Getting clients to convey their dreams can be more difficult than we might think, which is where asking the hard questions comes in, says Phil Greenwood, head of Technical Consulting at EQ Investors and PFS Paraplanner panel member.
Dreams is not like human beans or animals… They is made of zozimus.”
I have been reading the BFG to my daughter recently (which is unreasonably difficult) and I think the Big Friendly Giant might be on to something. What are dreams made of? How do you define “zozimus”?
Dreams are often intangible, formless, and elusive. They are an unrefined idea of what we want. In short, your clients’ dreams are badly thought-out objectives.
That’s one way to take the magic out of it… So how do you make your clients’ dreams come true? How do you turn them from “zozimus” into achievable goals?
Well, you have to be a bit annoying. You need to ask “why?”.
The BFG may say that I am talking pigsquiffle and my head is full of squashed flies (quite possible), but I believe that it’s the most important question you can ask your client.
I know it’s not that easy when you have a real client in front of you. Clients won’t always know what they want to achieve; just that more money is good. And you can’t just sit there and ask why over and over like some crazed 5-year-old.
But if you’re not getting into the “why?” then how do you know you have achieved the objective? How do you know what steps you need to take to achieve it? And, most importantly, are you really getting to the heart of what your client wants? Are you capturing their dreams?
You need to be prepared to be a little bit annoying, for it to be a bit awkward, to probe deeper. Ask “why?”. Why do they want their investments to grow? What are they actually for? Asking open questions can really help to tease this out of the client; it gives them space to expand their thoughts. Ultimately, you want to know what the money is for. What is it going to do for them? There is always a reason.
If you can get the client’s true objectives set down, all of your recommendations will make sense, they will resonate with your client, and you can really make a difference to them.
Objectives don’t just have to be about how much money you need. They can be about how the client is feeling about their finances. Getting good advice can impact your clients by making them feel more in control of their finances, feel less worried about coping financially, feel less anxiety about meeting expenditure, feel more financially secure, feel prepared to cope with emergencies or shocks, feel confident about the future. Ultimately, gaining peace of mind.
All of these are positive outcomes of receiving financial advice and they are all about how the client feels, not how much money they have. So, ask them how they feel about their money as much as what they want to do with it. Money is an enabler, not the end goal. Truly understanding your client and what their goals, ambitions, and objectives are will mean so much more than just numbers or money. Getting this right can genuinely change lives.
Good objectives = happy clients.
So, ask “why?” and make your client’s dreams become golden phizzwizards rather than nightmarish trogglehumpers.
Main image: greg-rosenke-YgVl5LvwntI-unsplash
