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Somewhere along the way, you’ve been told you need to educate your clients and prospects. The idea is that if clients and prospects are educated, they will buy your products or services. But that's not a sound premise.
Educating is a poorly rewarded function. We pay school teachers $52,435 annually. And the notion that educated people will take appropriate action also does not hold water. Most people know which foods have high calories, yet the Centers for Disease Control report that 69% of Americans over age 20 are overweight or obese.
Much of your communication has been based on false assumptions. Let's throw out these two premises:
- Educating people about saving for retirement is effective.
- Educated people will take appropriate action.
Now, let’s replace them with premises that accurately reflect how people behave:
- Motivating people about saving for retirement is effective.
- Motivated people will take appropriate action.
Are you motivating people by educating them? No.
Motivators (those who get others to take action) are highly paid, unlike educators. We typically call these highly paid motivators salespeople. Unfortunately, you have likely misinterpreted what selling really means: having the other person see the correct solutions for themselves so they take appropriate actions. Masterful selling has nothing to do with convincing, persuading, cajoling or being pushy.
You need to stop telling and start selling. Let's take a look at a conversation you could have that would empower people to save for retirement. This advisor gets the prospect to see the solution, to step into it, with no telling involved:
Advisor: Gary, what’s your plan for retirement?
Gary: I don’t really have any plan.
Advisor: Why?
Gary: I already spend too much – where would I get the money for a retirement plan?
Advisor: What places are possible?
Gary: I could cut out lots of things, but that’s not what I really want to do.
Advisor: Like what?
Gary: I have a new Mercedes. I could drive a Chevy, but who wants that?
Advisor: It sounds like you believe that preparing for retirement means sacrificing what's most important to you today. Is that correct?
Gary: Well, I wouldn’t say most important, but I don't want to give up what I like and enjoy.
Advisor: Let me ask you – what is most important?
Gary: My family, of course.
Advisor: You want your children to grow up and be happy?
Gary: Of course, just like any parent.
Advisor: If you make no plans for your own retirement, how could that affect your children?
Gary: I'm not sure I understand.
Advisor: If you can no longer work at age 70 because your health is failing and you cannot support yourself financially, how would that impact your children?
Gary: They would probably feel the need to look after me.
Advisor: Then you do seem to have a retirement plan – to be a burden on your children.
Gary: You're doing a guilt trip on me.
Advisor: Whatever it takes for you to see reality. If you don’t want to ruin 20 years of your children's lives by being a burden, what do you think you need to do?
Gary: Have sufficient financial resources myself.
Advisor: How will that happen?
Gary: Okay, I get it. I need to put something away now. I have the car on a lease, which I can give up in 24 months. And I see that the $8,000 vacation I had planned for my wife and I can be scaled down. I always thought about my lack of preparation as affecting only me. I didn't really think about how it affects my kids.
At this point, you’ve got a new client, because the prospect is self-motivated. He gets it at an emotional level, well beyond the cerebral level that educating addresses. The conversations that occur hereafter are mechanical. The prospect now desires to make a change and will do what you recommend.
This is how people are motivated – by seeing the correct solutions for themselves so they take appropriate actions.
Larry Klein is a CPA (inactive) and a retired top producer. He continues to share his insights at Wealthy Producer and speak at industry events.
