Get more from client meetings

Note that for clients whose updates take place over the phone or via Skype or FaceTime (a small but rapidly growing trend), these principles can be adapted to make phone and Skype meetings work better as well.

Here are five of those strategies. Next month’s column will wrap up the remaining five.

– BEST PRACTICE NO. 1: DOCUMENT MEETING OBJECTIVES

Advisors almost always have one or more goals going into a client meeting, but most advisors fail to take one simple step that dramatically increases the chance that those goals will be met.

To increase the odds of a successful meeting, take two minutes beforehand to write down key goals for the meeting – goals that fall into two categories.

The first category of objectives is the things that, if achieved, will make your client better off, all the way from rebalancing his or her portfolio to having a conversation with adult children about their financial situation.

The second category encompasses the things that, if achieved, will make you better off, from increasing trust and deepening the client relationship to getting introductions to a client’s accountant.

When documenting goals in advance of meetings, be as specific as possible. By taking two minutes to write down these objectives (research shows that writing them by hand on paper works better that typing them into a laptop), the chances of both achieving your goals and meetings being productive rise significantly.

– BEST PRACTICE NO. 2: USE A WRITTEN AGENDA

When I was talking to Tim, he mentioned that some of his top clients simply don’t want to meet as often as he’d like to. Even when Tim offers to meet at a time and location that’s convenient for these clients, they still are “too busy” to meet. Some clients may indeed be too busy; but for most clients who are reluctant to meet, there is a more fundamental issue.

That issue is that these clients have walked away from past meetings with little in the way of new information. Given how pressed for time most of us are, persuading clients to meet as often as you’d like can be challenging if they are not confident that meetings will be a good use of their time.

One advisor who operates in the top of the market addresses this problem by laying out an agenda of topics for her quarterly meetings with clients, with each meeting focused on updating a different aspect of a client’s financial plan. Even if you don’t go to that extent, another simple strategy to increase perceived value from meetings is to employ a written agenda.

Meeting agendas serve several purposes. By laying out what will be covered, agendas allow clients to focus on the immediate topic at hand rather than wondering what will be coming up. Furthermore, agendas help keep both you and your client on track. And, at the end of the meeting, clients will have a record of the topics discussed.

For this strategy to be effective, your clients have to view agendas as representing their needs and priorities rather than yours.

That’s why one of the better ways to conclude a meeting is by asking the client what questions and issues he or she would like to include on the agenda for the next meeting. In that way, there is continuity between meetings, with each building on the one before.

– BEST PRACTICE NO. 3: TIE RECOMMENDATIONS TO PAST CONVERSATIONS

Another topic that Tim and I discussed was the best way to introduce client recommendations. To address that issue, I pointed to work by sales consultant and author Neil Rackham, who led a team of researchers in observing 35,000 complex sales calls over a 12-year period.

Rackham’s key conclusion was that what works in presenting a solution to a complex, high-value decision is entirely different from deciding on a simple, routine purchase. Rackham’s book, SPIN Selling (McGraw-Hill; 1988), states that in order to be effective, salespeople in high-stakes purchases need to be viewed by clients as consultants and problem-solvers acting in the client’s best interest.

In doing that, the paramount goal for the salesperson is to build trust. That is why most of the traditional, pressure-based techniques on “objection handling” and “closing” are wrong in important selling situations.

Instead, Rackham’s book states, salespeople need to develop a deep understanding of each client’s situation and problems, the implications of those problems and, ultimately, the client’s needs. (The term “SPIN” in the book’s title is Rackham’s acronym for “situation, problem, implication and needs.”)

This deep understanding typically is built over the course of several conversations, each layering on the one before. But once you have that deep understanding, the best way to introduce a solution is with the words: “We’ve talked in the past about the fact that [name of problem] is an issue for you. Given that, I’d like to add a potential solution to that problem to the agenda for today’s meeting.”

Rackham’s book states that advisors should never introduce a recommendation unless they are able to frame it as addressing a problem that arose in a prior conversation.

In discussing this strategy, Tim said that he liked the concept in principle and that this practice would be good discipline in ensuring that all recommendations were rooted in a previously articulated problem for clients.

– BEST PRACTICE NO. 4: PRACTISE THE 50/50 RULE

The fourth best practice relates to the balance of time in meetings that you spend talking compared with the amount of time that the client has the floor.

Some advisors believe that the more time they spend in meetings outlining the research and rationale for recommendations, the more impressed clients will be. However, research indicates exactly the opposite: the more clients talk in response to questions from salespeople – up to 70% of the meeting’s time – the more impressed those clients report they were by the salesperson’s acumen and professionalism.

That’s why the primary goal when meeting with your clients is to ask good questions that get them talking. As part of your notes after each meeting, consider jotting down questions to ask the next time you see that client. And leading up to a meeting, you could write down possible questions beside each item on the agenda.

– BEST PRACTICE NO. 5: FOLLOW THE 90-SECOND PRINCIPLE

We all have had the experience of finding our attention drift off when someone we’re listening to is going on at length. That’s where the green/yellow/red rule can come in handy.

As a general rule, when you are talking to clients, you have their undivided attention for the first 30 to 60 seconds; the light is green. For the next 30 seconds, clients are listening for the most part, but also are wondering when you will finish; the light is yellow. And after 90 seconds, clients effectively have stopped listening; the light is red.

Many of us underestimate how long we talk. That’s why asking a member of your team to sit in on a meeting to monitor the duration of each of your comments can be instructive.

Of course, many complex topics can’t be distilled to fit into 90 seconds. But many such topics can be broken into components, during which you periodically stop and ask your clients if they have questions or comments before you proceed. By adopting this strategy, you will retain your clients’ attention and communicate more effectively.

To put these strategies into practice, select one of the five best practices described in this column that resonates with you. Consider the possibility that you could experiment with that practice in your client meetings in the next 30 days toward making those meetings more productive.

Dan Richards is CEO of Clientinsights (www.clientinsights.ca) in Toronto. For more of Dan’s columns and informative videos, visit www.investmentexecutive.com.

© 2017 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.