Two often when a group presentation is made to prospects, the solution is delivered too early. It is like a farmer planting a field that hasn’t yet been prepared. A presentation should identify the fear the client has and the problems the client faces. You should lay the groundwork by plowing up the ground, then tilling to chop up the dirt so that later when the solution is cast on to the ground, as seeds out into a field, they are cast to a ground that is ready to receive the seeds.

If you try to present your solution in your initial presentation, you waste it, like trying to seed unprepared ground. There is no trust. There is no understanding of the need or problem they have to solve. There is no understanding of the fear that leads to their discomfort.

First, understand and establish the purpose of your presentation: education, information, or new clients. make sure that this purpose is present throughout your presentation. Too often advisors conduct group presentations with the intention of creating new clients, but are caught up in the information delivery and then wonder why few scheduled any follow-up meetings. The “purpose was lost in the presentation.” Know your purpose and stay on topic.

Second, focus on the problem and the need: the volatility that exists in the market place, the future return of another 2008, the myths of the marketplace, the fact that most solutions will not work again, and most of all the audience’s need to become and remain retireable.

Third, once the need is established, a Relationship Conversation is needed to identify their future and better understand their desires. Are their dreams important enough to them to be the destination they want to go after. If they are, then we need to build a bridge to get to that dream to get you from where they are to where they want to go. That is going to require an action plan. To build the action plan we need an analysis to build a road map from where they are today to where they want to be in the future.

Fourth, confirmation of their trust by others. While you are preparing the analysis, the prospect talks with two advocates to answer questions concerning what it is like to work with you. Third party confirmation is a necessary step.

Now the field is prepared to receive the seed of your solution. Here is where you present your solution: after trust is established, their problem is clarified, their goals are identified, and their trust is confirmed by others.

What you’ve done in your initial presentation is laid the foundation for the need for them to come in for that analysis. So before you can give a solution you must understand them at a deeper level and be able to connect the solution to their real situation. Too often, people deliver the solution up front when the ground is too hard and unplowed and untilled, and the seed dries up and dies.

Now when they come in for the third time, once at the seminar, once for the conversation, and now for the presentation of your solution, the soil is prepared to receive the seed of your solution.

Remember: Know you purpose and prepare your prospect, before you present your solution.  

A coaching client asked me this week to discuss my thoughts on social prospecting. This is a delicate subject because you do not want to be labeled a “networker” which is synonymous with “always selling” and becomes a fast track ticket to the “Black List.”

When asked about what you do for a living you should have an effective Elevator Script which results in the person saying “tell me more.” But what do you do when you are in a social setting and no one inquires about your job and you look around the room at all these great prospects.

First ask yourself, why are you there? Was the purpose to prospect, if not maybe you should stop trying to sell and just enjoy the company and conversation. If your purpose was to prospect, then you should ask yourself whether the other’s expectations are to be solicited. If not maybe you should amend your purpose.

Too many sales people join organizations solely to find prospects and they are soon identified by the group and “Black Listed.” If you join a group, be there for the purpose of the group. Be there because you believe in what they are trying to do, if not leave.

As I mentioned in an earlier post clients and advocated first need to like us before they trust us. If you want to work with your social contacts, be likable and participate in the activities because you believe in them. If they like you they will trust you. Then when they ask what you do, you are prepared with your Elevator Script.

Until a practice becomes an Exponential Business and has over a hundred unsolicited introductions a year, it must focus on three areas of marketing simultaneously. To maintain consistent revenue a practice must have short, intermediate, and long term revenue sources.

Short Term Revenue

The best source for short term revenue is conversion of non-fee clients to fees. This first step helps simplify the management of the practice and creates and immediate increase in revenue. To learn how to transition your non-fee clients to fees read pages 133-138 in Attract Clients.

Intermediate Term Revenue

The most effective means to create revenue in the next quarter is the Mini Dinner. Invite one of your top twenty-five advocates to dinner and ask them to invite another couple that looks just like them. Then the six of you go to an exclusive restaurant for dinner together and talk about life, not business. The more exclusive the restaurant is the better. The dinner gives your prospective couple the opportunity to meet you. There is no need to convince them of your expertise, your client’s attendance is proof enough. They need the chance to see if they like you. The next day offer to take them through the same analysis you do for your clients at no cost or obligation to say thank you for the evening together. If you conduct ten dinners over the next twelve months and close eight of the ten, this will be an outstanding source of intermediate term revenue with clients that look just like your top twenty-five.

Long Term Revenue

Over the next twelve months identify the next dream and next action for each of your top one hundred clients and help them achieve their dreams faster. As you become a strategic partner for change in their life, they will want others to benefit from your partnership and you will begin to receive unsolicited introductions. For more information read pages 31-92 in Attract Clients.

As you complete converting your clients to fees over the next twelve to eighteen months your long term strategy will begin to create introductions. If you will use all three simultaneously it will only be a matter of time before your short, intermediate, and long term revenue are secure. Those these steps are easy to implement few will follow through to completion. If you do your practice will be on the way toward and auto-pilot exponential business.

Investing is counter intuitive. One of the great counter intuitive investors is Warren Buffett. Read his letter to the New York Times here.

Forwarding this letter to clients might be a good way to comfort them in these difficult times.

Lloyd, I just got off the phone with one of our Financial Advisors. He had a meeting with a $50 million prospect Friday. He used, as he called it, “the Lloyd approach” at the meeting and let the prospect talk about himself for an hour and a half. At the end of the meeting, the prospect commented on how his FA at another firm never gave him the opportunity to speak about things the way he was allowed to do that day and felt like the other FA was not proactive in coming up with investment recommendations that were appropriate for him. At the end of the meeting, the client agreed to move his account. Thanks for the inspiration!!!

Congratulations to the advisor. The one topic clients want to talk about more than any other is themselves. Give them the opportunity.