matter Expert. This is a perfectly acceptable way to operate until you find a money manager who is willing to manage the money for flat fee. Your fiduciary responsibility, and one of the many reasons that you are so valuable to your clients, is that you accomplish appropriate money management for your clients in a very, very cost-effective manner. Almost certainly more cost-effectively than they are doing by themselves or is currently being done for them by a more traditional financial...

I wouldn't change anything. Whether they believe in insurance or not doesn't change the fact that it's your job to review their situation and give advice. Even if they can afford to self-insure, they may choose to lay that risk off to an insurance company. Many very financially successful people still buy insurance. Keep in mind that we're not just talking about life insurance here. As you progress in the Committed Advisor Program you will learn to present the offer of the Full Values-Based Financial Planning™ Value Proposition as well as answer the "pivotal questions" that we know from experience some prospects and clients will ask.

This is impossible. You can't show them the plan that they have not yet hired you to create. I suppose you could repeat that the plan is based on their Financial Road Map® and what they get when they hire you to create that, which is scripted into the Commitment to Hire Conversation™.

I agree with you, it can't take 45 minutes to answer the questions about the cost and what they get. Listen to your recordings and figure out a way to be more succinct. The fee is for the advice, not the plan detail.

I agree with you, it can't take 45 minutes to answer the questions about the cost and what they get. Listen to your recordings and figure out a way to be more succinct. The fee is for the advice, not the plan detail.

First of all, great job being in the game! You never know how people will respond, but you have to do the work, make the offers, and deal with whatever you get. Essentially, you can take one of 3 roads with an email response: Dear : I am glad you found value from your experience working with us and hope that it helps you make better choices about your money so you achieve your goals for the reasons that are important to you. There will be no charge for the work we've done together. Let me know how else I can be of service. ****** I'm not sure how accurate the following communication would be because I'm making up a few things to fill in gaps that I can't fill without more information, but you'll get the idea. Dear: Please forgive me. The fact you believe you can get the same services from an investment management firm who also does financial planning means I did a poor job of articulating the value to you of joining our Ideal Client Community. I apologize. ...