Most advisors qualify prospects by their net worth or level of assets. But there’s a better test of whether someone is a legitimate prospect; that is, whether they’re genuinely interested in hearing from you.
A simple question can determine if prospects who say they’re busy and ask you to contact them down the road are serious. After all, people might simply be trying to get off the phone and their agreement to talk in future is a “cop out.” But they may also truly be open to talking and are genuinely pressed for time right now.
The simple question that tests a prospect’s interest: “If I get back to you in three months, will you have more time to talk then?” The principle of human behavior behind this question is “the law of consistency.” It reduces the chances of prospective clients cancelling meetings, increases the odds of those initial meetings being successful and gets top clients to attend your events.
The law of consistency at work
I’ve written in the past about research by Utah State’s Robert Cialdini about the laws of influence that motivate someone to act. One of those is the principle of consistency. Once people have made a commitment, they feel the need to make future actions consistent with that commitment. Some examples of the law of consistency at work:
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When homeowners in a Midwest city were asked to put a large sign on their lawn asking passersby to “drive safely,” only a small number put up the sign. But the numbers of homeowners in the same neighborhood who put this sign on their lawn went up dramatically if two weeks earlier they had agreed to put a small sticker in their front window with this message.
By making a small commitment first, people were predisposed to act consistently and to say “yes” when asked for a larger commitment.
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Along similar lines, in an experiment the number of people agreeing to spend an evening going door-to-door canvassing for funds for cancer went up seven-fold. The only change was that in the experiment, a friend told prospective volunteers a few months earlier that he or she had been asked to be an area captain for the cancer fundraising drive. This friend said if they agree to do this, would the subject consider volunteering for one evening to help out. For subjects who said “yes” and felt committed as a result, the odds of their agreeing to volunteer when their friend followed up increased by a factor of seven.
My article Nine Words that Saved $600,000 described how a Chicago restaurant reduced no shows from 30% to 10% with one small change in its response when someone made a reservation. Historically they did what most restaurants do and said “Please call if you have a change in plans and can’t make it.” By changing the response to “Will you call us if you have a change in plans and can’t make it?” and waiting for guests to say yes, a small commitment had been made. That small commitment led to a dramatic increase in the number of people who called if they couldn’t make their reservation.
From permission to commitment
Advisors can learn from this, by shifting prospect conversations to ask for similar low-level commitments. Here’s a simple way to think about this:
If what you say to a prospect begins with “Can I” or “May I,” what typically follows is a request for permission to act and minimal obligation on the prospect’s part. Sure, prospects find it easy to say yes to "May I send you some information?" or “Can I check in again in six months?” But the difficulty is that saying “yes” entails little or no commitment on their part.
If instead your question begins with “Will you” or “Would you?,” you’re asking the person for action. So, for example, you might say, "If I send you the article I mentioned on tax savings strategies and touch base in two weeks’ time, will you have time to look it over?" This asks a prospect for action, not permission. And if a prospect says they’re too busy to meet right now: "May I call you back in a couple of weeks?" is simply asking for permission. Try instead: " Will you have more time to talk if I call back in a couple of weeks?" Now you’re asking for a commitment.
If prospects answer that they won’t have time to read that article or to talk, then they’re telling you that they aren’t really interested. Now, you can make a more informed judgement as to whether it’s worth continuing to follow up. You can soften the commitment by replacing “Will you have more time to talk if I call back in a couple of weeks?”with “Might you have more time to talk?” or “Is it possible that you’ll have more time to talk?” But the more you soften this, the lower the bar and the lesser the commitment.
Reducing meeting cancellations
Advisors use the same principle of gaining commitment to reduce the number of prospects cancelling meetings and last-minute calls from clients that they can’t make a lunch presentation.
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One advisor emails his assistant when he’s booked an appointment to meet with a prospect. His assistant couriers the prospect a folder with a letter from the advisor and some background information, as well as a parking pass. As soon as they get that package, the prospect’s commitment level goes way up. Since beginning to do this, cancellations have dropped dramatically.
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Another advisor began mailing clients an agenda for their annual reviews with a cover note saying: “Here are the things that we previously agreed to talk about when we sit down. I very much look forward to getting caught up.” Once clients got that confirming letter with the meeting agenda, their commitment went up and meeting cancellations went down.
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A team of advisors who ran monthly lunches for clients were having difficulty with last-minute cancellations. They reduced these to almost zero by calling 10 days beforehand and saying:
I’m calling on two things with regard to the lunch a week from Friday. First, I’d like to talk about the questions you’d like answered, so that we can ensure the presentation addresses your key issues. And second, our office manager has asked me to find out what kind of sandwich you’d like.
By having clients feel that their questions would be incorporated into the presentation and telling them that there would be a sandwich there with their name on it, the commitment to attend the lunch went up substantially.
- A successful advisor runs monthly events for small groups of clients – from wine tastings to comedy nights and book readings by best-selling authors. She gets a great response to these, but has struggled to get her best and busiest clients to come out. She made one change that increased participation from her top clients. A couple of years ago, at the end of her reviews she asked top clients for feedback on a half dozen events she was considering for the following year. Now when an event is coming up that a top client had indicated was a good idea, she calls them to extend a personal invitation. As soon as clients tell her that an event is a good idea, their commitment to attend goes way up.
One warning
I strongly recommend asking prospects and clients for commitment instead of permission, with one caveat: Avoid questions that cross the line into manipulation and into pressure-based stereotypes. For example, every advisor has heard the “I get paid in two ways” referral spiel:
I get paid in two ways: by the work we do together and by introductions from happy clients to your friends and family. If a year from now you’re satisfied with the job I’ve done, do you think you’d be comfortable introducing me to your friends?
When clients answer “sure” to this question, it’s not a commitment. It’s a way to defer the unpleasantness of having to say “not on your life” until some future point down the road.
More research on effective persuasion
Below are links on other articles on applying principles of effective persuasion:
Dan Richards 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 commentaries, go to www.danrichards.com or here for his videos.
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When homeowners in a Midwest city were asked to put a large sign on their lawn asking passersby to “drive safely,” only a small number put up the sign. But the numbers of homeowners in the same neighborhood who put this sign on their lawn went up dramatically if two weeks earlier they had agreed to put a small sticker in their front window with this message.
