How To Supercharge Your Practice with Surge Meetings (Part 2)

My client engagement standards were adapted from a version Carolyn McClanahan produced several years ago. I used her standards as a starting point for creating my own seven-page, multi-section document. Here are some highlights from the three sections:

1. Guiding principles and beliefs. My firm, Define Financial, aims to provide holistic retirement solutions that cover every “what if” in your life. Know that the process is going to take a while. Retirement planning is an ongoing task that involves goal setting, cash flow management, risk management, investment management, asset protection, healthcare planning, tax planning, and estate planning.

2. What we deliver. We promise to do the “heavy lifting” to help your retirement become a reality. We do this by monitoring your plan regularly to ensure everything is relevant and up to date. If we find anything that will achieve a better result, we will take proactive steps to change it.

Another bullet point in this section: We return all phone calls and emails within 24 hours, and pledge to never leave you hanging. We will inform you of any short-term deviations from this policy, such as an upcoming vacation.

3. What we expect from you. (Note: This section requires the client to put their initials next to each bullet point.)

One bullet point says: I am willing to be an active participant in the Define Financial planning process. I understand that each part of the process requires information or participation from me. I promise to stay engaged because I understand the outcome of my plan hinges on my cooperation and involvement.

Another point walks clients through the new meeting schedule: I understand that Define Financial meets with clients virtually or in its office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 8 a.m. Pacific and 5 p.m. Pacific (exceptions are made for emergencies). This allows us to spend Mondays and Fridays preparing for client meetings and doing research so we can be fully present when we are meeting with you.

That last bullet point prompted me to discuss my new policy of holding meetings virtually, or in our office. I shared with clients how less drive-time gives me and my team more time to prepare for and run an effective meeting. In other words, they would receive more valuable services from us because of this change.

One more bullet point in this section: I will make myself available for at least one formal review meeting each year. Annual review meetings allow us to make sure we are doing the best possible job for you.

I used this bullet point to introduce clients to our new bi-annual meeting surge schedule and explained how it benefits them: “We are holding these review meetings in May (after tax season, so we can review your recent tax return and develop a tax strategy for the year) and October (just before the holidays hit, when you start to check out and spend time with family).”

I also shared that this systematic meeting structure would allow us to be more prepared, proactive, and present. That those scattered meetings all around the year caused our team to be reactive and resulted in less productive time with our client’s.

At the end of 2018, I scheduled as many year-end reviews as possible to introduce these changes that I planned to roll out the following year.

During each review meeting, I said, “Over the past few months, I’ve worked really hard to make some improvements to the firm to ensure that I continue doing the best possible job for you. I’ve documented everything in what I call our client engagement standards and I’d like to take 10 minutes to review them with you. Would that be ok with you?”

In the end, I only lost one client I hadn’t transitioned elsewhere. And in hindsight, our personalities weren’t a great match anyway. While it stung at the time, I’m confident that it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Most clients signed our client engagement standards in late 2018 and we started May and October meeting surges in 2019. At the time of this writing, we just wrapped up third full year of surge meetings and, while the process isn’t perfect, we continue to get very positive feedback from clients.

In fact, given how well they were received, the client engagement standards are now a very integral part of our sales process. It’s the very first thing we ask a potential client to sign if they want to move forward with our firm, and it remains the only document we physically print out. If a potential client is in our office for the final step of our sales process, they are required to take it home, read it, sign it, and snail-mail it back to us. If they are outside of San Diego, we physically mail them a copy with a paid return envelope.

We take these extra steps because the information inside of our Client Engagement Standards is too important to us to send it electronically, where most people will just skim it and sign it to get it off their plate.

Step 3: Develop an internal workflow and process

On the surface, meeting surges seem simple, and you might wonder why you need a documented workflow to guide the process. But, as more advisors attempt to expand their value to defend against competition and fee compression, I think this is an easy opportunity to go above and beyond and create a world-class experience for clients.

In short, having a clearly documented process for surge meetings accomplishes three main things:

1. It prevents our team from pulling out their hair twice a year in preparation.

2. It ensures that meetings run efficiently and we’re able to be prepared and present with our clients.

3. It creates a positive experience for the client and reinforces why we are systematizing our meeting schedule.

To help give you an idea of where we’ve landed in our office, here’s a summary of our October bi-annual meeting surge workflow:

1. On the first weekday of August, 60 days ahead of the October meeting surge, our CRM will prompt our office manager, Karen Jackson, to kick things off internally, review the entire process as a team, review the collateral, and make any appropriate updates.

2. Two weeks later, we physically mail a letter to all clients notifying them of the upcoming bi-annual meeting block. The letter notes that they should expect an email in two weeks containing instructions for scheduling their meeting. We have two versions of the letter. One is for clients we saw in May; it lets them know an October meeting is optional. The other is for clients we missed in May; it reminds them that we require at least one annual meeting.

3. Around the 1st of September, Karen sends the email we told clients would be headed their way with a link to our online scheduling tool. This tool allows the client to conveniently pick a date and time that works best for them and choose a virtual or office meeting.

4. One week later, Karen picks up the phone and calls clients who haven’t scheduled their meeting.

5. Lastly, Karen will make one more round of phone calls around the middle of September. By then, everyone should be on the calendar or communicated why a meeting isn’t going to work.

With bi-annual meetings kicking off on October 1, each client record in our CRM gets a new workflow. This launches another series of steps prompting our team to prepare for the individual meetings. Here’s a quick summary of that workflow:

1. One week before a client’s review meeting, Karen is prompted to begin the prep process.

2. Karen kicks the workflow over to our lead planner, Tyler Aubrey, who will tackle the financial planning prep work, update eMoney, build the agenda, and generate meeting materials.

3. Two days before the client meeting, Karen will print out internal meeting documents and place them in a folder for Tyler and me.

4. If a client chooses an in-person meeting, the workflow contains a checklist of things that need to happen in the office on the day of the meeting before they come in. We put personalized images on the screen in the conference room. Scroll pictures of our family and personal lives on the lobby TV. Turn on music. Put dishes away. Get their favorite drinks ready. Prop our front door open signaling that we’re here and ready for them. And so on. We try to think of every little thing we can do to create a good experience as soon as they walk through the front door.

5. If the client chooses a virtual meeting, the workflow contains a different checklist of things to ensure our virtual meeting space is ready. The desk is cleaned and cleared, the meeting backdrop is tidied up, the technology is tested, and the appropriate tabs are opened on the computer and ready for us to run an efficient meeting.

It’s taken us years to get all this right. We started very simple, held meetings, paid attention to what did and didn’t work, made improvements, hired consultants, and then ran through it again. We continue to make improvements. We’re always asking ourselves how we can get better, be more efficient and create a better experience.

By the way, if, like me, creating processes and workflows is something you struggle with, consider hiring a third-party consultant or leaning on other financial advisors who are willing to share and collaborate. You don’t have to go at it alone.

What about urgent meetings?

On common follow-up question I often receive from advisors is, “How do you handle client requests in between meeting surges? What if a client calls you in July and wants to meet with you right away?”

As noted in our client engagement standards, we make it very clear to clients that our office doors are always open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 8 a.m. Pacific and 5 p.m. Pacific (exceptions are made for emergencies). They have hired us to manage their entire financial life, and we are here for them when they need us.

That said, prior to developing systems and processes for my practice, I often wrongly assumed all client requests were urgent. I would react quickly and make unnecessary exceptions that weren’t benefitting us or our clients.

Here’s how we handle “urgent requests” today. When a client reaches out in July and says, “Hey, I was just reading about donor-advised funds, and I think this is something I’m interested in learning more about. I’d like to discuss how this might fit into my plan.”

My first response is something along the lines of: “Donor-advised funds are a great tool and might be a good fit for you. As you know, our next review meeting is around the corner in October. That’s a great time of the year to discuss year-end tax planning and charitable giving. Do you want to put this on the agenda for our October meeting, or is this urgent and something you want to tackle now?”

Nine times out of ten, the client will say, “It’s not urgent at all, please add it to the October agenda.”

It might feel like an urgent request when we first get the client’s email or phone call, but that’s rarely how they feel. More than anything, I’ve learned the client just wants to know that the thing they’re interested in or worried about is off their plate and on ours.

However, some things truly are urgent, like, “I just lost my job and need to talk.” Or, “I received an inheritance and want to talk about how this is going to fit into my plan.” In those situations, we will get a call or a meeting on the calendar as soon as possible. But I’ve noticed that the more proactive we are in setting future expectations, the fewer “urgent requests” we see. With three years of surge meetings under our belts, we receive more client emails that say, “I’d like to discuss XYZ during our next meeting in October.”

Years ago, my practice was full of chaos. I’m thankful that I discovered surge meetings and, more importantly, built up the courage to put a system and process for them in place. Throughout this journey, I’ve sought out best practice ideas from within as well as among my advisor peers (including the ones Michael Kitces and I will be joined by in our December 8 Financial Planning Value Summit). My team continues to monitor and make improvements to our processes – but it’s a far cry from where I began.

Surge meetings were a blueprint for success for me and my firm; it can be one for you, too.

Taylor Schulte is the founder of Define Financial, a San Diego-based registered investment advisor, and host of Experiments in Advisor Marketing, an Apple Top 50 podcast helping financial advisors grow their business through unique marketing strategies.

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