Lesson 6 | Tactical vs. Planning Engagements (6:38 minutes)
Tactical vs. Planning Engagements
I want to talk with you real quick about the approach talk, and one of the fundamental aspects of using the Planning Horizon and leveraging the Planning Horizon as a part of your approach talk because one of the fundamental things that we're trying to uncover in this conversation with a prospective client or, again, even going back to some of your longer standing relationships where they've got you kind of in a one-dimensional relationship. You've solved something, but you have a lot more to bring to it.
So as you're going back to those relationships and you're thinking about your prospective clients or prospect meetings that you have, the Planning Horizon and the approach talk is really designed about helping you clarify for the client and get them clear about what are their priorities today? Do they have immediate issues or what we often like to talk about, immediate tactical issues that need to be addressed?
These would be things that would be keeping them up at 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, and they just can't think beyond it. And so, therefore, they need somebody to step in and help them address that issue, right? Or is it the fact that they've got two or three or four things that are going in their life. For example, they might be somebody who owns a small business, and they're concerned about the future of their business. But they're also concerned about retirement, and are they getting enough of their funds out of the business into retirement vehicles, or are they dependent on that business. And how are they doing around education and things of that nature?
Now, we've got two or three or four things that are going on, and that really requires us to take a more holistic, more comprehensive view on this client engagement. So again, I want you to be thinking about one of the outcomes, or one of the things that's trying to happen, let me say, in this approach meeting is we're trying to determine what is the right relationship for this prospect or this long-standing relationship that we've had that we want to expand? What is the right relationship for them to engage?
And if it is to have you address a tactical issue that's keeping them up at 2 in the morning, then you need to step in and serve that. If it's more complex and really requires more of a planning-base engagement, then you need to step in and do that, but this is going to uncover, not by them, by you telling them, but they are going to learn, and they are going to uncover, and they are going to have the aha about what the best next right step is for them to pursue.
The last thing I want to say about this is I would imagine that you're in this program because you're an advisor, and you want to deliver advice better and more powerfully to your clients, and as a part of an advisor, you're delivering planning for your clients. The one thing that I want to really help this industry shift, and I want to help you shift in is if you are taking on those clients that have tactical immediate issues and needs today, they've got that, I like to call it the pebble in the shoe, is that you have to paint the future relationship that you want to have with that client.
So if your best relationships are engaging you as a planner and really servicing them full capacity and being at the center of their financial life and decisions, well, you want to make sure that as well as you're going to step in and deploy resources and your talents and expertise to help them with this immediate issue that they have. If you are going to be in long-term successful relationship, they're going to allow you and your team to come back in once this issue's been addressed and really look at their situation more comprehensively, more globally, more holistic.
And so, paint the future relationship you want to have with them if you're going to engage in a tactical basis. If you don't do this, you run the risk of being in a commoditized relationship and being in one of those buckets that I've talked about that are so difficult to get out of. So if you're dealing with a business owner that simply has an insurance need right now, and you go in and solve that insurance, and then you try to come back later and approach, "Well, we really do planning and all these things," well, now, you're the insurance person for that business owner.
You're not the planner. Somebody else might be in that role and have that seat, so when you engage them around the insurance, make sure that you talk about how you want to come in once you've addressed this issue for them and look at their overall situation more globally. "If that's the relationship you're looking for with me and with my business and with my team, then we're the right ones to step in and help you solve this issue you have today.
"However, you have to get a point in your careers to say, "If, however, you're just looking for somebody to sell you this insurance, and that's really all you want in the relationship," you have to ask yourself, is that a relationship that you want to be in long-term? Is that a client that's going to grow with you and allow you to bring your best to that relationship over time?
So I really want you to think about that because the Planning Horizon is designed as a part of the approach talk to point out the fact that do they have tactical need, or do they really require planning? And if it's a tactical need, I would get myself to a point and get the mindset in yourself that that client should have to convince you that this doesn't require planning.
So for example, a business owner that might be grossly under insured, and all their wealth is tied up in the business, well, they need some insurance right now, or they could have a major, major problem for themselves, their business, their family, right? But a client that wants to come and have you invest a million dollars, that is not tactical at all, right? You really can't do the proper job and the proper advising for that million dollar investment unless you take the proper time to bring planning around that client relationship and understand where are they today? Where have they been? Where are they trying to get to, and all of those things around investing that money.
So that really requires planning, so you have to get the prospect or this longer-term client you might be talking to to really convince you that it's not planning, and I think that probably more, about 70% of the time or more, you're going to find that it's planning related, and it's not a tactical thing that's really going solve them and win the relationship and have you and that client in the most powerful relationship together moving forward. So thank you.
