Trending
Don’t Swim in Dangerous Waters
Unless you identify and follow set procedures, you’re swimming in dangerous waters.
We hear a lot about being flexible with clients as they’re coming on board with us and trying to accommodate their requests. But you need to have your systems and your structure set down and embedded firmly for you to be most confident and, frankly, to offer the most help.
Offering the most help to that new client means having a conviction for your process, because their safety is involved, and so is yours.
When we had our swim school, we would have many parents have their child come to us and swim a little bit in the pool, and then the parents would begin telling us exactly what level their child needed to be started at within our swim school. However, I knew immediately that the child wasn’t ready to go into that particular level in our program. It was a safety issue for the child. It was also a safety issue for my business and a safety issue for my instructors. Everybody needed to be looked after, and the buck stopped with me and my decision.
That’s exactly how it needs to be with you in your business. People will come in and talk to you, and while they’re looking for advice, sometimes they can be a little overconfident in their knowledge and experience with what it is they think they need most. This is where you need to have a set structure and a process in your mind so you can listen to them most effectively, but in the end, corral them to go toward the pathway that you know they need to follow. You need your process so set that when they bring up those types of questions that challenge you regarding what they’d like to do, you need to either be able to decide there and then you can work with this client as long as they do it your way, or accept that this person isn’t going to be one of your ideal clients.
So, when you’re in a meeting and you start to get a little bit of pressure from that prospect,
- You need a process in place — one that’s logical, that totally makes sense and is easy to explain.
- You need conviction for your process. You need to make sure you totally believe in the process and the steps that you’re implementing. That keeps you safe, and it’s most effective for keeping a new client safe.
- Be ready to let that prospect walk. If they’re not going to adhere to what you know best and work with you, with regard for your knowledge and experience in helping them achieve their financial objectives, they’re not an ideal client for you. Let them go and know that you’re now one person closer to finding that next ideal client.
Related: How To Smoothly Transition Existing Clients to a New Advisor