The Classic Mistake That Too Many Financial Planners Are Making…

You’ve got an initial meeting or a ‘discovery consultation’ booked with a potential new client…

What processes are you going to go through?

You’ve probably already had a quick chat or had them fill in some sort of questionnaire.

You’ve picked out a few ‘issues’, you’ve probably got some ‘solutions’ in mind to discuss and maybe a ‘fact find’ document to complete to get a heap of required information…

You’re going to go into that meeting and tell them how to FIX their problems.

Surely that will be enough to impress them, right?

They won’t be able to resist giving you the go ahead, committing to you in writing and paying you an initial deposit (engagement fee) to proceed – and BAM, you’ve got a new client.

Except it doesn’t happen like that does it?

Your meeting ends. You go ahead and do the work. You put together the report or strategy paper… but the client never comes back!

Sounds familiar?

That’s because you’ve just made the classic mistake that I see so many financial planners make.

You’ve told them the HOW.

You’ve given them the solution (or a range of potential solutions…) before they’ve paid a cent for your advice or committed to you in any way at all.

They know what needs to be done now and feel educated enough to be able to do it. And they’re going to do it without you.

Or, they’ve seen what work is involved (because you told them) and now feel that it’s too hard.

Either way, you need to know the real focus of what your initial ‘engagement’ meeting is. And it’s not to show them how to fix their problems.

Your job in the early stages is to engage with your clients and diagnose.

During this first meeting, your sole focus needs to be building a relationship of TRUST, figuring out what problems exist and deciding IF or HOW you can help.

You want them crystal clear about the issues that they need to fix and you’re showing them what they need to do – but not HOW to do it…!

To get the how, they need to work with you.

It’s just like a medical specialist when they first meet a patient.

You’re diagnosing the problem/s, not prescribing pills, medication or treatment.

The prescription is the thing your clients will pay for. Generally, people already know that they have a problem, it’s the solution that they will pay for.

The thing that’s going to pull them ‘out of the financial mess they’re in’ and start to turn their financial situation around again.

So, take a minute to think about the last 3 prospects that you met with that did not proceed…

Did you launch into ‘solution mode’ and started telling them how to do this, and we need to do that, and then we’ll sort this other thing…?

If the answer is YES, then you’ve just given away ‘the COOKIE’ for free.

Instead, help them identify the problems they have. Help them put a ‘value’ around those problems (what it is costing them now or what is ignoring it costing them…). Then position yourself as the person who CAN provide the solution.

But resist the urge to give the answers away upfront.

Otherwise, your prospect won’t need you anymore. They’ll just do it themselves and you’ve advised your way out of a new client.

Steve ‘Diagnose & Declare’ Salvia