I have my first Financial Road Map® with a prospective client next week. Assume he hires me to prepare a plan for him during Commitment to Hire Conversation™. During Commitment to Implement Conversation™, if he says something like, "How can I commit to implement an investment strategy that I have not seen? I have no idea how you intend to invest my money?" How much explanation should be sufficient for an Ideal Client to say “yes”? What does that sound like?

Article ID: 502
Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019
Ideal Clients won't ask that question. They will answer your question and will talk about their commitment to implement their plan.
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folder Commitment to Hire Conversation™ -> Commitment to Hire Conversation™ Misc.
folder Commitment to Hire Conversation™ -> Disengaging from Non-Ideal Clients


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b Sometimes prospects determine to work with me at a date later than the Financial Road Map Interview™. Many times, I’m just talking with one spouse in the follow up. What’s the best way to do an effective Commitment to Implement™ in these cases?
b I have long-time clients who, for the most part, have been completing Financial Road Maps® with me. When I get to Commitment to Implement Conversation™ section, I haven't been asking for that firstly because I cannot charge a hard dollar fee and secondly, if I had a form for them to sign, the form would basically not have meaning as I work for Merrill Lynch and they would not approve of a form that the client to sign for implementing a plan. How do I handle this?
b I have had a number of Financial Road Map® Appointments recently where the time of the appointment has gone to two hours. By the time I have thoroughly gone through the values of each partner and then cover their goals (in both instances this has been around 5 goals) and completed the All the Money Conversation™ and the Commitment to Hire Conversation™, it is going on close to 90-120 mins. I cannot see where there is time that we are wasting. There is little chit chat, however, at times, clients discuss some of their goals and that may take a little longer. I am not sure whether I am going too far with this. Can you please provide some comments around this or strategies I can use to reduce the time I spend on each Financial Road Map® Interview?
b I am struggling not discussing an ongoing fee in Financial Road Map® Meeting. During this conversation the clients ask me how much? The Financial Road Map® Meeting has been around 45 minutes so far and going well. I say $5,000 for the initial plan. They say what do you get? I then run through my 2 page letter of engagement which outlines upfront and ongoing service offering and takes another 45 minutes. After 1.5 hours I feel like the clients are tired and the "would you like to proceed” has lost its presence because of the meeting time. How do I avoid this? I would love to skip the letter of engagement all together, should I just briefly talk about deliverables team (which I have) best-in-class Subject Matters Experts. I am also struggling to understand in the Implementation Meeting how to address the ongoing fee is $1k-$3k per month and not go over the plan in any detail.
b What do you think of this scripting when the prospective clients are talking in great detail: “I appreciate that you want to tell me the details about this, and should we decide to work together professionally, I will need to know more. For the purpose of this exercise, however, I just need to summarize the facts. I have 8 minutes budgeted for this. Would you be willing to give me a few minutes to go through your documents?"
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