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It’s time to consider an entirely different approach to your process for converting prospects.
This is despite the impressive ingenuity and elaborate processes common among advisors. I’ve seen everything from personality tests intended to match a prospect with the “right” advisor to extensive “discovery” questionnaires.
Scenarios
Let’s explore a couple of hypothetical scenarios to illustrate the issue.
Scenario #1
In this scenario, the prospect is a frail, elderly widow. Your process involves extensive discovery to disclose the details of her financial situation. After you receive her responses to your questionnaire, you explain fundamentals of investing to her.
She listens patiently before telling you she has a Ph.D in statistics from MIT.
Oops!
Scenario #2
The prospect is an executive in his early 40s. During the course of your conversation with him, he expresses the view that he is leery of the stock market because he believes it’s manipulated by a small cabal of people with interests adverse to “ordinary investors” like him.
You patiently explain why you disagree. The conversation is polarizing. The meeting ends poorly.
What went wrong with these two meetings?
Flawed assumptions
The advisor in scenario #1 made an assumption about the sophistication of the widow. The problem with assumptions of all kinds was nicely summarized in this article as follows: “An assumption is something whose truth status is uncertain. In other words, it may or may not be true. Sometimes assumptions are helpful, but often they can prove unproductive – or even damaging.”
Whatever your process is, it’s premised on a set of assumptions. Those assumptions may be as innocent as: A prospect won’t find filling out an extensive questionnaire off-putting.
You have no way of knowing whether your assumptions are correct.
Lack of knowledge
Let’s add some facts to scenario #2. The prospect is a believer in many conspiracy theories. In fact, he has the personality traits associated with those likely to have these beliefs.
As explained by Josh Hart, associate professor of psychology, who has researched this subject: “These people tend to be more suspicious, untrusting, eccentric, needing to feel special, with a tendency to regard the world as an inherently dangerous place. They are also more likely to detect meaningful patterns where they might not exist.”
If you had this information about the prospect in this scenario, you might have decided not to argue with him, but rather to explore his views further. If you did that, it’s possible the meeting would have a different outcome.
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My recommendation
Discard your present process, which treats everyone the same. In its place, customize your approach to each prospect based on their particular situation and needs.
You can only do this with what’s known as “the power of inquiry.” This “power” involves asking questions to gain a better understanding of the prospect, listening carefully to their responses and asking thoughtful follow-up questions.
After engaging in this new process, ask this question: “In your view, what would be the most productive way for us to determine if we are a good fit for each other?”
You may be shocked by the response, especially if the prospect has been interviewing other advisors. Those advisors were likely focused on their presentation, their expertise, and their process.
Your approach may well be viewed as a refreshing alternative.
For more information about marketing and branding opportunities with Dan’s upcoming book, Ask: How to Relate to Anyone, click here.
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