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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780471408819 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 07/02/2001 |
| Series: | J.K. Lasser Pro , #3 |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 3.30(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
First Meeting: On the Telephone
What Do Prospective Clients Really Want?
Ostensibly, prospective clients call a financial planner to determine whether the firm provides the services they need and what the costs of working together would be. Some of this information they can likely get from an ad in the telephone directory or from a brochure. The client's unstated questionsÑ what motivates the initial phone call--are really, can we get along? Will you listen to me and hear what I want? Can you give me what I need? Will this be a comfortable relationship? This first brief conversation is your opportunity to address these issues by engaging prospects in a focused and meaningful dialogue.
A prospect may have been referred by a friend, or have seen your name in a newspaper article or even in the yellow pages of the telephone directory. A small number of people are very trusting and seem eager to begin a relationship. Most callers are on an exploratory mission, calling several advisors with no particular pattern and no preconceived outcome.
When prospects call a professional office for information, they may be curt, they may be very guarded, and they would like to know if you will be sympathetic to their situations, but often find they are given only a machine on which to leave a name and address. This reinforces their fear that they will be just a name and number at your firm. Probably they hoped for an initial contact with a professional and a reason to take the step toward forming a relationship. Think about whether an answering machine conveys the greeting you wishfirst-time callers to experience. If yes, make sure you return all calls promptly; if no, hire an assistant or an answering service to provide human contact for your prospects.
At my office, I am determined to find a link, something of interest that we can talk about even before we meet. I talk to most prospects because I enjoy getting to know new people, unless my assistant determines that the caller is inappropriate for our firm. Recently, a woman called from several hundred miles away because her husband asked her to get my brochure. Within five minutes, I discovered that she had two children in college, she lives where my daughter went to school, and I live where her daughter goes to school. Guess what we talked about? As she put it, "Country bumpkins go to the big city, while kids who grow up in the city go to the country." Before we hung up, we made an appointment, one that I am really looking forward to. Engaging callers in a conversation about their personal situations gives you an opportunity to hear their concerns, labels you as someone who is interested in them, and can convince them that it is worthwhile to visit your office.
Getting to Know Prospective Clients in a Phone Call
If you enjoy talking to people, and believe that everyone has an interesting story to tell, you are ahead of the game. The more information you gather, the easier it will be to get a prospect to visit your office, and the more likely you are to win them as a client. You will also have the opportunity to screen appropriate clients based on their information and refer others to colleagues.
For wary callers who initiate contact but are reluctant to reveal themselves, try to find a topic that encourages them to open up. The process is somewhat analogous to sitting next to strangers on an airplane and hearing their whole life story before the plane arrives at its destination. For example, on a flight returning from a meeting, my seatmate, a young woman, told me about her attempts to get pregnant (none of which was successful) and then described her close relationships with her young nieces and nephews!
Drawing out a caller is as easy as 1-2-3. Ask them:
- What kind of work they do, or if they are retired. Most people will at least give you the basics of their employment situation.
- Whether they are married and if they have children. People really enjoy talking about their families.
- Where their money is now. People can't resist telling you if they have done something they are proud of, if they feel inadequate about managing their funds, or if they have an advisor who they do or do not care for. They might even point out problems they have had, or opportunities they feel they have missed.
Notice these are all questions, things to ask the caller, not information to give them. If you lead by asking questions, you will elicit useful information and engage the caller in discussing the topic they know best--their own unique circumstances. The alternative, talking about yourself or your firm too soon, can be off-putting. You might answer the caller's surface questions but risk ending the conversation before you have a chance to make a connection with the caller, which should be a main goal of your conversation. You want to break down the natural barriers that occur between strangers, introduce the human element (otherwise you could have a machine taking your phone messages), and lay the groundwork to move to the next level of personal interaction with your potential new client.
Of course, each question and answer can and should lead to many others. As long as the caller is telling you things about herself, you should be listening, making notes (it will help you focus and provide a structure for your first face-to-face meeting), and leading her to reveal more and more about her personal and financial situation. Since you cannot see the caller, and so cannot take advantage of visual body language cues, you need to be extra sensitive to verbal nuance. Note how casual, emotional, or guarded the caller seems. Then you can respond to those signals appropriately.
Frequently, prospects have not yet thought out the specific services they want, and quite likely have not thoroughly considered their goals in meeting with a financial professional. As a result, when you ask prospective clients what financial services interest them, they are uncertain and reply, "What do you mean?" as if you somehow should sense what they need. If you then suggest some services that you offer, such as planning for retirement or reviewing investments, they should relax and begin to clarify what they want. Another approach to opening up is to ask callers what financial concerns they have. This usually encourages callers to explain some of the issues that are troubling them-- and you can begin to put their concerns into a professional framework.
Do not talk generalities about the stock market or speak in financialese. Jargon is a real turnoff and actually makes people feel left out rather than included in what you have to say. By listening to the caller and engaging in preliminary conversation, you are letting that person know you are interested in your client's overall well-being. At the same time, you are setting the foundation for a comfortable situation when you and the caller actually get together. When this caller meets you, he will not feel that he is embarking on a new relationship, but that he is picking up from where the phone call left off. And you can use the information you gather over the phone to propel your face-to-face meeting to the next level. This includes developing a natural telephone conversational style, just as you would if you were seated across from the prospect, or from someone you met at a social gathering. Your questions should not be challenging or threatening. Your specific questions targeted to the caller's situations should show how interested you are.
A sample telephone conversation with prodding from the planner might be:
Planner: Are you currently working?
Caller: Yes, I am.
Planner: (Prodding) What kind of work do you do?
Caller: I am an attorney.
Planner: Oh, do you have your own practice?
Caller: I used to, but I recently joined ABC bank in its trust department.
Planner: (Responding to the caller's cues) Yes, I know them. I have some clients who work there. (Prodding) Why did you join the bank?
Caller: I was tired of running my own law office. It became too much work. The bank made me an offer, and I decided to take it.
Planner: How long have you been there?
Caller: I have worked at the bank two years, and I plan to stay until my 60th birthday, in four more years.
Now, after just a few minutes, the planner knows what the prospect does, how long he has been doing it, how old he is, and when he plans to retire. Even better, the door to an exchange of information has been opened, the caller's barriers have been let down, and the planner can proceed to gather more personal details.
Interviewing techniques should be practiced and honed so that it does not seem as if you are grilling prospects, a sure way to discourage anyone from coming to meet you. It is also effective to give a little information back to the caller when appropriate. It shows you have been listening, that you care, and that you understand where he is coming from. You might say, "Many of our clients are attorneys," or for a different type of connection, "It is difficult for lawyers to keep up their hectic pace after age 60."
Moving on to the caller's family, an appropriate follow-up question could be, what sort of work does your wife do? To ask about the caller's forthcoming retirement, probe with the questions, where will you go when you retire? Will you stay in your current home?
One of my favorite questions, but only after I have established some rapport and covered the basics, is "What made you think of calling?" This is more open-ended than the other questions, and causes the caller to think deeply about motivation, generating very useful information. While the other answers are about family and job that most people would freely give to anyone, this question leads to highly personal thinking.
Now, look at all the information you have. You know what the caller does, where he does it, how long he has been there, what he did prior, and when he expects to retire. You may even have some information about his spouse. He knows that you are attentive to his situation, which leads him to start thinking about what he hopes to accomplish in this new relationship. Most important, you have begun to develop a relationship of concern and interest.
Allowing Callers to Open Up
Although your first assumption should be that people want to talk about themselves, you still have to build a bridge over the telephone that allows them to do so. If you talk about yourself or the economy, and you are one of three financial advisors they contact that day, they may well remember nothing you say by the end of the call. If, however, you allow the caller to feel secure enough by your phone presence that she can open up to you, she will have memories of an encouraging, enthusiastic, sympathetic being on the other end of the line. In other words, people like people who care about them.
What should always be foremost in your thoughts is wanting to provide an environment that encourages the communication of privileged information, and treating what you hear as an exchange between trusted confidants. Do not pass judgment on anything you hear (how many times have I heard "I got my money in an unconventional way"?). You certainly may choose not to meet prospects with an unusual history, or people with other problems (e. g., considerable debt, a low savings rate, bankruptcy filings, unrealistic expectations, unusual family situations, poor records, lost money on investments, etc.) even though other planners may be attracted to just those circumstances. If you find you truly cannot be sympathetic to a caller's situation, consider referring him to another professional or even an organization that deals with his situation.
I have referred people to Debtor's Anonymous, Consumer Credit Counseling Service, and other organizations, and the callers always seem pleased to learn such organizations exist. I have given them the number to call for a list of planners in their area, and I have made referrals to newer planners in my community. Another planner I know actually sends troubled callers for psychological counseling, and they have called back to thank him. Not every caller is a good match for your practice, and that is okay. Do not judge your success on the amount of prospects you convert to clients, but on the quality of the fit for your firm.
Setting Up the Interview
You should speak to prospects on the phone only when you have time for a substantial interview, not when you are about to dash off to a meeting or assume some other imminent task. While you are on the phone, you want to think only of the caller and what she is telling you, not about all the things you have to do later in the day. Use your keyboard if that helps you track the conversation, but beware--typing information into your database can turn your attention away from the caller, which could suggest a lack of interest and make her wonder if you are more concerned with recording name, age, salary, and assets than you are in getting to know the person behind the call. Better to jot down your notes with pen and paper and enter them into your database after the call.
Provide a nurturing, safe environment so that people are willing to tell you things about themselves they are not used to sharing. Think of your initial task as over-the-phone hand-holding. If you are not the kind of person who finds it easy to be supportive to others, take classes, practice, and hone those skills. Remember the times you went to a new doctor's office as a first-time patient and were asked for background information. What made it pleasant or unpleasant? I once left a crowded doctor's office after I had been kept waiting for two hours. That evening, the doctor whom I had not yet met called to apologize. I rescheduled and saw the doctor a few times, but my initial impression of a too-crowded, disorganized, impersonal office was proved correct. I was never happy there, had delays and other problems each time I visited, and after two years left him for another doctor.
Hopefully, if you are unable to adapt your style to the needs, concerns, and well-being of callers, someone in your office is better suited to answer your phones and return prospect inquiries. Remember, the biggest concern of new callers is that you care about them and their problems. If you can convey that you honestly care, you will be a winner in the new prospect lottery in your town.
When you return a prospective client's call, ask if this is a good time to talk. If the person feels uncomfortable because someone in her office is nearby, or he is expecting a repairman to ring the doorbell at home, he or she will not be forthcoming, and you will have lost the chance to make a connection. Try to avoid telephone tag. It can be unnerving to a prospective client to speak repeatedly to your voice mail and hear from you only on a machine. Better to arrange a telephone appointment and call back at a mutually convenient time than to lose the opportunity to get to know the person on the other end of the line. And you cannot address their concerns, or show understanding of their problems, if you have not had a chance to hear them.
Should You Send Out a Questionnaire Before Seeing the Client?
Some planners are so guarded about their time they will not see anyone who has not filled out a questionnaire that details personal and financial circumstances. This no doubt helps them make a good match with a new prospect, and may save them time during their busy schedules. However, many prospective clients are offended by getting the questionnaire before they have had a chance to meet with and assess the planner, and refuse to answer personal questions about their income and assets on a piece of paper. I have been told this many times over the years by clients who have refused to go to planners who will not see them without a preliminary questionnaire and have come to my firm instead.
Your job is to weigh the pluses of time saved by a questionnaire against the minuses of alienating potentially good clients by jumping the gun. If you do send out a preliminary questionnaire, keep it brief and do not expect specific asset or income figures. Many people will not divulge those numbers except in a safe and private setting. If a preliminary questionnaire is not for you, try to think of other time savers, such as briefer phone interviews, returning calls only at the end of the day, preliminary screening by an associate in your office, or sending a package of information about your company to prospects so that they come in to meet you with realistic expectations.
Who Is Likely to Come Aboard; Who Is Unlikely to but May Crop Up Like a Weed Every Other Season
I have people who call me every fall, as regular as the leaves turn red and yellow. They tell me they wanted to become a client in the past, but some part of their lives delayed them. They inevitably say that this time they are ready to proceed, but a little voice tells me they probably never will. A few times a year, I hear from people who say they spoke to me (or heard me speak publicly) a couple of years ago. When I find their files, our conversation was often four or five or six years earlier. Repeat callers usually go all the way down the road, including the telephone conversation, setting up an appointment, coming in for an interview, exchanging documents, but they never sign the agreement and I never do their work. They may be afraid to commit to a professional relationship or may be long-standing delayers. You have to decide how far you want to proceed with this kind of prospect.
Prospects You Do Not Want to Become Clients
Parents may be stuck with an undesirable trait in their child, spouses may have to put up with some irrational behavior, but you do not have to accept clients who will make your life more difficult and demand too much of your time. Just as your clients can select you, you can select them. Listen closely to your prospects' remarks about relationships with other advisors. They may be telling you something you need to consider carefully. If a prospect has fired her attorney, accountant, and stockbroker, you should think about why you are getting involved. You will probably be the next to go. And, like a divorce, the process of parting ways can bring much anguish. If the prospect has recently sued two other advisors, or not paid his fees, stay away.
Some years ago, a very agitated man walked into my office. He told me his last advisor fired him, and he did not know why. He mumbled something about his being hard to work with. I thought he was a nervous but fine gentleman, so I engaged him as a client. I should have called his last advisor directly. Client X took more of my time than 10 other clients I worked with combined. He e-mailed me insulting, angry notes almost daily. When he came in, he was always calm, polite, and friendly--then the computer blitz would resume. This client needed to dislike anyone who would work with him, just as Groucho Marx did not want to belong to any club that would admit him.
For two years, I thought about firing Client X, but restrained myself because of his lovely wife, and because I told myself he was not always so bad. But he was. He distracted me from my other clients, bewildered me, and required too much of my time. Finally, after I told him several times on the phone that perhaps he would be happier somewhere else, he left and became a client of a colleague of mine who I really like. I hate to think of the disruption he is likely to cause there. I have told my colleague that this client is a handful, and I am keeping my distance, waiting for two or so years to pass and for him to change firms again. After a few more changes, my colleagues and I can start a Do Not Work with Client X club.
I know several planners who at the end of each fiscal year fire their most time-consuming client of the year, and others who fire the five clients who give them the lowest revenues each year. Think of it as spring-cleaning. I do not routinely fire clients, and actually am loyal to my clients to the point of trying to repair bad relations for years before resorting to firing as the last chance to set a problem right. That is why I am more careful about who I will accept as a new client and think of each prospect as a potential match for my firm.
My firm has established a "Three strikes and you're out" rule. I will see what I call recurring prospects (those who keep coming back without making up their minds to go ahead with the work) three times, typically over a period of many years, and after that I will not allow them to return to my office even though they have usually done nothing in the interim and their need for professional assistance is increasingly great. Included in this tally are prospective clients who change their initial appointment three or more times, each time giving a credible excuse, but never actually showing up. Undoubtedly, they are thinking of me, and want me to continue to think of them. I am now considering reducing my rule to "Two strikes and you're out." These kinds of clients always sound so needy and convincing on the phone, but my experience tells me they generally do not work out as clients. People who cannot make up their minds the first two times, or are such dyed-in-the-wool procrastinators, need a very serious financial crisis to spur them to action.
The more combative clients speak for themselves, usually both loud and clear. Take them only if you are a glutton for punishment.
Four Clunkers and the Psychology Driving Them Clunker Number One--Never Ties the Knot. Recently, I received a phone call from a man who said he had called my firm a few years ago for information but had never followed up. Now he said he wanted to take care of his finances. When pressed, a few years ago turned out to be 1986. When he asked if anything had changed in our firm in the interim, I had to stifle my instinct to answer, "Everything but my phone number." When I suggested he might want to come in to talk, he said he was going away for a while and would call me again. I found this conversation odd. It reinforced my feeling that some people like to check in every once in a while, like to know that you are still there in case they ever have the urge to see you, but intend to do nothing at present. Somehow your presence reassures them, and that is all they need. Clunker Number Two--Will See You in Court. One of my colleagues called to recommend a client, but she added that the client came with a warning. The client was currently suing three major brokerage firms and her last financial advisor for alleged mistakes they had made in her account. Now her needs were simple. She wanted someone who would give straightforward advice that she could act on. I thanked my colleague for thinking of me, and told her I did not feel right even meeting this prospect, let alone working with her. You would not have taken her as a client, either, would you? If someone is so unhappy accepting advice, and has a history of disagreements, firings, lawsuits, and other nasty business, you could be next in court. At the very least, this client will be hard to please and take up too much of your time. At the worst, this client will embroil you in costly lawsuits. This behavior serves the client's need to rebel against authority figures. Defend yourself up front by not taking this client, even if you are desperate for new business. Clunker Number Three--A Dysfunctional Family. There is nothing worse than to witness a family disagreeing loudly and angrily--and looking as if they will come to fisticuffs--around your conference table. Parents and siblings or even spouses can be so far apart in their financial thinking and so hung up on old family issues that they accuse, blame, cry, threaten, and shout at each other. To make matters worse, they seem to enjoy exhibiting this behavior in front of an audience (that is your role if you take them on, but if you are not available, they will perform this ritual in front of your staff or other clients). Whether they are exhibitionists with a need to act out in public, or they need to demand attention to feel important, or they simply are dysfunctional families with rude behavior, they will contribute more to the decibel level in your office than to the growth and success of your business. They do not really want your help because they are accustomed to the destructive patterns of their lives. If they refuse to modify their behavior, they are not a good match for your business. Clunker Number Four--Unrealistic Expectations. Recently, I interviewed a retired woman who told me she could no longer live the way she used to. Her income was made up of Social Security and withdrawals from her portfolio. Her cost of living necessitated that this amount should be $35,000 per year from her portfolio. Her entire portfolio, which she wanted me to invest "with absolutely no risk" was currently $220,000. She expected her portfolio to support her through 25 years of retirement, and to grow as well. I sympathized with her desire to maintain her former lifestyle, but considered her expectations unrealistic. I tried to educate her about risk and return, about leaving money in the account so it could be reinvested, and about settling on a more realistic cost of living for her retirement years. However, she did not want to hear that her goals were unrealistic; she wanted to magically return to her former means and lifestyle. If a client's goals are unattainable, the best you can do is try to educate her, and encourage her to rework her goals. If you decide to take her on as a client, be forewarned that you will not be able to make her happy, and you probably will not be happy either. |
Be Sure You Have Covered This in the First Telephone Conversation
If the conversation is going well, you will want to schedule an in-person meeting to take the beginning relationship to the next level. To ease the transition, be sure to address the following before you end the phone call:
What does the prospect hope to accomplish in the first meeting?
What do you expect to accomplish?
When will the appointment be?
Where will it be?
Is the prospect bringing a relative or advisor?
Who will be there from your office?
What documents should the prospect bring?
Directions to your office (have them ready to discuss or to send)
Note: Never hang up without taking down a phone number where you can reach the prospect if a change in your appointment becomes necessary.