June 6th, 2012 by Dan Richards, ClientInsights.ca

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An arti­cle in Jan­u­ary of 2010 out­lined a ques­tion to engage high net worth prospects. Last week I talked to a reg­u­lar reader of my arti­cles who said that he uses this ques­tion on a reg­u­lar basis with excel­lent results.

Here’s the question:

“What kind of writ­ten plan do you have fore­cast­ing income and liv­ing expenses in retire­ment, to ensure that you have a com­fort­able buffer of money com­ing in to money going out?”

That ques­tion made sense in 2010, and given the con­tin­ued mar­ket uncer­tainty, cut­backs in Gov­ern­ment spend­ing and media cov­er­age of longer lifes­pans; it makes even more sense today. As just one exam­ple, here’s an arti­cle from yesterday’s National Post out­lin­ing the need to for many Cana­di­ans to plan on liv­ing past 100.

http://​www​.nation​al​post​.com/​P​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​+​l​i​f​e​+​a​f​t​e​r​+​r​e​a​l​i​s​t​i​c​+​c​o​n​c​e​r​n​/​6​6​9​9​0​8​2​/​s​t​o​r​y​.​h​tml

By ask­ing a prospect, “What kind of writ­ten plan do you have?” you com­mu­ni­cate that peo­ple in their sit­u­a­tion should nat­u­rally have a writ­ten finan­cial plan as a mat­ter of course.

And when a prospect says that they don’t have a plan, you ask the log­i­cal fol­low up ques­tion, with per­haps a bit of sur­prise: “And is there a rea­son why not?”

There are no magic solu­tions when it comes to cre­at­ing inter­est on the part of afflu­ent prospects in meet­ing with you. But by tap­ping into real con­cerns and posi­tion­ing your­self as an advi­sor who can help address those con­cerns, your chances of suc­cess go up significantly.

Should you want to read more, here’s an extract from that Jan­u­ary 2010 arti­cle that got this reader’s attention:

Extract from 2010 article:

“Research shows a con­tin­u­ing anx­i­ety among many Cana­di­ans with regard to fund­ing their retire­ment — and often that con­cern is high­est among mid and higher income earn­ers used to more extrav­a­gant lifestyles than some­one mak­ing $40,000 a year.”

“When talk­ing to prospects, you want to do two things.”

“First, you want to rein­force what­ever level of urgency to take action they may already feel — or help cre­ate that urgency if it doesn’t exist. And sec­ond, you want to posi­tion your­self as some­one who can pro­vide a solu­tion to impor­tant issues in their finan­cial life.”

“Once you’ve bro­ken the ice, here’s a ques­tion that I would con­sider ask­ing to help achieve both of these goals”:

“Do you have a writ­ten plan fore­cast­ing income and expenses in retire­ment, to ensure you don’t run out of money?”

“Once you’ve asked that, you might want to have case stud­ies or sam­ples of the kinds of plan you put in place to help clients address this concern”.

“Let’s be clear; there are no sil­ver bul­lets that will have HNW prospects come flock­ing to your door.”

“But, ask­ing thought­ful, slightly provoca­tive ques­tions such as this one, not to panic or alarm prospec­tive clients but to get them think­ing can be help­ful in advanc­ing your cause when talk­ing to HNW prospects.”

Here’s a link to the full arti­cle from 2010:

http://​www​.cli​entin​sights​.ca/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​a​-​q​u​e​s​t​i​o​n​-​t​h​a​t​-​m​o​t​i​v​a​t​e​s​-​h​n​w​-​p​r​o​s​p​e​cts

 

About ClientInsights.ca A breakthrough in client communication Not long ago, clients read what you sent them. Today that's changed. In the You Tube world we live in, many investors would prefer to hear from a portfolio manager directly. And instead of reading an article on tax saving or estate planning strategies, more and more Canadians would rather watch an expert discuss the topic. Clientinsights.ca was developed in response to these changes - to deliver information in the form that investors want to receive it. It provides over 150 short video interviews, each about 4 to 6 minutes - you can email them or watch a video along with clients to start a meeting. No matter how you use it, Clientinsights.ca is designed to help you take client communication to a higher level. Dan Richards Founder and CEO, Clientinsights.ca Read more from the author/contributor here.

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Tags: Anxiety, Article Research, Canadians, Government Spending, High Net Worth, Income Earners, Lifestyles, Living Expenses, Magic Solutions, Market Uncertainty, Matter Of Course, Media Coverage, Money, Prospects, Regard, Retirement, Surprise, Urgency
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