How often do you take a few quiet minutes to consider and define the objective and advance for your meetings? Sometimes, or always?
If your answer is sometimes, ask yourself why not always? Without both, how will you prepare effectively and navigate towards an optimum outcome for all?
Considering and defining clear objectives, and an advance is a no-brainer if you want to achieve mutual success. Perhaps think of it this way:
“At the end of the meeting, what do you want to happen”?
While most meetings between financial advisers and their prospects or clients are reasonably effective, I am too often surprised at the number of advisers who not only don’t have a clearly defined objective for meetings, but can’t simply articulate the outcome, or range of outcomes, they are working towards with their prospect or client.
Consequently, neither clients nor prospects are clear about the objectives of the meeting.
Without question, preparing clearly thought-out and defined objectives for every meeting will enable you to prepare evidence or material and the questions that you are going to ask that will move the meeting towards the outcomes that will benefit everyone.
Also, taking the time to consider potential issues or objectives will enable you to prepare highly effective questions, which can be included as part of your agenda.
It is also worth noting that preparing clearly defined objectives for the meeting does not mean that:
You have to necessarily state it to the client – your objective may be different from how you position the meeting at the outset, and
You have to be rigid in accepting your desired or preferred meeting outcomes – you don’t, you have as much flexibility in the flow and outcome of the meeting as you and your prospect/client feel is appropriate.
That said, having a clearly defined, easily articulated objective for every meeting is a must.
In our GROW Adviser Capability program we explore how advisers can develop the most appropriate objectives and advances for each of their meetings.
Keep an eye out for my next article:
So, let’s start from the beginning of the relationship
What is the specific objective of each of your next three scheduled prospect/client meetings?
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