Lesson 4 | Step 3: Right Fit & Step 4: Efficient Agenda (You, Me, Decisions) (6:24 minutes)
Step 3: Right Fit
Okay, so the third stage of the Approach Talk is what we call the right fit. And so, our goal here is to ensure that with this prospect, with this existing client that we might be trying to expand the relationship, that we make sure that there's a right fit. So let me talk about what do I mean by right fit. So, right fit, there's a couple of things that are going on. Number one is do I like them? Relationally, if this is the type of person that I'm going to get excited to work with and work for, and really be engaged in that relationship. So, is the right fit from a stand point where we're kind of looking at them relationally, like is this somebody who I really want to engage with? Secondly, if there is a right fit coming from their perspective, the same thing, are we the type of advisor with the right types of skills and approach that they value and really think they can help them get what they need out of the relationship?
So the right fit's looking at that, like we're valuing them and viewing them, for right fit they're viewing us for right fit. And then the third component of it is the circumstances. Is their situation things that are in your competency or in your wheelhouse that you can successfully navigate? And why do we look at that? Because I've seen lots and lots of advisors over the years in my career, engaging in things that are outside of their wheelhouse, and maybe that they're seeing that there's something there that's not there today, but it could grow into something, and it creates all kinds of strain and stress in relationships. So you really have to think about that, right? It's, are their circumstances, are their needs, their situation, are these things that we can successfully step into today and have a really good powerful profitable relationship. So that's kind of the right fit.Again, I'm on valuing them. Are these people I want to spend time with and serve and help? Are they looking at me the same way? And then the third component, again as I just said, is their situation or circumstance that we can really get in and do our best work? So that's what's kind of going on from the right fit global standpoint.
Step 4: Efficient Agenda
So in order for us to kind of get into that, there's really a simple approach that we take. And as I talked about earlier in the setup of this, it gets into that whole discussion around the You, the Me and the Decisions. And this is really how we're conducting that whole right fit. So the You component of this is we want to spend some time getting into what's on their mind, what are the things that are maybe keeping them up at two in the morning, what's the thing that really allowed them to say, "Hey, you know what? Yeah, I will take this meeting with you." Or maybe it was they were proactively reaching out to you and say, "Hey, I've heard good things about you." Or, "We're just...we're looking for an advisor, and we found you in the Yellow Pages." Or whatever, right?
However that meeting was created, we wanna start to get an understanding of what's on their mind. And we also want to know what have they done so far, and that's really where a little bit of the traditional fact-finding skills come in. We'll get into this in a later segment. I'll really show you how we conduct the You part of the discussion with some real life examples and questions and how we would approach it, but just setting the stage for it here, how would you explain it to the prospect or existing client in setting up this approach meeting. So the You part is, simply put, we want to understand what's on your mind, what's going on today, why we're here, and some of the things that we might want to discuss together. And we want to get an understanding of some of the things that you've done to date, as well as some of the key and important relationships that you're working with today. So that's really the time there together was to get a lay of the land of those types of things.
The second part we get into is talk a little bit about Me. If you want to talk a little bit about your business, right? If you've got a team, you want to talk about your team, you want to talk about your process and approach in how you do things. So, that's an opportunity for you to share with them about yourself, build some credibility, build some confidence in them, and for them to maybe get some questions answered that they might have coming into this, like how do you work, things of that nature. The final part of this is really what we call Decisions. And in Decisions or the fact that we need to decide how we might engage in the future. So if today we determined that it is a right fit, we like one another, we want to continue to serve, I might not say, "Do we like one another?" exactly that way, but it's relational and making sure that we're a right fit, and their situation is fitting.
You simply have some decisions that you need to make about how you're going to engage in the future. And this is really powerful to kind of frame that out. Most people either try to get the decisions way too quickly, right? And find a sale and tell them how we can work together, and they don't let it just kind of naturally happen, and this is designed to kind of just let it naturally happen. Some people actually spend too much time talking about other things, and they never leave with clear expectations of how do we engage in the future, what does that look like, so just very unclear expectations of what's next. So that's why this framework is critically important.
The final thing that I want to hit in this part of the discussion that is so, so critically key is that we wanna ask them this question, "Does this make sense?" We want to get their engagement. So when you're setting up, our right fit part of the discussion is I want to learn a little bit about you, I want to tell you about me, and we're going to talk about some decisions. If we are to work together in the future, what does that look like? And walk them through that and say, "How does that sound? Does that make sense to you?" And just ask a question and stop. We want to get their engagement, we want to allow them to ask a question. If they have a question about any of the things that we've said. Give them that space, get the conviction, get their commitment in, and you will move on to the next phase and have a really, really successful approach meeting. So this is the right fit.