It’s a totally different form of engaging with clients.
Graeme Richardson & Tony Dass from Argonaute Financial Advisors in Launceston, were sharing their insights with me yesterday regarding the implementation of their Discovery meetings for existing and new clients.
“After our ‘discovery’ conversation, the clients are immediately more open, more trusting. They can now very clearly see that our process and intent is simply to do as much as we possibly can from a financial advice perspective to maximise the probability of them achieving what’s important to them. This has been the consistent feedback from everyone we have completed such a meeting with now. It’s great. It’s really great.”
“Initially, they don’t get it. Initially they start talking about the mechanics of their investments, or cashflows or something related to how their money is or isn’t performing. Once we get them back to the why we are working together via the ‘discovery’ questions, that’s when they really open up and understand what we are trying to do for them and where the value is that we are trying to achieve.”
For the last 15 years (or maybe more) the financial advice industry has focused on the what we are doing for clients. It has lost the art of understanding, extracting and positioning the why we are working for our clients.
A primary reason is the compliance focus the industry adopted during the boom years forcing advisers to provide evidence of financial due process via comprehensive fact finds which could be audited and scrutinised. These questionnaires often ripped the potential out of great engagement possibilities by overly focusing on the client’s money rather than the client.
Great advisers today like Graeme and Tony are spending the time implementing better engagement conversations, casting aside traditional fact finds until clients are engaged firstly on the why they are working together before determining what they have to do.
Too many advisers today are still trying to get new clients or convert existing clients with look what we can do for you type propositions and wonder why business isn’t growing. Attend a workshop, listen to the webinars, talk to advisers who are growing their businesses to understand how to understand why clients might work with you to better achieve their outcomes.
What do you think?