I am having difficulty having prospective clients 'open up' when I ask them "What is Important About Money to You." Are there some other questions to help dig deeper into what a prospective client really thinks is important to them?

Article ID: 68

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

Nope, that’s the question and it goes as deep as you could ever want to go.

Like everyone who is new to Values Based Financial Planning™, you will get better by doing Financial Road Map Interviews™. Make sure you are actually doing what we teach, record your Financial Road Map Interviews™ , and listen to those recordings.

Becoming brilliant at the client interview requires an investment of time and a true commitment to become great. It’s like any other repetitive motion skill, such as golf. In order to become great you have to do a lot and do it right.

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I've been having some difficulty in the values conversation with clients not going "higher" than basic needs. It almost seems like I need to cue them that it's OK to go beyond money and that I want to hear about the things that are really important to them. They seem to not understand that and there's nothing in the script to let them know that. To be honest, I’ve deviated from the WIA__TY and the associated framing/bridging framework in order to have clients understand what the exercise is really about...I found it frustrating to keep hearing that money is important to pay bills without anything deeper or more important. Please share your thoughts on these several issues.

How do I better describe my value? One potential client thought he was already living out many of his values and thus enjoying his ideal life. How do I describe that what I do provides incredible value even for the person who enjoys managing his own investments and has enough money and time to take plenty of vacations?

How can an Advisor make sure that what is captured in the "What’s Important About…To You" is positive and inspirational if the answer is phrased as moving away from a negative feeling or situation?

I conducted a Phone Consultation this evening with a couple. I made the offer to complete their Financial Road Map®, which they accepted. When they come in for the Financial Road Map®, experience, do I pre-populate the values staircase for them, have them review it, and begin with the scripting from that point, or do I do the whole values staircase conversation again?

During the Values Conversation™, the client sometimes goes down a path about a particular aspect of their life, like travel, and may even get to level three, but then indicate that there are some level one and two responses in some other area of their life like children or community. How do we best encourage the client to transition to these other areas of their lives in the conversation without complicating or disrupting the flow of the process?

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