Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
At some point, most advisors have succeeded in scheduling a meeting with a large prospect, often after a lot of time and effort. When you only have 30 minutes, how do you maximize the chances of a positive outcome?
That’s what I was asked in a call last week from an advisor I’ve known for many years, let’s call him Bill, about an upcoming meeting with a $3 million prospect. Here’s what Bill had to say:
I’ve just booked a meeting with a prospect who, if he signed on, would be my biggest client. He’s not that enthusiastic about the meeting, though, and has given me only 30 minutes.
How to win multi-million dollar clients
Tired of ho-hum conference speakers? Dan Richards delivers leading edge keynote talks on what it takes to attract high end clients today.
To energize your next conference, click for more information on Dan's speaking topics and to hear from past clients.
Dan Richards
ClientInsights-President
6 Adelaide Street E, Suite 400
Toronto ON M5C 1T6
(416) 900-0968
The meeting came through my best friend at business school, a guy named Jeff, who went into accounting and become a partner at a successful mid-sized accounting firm; meanwhile, I went into technology sales with IBM. Jeff and I maintained our friendship after university, we went on holidays together, he was my best man and I was his. When I was considering joining one of the large wirehouses 10 years ago, Jeff encouraged me to make the move and became one of my first clients. Since then, he’s been incredibly helpful in introducing me to his clients – and I’ve reciprocated wherever I could, although the balance is definitely in my favor.
A couple of years ago, Jeff mentioned that he was trying to get one of his clients to meet with me, a guy in his late 50s who’d built a successful manufacturing business and was in the process of looking at an exit strategy that could yield three to five million dollars. The challenge is that this guy is constantly being pitched by advisors and has become quite cynical as a result.
Today Jeff called to tell me that he’d just met with this client and he’d agreed to give me 30 minutes in the next couple of weeks, in part because a sale looks imminent. Confidentiality prevented Jeff from getting into too much detail, he did say that outside of his house the bulk of this guy’s assets are in his business, although he also has a small discount brokerage account that he hasn’t paid much attention to. His client also told Jeff that the lending officer at the bank that he’s used for financing has been after him to meet with a broker with the bank’s investment operation.
Given that I’ve just called and booked at appointment at the prospect’s office for 7:30 am in a couple of week’s time, my question is how to best use the 30 minutes that I’ll have with this prospect.
Before talking about this meeting, I asked Bill if he’d tried to find a more informal opportunity to meet this prospect, whether at a function that the accounting firm ran for clients or over lunch with Jeff and his client. Bill answered that while he had met some of Jeff’s other clients at his firm’s events, this particular client didn’t respond to invitations to invitations to events run by his accounting firm. And as for having Jeff organize an informal lunch to make the introduction, this had been suggested in the past and the client wasn’t interested, saying that he didn’t have time for casual lunches and that the only people he had lunch with were his own clients.
With that as background, Bill and I talked about six steps to make maximum use of the 30-minute window with this prospect.
Step One: Begin with the end in mind
The late Steven Covey is best known for his bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit two on that list: Begin with the end in mind.
When I asked Bill the purpose of the meeting, he hesitated as if to check to see if I’d been paying attention, then said that his goal to sign the prospect up. To which I suggested that while that was the ultimate outcome he’s looking for, that was unlikely to happen in that first meeting. On reflection, Bill agreed that the goal was to persuade the prospect to agree to share more information about his situation and to get a firm commitment for a second meeting, perhaps with his accountant Jeff sitting in.
Step Two: Do your research
Every advisor understands that when they go into a meeting with a prospect, they should know as much as possible about that prospect’s situation. But unfortunately all too often their walk is very different from their talk – for instance, before meeting many advisors fail to do even the basics of checking a prospect’s LinkedIn page. In some cases, prospects see basic knowledge of their situation as an indication that the advisor is serious; this was the topic of an article last year, Three minutes that cost a million-dollar prospect .
In this case, Bill has a chance to learn more from his buddy Jeff. Recognizing that Jeff’s first loyalty is to his client, Bill could schedule a coffee and ask three questions:
- Without divulging any confidences, what can you tell me about your client and his business?
- What do you say his number one concern is when it comes to his finances?
- If you were in my situation, how would you get your client talking about his situation?
Step Three: Set the agenda and keep your introduction short
I asked Bill how he normally starts meetings with prospects. He said that thanks the prospect for taking the time to meet and asks what one thing he’d like to get out of their time together. No question that’s a terrific way to start- – I then asked Bill about the most common response from prospects and he said that typically prospects say they want to learn more about Bill and his approach.
This is a copout – prospects are only interested in this insofar as it has a direct benefit to them. A common trap that advisors fall into at this point is spending way too much time talking about their background and philosophy; I touched on this in an article last fall, How to get past blah blah blah when talking to prospects.
If the prospect with whom he’s meeting says he wants to learn more about Bill, the answer should be that of course he’d be delighted to tell him as much as the prospect wants to know, but that Bill also wants to share some observations from the work that he’s done with successful business owners and that he’d like to learn more about the prospect’s situation.
To minimize the time he spends talking about himself, Bill should put together a one-page overview of with three headings: background, approach and team. Each heading should have three to four bullet points in large type that highlight the most important information, with the goal of building quick credibility. This can be attached to a note to the prospect confirming the meeting, but Bill shouldn’t assume the prospect will have looked at this. As a result, he should practice delivering this overview in a maximum of three minutes, before moving to what’s really important in the meeting.
Step Four: Get engagement and demonstrate value
Once Bill’s spent the three minutes on his introduction, he should segue into the important part of the meeting, where he gets the prospect engaged and begins to demonstrate the value that he provides to his clients. His goal should be to spend roughly five minutes getting the prospect talking about himself and another five minutes beginning to discuss how clients are better off as a result of working with him.
Before getting into more about the value that he provides, though, he needs to get the prospect talking – perhaps with a something like: So that’s a bit about my background. Unless you haveany questions, perhaps you can fill me in on your situation, how did you get to where you are today?
When it comes to spending the five minutes talking about his value, there are a number of ways to tackle this:
- He could highlight what he’s learned working with business owners.
- He could show the prospect a sample financial plan for a client in a situation similar to theirs.
- In the “blah blah blah” article, I discussed how one article used case studies to tell a story about the positive impact she’d made on clients lives
- One advisor has developed a questionnaire focused on 20 common gaps in estate and financial plans among affluent Americans, based on research by U.S. Trust. He takes prospects through this, allowing them to identify any areas where there’s a gap in their situation.
Step Five: Get a commitment for follow up – and address the elephant in the room
Bill has now used 15 to 20 minutes of his appointment – and needs to start moving towards asking for a commitment for a follow-up meeting. There are many ways to do that; Bill could say “ You’ve given me lots of food for thought today and I’d like to suggest another meeting in two weeks, to get into more details of your situation.”
Another advisor uses a different approach at this point in the meeting and says: “Most successful businesses like yours have a written plan. Tell me, what kind of written plan do you have in place to ensure that your income exceeds your expenses in retirement?”
Before asking that question, though, sometimes there’s an “elephant in the room” issue hanging over the meeting – something that everyone knows about but doesn’t get discussed. For example, perhaps the prospect has had a bad experience with a financial advisor in the past. In this case, it sounds like the prospect wasn’t particularly keen about meeting Bill and perhaps did it to get Jeff off his back. In this situation, before asking for the follow-up, Bill could be upfront about this: “I’ve really enjoyed the chance to meet and do want to talk about next steps. Before I do that, though, perhaps I’m wrong on this but I had the sense from Jeff that you weren’t all that enthusiastic about meeting today.”
Step Six: Relax
The final step to success is for Bill to avoid the sweaty palm syndrome and to relax. When meeting with a high-value prospect, many advisors get tense and end up trying too hard, talking too much and failing to project a sense of confidence.
I’ve written in the past that attracting new clients is like dating; the harder you try the less successful you are. Bill needs to convey that he wants to work with this prospect, but doesn’t need to work with him. By being prepared for the meeting, carefully thinking through how he’ll use the time with the prospect and projecting a sense of calm and confidence, he’ll maximize the chance of converting this meeting into an opportunity to work with this prospect.
conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written and video commentaries, go to www.clientinsights.ca. Use A555A for the rep and dealer code to register for website access.
Read more articles by Dan Richards
