It’s easy to get lazy regarding prospect meetings; after all, if the people you’re meeting with this week don’t come on board, you’ll have more opportunities to land new, ideal clients next week. Instead of taking this approach and ending up frustrated when you don’t achieve your ideal client numbers as quickly as you want, adopt the approach of successful athletes who make the most of every opportunity to perform.
- Take every opportunity to convert ideal prospects to ideal clients seriously. Always bring your A-game.
- Take the last few minutes before your meeting to get focused and centered on how you want that meeting to go. Be prepared and give yourself the greatest chance of securing a new ideal client.
- Whether your meeting went well or went poorly, review each one to determine what worked, or not, and what you want to repeat in the next meeting.
Related: Advisors Should Know Which Clients Provide Most Value
Transcript:
If you knew you only had 20 meetings between now and year-end to bring on 20 ideal clients, how would you approach each meeting?
Knowing the exact number of competitions that the athlete is going to have during that year is a huge advantage – an advantage that’s often overlooked when people use the athlete in analogies related to the advisor. . .
As advisors, we don’t know how many meetings we’re going to have by the end of next month, whereas the athlete knows exactly the number of meets they’re going to have in any given year. This allows them to take every meet seriously, to expect great performances, and to hone in on the details that they know they have to focus on most to perform better and better at every given opportunity.
The advisor, on the other hand, might have four appointments scheduled for next month and get two more added to that month within the next several days. Understandably, with this comes the thinking that not every appointment needs to count. But if you knew you were going to have only 20 meetings left between now and year-end where you had the opportunity to meet 20 ideal prospects, make them clients, and grow your business by those optimal people, how seriously would you approach each meeting? How finely would you focus on the details that you know you need to hone in on to have every opportunity count? How much would you ensure that you delivered the ending of that meeting so thoroughly that the prospect is just ready to sign with you?
This is the kind of focus the athlete has, and this is why they continue to get better and better. This is the kind of focus that you also can adopt, as an advisor; it’s just not specific to athletes. You can do it, too, as advisors, and get to that ideal number of clients sooner than you ever expected.
So, to perform flawlessly at every given opportunity,
- Take every opportunity seriously. Think about the ideal number of clients that you’re looking for and recognize those four new prospect meetings you’re having next month could turn into four ideal clients. If you’re looking for 20 ideal clients, those four people could get you 20 percent of the way there.
- Get pumped up for every meeting. Before every race that athlete focuses on the last fine details they want to execute, knowing that when they are fully centered and focused, there’s much more of a chance of hitting an optimal performance. You need to do the same as advisors. Get psyched and get ready for that appointment.
- Review. After the appointment, just like the athlete reviews their race, review your appointment. Even if that person signs with you there and then, look at what worked well for you. Look at what you did flawlessly and what you can repeat the next time through.
That way, you’re not only one more client close to that ideal number, but you also stand a far better chance of reaching that ideal number even sooner.
I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.