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The Practice Doctor is IN: Deepening the Discovery Process
Last month, we began our discussion of the five key referral leverage points for gathering quality names. These points represent best practices in the area of client acquisition and are consistent with many of the referral processes on the market and supported by firms nationally:
We covered the first process in the January newsletter. This month, we’ll focus on the discovery process.
Deepening of the Discovery Process
The discovery process is defined as those times you are eliciting information from the client. If all you are doing is gathering enough information to sell a product, you are engaged in what I call a transactional discovery process.
However, if you are reading this newsletter, my suspicion is that you prefer a relationship discovery process. This means you are also asking about their feelings and probing for the client’s perspective on what financial health means to that client.
When Mike, our financial advisor, took my wife and I through his discovery process, we participated in a truly relational experience.
He did the usual fact-finding and asked about our will: “Who’s the executor?” “My wife’s sister, Carla.” “She’ll be the one who gets the kids if you both die in a common accident?” “Yes.”
Mike then went on to our $250,000 worth of life insurance policies: “Let’s see. You are each other’s beneficiaries. Secondary beneficiaries are the children. Again, in a common accidental death, who is the guardian for the children since they are all under 18?” “My mom is,” I answered.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Mike turned to us: “There could be a problem here. In the improbable event of you both dying simultaneously, Carla gets to raise the kids and your mom gets the money on their behalf. Is that how you’d like it to go?”
My wife and I looked at each other.
“Well, no,” my wife said. “Carla and my mother-in-law, Betty, have never met. Carla is 30 and Betty is almost 80.”
“That would be an awkward situation,” I agreed.
“Would it be wise to have Carla as executor and guardian of the life insurance proceeds?” Mike suggested.
“Yes!” we responded in unison.
When the revised policy was issued, Mike scheduled a meeting to review the changes.
At the end of the meeting, he said “do you mind if I call Carla?”
“I suppose,” I said. “But why?”
Mike sat back. “Has she ever been the executor of a will before?”
“No, she hasn’t,” my wife replied.
“Has she ever been in receipt of $250,000 on someone else’s behalf?”
“Again, no.”
“What I’d like to do, with your permission, is contact Carla. My purpose will be to hopefully meet with her and review a booklet she can keep that describes what the duties of an executor are, what documents are needed, samples of letters that need to be filed and a whole host of resources she can turn to. “In addition, I’d like to discuss the wishes you two have for how that $250,000 is to be used for the health and education of your children.
“Would you mind if I gave Carla call?”
We were stunned. In all our years of dealing with insurance and investment people, Mike was the first one to go that one step farther. We had an overwhelming sense of peace, knowing that he’d be there to oversee the process if the worst were to happen and knowing that Carla would be prepped for her role.
He did call Carla, met with her and her husband, and they became clients as well. Mike is very “refer-able” and we’ve sent others his way.
So how deep is your discovery process? Does it prompt you to ask for the following names?
If the client asks what you need the name for, some sample language might be as follows:
“In my role as your financial advisor (planner, agent, quarterback, coach, etc), I am ready and able to coordinate all the various people who impact your financial health. Does that make sense? What I’d like to do at this point is to simply identify and note those important people.”
“Once we’ve established your financial game plan, we may need to contact some or all of them to ensure they know their role in how you’d like your plan to proceed and play out. That’s part of our service, trying not to leave anything to chance. Would you agree?”
One final note on this discovery process: You are well served by gathering these names and feeding them back in later interviews (as Mike did). Be sure to ask the client if he or she is engaged in those same roles for others. Are they executors? Guardians? Beneficiaries? Your client may need the same advice that Carla did. These may be future opportunities for acquiring assets, and growing your business. Even if they aren’t, you are certainly deepening the relationships with your top-tier clients.
Next month, the final three referral leverage points!
Until then, the Doctor is OUT
Al Depman , CLU, ChFC, CMFC, BH, a.k.a. “The Practice Doctor”, is mitchanthony.com’s Business Practice Consultant. He is the creator of “The Practice Management Assessment” tool and materials and has authored numerous articles in professional publications on practice management. Al combined his Liberal Arts studies with 10 years of management experience with McDonald’s Corporation to enter the financial services world 22 years ago. Since then, Al has evolved from an MDRT-level sales rep into a full-time consultant specializing in helping others engineer their business practices to the next level. Contact him at al@mitchanthony.com . © 2008 Al Depman |
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Al Depman, CLU ChFC CMFC BH |
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