Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

Think about your favorite actor. How do they make you feel?
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Great actors impact our emotions by delivering words from a written script. Most times, they aren’t even the ones who wrote these words. The writer knows, though, how they need to move the audience, to progress the emotions of the people hearing these words so they have them at a particular point, ready for the next phrase, or ready for the next challenge. There is a process, and their words are used specifically.

As an advisor, you need to ingrain verbiage so you know exactly where you’re taking people when you talk with them. I recently read a post that was really denigrating the use of scripts, and I disagree with that. You want to use scripts! That doesn’t mean that once you’ve learned scripts, you deliver them like a robotic parrot. You learn scripts so that you actually avoid doing that and so that you’re comfortable knowing what you need to be saying, which then frees you to listen most effectively.

When I am talking on stage to a group of advisors, the meeting planner and I have agreed on my objective—to have the audience learn specific points. That means at a particular time, I must have them emotionally ready to hear a point. I can’t choose my words at random, just delivering whatever words come to mind at that moment. I need to know I’ve progressed the audience along a pathway so when I make a major point, they are prepared to receive it. That means I need to have my words scripted so I’m not flying by the seat of my pants, based on how I feel that particular morning. I need to use words I know will deliver.

You want to do the same when you are speaking with people you want to impact. For instance, when you are finishing your meeting, you can say,

“Doug and Heather, it’s been great meeting with you today. If you have friends or family who have questions or concerns about Social Security, cash flow during retirement, about Medicare and when to enroll in that, please, have them send me an email, mentioning you in the subject line. I’m more than happy to spend five or ten minutes answering any questions they’ve got.”

That’s learned.

Or, if you’re in a line at Starbucks and somebody says, “Hey, I saw you walk out of your company’s office there, it looks like you work as a broker,”—they’ll use “broker”—”and what do you think about Google?” You might say,

“Well, we follow Google a little bit, relative to our overall investment structure, but I can’t say relative to you. I know nothing about you. It certainly sounds like you’re interested in investing, and I’d love to learn more about you and how you think that might look, and share a little bit about how we work and see if it’s a good fit.”

That’s what you need to be ready to say to that person, and again, that’s learned language.

Scripts work because they provide you with conviction for what you’re saying as well as the security of knowing your rehearsed words are effective and likely to produce the result you want. Getting your script down cold gives you the confidence and comfort to say the words like it’s the very first time you’ve said them, because, to that particular person, it’s going to be the first time they’ve heard those words from you.

So to do this most effectively,

1. Write down the words of the scripts you’re going to say, thinking about the specific times when you’re going to use that language.


2. Practice them. “If you have friends or family who have questions or concerns…” That’s practiced! And when you practice it, it sounds natural; think of your favorite actor.


3. Don’t deviate. When you know you can help the person you’re talking with but they don’t respond how you’d like—with an emphatic yes—that doesn’t mean your script is wrong. It can mean they’re simply not going to be an ideal client for you.

Write down the language, practice it, and then deliver it with conviction. The chances are you’re going to bring on a brand new client.

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