Olympic Lesson: Plan a Strong Finish

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How you finish is much more important than how you start. I started my Olympic race in lane one—the next to the last qualifier—and was the seventh of eight swimmers in the pool to make the first turn. But 90 seconds later, thanks to a well-planned and practiced finish, I earned an Olympic medal. As advisors, we need to plan and practice our prospect-meeting finishes. The language and execution are simple but need diligence. Here’s what to say and do.

  • Ingrain the words you’ll use to finish every meeting as strongly as possible.
  • Repeatedly use the words you’ve chosen to boost your conviction and provide prospects clarity.
  • Follow up. Make the most of your first opportunity to develop trust with your prospects by doing exactly what you told them you’d do.

Related: Stop “Just Touching Base!” Do This Instead

Transcript:

First impressions definitely matter, but we also must make last impressions count.

Because it’s an Olympic year, I want to share how I prepared for my medal-winning swim and relate it to how you need to prepare for your meetings as advisors. My race was the men’s 200-meters backstroke. It was a four-lap race—four laps of a 50-meter pool. However, we focused on making the last lap of that race begin 15 meters out, when I was approaching the third turn. . .

Effectively that last lap for me was 65 meters. We got very specific about what I needed to do, how I was going to finish. That meant starting 15 meters out from the final turn to make sure I hit the wall as best as possible and came off it as streamlined as I could. That’s tough to do when you’re so tired and your legs are burning, but we were ready for it and carried that momentum all the way home to the finish and to eventually win an Olympic medal.

That turn wasn’t fast by accident. We practiced it. We focused on finishing well, and you need to do that as advisors, especially when you are having that first meeting with a potential client. After you’ve connected with them and seen that these people could be a great fit for you and that you’d love to work with them, simply say,

“Doug and Heather, I’ve really enjoyed our time together, and I’d love to take the next step in working with you.”

Then, let there be a pause. You don’t have to fill the void. Let them respond. Sometimes I had clients who said, “We’d love to get going. What do we have to do?” or “We’d love to get going. Where do we sign?” That’s a great feeling, but that’s not always the response you get.

if they say, “Give us a day or two to think about it,” then you need to be ready with a strong finish and follow up. You can simply say,

“I totally understand. It’s Tuesday today. I’d like to call you on Thursday, two days’ time, and answer any questions that you might have. If I miss you on that call, I’ll leave a message, and I’ll email you, again on Thursday, to let you know I called. I’ll then try you again on Friday, and if we miss each other again, then next Tuesday, a week from today, I’ll call you for a final time.

“I don’t want to bug you. And we’ve got a lot of stuff going on here, so I don’t want to hound you. But I’ll make my final call on Tuesday, again, just to see if you have any questions I can answer and to look at what next steps look like for us to work together.

“Incidentally, I’d love to include you in a small group I have where, from time to time, I see interesting news articles, be it on health, be it on fitness, and I love sending these out to the families I work with. Not by email—I don’t want to bombard you with another email—but it’s just our way of staying in touch and letting you know we’re human, you’re human. We think we’d enjoy working together with you.”

That’s the language you use to finish strongly, to let them know what needs to happen next. Don’t let the finish just kind of drift on by. As you can seen in the video of me swimming in that final, the finish was deliberate—as deliberate as the start. Anyone can start well. It’s the finish that those people are going to have in their minds when they leave your office.

So to do this most effectively,

  1. Ingrain the language. Understand how you want to finish your meetings and have those words in place.

  2. Use those words. The first couple of times, you might flub them a bit, but you’ll find you’ll develop a conviction for how you finish, and you will leave no doubts in that prospect’s mind about exactly what’s going to happen next.

  3. Follow up. This is the first opportunity you’re going to get to build trust with this prospect. If I was a prospect listening to an advisor, I’d be thinking, “I’m going to put you to the test. I might be ready to sign with you now. You might be a phenomenal advisor, but let’s just test you. In two days’ time, I’m going to be waiting for an email.” Of course, I’m not going to say that, but I’m going to be thinking that. So make the most of this first chance to deliver on what you said you’d do and start building trust.

Follow this simple process. Finish each meeting well, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly these people will be clamoring to begin working with you.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.