Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

To truly be a great advisor, you have to genuinely be interested in people. You have to be interested in what makes them tick, why have they made the decisions they’ve made, why do they have the aspirations they have.

Be listening to that not so much from wanting to get the account, but truly interested in them, as people. Why have you done the things you’ve done? Why do you think the way that you do? What history have you had financially that has led you to this point in time? That way you’re going to gain a far better understanding of exactly who you have sitting in front of you. You can then ask far more effective questions when you’ve listened appropriately – when you’ve taken the time not to finish their sentences, but let them speak and hear them, and then come back with questions that will divulge more information to you.

But just communicate with them as people. They’re one-offs. They’re unique. There’s not another one exactly like them, and you have the privilege of serving them. So listen to them and hear them.

I was in our local supermarket a couple of years ago and spoke out to the checkout counter lady. I could tell she was having a tough day.

I said, “How are you?”

She said, “I’m OK.”

I said, “How long before you’re off?”

She said, “I’m off in ten minutes, and then my work really starts.”

So I said, “What do you mean by that?”

“I go home to help my mother, who has breast cancer.”

From that we got into a ten-minute dialog about everything her mother had gone through – about how she had to move back into the home with her, and about all the trials she’d gone through in the last year of her life. Fortunately, her mother got through breast cancer. But we’ve developed a relationship that we’ve maintained: any time she sees me in that supermarket, she’ll always make a point of stopping by and saying hi and asking me about my family.

I know if I was still a financial advisor, I would have had her account in a heartbeat. Why? Not because I was looking for increasing my AUM, but because I just spoke to her as a person. I just saw her as a person.

So, I’d encourage you when you’re talking with people, especially as you’re prospecting, hear them for who they are, not just for what they could become to you.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea again next week.