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Why slow down your financial planning conversations?

This article is about slowing down your financial planning conversations.

But what does this mean and what makes it worth doing?

Slowing down your financial planning conversations does not mean speaking slower or dragging out a conversation for no reason. That would make no sense.

It is about creating significantly more value for your clients.

My moment of realisation

Back when I was a financial adviser I was trained, like most advisers, to solve financial problems. Often by arranging a financial product.

So, I would enter a financial planning conversation with a client or potential client and my agenda was “I am here to solve your problems.”

Therefore, that was all I had ears and eyes for. And consequently, my relationships at that time were very transactional.

The true value of financial planning conversations

Then I began to work with a coach and one of the most powerful things I learned was the value of insight.

Insights are new thoughts, realisations, light-bulb moments, epiphanies, revelations – there are many names you could apply to an insight.  

The crucial thing to understand is that when we have an insight our world changes. If you reflect on your own life you may remember how an insight changed your life.

“Nothing in life is more exciting and rewarding than the sudden flash of insight that leaves you a changed person.” Arthur Gordon Webster

Your client could, for instance:

*Get crystal clear on what is most important in their life.

*Realise why they have the relationship with money that they do.

*Decide to deepen personal relationships (like with their children, family, or friends).

*Experience a level of peace of mind they have never had before.

*Stop worrying so much about the future.

How do you create an environment where a client is more likely to have an insight?

Because of the way they are trained many financial advisers approach providing financial advice as an intellectual exercise.

Some aspects of it are intellectual, but this part of the work is what most clients care about the least.

Intellect to intellect conversations are rarely engaging

Intellectual conversations do not encourage insights because insights tend to occur when the mind is quieter. (If you want to understand this subject more deeply I highly recommend the book, ‘Slowing down to the speed‘ of life by Richard Carlson and Joe Bailey).

So, it is when you connect on a deeply human level with your client that a conversation has the potential to become more reflective and insightful.

For this to happen you have to drop all your thoughts and be willing to show up empty. You blank slate it. Click here to read ‘How to do a brilliant financial planning fact find.

Is it easy to slow down your financial planning conversations?

If you are not used to it then probably not in the beginning. For many financial planners and advisers it is a completely different way of doing things.

But is do-able?

Absolutely. And the rewards are considerable.

Your relationships will deepen, your clients will experience greater value, and it is highly likely to lead to more business.

PS. I recorded a short audio (8m 47s) called, ‘Let wisdom do the work for you’. This is a key part of being able to slow down your financial planning conversations. Click here to download.

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John Dashfield spent 14 years as a self-employed adviser. Since 2006 he has been a coach, mentor and author helping advisers create transformations in their business and personal lives.

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John Dashfield spent 14 years as a self-employed adviser. Since 2006 he has been a coach, mentor and author helping advisers create transformations in their business and personal lives.

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