Episode #135: Craft the Perfect Close


Top financial professionals use a number of different marketing channels to get in front of new clients. Whether it is a dinner seminar, educational workshop, webinar, radio, or even TV, one common trait that all successful financial professionals have is the ability to craft the perfect close for their event. In this episode of Money Script Monday, Kevin shares four steps to develop an ideal message that will help turn your prospects into actual clients.


 

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Video transcription

Hey there. My name is Kevin Nuber. And thank you for watching today's Money Script Monday video.

Today, what I want to talk about is how to craft the perfect close for your next live event.

Most top advisors out there get business, they get new clients one of a few different ways, it's as simple as that.

They do dinner events, they do you live educational workshops, they do radio, or they perhaps are on TV.

One common thing that they all have with each other is they understand the importance of crafting the perfect close for their live event.

The inexperienced advisor, the reason why they fail overwhelmingly is because they spend too much time worrying about the main topic, this is what they think is the most important thing.

If someone is doing a social security for an event, for example, the inexperienced advisor would spend weeks just preparing, making sure that he had all the information cracked and wouldn't be stumped on any types of questions, completely neglecting the opening and the close.

The experienced producer, the one that does events on a regular basis for a long period of time, might only spend 60% to 70% on the main topic and the rest of the time crafting the good open and the good close.

Because they know that when that client walks out of that event, and if they were to be asked what was the thing that they remember the most from that event, they're not going to say that advisor really nailed his social security facts and data.

What they're going to remember is that incredible opening or that really impactful close.

They remember the beginning and the end.

That's why it's extremely important to make sure that you spend a lot of time crafting that perfect close.

I'm going to share with you four things that every perfect close needs to have.

Before we get into those four things, we first have to understand that we need to approach these four things from two different angles.

Open

One is from the logical standpoint, and the second is the emotional standpoint.

When people make some sort of decision to buy something, to change something in their life, to do something that takes a lot of time, effort and energy, they will use logic to justify why they do those things.

The real reason why people do it is for some underlying emotional component, whether they're conscious of it or not, that's the reason why people do things.

When you craft your perfect close, you have to reference both the logical piece and the emotional component in order to turn all those people at your live event into actual clients.

Main Topic

Step 1: Overcome objections

The first thing that every close needs to have is you need to overcome all the objections that a client might have.

What I tell adviser is prior to your event is get together with your office, with us, and get whiteboard and just start brainstorming all the reasons why a client is not going to book that appointment with you.

When you're looking around the room and you get to that point where you're asking for the appointment, you know that there's people that have their arms crossed and thinking to themselves, "Oh, I'm not booking an appointment."

Well, what are all those reasons? And just start throwing them up on the board.

They might say, "Well, I don't have my calendar with me. I'm too busy, I already have another advisor. I'm earning a high rate of return."

None of that's true.

That's just the logical part of the brain justifying why they don't have an emotional reason why they want to actually book an appointment.

What you have to do is you have to address all of those things, maybe three to five of those things, those top things, reasons why a person might not book an appointment.

And I guarantee you, you're going to be speaking to everybody in that room, it's going to be going through their head and they're going to say, "Oh, okay, maybe I should book an appointment."

But you have to approach it from both angles.

You might say, "Listen, I know everyone in this room might not have their calendar with them, but honestly, the calendar isn't the most important thing."

"You should still go to the back of the room and book that appointment."

Because that feeling that you have right now in your stomach is telling you that today's the day that you want to change your outlook on retirement, that feeling, by going and booking that appointment, that's a confirmation that today is going to be the day that you're going to make a commitment to making change in your retirement.

So, you're approaching it from both sides, from the logical and emotional standpoint.

Step 2: Identity your ideal client

The second thing is that you need to be able to describe the ideal client, who your ideal client is.

This is a little bit counterintuitive because what I'm saying is that I'm saying that you want to make sure that the people that book an appointment with you are the right type of client for you that you can help.

But at the same time, you're making sure that people that you cannot help don't book an appointment.

So, you're actually trying to keep away the people that you don't want to spend your time with.

I had an advisor recently, actually, he had 30 people at his workshop and he was so excited the next day.

He said, "Man, I really nailed my content, I booked 26 appointments out of 30." And my reaction was, "That's impossible, how can you actually book 26 appointments? Were you giving away free money?"

There's no way the 26 out of 30 people were qualified clients. And sure enough, he missed that part where he actually describes who the ideal client is.

Imagine this, you're doing a college planning event and the truth is you can only help certain people, there's some people you just can't help with college planning.

In front of the group, you might say something like, "If you're considering booking an appointment, then the type of families that we can help our parents that have kids that are between seventh grade and a junior in high school.”

“If you book an appointment with me today, I could potentially save you and your family tens of thousands, even $100,000 in the cost of college right off that sticker price.”

“But most importantly, we're going to make sure that your kid goes to the school of their dreams so that they can have the career of their dreams."

That's the real reason why they want to book the appointment, but the logical parts is the thing that's going to make them go take that action.

Now, the thing that you're doing is you're keeping away the people that have kids that are in college already or seniors in high school that you might not be able to help and you're filtering those people out so that they do not book an appointment.

Step 3: Tell your clients what to do

The third thing is you have to tell the clients exactly what to do.

I attended a workshop once and at the end of the event the advisor spent an hour on the main topic, he spent about 30 seconds on his opening and then he spent about 30 seconds on his close and all of a sudden it was done.

And he said, "Okay, great. Now book an appointment, we're in the back of the room. Thank you very much." And it was done.

And everybody kind of looked around like, "Whoa, it's over. What are we supposed to do right now?"

You actually need to tell the client exactly what you want them to do. You need to tell them to pick up that appointment card, grab that pen.

If you want to book an appointment and commit to making change today in your retirement, all you have to do is fill out your name, write your phone number in there, check off the day that works best, write in your preferred time, see my assistant in the back, he or she, that's her, she has my calendar.

You're going to take that card, you're going to walk to the back, you're going to meet with him or her, and they're going to take your appointment, and this is going to be your first step into a successful retirement.

By doing it this way, you're allowing the client to walk them through that anxiety of what it's like to get up and book that appointment and all those other people that are in the restaurant or in the room with them.

That makes it a lot easier for them to actually take that next step.

Step 4: What will happen during appointment

The fourth thing is that you need to tell them exactly what's going to happen during the appointment.

Not just the first appointment, the second appointment, the third appointment.

close

Imagine, I mean most clients have never actually met with a financial advisor, the one thing, and then two is many clients have worked with financial advisors.

They might have financial advisors all over the place, maybe they had a bad experience. There's a lot of anxiety going to meet with a financial advisor.

They're going to be disclosing financial information that's personal to them and they're going to be talking about stuff and their goals, I mean that's a hard thing for many people to do.

To make that comfortable, you need to walk them through that process both logically and emotionally about what it's going to look like and what's going to feel like coming in and having that appointment.

You're going to tell them on this first appointment, what we're going to be doing is we're going to go be going over some of your basic finances, not too much information, but I need to know a little bit about what we're working with.

Most importantly, we're going to be spending a good chunk of that first appointment just getting to know you.

What are the important things that you want to accomplish in retirement? What are the most important things to you and your family?

Once I understand that, then I can go back and decide how we're actually going to take your money and accomplish all those things you want to accomplish in retirement.

Again, we're tying it all together both logically and emotionally.

You see, the inexperienced advisor, what they do is they neglect this emotional component, they just talk about the logical part.

So, they end up getting a lot of appointments and they say, "Hey, this is great, I did a great event, I booked so many appointments. They love me, they want me, they love my information."

But the problem is all of a sudden you start getting clients who cancel their appointments, they don't show up to their appointments, and you really just convert a very low ratio of those clients.

And the reason is, is because you missed that emotional piece of your close.

Without that emotional piece of your close, you're not going to convert those clients into actual paid clients for you and your business.

That is the difference between the successful advisor that does workshops and events on a regular basis versus the advisor who's unsuccessful, they can't crack that code on how to have that successful live event.

Thank you so much for watching.

The information presented here is not specific to any individual's personal circumstances. These videos are provided for general information and educational purposes based upon publicly available information from sources believed to be reliable—we cannot assure the accuracy or completeness of these materials or may change at any time and without notice. To the extent that this material concerns tax matters, it is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by a taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed by law. Each taxpayer should seek independent advice from a tax professional based on his or her individual circumstance.

About Kevin Nuber

Kevin Nuber is the Vice President of Field Support at LifePro. He coaches hundreds of financial professionals on how to build effective financial strategies that achieve their clients' long term goals and helps them stay educated on the latest industry trends.

Disclaimer

This information is meant for educational purposes only.



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