CHRISISM #78 - Three Simple Steps

07 November 2018

Are you on a mission to keep things as simple as possible for your clients – or are you inclined to make things as complicated as possible in order to justify the certificates on your wall?

In Chrisism#24 I espoused the wisdom of the acronym K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) in our engagement with clients and pointed out that a large number of potential sales are lost due to the imparting of too much information, thereby resulting in information overload, and one thing we know for sure is that a confused prospect will never buy. What’s more, this situation is not recoverable because you can’t take back information you have already given!  

If we have committed the opposite crime i.e. not imparting enough information in order for this particular prospect to make an informed decision, then this situation is recoverable simply by providing more information until the prospect has sufficient information on which to base an informed decision.

My view on financial planning is a little bit like the Big Yin’s (Billy Connolly’s) view on the whole topic of diet and exercise regimes. As he says in his inimitable way:- “It’s hardly rocket science, is it?” It’s called “Eat less, move more – what more do you need to know?!”

We can dumb down financial planning in a similar way – after all, it’s hardly rocket science, is it? It’s called “Spend less, save more and protect your income along the way” – that’s financial planning!

Truth be known, you can pare any part of the financial planning process down to a simple three step process – whether it be a client’s personal protection package (which of course comes first!), medium term capital accumulation, long term capital accumulation or a client’s succession plan, that simple three step process is:-

Step One:-

Find out what they want

Step Two:-

Find out what they’ve got

Step Three:-

Show them how to plug the gap

Share this three step process with your clients and follow it in every aspect of their financial plan and you won’t go far wrong.

If you could do with a whole bunch of engagement tools that keep things nice and simple for your clients and that result in you creating a quality experience for your clients rather than just ticking the compliance boxes and completing a transaction, then you need to come along to my upcoming “Sales Skills for Financial Planners” Workshops around the 5 major capitals in late November/early December – and get 6 CPD points into the bargain!

Just click on the link below for all the content and registration details.

The Sales Skills Workshop is on in all 5 Major Capitals in November/December 2018.

Click here for details.

The Risk Workshop by Chris Unwin

Are you a financial adviser who would like all of your clients to have appropriate types and levels of personal protection? But perhaps you feel you need a more structured and client friendly engagement process?