Fact Finding Part One The Sale Is Made In The Fact Finder

Intro to Prepare to Best Your Best Preview 05:49

Your prospects and clients love being around attractive people. That’s because attractive people help others unleash what’s already inside of them. When others are around attractive people, they think they can do anything. Why is that? Why are attractive people so attractive?

The answer is that attractive people have all done “the work“ on themselves. We are all mirrors of one another. If you’re stressed, you can quickly get others around you stressed. If you’re grounded, you can help others feel more grounded. A good indicator of a great relationship is when you and the other person each feel better (and less stressed) when you’re around each other. 

Set the Stage to be Grounded Preview 14:01

Imaging ranking everyone you meet on how grounded and attractive he is with other people. Imagine further doing this with financial advisors. Most financial advisors that really struggle have a “grounded coefficient” of about 5%. That means they are grounded (and attractive), with very little conative stress, about 5% of the time.

Karl Dettmann, after working with a coach and really working on himself and his thoughts, has a 90% grounded coefficient. Most reps can probably get to 50% or 60%—if they do the work that’s in this chapter once every week or every other week. Most reps could get to 90% if they worked on the contents of this chapter every day. 

Ground Yourself Physically Preview 12:17

We have the ability to influence and affect others around us. The exercises in this section give us the best shot at being the most peaceful and genuine versions of ourselves. By grounding yourself physically, you will start to feel less fight or flight on a regular basis. That change will help you stay in your higher, rational brain more frequently, which, in turn, will allow you to feel more grounded. This shift will help you look and feel more attractive, reduce your stress, allow you to take on more clients, and enable you to build relationships with people easily. 

Ground Yourself Mentally Preview 14:10

Everything we have looked at in this chapter up until now has been focused on preparing yourself physically. It may seem like we have spent time preparing ourselves mentally, but we haven’t. Sure, we have started to move ourselves toward the back of the diving board to avoid the temptation to become irrational quickly, but now it’s time to work on the thoughts in our minds.

Grounding yourself mentally takes it to the next step, which is a curious state. There are barriers, stipulations, or triggers, all purely mental, that will cause us to get in that fight-or-flight mode. They are not physical at all. They are just thoughts. If your body feels like it’s in danger, it’s a lot harder to be curious. When we talk about grounding yourself mentally, it’s all about being curious and using your observing ego. 

Intro to Set Up the Environment to Succeed Preview 04:35

Setting up the environment to succeed puts you in a place where you’re in your comfort zone (the sweet spot), prepared for the meeting. This allows you to connect with your “why” and your purpose for how you know you can help these individuals that you’re meeting with. It also allows you to slow your mind down and tap into the value that you’re going to offer somebody if he chooses to engage with you. 

Set Up the Right Location and Time of Day - Part 1 Preview 16:22

The number one need a prospect has when he first meets you is to feel safe with you. The location is a really important factor in setting up that safety. You want your prospect to be able to feel good about you immediately—regardless of the location you are in. 

Set Up the Right Location and Time of Day - Part 2 Preview 11:02

It’s your turn to set up the right location and time of day. The steps below will walk you through making your office comfortable, preparing your staff, finding the right public place, handling what’s controllable at the prospect’s office, and choosing the right time of day.

Step One: Set up your office with one of each of the following eleven things to help make your prospects feel safe when they come see you for fact finders.

1. Pictures of your family and friends

2. Things in the backdrop showing your values or beliefs

3. Plaques or pictures with inspiring, motivating thoughts

4. A captivating view—either a real window or a picture

5. Paperwork showing you are busy

6. Two comfortable chairs in front of your desk

7. Awards you’ve won

8. Souvenirs from cool event(s) you’ve attended

9. Picture of encounters you’ve had with famous people

10. Reminders of family accomplishments you or your family have had or done

11. Sentiments from clients in the form of notes or cards, expressing how you made an impact in their lives

Step Two: At your weekly staff meetings, prepare your staff for the fact finders for the upcoming week by identifying the prospects and the times they are coming. Set the expectation for your staff member(s) to engage and introduce themselves to each prospect.

Step Three: Pick your top three quiet locations (outside your office) that you can meet clients for fact finders. The location should not be a Starbucks. It could be a really nice bar or restaurant with a private table in the corner for you to talk.

Step Four: Identify one thing you can do to make yourself look dapper when you go to see a client at his office. Here are some ideas: shine your shoes, buy tailored clothing, get in better shape.

Step Five: Tweak the following language below until it fits your schedule and boundaries. Then, with another advisor, role play setting a boundary.

Rep: “Joe, I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to sit down with you and go through the fact finding to gather all the information I need to put together a plan for you. Joe, what time works best for you to sit down for an hour and be uninterrupted and get into the details? 

Joe: “Well, usually what works best for me is 7:30 or 8:30 p.m.”

Rep: “Okay, that’s fine. I appreciate that. Years and years ago, I would have been happy to see you at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m., but I find for my practice, Joe, that much like your business, it works best during business hours, and I’ve got kids who are growing fast, and I have made a commitment to be home at night with the family. What I can do, on the flip side—if you’re open to it—is to get into the office early. I find that I do some great fact findings first thing in the morning. I can come to your office at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m., and we can spend an hour together before you get engaged in your day. I find that a lot of people ask to meet at 7:30p.m. because they’re so busy during the day. How would that work for you?” 

Do the Right Research on the Prospects - Part 1 Preview 13:40

Before you even begin your fact finder or your approach, think about who you are getting ready to see. This is all about doing any and all research you can do to tailor this fact finder to the prospect before you meet the prospect. You can then use this information to put “comfort cushions” into the beginning of the meeting to allow him to know you know other people that he knows. 

Do the Right Research on the Prospects - Part 2 Preview 18:28

It’s your turn to do the right research on the prospect. The steps below will help you ask questions of the prospect’s nominator and staff members, as well as do a quick overview of his office to better connect your hearts.

Step One: With the person next to you, role play the following questions to ask a nominator. One of you play the role of the rep, the other the nominator. Then switch. You can either make up your own language or use the language a few pages back in this chapter:

• Identify family life and hobbies.
• Dive deep into the prospect’s family.
• Identify where the prospect grew up.
• Dive deep into hobbies.
• Ask the one thing the nominator admires the most about the prospect.
• Look forward with excitement.
• Share the one thing the nominator admires the most.
• Talk about the prospect’s family life.
• Discuss the place the prospect grew up.
• Conclude with excitement.

Step Two: Role play the following questions to ask the staff members of your prospect. One of you play the role of the rep, the other the prospect’s assistant. Then switch. You can either make up your own language or use the language a few pages back in this chapter:

• “What is he like?”
• “What does he like to do?”
• “Is he nice?”
• “How long have you been with the company?”
• “What is the one thing you admire most about him?”
• “What does he love to do when he’s not working?
• “Anything else you think I should know before I go in there?” 

Set Up the Right Energy and Mood Preview 08:21

You fight so hard to get those fact finders, that when you’re in front of a prospect, you want to show up in the best shape possible. How do you get yourself in a good place mentally ten minutes before go-time with your fact finders? Let’s say you’ve done what’s been asked of you. You’ve practiced, worked hard, done joint work, prepared, and you’re still feeling pretty crummy about yourself and the fact finder coming up.

What do you do to get yourself in a good place? The first step is to understand what a “good place” actually looks like to your prospect. We did a survey to find out the top traits of top reps during the fact finder, and we'll share the results.

Intro to Conduct an Effective Approach Preview 08:45

Imagine going to a doctor and telling the doctor your shoulder hurts, but you don’t tell the doctor why. If you’re in a fact finder where you have to pull and tug, and even use a stiff arm to get the prospects to share anything with you, you’re going to end up not being sure if your prospects are telling you everything. That’s not very fun. It’s difficult and even depressing.

The approach is your first opportunity to get your clients excited about working with you. If you learn to do this well, you will start to have extremely comfortable prospects. Your prospects will be open to you asking them anything you wish. When they trust you and feel comfortable, the fact finder becomes a happy, complete, and effective conversation.

Once you know all the information about the prospect and everything is out there on the table, then there’s no hidden information to be brought up later that would change your recommendation. With an effective approach, you save time because you’re going to get the whole story up front. Your revenue is generated by finding the most ways to help the client. When you get the whole story, you can uncover all of the potential ways to help the client. If you don’t get the whole story, you will only get a couple of opportunities to help the client. 

Put the Prospect at Ease Preview 18:29

Putting the prospect at ease builds trust. Building trust is all about the prospect’s mentality. He can either go into the relationship (and the fact finder) with a guarded mentality or an open mentality. We don’t want the prospect to be guarded. Instead, we want him to be open and excited to share. There’s no way he’ll be open and excited if there is no trust yet, so that’s the first order of business.  

Become Relevant Quickly - Part 1 Preview 11:54

Your prospect’s attention span is short. You’ve gotten him to this point, and you don’t want to lose him. You want to get him excited and keep the momentum going. To do this, you need to become relevant quickly as you talk about the specifics of your financial-planning process and how it will change and benefit his life.

No matter who you are or how long you’ve been in the business of financial advising, there are four things that need to be a part of your process. You might do it a hundred different ways, but these are the four pillars of the process for every effective rep on the planet. 

Become Relevant Quickly - Part 2 Preview 10:46

Most people actually like accountability and deadlines. It’s rare for prospects and clients not to like these. Most of the time, your prospect will say something similar to the following:

Prospect: “Oh, I really need that!”

The beauty when he says that is that now he’s given you permission to hold him accountable and make him move forward. This allows you to tie your plan back to this later:

Matt: “Remember back at the beginning, we talked about accountability and deadlines? We’re struggling with the accountability and deadlines right now. I’m (the rep) failing YOU by not helping you move forward.” 

Establish Healthy Boundaries and Expectations Preview 18:58

Establishing healthy boundaries and expectations is all about what you say either during or at the end of the approach to set up a relationship with the prospect so that he not only treats you the way you want to be treated, but he also tells you how he wants to be treated in a healthy way. It’s essentially how you are training your clients so that they don’t become “boundary smashers” with your practice. This helps you ensure that, in a few months, this prospect will be working with you the way you like to work with your clients. 

Intro to Identify Prospects' Life Goals Preview 04:29

When your clients or prospects leave the fact finder, or just the vision alone, do they feel that their lives are better off with you in it? This chapter will help your prospects and clients identify their life goals with you. You will learn how to build a “want” in each of your prospects’ and clients’ minds. You’re building a “want” where your clients want to be around you because they feel life is better with you in it.

When you’re swimming in the ocean, how much perspective do you have on what’s around you? The name of this program is called “Win the Relationship” for a reason. This is when you start to separate yourself from everybody else. Identifying people’s life goals is one of the major building blocks in how you win the relationship with your prospects. It’s how you differentiate yourself. The prospect perceives a value being added that he couldn’t have achieved on his own. 

This chapter is the place where you either win the relationship or you don’t. If you do the techniques we talk about in this chapter correctly, you will win the relationship, and your prospects will become clients. When they can align their goals, that they are passionate about and can get behind, with you as their financial advisor, they start to see you as the only one who can help them meet those goals. 

Identify Life Goals for Prospects with No Goals - Part 1 Preview 15:08

When prospects either don’t have any goals yet and/or they simply don’t give you any, what do you do? 

When somebody doesn’t have any goals established yet, what are the questions you ask to help build those goals and coach him? 

Identify Life Goals for Prospects with No Goals - Part 2 Preview 07:28

It’s your turn to identify goals for people with no goals. The steps below will help you approach getting prospects’ life goals, overcome the resistance of prospects with no goals, and coach prospects with no goals.

Step One: Write a paragraph explaining how you plan to approach getting people’s life goals.

Step Two: Write three techniques you learned to get past the resistance of people with no goals. This can include prospects who either have no goals yet or who simply don’t give you any.

Step Three: Write down one new question you will use next week to help coach prospects with no goals established yet. 

Identify Goals for Prospects Who Lack Focus Preview 12:37

How do you help prospects prioritize their goals into a meaningful set? 

When you run into somebody who has many life goals, how do you keep him on track when his job is to get off track? 

How do you help prospects let go of the goals that don’t align with their values? 

Add Value to Prospects with Clear Goals Preview 07:08

How do you get your prospects and clients to believe that, even with their clear life goals, they need you in their lives to add value? 

What strategic questions do you ask to help identify pain points you know are going to motivate the person to action? 

Discuss Current and Past Financial Decisions - Part 1 Preview 08:08

People like to procrastinate. Your clients and prospects are no exception. One of the greatest frustrations of any financial advisor is not getting things done with prospects and clients. It’s so frustrating when you know your prospects need to take an action that would be great for their lives, but they move too slowly. Even worse, they take no action at all.

When you create a sense of urgency, your clients are much more inclined to get things on their list done. You can actually start to avoid procrastination with your clients. Your “to-do list” gets smaller, and your list of things that get done grows because things are already done. When you create that sense of urgency, things not only get done, but they get done quickly because people want to be with you “now.” You’re not going to have to spend as much time on those prospects and clients who take their sweet old time with things. 

Discuss Current and Past Financial Decisions - Part 2 Preview 18:28

The financial decisions your prospects have made in the past can be critical for a rep’s practice. Why? 

What mistakes do you often see advisors making when it comes to trying to build that sense of urgency? 

Get the Prospects to Self-Identify Misalignment - Part 1 Preview 20:29

What questions do you ask to get a prospect to identify misalignment in his values with what he’s doing with his life and money? 

Get the Prospects to Self-Identify Misalignment - Part 2 Preview 11:07

What kind of resistance do you often see to questions prompting a prospect or client to identify misalignment between his values and what he’s actually doing with his life and money? 

How do you overcome the resistance to questions that you ask and get a prospect or client to identify misalignment between his values and what he’s currently doing with his life and money? 

Identify the Hot Buttons to Steer the Conversation Preview 15:25

How do you uncover key priorities in the prospect’s life? 

Why do you think it works to uncover the key priorities in the prospect’s life the way you do? 

Intro to Handle Touchy Situations Preview 12:24

The best advisors in the world have everything about their behavior in alignment with trying to get in the circle with their prospects and clients. When you are in the circle, you are going to have a client base full of people who trust you, love you, and know that you are their financial advocate. That’s the oil in the engine that allows you to bring in more and more top-notch clients.

The circle is that trusted advisor space where the prospects feel you are sitting on the same side of the table with them. You can get in their circle by becoming your clients’ advocate for what they have told you are the things that they hold most dear to them. When your prospects get together with you to work on the plan, you’re in the circle when they feel like they’re really doing this side by side with you, as opposed to the prospects having to show up with their guards up because here comes another pitch.

A touchy situation is anytime where the prospect is hesitant to want to let you help him. If you don’t deal with touchy situations up front with your prospect when you have very little invested in the relationship, it’s just going to be that much harder to deal with down the road with a lot more resources invested. By dealing with his touchiness right up front, you are able to be more authentic and transparent with your prospect immediately. 

Handle Prospects Who Made Poor Financial Choices Preview 11:45

There you are in a fact finder, sitting with a prospect named Mickey. He’s made horrible financial choices in his life, and now you have to ask yourself, “Is this somebody I really want to engage with, or is this an ‘eject-button’ situation?” If you haven’t run across a guy like Mickey, don’t worry; you will. When you do, it’s important to remember that the fact finder is more of the discovery part of the financial-planning process. 

Handle Prospects with Bad Experiences Preview 11:29

Some of your clients have simply had some bad things happen to them over the years. This can occur in marriages where financial things happen. It happens in business if a partner has been less than honest. Many of these scenarios end in lawsuits and cost a whole lot of money.

Some of your prospects have had bad experiences with other financial advisors. They may have worked with other financial advisors, paid them a fee, and then never heard from that advisor again. These types of bad experiences can happen in many other situations as well. In some ways, that’s life. You’re going to have to deal with people who have had bad things happen to them. 

Handle Prospects Who Live in the Clouds Preview 12:06

This is one of the toughest things that financial advisors have to deal with. When a prospect lives in the clouds with no real sense of reality, while that’s great for him, it can be problematic for your relationship with him as an advisor.

Determine If the Prospect Lives in the Clouds

The first step is to ask the right questions to see if the prospect is in the clouds or not. If he is in the clouds, you can eventually complement him for feeling confident about things, but first, you need to engage in a conversation about his plan to determine if he will be the right fit for you and if he is in the clouds at all. One of the best ways to do this is to talk about what most people want. 

Practice For Your Certification Test - Scenario 1 Preview 07:22

It’s time to practice for the Win the Relationship assessment you will take to show that you can go out tomorrow and start fact-finding like a pro. This session contains a short video that will introduce you to the assessment of Win the Relationship and what it looks like. 

Practice For Your Certification Test - Scenario 2 Fail Preview 16:14

It’s time to practice for the Win the Relationship assessment you will take to show that you can go out tomorrow and start fact-finding like a pro. This session contains a short video that will introduce you to the assessment of Win the Relationship and what it looks like. 

Practice For Your Certification Test - Scenario 2 Pass Preview 16:48

It’s time to practice for the Win the Relationship assessment you will take to show that you can go out tomorrow and start fact-finding like a pro. This session contains a short video that will introduce you to the assessment of Win the Relationship and what it looks like. 

Attract New Assets Intro Preview 14:23

Attracting investment assets, for most clients, is the ultimate test of how much trust you’ve built in the relationship. A person will not give you charge of a million-dollar-plus portfolio unless he really feels comfortable with the relationship. He might decide that he will buy a little bit of insurance from you or try a little bit of this or a little bit of that, but the ultimate test of how the relationship is set up is this: is he willing actually to turn over the nest egg to you?

Bringing in investment assets is the best way to create recurring revenue for your practice. Recurring revenue means you actually have an opportunity to go back and build, maintain, and grow a relationship and get paid for it every single time you show up, without regard to what transaction gets it done. This arrangement takes a lot of the pressure off of you. It allows you to reinvest in your business, staff, office space, marketing—and whatever else helps your business—because you have repeatable, recurring revenue that you can count on. 

Open the Prospect’s Mind to a New Financial Methodology - Part 1 Preview 11:35

Most people don’t have a financial methodology. Clients typically think they have a financial methodology, or they assume their financial advisor has one. In reality, they often don’t, and most of the time, neither does their financial advisor. The good news is that you are not competing against another methodology. You’re just giving them a methodology for the first time. That’s why you need to have an investment philosophy or methodology. This section of this chapter is all about getting their minds to open up to that methodology. 

Open the Prospect’s Mind to a New Financial Methodology - Part 2 Preview 11:36

Layer #1: Ask Them to Dream How They Want to Live

In this first layer, you are asking the prospect how he wants to live his life. It’s allowing a client, maybe for the first time, to really dream about what he wants in life. This is the layer with all emotion and no math. It lets the prospect dream a little of how he wants to live life without the added burden of how all the math works out.

Most people don’t tie their methodology back to their goals. Their “methodologies” are often reactive and speculative. Often times, it’s merely a hope, or they don’t even pay much attention. In many cases, investment results will be the driver of the life plan. For example, when their investments are doing pretty good, they go and take a vacation. When their investments are horrible, they then pull back on everything in their life. Investment performance tends to drive life plan. 

Open the Prospect’s Mind to a New Financial Methodology - Part 3 Preview 18:22

Notice this is not age-based. It’s time-based. That means this applies to eighty year olds and twenty year olds the same way. There are a lot of very powerful reasons why we do it this way. First, emotionally, it becomes extremely powerful for clients to break the whole decision of what they should do with their assets into bite sized pieces. They can make much better decisions.

Second, it’s easier for you, the financial advisor, to control the emotions and the behaviors of clients during times of extreme euphoria and/or fear. For example, imagine it is 2008, and a retired client comes into your office. His portfolio, in aggregate, is down 27%. But, since you break his money down into these four time horizons, you can say to the client something similar to what Matt explains below:

Matt: “Your zero to three year money is actually allocated to cash. That portion is not down at all, so the portion you’re going to use in the next two or three years is completely safe.”

Client: “Well, that’s a big relief.”

Matt: “Your four to eight year money is pretty conservatively invested too, so that’s only down about 5% right now.

Client: “Oh, that’s not so scary.”

Matt: “Now, your fifteen plus year money...the portion of your portfolio that’s really tied to equities, is down 38%, which is not fun to see. At the same point, though, the question really is not do we think that the market is coming back tomorrow, next week, or even next year. (Because in 2008, it didn’t feel like that was going to be the case.) The question is this: do we think that sometime, at least once in the next fifteen years, something good will happen in equities?” 

Client: “Yeah. Fifteen years...of course something good will happen in that period of time.”

Matt: “Okay, good. In that case, not only do we not panic and try to get out of the way and sell and all that, but we actually should probably...”

Client: “Buy more of that.”

Matt: “Exactly right. Why? Not because we expect it to go up tomorrow, but because this is a giant sale if we don’t need the money in the next fifteen years. Because you have a plan that lets you connect the dots of your wealth to your life plan, you can confidently and comfortably make the right move.”

Matt explains this story to each and every prospect he encounters in the fact finder. He’s explaining this “time-weighted asset allocation” to the prospects so that they can start to see that this is the methodology that Matt uses. Most prospects have never seen or used it before. 

Help the Prospect Determine the Best Methodology for Him Preview 05:37

Compared to the three layers we just described to the prospect above, this next piece is logical and short. Our goal is to get the prospect to determine that our methodology is best for him, but really, we want to make sure that whatever methodology is best for him is the one he chooses. 

Help the Prospect Find an Advisor to Adopt That Methodology Preview 07:59

Plant the Seed for Your Methodology

The last section of this chapter is more on planting a seed with the prospect. Your goal here is to plant the seed in the prospect’s head and heart that really the only way for him to get this amazing methodology is to work with you. Here’s what it looks like for Matt: 

Matt: “In the next meeting, we’ll get into this in more detail. We’ll be doing a draft version of this for you, now that you’ve said you like this and want to understand it better, too. For now, start to think about this: assuming that this is the methodology that is right for you, the follow-up question, which you’re going to have to address at some point, is who is going to be responsible for implementing and maintaining this plan for you?”

Prospect: <Listening>

Matt: “It could be you. It could be us. It could be your current advisor. It could be a different advisor. But what’s important is we have to marry the methodology you like and want for your family with an advisor who also believes and is capable of this philosophy. We can’t expect, fairly, to go to an advisor who doesn’t do it this way and ask to change what he or she does just because you want to be the one client out of two hundred using this method.”

Prospect: “That’s a good point. I’ll have to think about that.”

That’s great. That’s all you want the prospect to say at this point. All you’re doing today in the fact finder is planting the seed. 

Uncover the Prospects True Value - Part 1 Preview 09:24

When you uncover the prospect’s risk-based wants, you get yourself more life insurance sales. Everybody knows that, but why is Rule the Room Financial so different in how we teach you to do this? The answer is this: we’re going to teach you how to get your clients to actually ask for your recommendation. The clients will ask you for the solution.

You’re not selling anymore. Getting your prospects to ask you for the recommendation or solution is an amazing feeling because you’re not selling anymore. You get to conserve your energy and let the prospect do all the work, which he wants to do anyway, because it’s his plan. It’s his needs and wants.

This sets the stage for closing the sale. Instead of shoving things down people’s throats, you’re allowing them to come to you. Your effort and energy is conserved when you do it this way. You don’t have to worry about manipulating people anymore by trying to “sell them.” 

Uncover the Prospects True Value - Part 2 Preview 13:07

How do you use the risk you just uncovered (the type of risk the prospect wants to protect) to help you close the sale with the prospect later? 

What do you do when the words coming out of the prospect’s mouth and his true values are not aligned? (In other words, he is feeding you BS.) 

Uncover the Prospect’s Motivation Preview 12:54

What Is Your Process for Uncovering the Prospect’s Risk-Based Wants? 

How does the rest of the fact finder, and even the close, change if somebody seems to lack motivation in the fact finder? 

What questions have you found helpful to ask in order to spur motivation in your prospects? 

Uncover the Prospect’s Pain Points Preview 15:25

What is your process for uncovering a prospect’s risk-based pain points? 

When someone doesn’t recognize any risk-based pain points, how do you handle that? 

What mistakes do you see other financial advisors make when they are attempting to uncover a prospect’s pain points? 

Intro to Create a Budget that Works Preview 08:16

People can have the desire to want to do lots of things, but those things take money. If a client doesn’t see where the money is going to come from, then he won’t feel confident enough to act. When you help clients do a budget that works, you help them accomplish two things. First, you are helping the clients find the money. You are helping the clients discover whether they are really as cash strapped as they think they are. Secondly, you are helping the clients from a psychological standpoint. 

Uncover Spending Pain Points Preview 19:24

In the fact finder, you don’t want just to gather the facts, as the name implies. You also want to gather some feelings. You want to see where the client perceives he has spending pain points—as opposed to you just telling him things. You want to ask questions to find out how he feels about his spending.

Everybody has pain points; it’s just a matter of finding them. Your job is to help the client discover it for himself. In A lot of your clients will say, “I’m pretty good.” Let’s say the client makes enough money that he really is spending less than what he is making. However, he may still be blowing some money in some areas that he really doesn’t need to. When you come up with a budget that works, you’re finding the money to help the client figure out what’s real and what’s perceived. 

Bridge the Marital-Stress Gap Preview 15:40

When you’re working with couples, more often than not, one person in the relationship is the spender, and one person is the saver. In this relationship, often the couple has a lot of stress, bickering with each other about what to do with their money. Sometimes both people are savers. The two savers can also be a challenge for you, the advisor, because they don’t want to move any money. Then there’s the couple where both people are spenders. The two spenders don’t have any money to move.

In all three of these scenarios, your goal is to help the prospects uncover their spending pain points. In other words, you want to help them identify their spending or saving stress. In this section, you’re going to learn how to show the prospects that if they work with you, the financial advisor, their pain goes away. You want to bridge that gap between the couple because they are rarely going to see eye-to-eye on things. To do that, you want to identify that there’s a stress, and then let them know that they’re going to be okay. 

Deliver the Budget Solution Part 1 Preview 12:19

Most advisors struggle with this stuff. They do fact finders, and just use the “hope and pray method” to get people to save with them. Then the prospects don’t show up for the close. If that has been you, this budget solution is going to be one great leap in the direction of solving that problem for you. When you learn how to deliver the budget solution in this way, you’re going to be able more easily to get the prospect or couple to show up for the close and sign those papers. 

Deliver the Budget Solution Part 2 Preview 11:44

The last step is to talk to your prospects about what they can do with their money on a quarterly basis. The goal, of course, is to help them decide to save their money with you.  

Ask Questions that Make You Money Intro Preview 06:12

The fact-finding questioning skill set is what separates the top reps from the others because it creates buy-in. The client is buying something instead of you selling something. When you ask the right questions that make you money, then the clients start to buy something that they want and see value in, as opposed to you making a sale. It’s not a transaction; it’s a relationship.

What many reps do in fact finders is get all the facts, but they’re not getting all the feelings. They’ve done a fact finder, technically, but they haven’t made a connection with the person that they’re getting the information from. This chapter will show you how to ask the right questions that will elicit those feelings from your prospects. 

Ask Leading Questions Part 1 Preview 13:32

Leading questions are the first type of questions that not only get at the facts for the prospect, but also his feelings. These include feelings about his past and feelings about his future. The reason they are so powerful is because they direct the prospect’s train of thought so that he discovers the feelings himself and feels ownership over the answer, instead of you having to tell it to him. Here’s an example of a rep talking with his prospect about disability insurance during the fact finder. Notice that the rep spends most of his time with the prospect, Mike, at the cliché and fact levels.

Average Rep: “Do you have disability insurance through your employer?” Mike: “Yes.”  Average Rep: “What percentage of your pay does it give you?”  Mike: “60%.”

Average Rep: “How long do you have to wait?”

Mike: “Three months.”

Good leading questions ask the question within the question to get at the feelings of the prospect. The key is to ask yourself, what’s the next question in the fact finder? So many reps, whether they’re just trying to get appointments on the calendar or fill up their books with people and points, are just trying to get through “three fact finders a day.” They are asking questions or going through a presentation in a fact finder like robots, in an impersonal way. Instead, you want to create a sense of connection (on feelings) with your prospect. You do that by asking the “question within the question.” 

Ask Leading Questions Part 2 Preview 12:28

Ask Leading Questions about Life Insurance

The main purpose of a leading question is to lead the prospect into a conversation about whatever topic you want to talk about, such as life insurance. Let’s take a look at what these leading questions look like in the context of a discussion around life insurance. 

Ask Leading Questions Part 3 Preview 13:53

Ask Leading Questions about Wealth Management

One of the greatest opportunities for you to ask leading questions centers around wealth management. One reason for that is because a lot of people really don’t cover that topic in their budgets. That means you can ask leading questions that really get at the prospect’s feelings about that topic. 

Ask What If Questions Preview 10:44

Many financial advisors spend a lot of their time in the fact finder at the cliché or fact levels. That’s why they call it the “fact finder.” Your prospects don’t start to feel safe until they get to the feelings level with you, and they have to get to the empathy level before they feel completely safe and give buy-in. The questions that create buy-in are called “what if” questions.

“What if” questions allow you to get at the empathy level with your prospects. When you do that, you start to become part of a team. It’s only when your prospects start to feel that teamwork is taking place that they start to really take action with you and give you the keys to their risk and wealth management. 

Ask Curiosity Questions Preview 03:17

Curiosity questions are one of the most powerful questions you can ask in the fact finder because they take the prospects directly to the feelings and empathy level. When clients share their feelings, they start to sell themselves verbally as they hear themselves say it out loud.

Curiosity questions usually start out with the word is followed by...important to you? They often include the words feel or feeling. The reason they are called curiosity questions is because questions in this format could logically start with the words, Just out of curiosity... Here’s an example:

John: “Just out of curiosity, is saving money for your Financial Independence Day important to you?”

Starting with the word curiosity is a powerful experience for you with your prospects, because it’s non-threatening. It instantly makes the prospects feel safer with you. Safety buys. That’s because the number one need of any prospect is to feel safe with you. It allows him to be open, not only to hearing the question, but also to providing an honest answer that gets him to start “selling himself” in the fact finder. 

Get a Dollar Commitment - Part 1 Preview 11:42

Imagine if you could get each and every one of your prospects in the fact finder to actually show up for the close meeting. What would that do for your practice? What’s the number of new clients that you’re going to get just from this chapter? When you have people in your waiting room, it gives you more options. You have more control over your work-life balance. You’ll have more control as a financial advisor and more control over your personal life. 

Get a Dollar Commitment - Part 2 Preview 11:31

Most reps only capture 1% of their client’s income. What do you do to capture the remaining 4-10% that everybody else is leaving on the table? 

What mistakes do you see most often that financial advisors make when attempting to get a dollar commitment from their prospects? 

Tie Off the Urgency Balloon Preview 07:51

What Is Your Process to Ensure the Prospect Shows Up to the Close? 

How Do You Build Anticipation for the Future? 

What Statements or Questions Do You Ask to Build Urgency? 

Find the Date That Works Preview 12:33

What’s Your Process for Securing the Next Date? 

What Do You Do with Prospects Who Give You Pushback? 

When somebody continues to reschedule on you, and the urgency starts to get lost, what do you do? 

Intro to Get Your Highest Quality Referrals Preview 14:51

There’s only a few things that we can control in our business, and one of them is asking for referrals. When you begin seeing better and better prospects, those people are able to make bigger decisions more easily. If you meet with somebody who makes no money, it’s more painstaking for him to give you thirty bucks a month than it is for somebody who makes three million a year to give you ten thousand a month. 

You want to get paid for your time and your energy. There are many times where you’ll do a fact finder, but you’ll never see that person again. However, you’ve opened a case that allows you to call his uncle, brother, or long-lost cousin. When one of those people says he needs some life insurance, you can smile, knowing it was all worth it. 

Affirm the Value of the Meeting Preview 16:02

The fact finder is the open to the close. If you aren’t able to open great cases in the fact finder, you’re certainly not going to close anything. The close really starts to occur in the fact finder. We’re going to show you how to prospect at all the stages of the fact finder. In order to do that, we’re going to set the stage with various pieces of the fact finder that Chris goes through with his clients. That way, you can see how prospecting fits into those various stages. 

Prospect at the End of the Fact Finder - Part 1 Preview 12:36

After you affirm the value of the meeting at the end of the meeting, you want to do two things:

1. Set the date for the close.

2. Get into prospecting.

The order of these two things depends on the situation with your prospect. Sometimes you can set the date for the close first and then get into prospecting. Other times, you can get into prospecting first and then set the date for the close. Either way, you want to start by qualifying the people you get introduced to. 

Prospect at the End of the Fact Finder - Part 2 Preview 10:13

Prospect to Someone Who’s Not Comfortable Giving Any Referrals

There are some prospects who, at the end of the fact finder, simply aren’t comfortable, at first, giving you any names at all. That’s the case with a prospect named Joe below, which is demonstrated in this session.

Give the Prospect the Opportunity to Introduce You Preview 05:04

Ask the Prospect to Introduce You to People

One of the best things you can do, once you get the names of some new prospects from the person you are doing the fact finder with, is to get that person to introduce you to those people and even do it in real time.  

Assessment Practice Preview 12:50

It’s time again to prepare for your Win the Relationship assessment to show that you are ready to ace the certification and can fact-find like a pro. This session contains a short video that reminds you of how the Win the Relationship assessment will go. 

After practicing the assessment with a partner, use the questions in the “Your Turn” section of this lesson as homework for the week. Then:

•    If you are a step learner, go through and do all the “activities” in each of the chapters in this book.

•    If you are a research learner, read through this entire book again from cover to cover, including the activities and your turns.

•    If you are a create learner, go through and do all the “your turns” on the last page of each of the chapters in this book.

•    If you are a talk learner, go through and role play each of the “your turns” on the last page of each of the chapters in the book with another rep. 

Assessment Training - Scenario 1 Preview 08:41

This Assessment Training Section is for those who will actually be scoring the assessment. You'll see Jason, Karl and Jim running through a mock assessment and will show you what an assessment looks like and how to properly score it.

Assessment Training - Scenario 2 - Part 1 Preview 12:47

Jason, Karl and Jim begin their Scenario 2 assessment.

Assessment Training - Scenario 2 - Part 2 Preview 15:10

Jason, Karl and Jim begin their Scenario 2 assessment.

Assessment Training - Scenario 3 Preview 17:38

Jason, Karl and Jim go through the Scenario 3 assessment.

Welcome to the Win the Relationship Assessment Preview 01:54

It’s time to actually take the test. This week’s session is a chance for you to actually take the test and get a score back to see how you’re doing. If you don’t pass it, you will be able to re-test next week.

What is the Assessment?

We’re excited for you to be getting certified in Rule the Room. At the very end of this program, each rep will be given a thirty-minute assessment by the other reps in your pod, your mentor and/or your facilitator. It is a performance based qualitative assessment, not a “scantron”. For Win the Relationship, you will be asked to do coach a fellow coworker as well as demonstrate your skills in fact finding.

What is the Role of the Assessor?

The assessment is administered by your mentor and/or your facilitator and/or each of the reps in the pod that went through this course with you. You will see a complete rubric and guide on exactly how to assess each rep below. This will be a thirty minute assessment evaluated by other reps who have gone through the Stack the Deck program.

Why is the Assessor so Important?

As you assess other reps, know that we’re trusting you to ensure that only the highest quality reps become certified. Please don’t take this responsibly lightly. This is a qualitative test, not quantitative - meaning we’re looking for you to ask yourself how you feel about the rep’s abilities to coach, phone and prospect, rather than did it logically make sense. At the end of the day, if the rep being assessed didn’t get you to naturally and comfortably move forward on the solution, they should not be passing. Only when you feel a genuine and calm sense of urgency and a desire to move forward with a recommendation is when somebody should be certified.

How does the Assessment Work?

The financial rep has to coach, set a meeting over the phone, and prospect the assessors. The assessors will score the rep using each of the three scenarios below. The three scenarios combined should take no more than thirty minutes to complete with each scenario taking approximately ten minutes. The reps can bring in whatever sales literature they want, but again, their job is to naturally and genuinely coach, phone and prospect the assessors in their pod.

The scenarios below are for you, the assessor to use to score the rep. At the end of each scenario, add up the total points the rep earned for that scenario.

Scoring the Assessment

Take the total points earned from scenario one and multiply it by (.25). Take the total points earned from scenario two and multiply it by (.50). Take the total points earned from scenario three and multiply it by (.25). Add those two numbers up. The new number is the rep’s score for the assessment. Below is a breakdown of what that score means for the rep:

•    Gold (Walks on water good): 90 points or above.

•    Silver (Really good): 80 - 89 points.

•    Bronze (Good and comfortable): 70 - 79 points.

•    Fail (A sliver or more of doubt): Less than 70 points.

  Each rep that fails the assessment can retake the assessment up to three times before they have to sit through the entire program again. Each rep can also retake the assessment up to three times if they would like to get a higher ranking certification and emblem.