The AFA conference of 2012 wrapped up last night with all the glitter of a diamond encrusted satellite and the suspense and thrills of a car chase reminiscent of Diamonds Are Forever and Quantam of Solace as the James Bond theme added to the 10th anniversary of a celebration of quality advice and community.
The conference was at its core a celebration of an industry that often maligned by the media has as its essence the best interests of Australians always at the forefront of its mind.
There was not a session where the benefits for the client was not considered. There was not a session where peers did not share ideas, where stories were told.
It was in fact a celebration of great client stories.
This was embodied by the stories of the 6 finalists. Olivia Maragna, Jenny Brown, Michelle Tate-Lovery, David Clark, Mark Rando, Dennis Jones....take another collective bow.
Olivia : an inspiring leader, pro-bono work, support of orphanages and active with her peers
Jenny: an education junkie, a communicator and educator herself, a mentor and connector
Michelle: an educator and implementer and passionate advocate for the industry
David: the IT genius with the creation of a client engagement process, active in community and charity work
Mark: a mentor, advocate, presenter and fund raiser
Dennis: a process driven client engagement guru, demystifying the financial planning process
What enables these leading advisers to engage a clients whole person planning is that these advisers are themselves examples of whole person development. Self aware, charismatic, empathetic and highly emotionally intelligent these advisers embody the characteristics of leaders : true leaders who are leaders not because they have had created that mantle for themselves but they are leaders because people want to follow them.
Further they have at their disposal and they tell with candour, honesty, belief and conviction their own stories.
As a client, as a staff member, as industry peers as businesses you can't help but reciprocate.
May we look to these leaders and develop our stories and tell them with the passion that these individuals embody. If we do that, then this industry has a bright future and what comes with that is a better Australia : one of rich community ideals and values and where people take an active role in living well and looking after their families through the guidance offered by the value of financial advice.
Tuesday 30 October 2012
Friday 26 October 2012
I love financial advisers - but my mum would only do business with less than 5% of you
What?? Surely we're not discounting the service proposition and value of 95% of the industry.
No, not at all, but we are just reporting back why some clients don't do business with some of your industry peers.
Here's some reasons why.
1) She couldn't find you.
You didn't stand out in any search she made via : yellow pages, local business directories, online or word of mouth in her social circle. Just what social circle is that? Could be anything. Don't make assumptions, but rather what social circle would you want to be a topic of conversation within?
2) After making an appointment, the collateral you sent her (did you send any) was generic.
3) When she looked on your website (do you have one) she did not feel engaged or that you demonstrated that your proposition was exactly what she needed.
4) When she arrived at your office it just did not feel right. What does your office say about you?
5) Upon meeting you she did not get an understanding of why you do what you do and how you do it.
6) You didn't explain the process you use in an articulate, believable and professional manner.
7) She didn't understand what happens next.
8) The information gathering process was such that she didn't feel you understood her or that she understood you.
9) After the meeting she felt she'd agreed to something which she didn't really comprehend.
10) You didn't follow up with anything to reassure her in between the time from the first appointment to the date set for the next.
11) When she came back for the second meeting, your front of house staff did not make her feel like they realised this potential start of a significant advice relationship was a big deal for her. In fact she felt they did not remember Her at all.
12) The statement of advice looked impressive. It was in a folder! Her name was in it like maybe 40 times. She's pretty sure she knows who she is. Do you know who she is or is her name in it a lot to remind you?
13) She did not understand the statement of advice.
14) She could not make the connection between your recommendations and what she wanted to achieve.
She told you she needed to think about it.
No, not at all, but we are just reporting back why some clients don't do business with some of your industry peers.
Here's some reasons why.
1) She couldn't find you.
You didn't stand out in any search she made via : yellow pages, local business directories, online or word of mouth in her social circle. Just what social circle is that? Could be anything. Don't make assumptions, but rather what social circle would you want to be a topic of conversation within?
2) After making an appointment, the collateral you sent her (did you send any) was generic.
3) When she looked on your website (do you have one) she did not feel engaged or that you demonstrated that your proposition was exactly what she needed.
4) When she arrived at your office it just did not feel right. What does your office say about you?
5) Upon meeting you she did not get an understanding of why you do what you do and how you do it.
6) You didn't explain the process you use in an articulate, believable and professional manner.
7) She didn't understand what happens next.
8) The information gathering process was such that she didn't feel you understood her or that she understood you.
9) After the meeting she felt she'd agreed to something which she didn't really comprehend.
10) You didn't follow up with anything to reassure her in between the time from the first appointment to the date set for the next.
11) When she came back for the second meeting, your front of house staff did not make her feel like they realised this potential start of a significant advice relationship was a big deal for her. In fact she felt they did not remember Her at all.
12) The statement of advice looked impressive. It was in a folder! Her name was in it like maybe 40 times. She's pretty sure she knows who she is. Do you know who she is or is her name in it a lot to remind you?
13) She did not understand the statement of advice.
14) She could not make the connection between your recommendations and what she wanted to achieve.
She told you she needed to think about it.
Saturday 20 October 2012
Great Questions For Your Client Discovery Meeting
So recently we've written about initial client engagement and in particular how to engage clients with a difference even before you sit down with them.
We've also posted on YouTube at http://m.youtube.com/user/positiveclientengage
- a couple of videos about using mind maps with clients in the discovery process.
The key outcomes of course that we are looking for are:
- depth of knowledge of the clients circumstances that transcends pure numbers and data of the clients financial situation but leads you to truly understand the clients world
- which then allows you to become involved in that world and play your part
- that part is to assist the client live out what is important to them
If you can do that then that is true client engagement and service delivery. Clients will utilise your solutions and advice and pay for it and proudly refer you to their social circle because simply you have delivered with difference.
But to properly engage even using a mind map technique you need to be asking great questions.
Many people do this naturally - there is an innate and genuine curiosity that demonstrates respect and the understanding of another's point of view.
It's basic conversation. It's about the way you were brought up. It's about how you engaged your family around the dinner table. (do people do that anymore as a family??).
And therein lies the problem. Since 1992 as the internet began, we have started communicating differently.
There are some advice professionals who no nothing other than communicating via a portal rather than face to face.
So great conversations are not so natural today.
So what are the great questions?
It depends on you and if you have some of the ingredients of the above great listeners and communicators.
But essentially you need to be asking:
- what's the clients thought process around planning for their future
- what has that thought process brought up
- how do they feel about it
- how do they feel about areas of their life such as family, health, interests, hobbies, relationships, philanthropy, community, education, living circumstances, travel, over all well being, social circle, work,
- what's a life that is full look like to them
- what dreams are they missing out on
- what dreams are they living
- what dreams are they fearful of chasing
- what would they have missed out on if they don't take action
- how would they live if money was plentiful
- what would they change
- what if circumstances meant they needed to fast track plans for providing for their family
- have they done enough
- what does success look, feel, sound like
- how do you know when you're there
Great questions can not be forced or read out like a script. They need to evolve. It's a journey. Great questions are a great conversation. Great conversations start with a willingness to share and a great listener.
We've also posted on YouTube at http://m.youtube.com/user/positiveclientengage
- a couple of videos about using mind maps with clients in the discovery process.
The key outcomes of course that we are looking for are:
- depth of knowledge of the clients circumstances that transcends pure numbers and data of the clients financial situation but leads you to truly understand the clients world
- which then allows you to become involved in that world and play your part
- that part is to assist the client live out what is important to them
If you can do that then that is true client engagement and service delivery. Clients will utilise your solutions and advice and pay for it and proudly refer you to their social circle because simply you have delivered with difference.
But to properly engage even using a mind map technique you need to be asking great questions.
Many people do this naturally - there is an innate and genuine curiosity that demonstrates respect and the understanding of another's point of view.
It's basic conversation. It's about the way you were brought up. It's about how you engaged your family around the dinner table. (do people do that anymore as a family??).
And therein lies the problem. Since 1992 as the internet began, we have started communicating differently.
There are some advice professionals who no nothing other than communicating via a portal rather than face to face.
So great conversations are not so natural today.
So what are the great questions?
It depends on you and if you have some of the ingredients of the above great listeners and communicators.
But essentially you need to be asking:
- what's the clients thought process around planning for their future
- what has that thought process brought up
- how do they feel about it
- how do they feel about areas of their life such as family, health, interests, hobbies, relationships, philanthropy, community, education, living circumstances, travel, over all well being, social circle, work,
- what's a life that is full look like to them
- what dreams are they missing out on
- what dreams are they living
- what dreams are they fearful of chasing
- what would they have missed out on if they don't take action
- how would they live if money was plentiful
- what would they change
- what if circumstances meant they needed to fast track plans for providing for their family
- have they done enough
- what does success look, feel, sound like
- how do you know when you're there
Great questions can not be forced or read out like a script. They need to evolve. It's a journey. Great questions are a great conversation. Great conversations start with a willingness to share and a great listener.
Tuesday 2 October 2012
The Five Step Client Interview Process for Insurance and Financial Planning
So you have dazzled your prospective client with the customer experience they have just encountered when first entering your business. Now they are sitting across from you and the fun begins. What do the best businesses do to ensure what happens next: is fun, is differentiated, is highly engaging (for the client and the adviser) leads to 100% conversion from prospect to client and leads to obtaining client referrals at a rate of above 70%?
Essentially there are 5 things that these businesses do. They do them in sequence and as a part of a deliberate well thought out process. Further they advise their prospective clients sometimes well before the meeting itself that there is a defined process that they are going to take them through. Further these businesses have developed collateral be it corporate brochures or web site applications or information that defines what this process is.
The brilliance in what they are doing is first and foremost is that it is simple, second by doing this they tap into a vast array of positive client psychology techniques, third, because it is a defined process it can be taught to emerging advisers and front of house staff, fourth it can be articulated clearly and succinctly and best of all despite the simplicity the fifth point to note is that it is rare that a business works through all 5 elements and consequently it is highly differentiated.
The 5 step client interview process:
1) Engage your clients in the data collection process
This does not mean running laboriously through the fact find or similar data collection forms. This means a highly engaged genuinely curious inquisition into the clients world. This is best done using a formulaic method. Ideally visual, participative and a means to get the client talking about themselves. It's "going deep" with a client.
Best techniques and practitioners utilise mind map diagrams that go further than just assets and liabilities but cover much broader areas of a clients world.
How do you get clients to share that much information? Show them your mind map or family tree but the best practitioners start by outlining what it is that they have incorporated for themselves and then ask the prospect to reciprocate.
2) Ask great questions and set a benchmark for where the client is now and what the possibilities may be.
These are questions about lifestyle and other aspects that are non financial. It's about where else they have obtained advice and what was their experience. It's about hard questions about how they would live their life if time was limited or if money was no object.
Great questions take practice and take time to construct. PCE has created 4 questionnaires available via PCE for those interested. (yes website still under construction)
Further PCE have a benchmark tool to assess where a client sits now and where they will be after your advice.
3) Describe your methodology, for insurance sales, for choosing the right levels of cover. There are plenty of applications that work through clients scenarios, even i pad applications provided by life risk houses, and worksheets that PCE have developed. What's important is to highlight that there is a method and that all your clients go through this process and have positive results as a consequence : this is where the power of story telling about your clients comes into its own. And story telling is a critical element of step 3.
4) Use visuals to explain your suggested course of action. Be it words on a slide. A diagram about how it all fits together, what you need to do here is imprint in a clients mind the solidity of your solution. Flow charts work very well and if you can for example explain how packing insurance options works and will work for the client sitting in front of you by a visual method what stays with the client is not so much the product names and intracacies but rather that you have constructed (or will construct) something cohesive, relevant and understandable for them.
5) Describe the next steps : what is the application process / when will your recommendations be ready / what is the underwriting process and in doing so define the outcome that they will have which should be in the clients words and aligned to the objective that they want to achieve or that you have identified is a necessary component of their well being. Further provide them with an engagement pack that reassures them that they have made the right decision in choosing you. This will certainly have relevance when natural buyers remorse sets in. By having managed the psychology of the sale process during the appointment you have mitigated the natural thought process of the client and reassured them that what they experienced in your waiting room was genuine and that in a very short space of time the feeling that you understand them and are genuinely concerned about their well being. The WHY you are in business is powerful here. Make sure you tell them at this point why it is you do what you do.
Essentially there are 5 things that these businesses do. They do them in sequence and as a part of a deliberate well thought out process. Further they advise their prospective clients sometimes well before the meeting itself that there is a defined process that they are going to take them through. Further these businesses have developed collateral be it corporate brochures or web site applications or information that defines what this process is.
The brilliance in what they are doing is first and foremost is that it is simple, second by doing this they tap into a vast array of positive client psychology techniques, third, because it is a defined process it can be taught to emerging advisers and front of house staff, fourth it can be articulated clearly and succinctly and best of all despite the simplicity the fifth point to note is that it is rare that a business works through all 5 elements and consequently it is highly differentiated.
The 5 step client interview process:
1) Engage your clients in the data collection process
This does not mean running laboriously through the fact find or similar data collection forms. This means a highly engaged genuinely curious inquisition into the clients world. This is best done using a formulaic method. Ideally visual, participative and a means to get the client talking about themselves. It's "going deep" with a client.
Best techniques and practitioners utilise mind map diagrams that go further than just assets and liabilities but cover much broader areas of a clients world.
How do you get clients to share that much information? Show them your mind map or family tree but the best practitioners start by outlining what it is that they have incorporated for themselves and then ask the prospect to reciprocate.
2) Ask great questions and set a benchmark for where the client is now and what the possibilities may be.
These are questions about lifestyle and other aspects that are non financial. It's about where else they have obtained advice and what was their experience. It's about hard questions about how they would live their life if time was limited or if money was no object.
Great questions take practice and take time to construct. PCE has created 4 questionnaires available via PCE for those interested. (yes website still under construction)
Further PCE have a benchmark tool to assess where a client sits now and where they will be after your advice.
3) Describe your methodology, for insurance sales, for choosing the right levels of cover. There are plenty of applications that work through clients scenarios, even i pad applications provided by life risk houses, and worksheets that PCE have developed. What's important is to highlight that there is a method and that all your clients go through this process and have positive results as a consequence : this is where the power of story telling about your clients comes into its own. And story telling is a critical element of step 3.
4) Use visuals to explain your suggested course of action. Be it words on a slide. A diagram about how it all fits together, what you need to do here is imprint in a clients mind the solidity of your solution. Flow charts work very well and if you can for example explain how packing insurance options works and will work for the client sitting in front of you by a visual method what stays with the client is not so much the product names and intracacies but rather that you have constructed (or will construct) something cohesive, relevant and understandable for them.
5) Describe the next steps : what is the application process / when will your recommendations be ready / what is the underwriting process and in doing so define the outcome that they will have which should be in the clients words and aligned to the objective that they want to achieve or that you have identified is a necessary component of their well being. Further provide them with an engagement pack that reassures them that they have made the right decision in choosing you. This will certainly have relevance when natural buyers remorse sets in. By having managed the psychology of the sale process during the appointment you have mitigated the natural thought process of the client and reassured them that what they experienced in your waiting room was genuine and that in a very short space of time the feeling that you understand them and are genuinely concerned about their well being. The WHY you are in business is powerful here. Make sure you tell them at this point why it is you do what you do.
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