There are too many sources of information
available today, and almost all of them are
telling your clients that they don’t need you –
they just need some term insurance, a couple
of ETFs and maybe an exempt market
product or two and their lives will be
financially secure. You know that isn’t true,
but how do you convince them? Following
are five steps to get your clients thinking
realistically about their future – and what
you need to know to help them.
1. UNDERSTANDING CURRENT
REALITY
We don’t understand your industry – it
frightens us. There is too much terminology,
and the media make many of us feel incredibly nervous about our financial futures. For
too many people, money is an emotional
issue. It’s how they keep score in the game of
life. To determine your prospects’ and clients’
emotional state about money, ask them two
critical questions. The first is: What is rich?
We, your clients, are torn between two
thoughts about money at the exact same time:
“Get rich now!” and “Will I ever be able to
retire?” Holding these two thoughts in our
head at the same time is difficult, and given
the recent turbulence in the economy, we are
leaning toward one more than the other. The
second critical question is: What is the eighth
wonder of the world? Of course, the answer is
compound interest. As professionals, you
understand how it works, but do your clients?
The next time you see your client, find out. If
they don’t understand, you have just created a
teachable moment. Every time you teach us
something we don’t know, your value goes up
in our eyes. Every time your value goes up,
you keep us longer as a client.
2. CREATING A RICHLY IMAGINED
FUTURE
I like the phrase “richly imagined future.” It
gets people thinking, allowing them to dream.
When you ask your clients about their richly
imagined future, it will help to answer the
question, “Why do we work?” For most of
your clients, they get up and go to work every
day to accomplish goals that they have set for
themselves and with their families – not
necessarily all financial goals. You need your
clients to share their goals to create a
comprehensive financial plan. Sounds simple,
except we don’t want to share our goals with
you. We are desperately afraid of being judged
by you. I know you don’t do that, but that’s
what your clients and prospects fear, so you’ll
have to guide them through the process by
teaching them how to set goals.
When a client comes to you with their goals –
or you help them craft a list – make sure the
list contains their goals. It’s too easy to get
excited about things other people want for us
when we never really have any intention of
following through. Then, when we don’t follow
through, we get frustrated and angry, and we
try to shift some of that blame onto you for
getting us interested in the first place.
3. APTITUDE FOR DISRUPTION
Disruption is how we stop doing the things
that are not giving us the future we want. It
will shock some of your clients to find out
their current behavior will not get them the
financial future they want. How do you
demonstrate this concept of disruption?
Remind clients of the magic of Lego toys.
What do kids understand about Legos that
adults have forgotten? You build it – break it
– and rebuild it again. It’s more fun the
seventh time than it was the first six. Think
about how this relates to your clients. What is
happening to their financial futures? To their
retirement nest eggs? How are you approaching their plans and managing their anxiety?
Take the time to explain how you are going to
put their plan back together if it breaks,
creating a better plan.
4. POWER OF CHOICE
Speaking as a client of the industry, the
scariest thing for us is the sheer volume of
choices we have to make in order to create a
successful financial future: life insurance,
disability insurance, critical illness insurance,
stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, exempt
market products, hedge funds, RRSPs,
TFSAs, mortgages and so on. Frankly, it
leaves us confused. To get to our “richly
imagined future”, we need to make choices.
Help us make those choices and understand
why Option A is better than Option B, and
that Option C can be a fallback. Most
importantly, get us to understand that we
shouldn’t be doing it on our own. People are
trying to cut corners with their personal
financial futures. They download a .PDF on
investing, they read a magazine article or talk
to their watercooler friends. Then they
opened an robo-advisor account and now they
are the master of their own financial future.
I’m passionate about the concepts of
insurance and having a written financial game
plan. They are choices that can get missed
because we get busy with life, or because we
assume we’ll have time to do it later. We all
have stories of people who waited too long,and
they – or their families – suffered the
consequences. Are you having these discussions with your clients? If not, start now.
5. PICTURE IN FOCUS
We – clients and advisors – should all have a
picture in our minds representing what we
want to achieve in life. Don’t talk to clients
about products, as these are only the means
to help them obtain the picture. Get them
focused on that picture, and you can get them
to make the sometimes difficult choices and
commit to the plan you help them create for
the long run. Show us that you are committed
to us obtaining that picture, and we’ll honor
that with our loyalty to you as clients.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Gignac is the owner of “Rich is a State
of Mind” providing keynote presentations,
client seminars and workshops on personal
financial development and motivation. He is
the author of the Canadian best seller “Rich
is a State of Mind” (19th printing) and the
voice of the “Money, Motivation & More”
podcast. To book Robert to speak at your next
corporate or organization event, contact him
at:
robert@richisastateofmind.com
Copyright 2019 – Robert Gignac & Rich is a State of Mind
A PEEK INSIDE YOUR CLIENT’S MIND
