6th February 2017

Sell the experience of financial planning, not the concept

Several years ago I learned from Steve Chandler (best-selling author and brilliant coach) his ‘Eighteen fearless disciplines’ for creating clients. He calls them disciplines because you actually have to practice them rather than just know the idea.

The first of these disciplines is ‘Sell the experience, not the concept’ and it can transform results you get when speaking to potential new clients.

At the core of this discipline is that when you have a conversation with a potential new client their decision is to want to continue working with you, rather than deciding whether to start working with you. The reason is simply that it is far easier for someone to continue with something (when, of course, the quality of experience supports it) than it is to start.

Therefore, the more substance the conversation has, the more value it delivers, then the more it will make sense to your potential client to continue and want more. This is a dramatically more powerful approach that simply telling someone what financial planning can do for them, which keeps it as just an idea or concept.

Understanding how to create value is underpinned by understanding what people are really buying, so let’s use some examples to illustrate this:

* People do not buy a drill because they want a drill. They want a hole that then leads to something else they want to accomplish.

* People do not go to the dentist because they enjoy having someone poke around inside their mouth. They go because they want to be pain free, have nice teeth and good health.

* People do not buy financial planning because they want a financial plan. They want peace of mind, security, freedom, the ability to do what they want to do, and so on (and every client will have their own version of this).

A drill, dental treatment and financial planning are all a means to the end. They are not the end in itself. Powerful, value creating, client conversations do not focus upon the means – they focus upon the result.

Find out what the result is – what does your client really want to achieve? What matters most of all to them? What makes it important? What keeps them awake at night? What do they absolutely want to avoid?

Do you really know what drives, inspires and motivates each of your clients? Do you ask yourself “What would really serve my client, right now?”

Ultimately, what people buy are feelings. Just imagine, for a moment, that you wanted to purchase a new car and you visit a showroom to view the model you like. Would you want the dealer describing to you what it is like to drive it or would you want him or her to give you the key and let you actually drive it?

There is no feeling in the concept of something. Describing what it is like to drive the car is not engaging. But actually driving it is. The same applies to selling financial planning.

Powerful financial planners understand the value of creating an experience. They focus their attention upon finding out what someone really wants. They connect. They ask lots of questions and they listen. They emotionally engage the client and go deep into their world. They pay attention and avoid, at all costs, over-burdening and making people feel bad.

Ultimately, they understand that people make decisions emotionally and then back them up with logic. Not the other way around. Logic does not compel people.

You do not have to wait until someone is paying you before you serve them. In fact, it is a great idea to begin from the very first moment. Just as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

FREE webinar for advisers

On 15^th February we are hosting a FREE one-hour webinar called 'The inner game of client acquisition'. 

We will explore the real reason why people struggle in this vital business area and how to tap into the inner resource that turns getting new clients from a chore and into one of the most enjoyable aspects of your business. 

You can reserve your place by clicking here.

Business Development