Here’s What’s Wrong With Your New Prospect Meeting

Chances are that the way you conduct an introductory meeting with a prospect is backward. Same goes with the way you introduce yourself in person at a networking event.  Same goes with how your website is set up.

Let me explain.  When we work for someone else, including working in Corporate America, like me, we learned business best practices from the standpoint of the company. It’s more about the company, then the client, and then you.

Things change when you own your own business. Plus, over time, and especially with the introduction of the internet, today’s prospects are looking you up online. But they’re looking for connection, respect, understanding, and value before they plunk down their hard-earned cash.

It’s time to unlearn some of what we’ve been taught.

Do you send your clients a long checklist of paperwork to bring with them to the introduction meeting? Why? For starters, if you get to the point where they hire you, wouldn’t their last financial statements be enough?

Is your current process about introducing yourself, your company, and talking about the services you provide and the process you take clients through? Do you try to educate the prospect about fiduciary, CPF, PFS, IFA and other information that is important to you?

While those things may make YOU feel good, starting with YOU is part of a system that doesn’t build trust.  In fact, so often, advisors spend so much time on what they offer and how they do it that they scare clients away!

Over the years, I’ve had prospects of advisors tell me that “all they wanted to know about was my money and to tell me how great their company is”. Is that the way you want to be remembered?

Where to Start

What prospects need to know that you’re the best person for them to work with, that you understand their situation, and that you have the solution? When all you do is talk about yourself, that doesn’t happen.

Your relationship with a client can make or break your business. People don’t like to be sold to. Establishing mutual respect should be your priority.

Do your homework and learn what you can about the client online. Don’t take it all as “gospel” unless it’s on their website or LinkedIn profile.

If you have an office, make sure that your team knows about this first meeting and whom you’re meeting with. When the prospect arrives, introduce them to your team.

Take care of them as you would like to be treated if YOU were a prospect or a client.

How Not To Scare People Away

Turn the first meeting “on” the prospect.  Turn as many meetings as you can in the future “on” the prospect.   Put all your focus on learning as much about them personally as possible. You should be completing the paperwork as you talk to them. It doesn’t matter if you’re meeting the prospect virtually (on the phone or online), in person, or even in India (more on this later).

It’s not WIIFM… it’s WIIFT (what’s in it for me, what’s in it for them).  It’s all about the prospect.

You want to authentically relate to the prospect during the call and let them know if you can help them or not. You want to interview them to learn if they’d be a good match for your firm. Concentrate on learning if they are an ideal client for your firm, learn about their expectations for service, and be honest if they’d be better served by someone else.

An India Story

When I visited India to speak at a conference, I had the opportunity to privately coach some IFAs (independent financial advisors) on an issue that had them stuck.   (When I speak, I always provide a few hours of consultative coaching time for my host’s members.)

After the event, I visited one of those advisors, Shifali Satsangee and her family, in Agra, India (near the Taj Mahal).  Shifali owns Funds Vedaa, and we had a private coaching strategy meeting at her office.  Afterward, she told me that she really enjoyed our talk, especially how personal it was and how I made her feel so comfortable.

She wanted to know how I did that.  I told her that I had a system; in this case, a list of questions I memorized and adjusted them as needed.  She also asked me for more specifics on “how” I helped advisors.  But at this first meeting, I didn’t give her a play-by-play.  That’s way too much information. Instead, I talked generally about the process.

Show Your Value

Do that by attentively listening and asking clarifying questions. Share tips along the way. Show them how you’d treat them in the future. Give of yourself authentically. If you’re a “hand holding” type person, be your gentile self. If you’re like me, a no-BS type of person, show that!

If you’ve listened well, you know what tips will help you provide value the prospect would appreciate. The tips you share could be a link to a URL, a blog post, or a copy of an article you’ve written. It could be a recommendation to another service provider or a book list.

All advisors and business owners could do the same thing IF we were willing to shut up about our company and ourselves and really listen to the prospect.

Ask The Right Questions

The secret is to ask all prospects the same questions.

Many years ago, I learned this meeting concept from Coach Christian Mickelsen, a coach to coaches. The list of questions is a process that’s critiqued over time, as we should do with any system.

What’s important about the questions you ask, what most advisors are missing, is that the questions are ALL about the client, unless it’s determined near the end of the meeting that “you’re hired”.

The process is a critical, and often missing, component of the initial meeting that takes place during the larger Onboarding Process. You must learn about what brought the prospect to you. You must learn about the concerns, frustrations, pains, challenges, goals, where they are stuck, etc. that brought them to you for your help.

Then, you must let them know that you “get them” and that you have the solutions to their challenges (or not).

What to Give New Client

I’m a big proponent of “Welcome Kits” for new clients. I send mine in the mail, even if I were to meet the prospect in person. But I cheat!

The binder, the paperwork, checklists, etc. are in the box already. What I do before it is mailed using priority mail is to customize it. I add the client’s name to the front of the binder along with the date of our introduction meeting. I include articles or other tools, which I learned would be of interest to “this” client before mailing.

Make the 1^st meeting about the prospect. Make the 2nd meeting about the prospect and the paperwork they bring to you.

Take This Action

If you don’t have a script, create one.  Start by taking a deeper look at what you say when you meet with a prospect. What do you do?  What do you say? Write it down!

For more on this topic,  join my newsletter!  I’ll be sending my subscribers more on this subject soon.

(c) 2019 Coach Maria Marsala, Elevating Your Business