The Wealth Management Meeting Process: Screen, Discover and Present like an Elite Advisor – Episode 52
When working with high-net-worth prospects, It is so valuable to be able to articulate and demonstrate the exact process that you will use with them if they become your clients. The affluent want to understand what it will look and feel like to work with you, and what they can expect.
With that in mind, here’s a look at three of the most important touch points on the journey from being a prospect to becoming a client. As you’ll see, none of these meetings are about selling a thing or a product or a service. Rather, each one is about showing your value—what you bring to the table for the client—and how you’ll deliver it.
The exploratory call
This is the first official touch point, often resulting from a referral or introduction of some sort. Often, advisors invite prospective clients to their offices for an initial meeting—only to learn halfway through that the prospect isn’t an ideal fit for the firm.
The exploratory call acts like a pre-screening conversation that lets you learn about the person without committing to an hourlong (or more) in-person discovery meeting. What’s more, this call makes it easier to tell the person that they’re not a good fit than if they’re sitting in front of you, face to face.
Ultimately, an exploratory call can save both you and the prospect a lot of time. If the client isn’t right for you, you can suggest they contact a different advisor. If the client is a match, you can give them an overview of your wealth management process and invite them to the discovery meeting—at which you’ll get to know them better and learn about their goals and values.
The discovery meeting
The goal of this meeting is to understand the prospect on a deep level that goes far beyond their financial numbers into the realm of the personal: Their goals, their values, their family dynamics, their risk tolerance—essentially everything that defines their personal and financial life. The affluent want indispensable advocates. In order to be able to advocate for a family, you’ve got to understand what’s important to them and who they are as people.
There are seven key areas to address during discovery:
1) Values. What is truly important to you about your money and your desire for success, and what are the key, deep-seated values underlying the decisions you make to attain them? When you think about your money, what concerns, needs or feelings come to mind?
2) Goals. What are you most proud of achieving in the past and, going forward, what do you want to achieve with your money over the long run—personally and professionally, from the most practical to your biggest dreams?
3) Relationships. Who are the most important people in your life—including family, employees, friends and even pets?
4) Assets. What do you own and with what liabilities —from your business to real estate to investment accounts and retirement plans—and where and how are your assets held?
5) Advisors. Whom do you rely on for advice, and how do you feel about the professional relationships you currently have? Is there a need to find new trusted professional advisors? Wealth management is designed to work in partnership with all of your trusted advisors to arrive at comprehensive recommendations that complement each other.
6) Process. How actively do you like to be involved in managing your financial life, and how do you prefer to work with your trusted advisors?
7) Interests. What are your passions in life when you are not working—including your hobbies, sports and leisure activities, charitable and philanthropic involvements, religious and spiritual proclivities, and children’s schools and activities?
The initial findings meeting
Rather than deliver a financial plan or recommendations, the next meeting is designed to give a summary of your observations about the person and the resulting opportunities and risks you’ve identified in their financial life. There are two key value-added deliverables here:
- Client profile. Based on the information leaned at the discovery meeting, you visually map out the seven areas so the client can see what their overall life looks like. A graphic-based profile makes a powerful visual impression that you understand this person deeply—beyond their investments. You’ll then discuss some of your key findings from discovery and engage with them to validate that you heard them.
- Preliminary financial assessment. On one page, you’ll present high-level ideas for potentially improving the person’s financial life—often in key areas of interest such as mitigating taxes, taking care of heirs, supporting charities and so on. You might highlight where a person is taking on excessive risk and propose a solution. Or you might identify an opportunity that may be a good fit for the person based on your previous conversations. By covering many areas at a high level, you increase your chances of raising ideas that are true hot-button issues for the prospect.
Showing your advocacy
Taken together, these three meetings clearly communicate to affluent clients that you are not simply someone looking to get and manage their investments. Instead, it tells prospects that you want to advocate for them—to help them navigate a broad range of financial issues, concerns and opportunities that they face. Take prospects through these three meetings, and you’ll show them how different you are from the typical financial advisor—and how much value you’re ready to bring to their lives.
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