Asking powerful financial planning questions is the foundation of creating a highly compelling plan for your client.
When your client can clearly see that their financial planning is going to be an essential part of getting what they most want then why wouldn’t they be enthused about it?
Importantly, powerful financial planning questions also perform several other functions too. For instance, they:
*Help you to build trust, rapport, and credibility.
*Allow your clients to unburden themselves of their concerns and think more clearly.
*Explore meaning and create emotional engagement.
*Open up new choices and possibilities.
*Demonstrate how interested you are.
The conventional approach to questioning
The most common approach to questions is to treat them as a technique. This means trying to memorise a question or series of questions and using them when the time seems right.
But this approach has a lot of limitations. The biggest being that the process can come across as unnatural or even misplaced.
I have heard many practitioners say that they have tried using more searching questions with clients but it has not worked very well. Feeling discouraged they then revert back to a product centred approach because it feels more comfortable and less risky.
What is the the missing link?
There is something I call the iceberg illusion. As I am sure you know, it is only the tip of an iceberg that is visible above the water line. Most of the iceberg is invisible.
I use this analogy to explain where the power in a conversation comes from. The tip of the iceberg is our language, behaviour, and techniques which includes the questions we use. Because these things are visible to us we conclude that this is what does the heavy lifting.
Yet impact does not come from what is visible. Instead, it comes from what we cannot so easily see.
Heart not head
Conversations, at their best and most impactful, are natural, flowing, and highly engaging.
In my own experience this happens when I relax into a conversation, feel connected to who I am with, and follow my feelings. I am not thinking about me in any way and, therefore, am fully engaged.
I also know that those times a conversation feels more clunky and disjointed is when I have got self-conscious and begun to try and think my way through it.
Have you ever noticed that when someone, including yourself, is excelling at something they are NOT thinking about it?
In my work with financial planners in this area I am not filling their heads with more stuff to remember. It is the exact opposite. With less on your minds you are free to perform at your best.
This can seem counter-intuitive, but is true, nevertheless. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote a book about this called, ‘Flow‘. He observed that:
“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.”
The art and science of asking powerful financial planning questions
The science of asking great questions is knowing the direction you want to go in. The art is allowing this to become intuitive and natural rather than an intellectual process.
Of course, it can be useful to learn more about questions or discover new questions you can use, yet it is your state of mind that brings the process to life.
When your mind is quiet, you have everything you need to respond appropriately, insightfully, and intelligently – in that moment.
P.S. If you want to discover new questions you can use then check out the ‘Financial Planning Power Questions’.
