Lesson 3 | The Initial Conversation with Existing Clients Recap (2:07 minutes)
The Initial Conversation with Existing Clients Recap
Next, Todd talked about the initial client conversation with an existing client. That's going to be a little bit different than the conversation with a prospective client, because you already have a relationship. Now, the benefit to you of talking to your existing clients about collaboration is it's going to strengthen that relationship and it's very likely to lead to new revenue opportunities for you. So, think about who among your existing clients would be good to approach. But be prepared to answer the question from your existing client, "Why now? We've been working together for years. How come you've never talked about collaboration before? What's important about collaboration now?"
When you answer that question, be prepared to tell the client what's different. Perhaps there's a problem that you think collaboration would help to solve. Maybe you might tell a story about a past transaction, a recent transaction that the client completed, you didn't know about it, you found out about it after the fact and you thought to yourself, gee, I wish I'd known about that in advance, because I could have helped that transaction go better. I could have saved you more money. But I couldn't because I never knew. That might be a reason to share with an existing client about the importance of collaboration. Maybe you share a little bit about some of the industry best practices that you're learning about, and you'd like to implement those with your best clients. Or perhaps you might say, "Some of my major clients are asking me to do this." Perhaps you might say, "Some of my colleagues are now doing this and reporting really good results."
Mainly, you just want to keep in mind why the client would be better served, because the client wants to know that. Why are we doing this now? What's in it for me? Everybody wants to know, "What's in it for me?" Also, remember in this meeting to use the Team Profile tool. This is the perfect place to use that. Gain knowledge about who the other advisors are. You may learn some of the advisors that you didn't know about before, and you may learn something about the nature of the relationship the client has with the other advisors that would be very valuable for you to know. Plus, you're likely to find out where you actually sit at the planning table using that tool, so that could be really valuable information for you.