I spend a fair amount of time practicing responses to clients who we are starting the Referral Conversation with. Your recent webinars have been vey valuable. So far I left the first Referral Conversations in Progress Meetings with the client with the view I expect them to bring names of people we can introduce VBFP™ to at the next appointment. Would it be beneficial to send a letter prior to the next progress meeting to remind them to bring names of people we can introduce VBFP™ too with perhaps an explanation of what we would provide. If so what would be the content I should place in this letter?

Article ID: 397

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

I don't think this is a separate letter, but it might be one of the agenda bullet points in whatever you send to a client to prepare them for the Progress Meeting.

You might consider not waiting 4 months for the next Progress Meeting and scheduling an appointment for the sole purpose of doing the Referral Process in a couple of days or a week. It really doesn't take 4 months to think of people to give gifts to.

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How do I go about getting my first Ideal Client? I do not have a client base to work from for referrals. I know many people superficially who I believe meet my Ideal Client Profile, but I do not know MISC information about them, and I do not know anyone who knows MISC information about them. Help?

I frequently find myself in group social and business settings (for instance, a group around a table), in which all of us in the shared space are introducing ourselves, invariably stating what we do and for whom. Since this is a group setting and not a one-on-one, there is no opportunity at that moment for the M.I.S.C conversation, just a, "sound bite," to strangers. Assume that there is no "host" with a pre-scripted introduction, just me, a group of people who generally do not know each other, and 30 - 120 seconds in the spotlight. Note: I've tried the, "I help people achieve their goals", but without the opportunity for the follow-up, "tell me the big goals in your life", it falls flat. So, what do I say? [I know this is NOT the BAI approach, but it is real life, many times social, sometimes business.

I realize mine is not the optimal model, but until I actually get an Ideal Client and transition to referral only, it is the one I've got. Here is my situation -- I've met with a few attorneys since my return from the Academy, actually took out the Financial Road Map® and tried to get them to go through it with me [they all refused and I do not expect that to change] but they all were intrigued enough with what I was saying to ask me for the words for them to use [most likely in an email] so that they could tell their clients about me and give them the chance to contact me. No, they will not give me their clients' names for me to contact directly; nor will they send the VBFP book/Road Map to their clients on my behalf. They want a short blurb on what I do, what makes me appealing/different, etc. so that THEY can make the INTRODUCTION/REFERRAL. I've learned from the Financial Road Map® Interview that what we say, how we say things, the language we use, etc. are all critical to the rapport building. So, with all that in mind, what words would you suggest I put before the attorneys so they can make a "warm" third party referral without having experienced the Road Map first hand [again, they won't do it, but I am confident they will make introductions].

I recently had a conversation with a (self-referred) successful business owner who had talked with me a couple years earlier (before I was in the program) about investing, insurance, and financial planning in general. He expressed an interest in having me take a look at his finances. According to the process, I sent him a book and conducted a Phone Consultation, which went well, and he seemed very interested in having me complete their Financial Road Map®. I scheduled a tentative appointment for when he thought his wife might be available, and asked him to let me know if the time wasn't going to work for her. I also sent him the list of documents to bring when they come. A few days later, I got the following email: "I am not sure this is going to work out. My wife cannot meet at the time we proposed. She is leaving for DC that day. I am leaving the next day. It is going to be hard to get her down to your neck of the woods [45 minutes away] and I am not wanting to go down there either. I understand that you want us both to be there for the financial planning but she is not involved in the finances in our family and that is partially by design. I understand the values based investing part of what you do but I would like to know more about your strategy in investing and what your track record is. I have been working with a company to do some financial planning mostly insurance and things of that sort. (They always come to my office to meet otherwise I don’t think we would be doing any business) Let’s keep in touch and see where it goes." He apparently views me as a wealth manager, but is currently unaware of what we really do (fully-comprehensive financial services). How would you respond?

If tax preparation clients seem reluctant about scheduling the Financial Road Map interview™, is that a “next” situation, or do you think it would be a good idea to then send them a copy of the book and schedule a Phone Consultation™ so they can get a glimpse of the idea, while not taking nearly as much of their time, and make a better decision on whether the Financial Road Map Interview™ is something they want to do or not?

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