Speaker 1  00:09

This is the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful and scalable practice. Each week we'll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets and create the advising practice that you've dreamed up, you'll be joined by your hosts, Bryan Sweet, who has more than half a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to hire improve their operations and company culture, and Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So, what do you say? Let's jump into another amazing episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast.

Brittany Anderson  01:00

Welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast here with you today Brittany Anderson, Mr. Draye, Redfern and Bryan Sweet. And we're continuing on this journey of creating a wow experience for your clients. So last week, if you didn't tune in highly recommend you go back and you check it out, we talked about the importance of establishing a value system in order to best serve and best delight your clients. So today, we're going to go to the next step in that and that's in really knowing who your clients are, and who your best set to serve. So again, if you don't have that foundational approach of having those core values determined, today's episode is going to be a little bit tough for you to get your hands around. So again, highly recommend, go back, listen to that and come back to this episode. So, to give some context behind what it means to know your clients, we have some at Sweet Financial, that they are wowed by the detailed planning that we do that they're like, that's all I want to focus on. I don't like the warm, fuzzy stuff, but just wow me with how my plan is going to be just so incredibly creative. And then we have others that are wowed, because we serve their favorite snack during their meetings. And that's really what they care about. We have others that are like, wow, we really love you guys, because you genuinely care about what we're doing in our personal lives. And I use these examples, they are true examples to people that we have and people that we serve. So, the point in saying this or sharing these is that it is darn near impossible to deliver immense value. If you don't know who your clients are, if you're looking at them as transactions, or maybe you're not even intentionally looking at them as transactions, but you feel like you're so much in the whirlwind, you're so busy, you're trying to deliver on the expectations that you don't feel like you can take the time to really get to know them. You know, we've seen both avenues. We've seen both aspects. So, the important thing today, as you're listening to this is to clearly understand how can you get to know them better? And what does that matter? And how does that impact the growth of your company, the growth of your team and the capabilities and the service that you provide. So, one mindset to embrace that we highly encourage is to stop treating people the way that you want to be treated, but rather treat them the way that they want to be treated. You know, this mentality is truly what separates the good from the great. And what I mean by this is I might be wowed or impressed by something very different than what you know, Bryan would be wowed or impressed by or what Draye would be wowed or impressed by. So, if you embrace this thought process that Wow, well, I would really love, you know, just as a little tiny wow, gift card to my favorite coffee shop that would just make my day and be such a great boost. And just make me smile from ear to ear and Draye maybe on the other end going I hate coffee. I love tea, though. So, there's this cool little boutique shop down the road that serves this tea or sells this bag of tea that, you know I can't get anywhere else. And that's what matters to me. So, you see here, if you're doing something to wow, somebody and you totally missed the mark by giving them something they don't even like, or by, you know, serving them in a way that they don't even like, you know, I give context to this too. For the most part, the majority of our clients at Sweet Financial, they love the warm fuzzies they love the little special gifts, we have a couple clients that are like, I kind of hate that stuff. And I just want to make sure that you know I'm focused on the plan. And that's actually when I come in and we're talking about these creative strategies that gets my goat and I am really excited and pumped up leaving. If we were to serve them with their favorite snack, they'd be like, okay, that's fine, but I don't really care about any of that. So again, it's understanding your clients and understanding what makes them tick, what makes them happy, what's going to be a while for them and what's going to maybe be a negative a good intention can turn into a really negative experience. Really, really fast.  So, in our Mastermind, in our Accelerator programs, we walk advisors in detail through identifying their avatar. And along with that, is relationship building tips so that you can actually get to the core of each client. So again, it's one of those things where people are like, okay, yeah, I know who I serve. I like to serve somebody who is at or near retirement, who has a million dollars in their in their savings, you know, between 401, K's and some personal savings. And that's really, really who my target is. And I sit there and we go, okay, but what do they like to do in their free time? Who do they spend time with? And what kind of car do they drive? What kind of house do they live in? What are their friends? Like? What do they do when they travel? Do they like to go far do they stay near? Do they stay close to home, it's those kind of things, if you can truly understand a person as a human being, it is so much easier to wow them, it is so much easier to do really cool things to create an amazing experience. So, Bryan, I would love for you to share because we talk all the time about how your favorite meetings are the ones where you get to just sit there and just kind of get to know them just chat, just kind of have fun and really get to the core of who they are as human. So, talk a little bit about that.

Bryan Sweet  06:17

 Now, you may need to just cut me off today, because I think I could probably talk on this one for several hours. This is, to me very fascinating. But it's really what makes the business fun when you really do understand who your clients are, and what's important to them. And then if you're working with those clients that match things that you like, and things that you enjoy, it really isn't work, it's more entertainment. So, a couple things that just come to mind is, and it's really important, Brittany, so I love what you said about you know, getting to know clients. So maybe start out by just saying one of the things that we do and we'll make a download of this available is that in our initial client onboarding, after they've gotten their first statements, and gone through all of the things that we like them to be aware of one of the things that we do, and it's actually a two page sheet, which our client service people will go through with them. But it's literally learning things that are all about the client. And there's like 30 different entry points. And it's so helpful. When you're wanting to do something for a client or understand something about a client. It's got every piece of detail. And you know, it's got typical things like do they drink coffee, and their wedding anniversary and attorneys and accountants but you know, we like to know, lots about people and what's important to them. So, we'll ask, you know, like, what's their favorite charity? What do you like to splurge on? What do you do for fun? What's your jacket or sweatshirt size? I'll give some examples, if not, this podcast, next podcast and how we've actually used some of these, what are your hobbies? Do you like reading? So, Brittany alluded to before as we give our team members autonomy to just go out and do things to make clients smile. And you know, if they're going on a trip and they you know, get a book or they're just going to send them a book and you then you look at it and they go, Well, I you know, I don't like reading, well, maybe there's a better gift than a book for that particular client. Or, you know, if you're going to send them a gift, because something positive happened, you send them chocolates, and we find out they're allergic to chocolate, that could backfire on you. So, it's, it may seem like little things, but I will tell you little things are the big things. And as I've always said, investing is the commodity and all the other stuff is what really matters. And we check on what music and like I said is 30 or maybe 40 items on here that anybody on the team can reference. And so I think that's just critical. So that's just kind of a general overview. But as far as like the meetings in the structure of the meetings, you know, you want to kind of have a meeting that matches what the client values and what they find important. So, I begin every single meeting with the simple question. What do you want to get out of this meeting today that would make it feel like it's successful and well worth your time spent here today? So that I know exactly these are the things that are top of mind. These are the things that if nothing else gets done if we get these things done, it's a successful meeting.  Now in addition to that, I have my agenda with all the things that I think are important. Some of which are usually duplicates, we might be thinking on the same wavelength, if you've worked with clients, hopefully you're being proactive in your thinking and doing things in advance. And so one of the things that I think you will find is if you ask that question, and they tell, you know, x, y, z, and you go, oh, that's great, because I had that on my list already, you know, it already, lets you know, or lets the client know that you're very proactive, and you just didn't come to the meeting, not prepared, you already have those kind of items listed out and you were already prepared for that. But I think one of the things other than just making sure you address their things is the agenda is very, very important. And you want to make sure that the key, the key things get done. But one of the other things that I think if you are giving out lots of paper and an appointment, or your copies of your reports, what you might want to do, and you might have the same experience I did is clients really don't want that stuff. And so we asked all of our clients do you want all this material that you see on the screen, and every one of our clients said, No, but if I had access to it, if I needed it, that would be great. So one, it saves a lot of time, if you're printing a lot of things to have it in advance, we don't have anything on the table except one pad of paper where they can take notes, and a large screen TV that we can show things. And it does this is that you know for a fact that you're not going to be distracted, because you control everything on the screen. So they have nothing to look at, they have nothing to be distracted by which is good. Because I would tell you probably the biggest problem that most advisors have, or just people in general, is that they listen to a conversation so that they can reply to what said, versus truly listening to hear. And there's a big difference in that. And you know, if we can actually, you know, get positioned very well, because if you pay attention to the details, and what the client is saying, then you're going to have this direct connection, and absolutely be able to, you know, solve the problems that they have, versus trying to sell some solution in advance that may not even be anything that they're interested in. So I think those couple of items are really, really important. And then one of the other key things is when you get to know your clients is use the question, tell me more, is that a lot of times they'll just, you know, glaze over something. And if you truly want to know why is that important? Or what effect does that have? You know, the question, tell me more might allow you to go several layers deeper on that and get to the true meaning of what it is because sometimes clients will say something and give you an answer, but it really isn't the answer. And only by asking more questions. Do you really find that out. So because I could just chat on this all day, I think I better turn it over to Draye. And let you kind of talk about how you can use marketing to supply and surprise and delight your clients in the delivery of different services.

Brittany Anderson  13:30

Hey, Brittany here, stopping and pausing for a moment to talk about something that we've had so many of you inquire about and that is our ultimate advisor, mastermind. Now I'm going to start by saying if you are not a growth minded individual, if you are not somebody who's focused on taking your business to the next level, if you're not focused on engaging your team, and helping them to help you in turn, level up the business, the service model, how you provide that wow experience to clients. If those things are not your focus, just fast forward right now, because the Ultimate Advisor Mastermind would not then be for you. However, if you are looking to take your business to the next level, if you want to experience exponential growth and feel supported along the way, if you want to start working smarter and not harder, if you want to help your team members to work within the God given talents that they were provided, and use those skill sets in a way they haven't yet to help support you in your business to help them realize their biggest goals, their biggest dreams. If you want creative approaches to marketing, I know that can be an intimidating word. But we're not talking here about the fancy Facebook stuff or you know the latest and greatest, but rather looking at how you can market what you do, how you can express how you're different, and how you can truly differentiate yourself in a crowded market space. If those are problems you're looking to solve, then you absolutely want to go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com. to learn more about how we can help you on your path and journey to growth.

Draye Redfern  15:30

There's so much there to unpack. I love everything, we all love this topic. I just, it's a natural thing for all of us. You know, when it comes to marketing, I think obviously, knowing you're a client comes in really handy, because you got to know who you're marketing to. Otherwise, there's a lot of dollars spent for not any real outcome whatsoever. So that's the first thing is obviously, like, know, your avatar, know who your client is, we've got some absolute, like World Class exercises on this, that we give our accelerator members that like, if they're fast that it takes them two hours or so to go through the slow ones, it could be upwards of you know, half a day to a day to really think through all of the idiosyncrasies that a client might have, or issues or challenges to really define what that is. But if you don't know who that you know, avatar is just yet, to sort of bolt on to what Bryan was saying is that those first meetings that you have with them, like they set the tone for your entire relationship together in a lot of different facets. And so like, you know, in this COVID world we live in, like ever, a lot of people are doing the zoom meetings, you know, I was in business for four years before I first had my first client in my same state. So zoom meetings have been a very natural thing for us for some time. And so when you have your first meetings, how do you go through that? Well, how do you make it like a unique experience in an online environment like that? So there's a variety of things that we sort of look for, you know, in an online environment like that, like how do they act? What's their demeanor, you know, if they're sitting back with, you know, their arms crossed, even if they're, you know, excited to start working with you. One of the things that occurs a lot and you know, Tony Robbins talks about this, but it's, you know, NLP neuro linguistic programming. And so my wife is certified in NLP, I've been through a lot of it. And a lot of what goes through NLP is a series of solutions and strategies called matching and mirroring. And, you know, if someone's sitting on the other end, and they've got their arms crossed, and their energy is lower, you don't want to immediately come at them with like, hey, super cool, awesome Draye here, really excited to be with you can't wait to do all the things amazing, amazing, amazing, yada, yada, yada. Like, they're going to be immediately rubbed the wrong way. Because the energy level is so different. So one of the things, especially in this online environment is matching and mirroring, at least at first. So I may sit back and be like, hey, you know, listen, john, really excited that we're starting here, energies lower, my arms are crossed, I'm matching psychologically matching exactly what they're doing, until when I start doing something, they're mirroring me. So what I started going for my drink, then they're going for the drink. Now this happens all subconsciously, you don't really know that this is happening unless you your sort of cognizant, that you're aware of these things, then what I know and they're drinking or drinking at the same time, or certain things that we're doing body language wise, have changed, their arms have come uncrossed, then everything changes, then the energy can go up all of these things, but matching and metering is a really, really powerful thing to know and get good at, especially in this digital environment. That would be the first thing I'd say, out of the gate. But also, you learn a lot about clients, when you ask the right questions, and sort of what Bryan was saying. And you also get to see a side of them once they're already becoming a client are in the process of that. So we were dealing one with a client last week, absolutely thrilled to work with us, like out of the gate, like energy was matching my energy. Like, we're waving our hands all over the place that energy so high, and life is great, we're going to be amazing. And you know, there was another client that we had, you know, a few months ago, and he's on the zoom call. And he's talking nasty to his wife on the zoom call. And like, that was like things, you know, that was a red flag at that exact moment. So there's just there's tells that you can tell whether it's in person or an online environment that helps you really know who your client is.  But some of the questions that we ask, in any onboarding call any initial meeting, there's three real questions that we make sure that we ask every time the list is actually a lot longer, but we make sure that we definitely ask these three. The first one is, wouldn't it be cool if, if I were to ask you this question without providing any real context, it's like the end of the answer. Wouldn't it be cool if what would you say? Now what it could be about your dreams, it could be about your business. So it seems like you know, would it be cool if I could actually take off three days to have a three day weekend every week? Like, really? Tell me more about that. It creates more conversation points to get them talking. The second question is, would you still be doing what you're doing now, if you weren't paid for it? That gets people talking a lot of you know, both introspection and some outward reflection, as far as you know, what are they liking, what are they not liking, in order to help reduce, eliminate, mitigate things from that side? And then what do you consider a win? You know, I used to be a competitive athlete and you like, if I didn't have that carrot sitting out in front of me that I was chasing, because I was a sprinter as professional cyclist, if I didn't know, who was sitting out there, I had a hard time sitting up front, I couldn't do these things, I had to either know exactly where that finish line was, and within eyesight, or have that person to chase. That was a finish line. So by you know, what do you consider a win provides really clear context of how do you both benefit from the relationship? But what are they also really looking for? That provides a lot more context there. And then sort of the last thing that I'd want to mention is, to Bryan's point is there's a couple ways psychologically, that you get deeper into any the crux of anything, and a lot of psychologists call it the five whys. So if someone says like, well, I really want to get I have a million dollars. Okay, well, why tell me about that? And, you know, we may go five layers deep, well, I want to have a million dollars, because then I feel like I'm set. Oh, cool. What do you mean? Like, why do you need a million dollars to feel like you're set? Well, I have a million dollar, I want to have a million dollars feel like I'm set because I never had any money growing up. And you know, yada, yada, yada? Well, you get to the end of it, you uncover some really interesting things, people are way more vulnerable, when you sort of broach the topic very loosely like that. And you just slowly asked five whys deep, and that really provides a lot of context into who they are, and what the real motivations are. So you may hear things like, you know, I had a single mother growing up, and she struggled from paycheck to paycheck every single time, and she never had a retirement, and it was her goal, to always have a million dollars. And so you know what, that's my goa too now, and you're going to uncover some really interesting things that your clients will share with you. And it's really just helps to maybe it's more context, maybe it's how you treat them differently, or with more respect, or more hand holding, or maybe with white gloves, or maybe you help them from afar, the more context, the better. And asking really solid questions like that and get into the crux of it, the bottom of those five why's could really help you in knowing some of those things. So, Brittany, I'm gonna turn it over to you for some of those top takeaways from today's episode.

Brittany Anderson  22:41

Yeah, you know, I'm sitting here listening to both of you speak. And I think you both just dropped a ton of value for listeners. And, you know, there's a few key things that really jumped out. But first I want to comment on, you know, I think one of the biggest problems that people have with communication is that we are constantly listening to reply, versus actually listening to really hear what somebody's saying. And think about that, you know, and this isn't something that we can always control, unless we're really conscious of it, is you have somebody you're in conversation, and this can just be personal conversation. It's human nature to want to be relatable, and, you know, be able to share commonalities. So you can be in conversation, and you're immediately thinking about how you're going to respond to what they just said, or what else you're going to add to the conversation, versus actually just sitting there and taking it all in, and then formulating a response. So I think that's really important, you know as Draye dropped some of these really good questions, and really powerful ways to kind of listen. And I think that's one thing, if we could all become better listeners, I think it would be amazing at the impact, you would start seeing that you're having on the people that matter most whether it's your clients, your team, or even in your personal life with your friends and your family. So I think that's one that really needed to be pushed on there. So before I get into kind of the top three big takeaways, Bryan, Draye, any other little nuggets that you want to share before I kind of take us down this little path?

Draye Redfern  24:15

Yeah, I think that this one's really worth spending a lot of time on and just having a really clear process or SOP, for how you actually handle your onboarding meetings using the document that Bryan is going to provide. And we'll make sure that's available for download on this podcast episode in the show notes. But using things like that asking great questions. There's like, it's such an amazing catalyst for just wonderful things happening inside your organization. So I can't recommend it enough.

Brittany Anderson  24:43

Love that. So I think the top three takeaways from today, number one, I love what Bryan said about starting your meetings out asking what the client wants to get out of the meeting and there's a two-fold there. So number one, obviously it's just like Bryan said, your understanding their state of mind. You're understanding where they're at, you can use some of those, the NLP tactics that Draye talked about to kind of meet them where they're at, so that you can control the conversation a little bit more and make sure that they're getting what they need. But on the other end of that, it gives you a chance to maintain control of the meeting in a really positive light. So let's say somebody comes in, and for whatever reason, their performance focus person, they're like, well, I want to talk about performance. That's the first and only thing on my mind. And by doing some of the things that Bryan and Draye both talked about, by saying, gosh, you know, that's one thing I want to make sure we touch on too. But first, let's get to these other key things that I want to make sure we address for you, that's maybe a follow up to the last meeting, or it's more, you know, focused on their plan and the bigger picture versus some tiny little time period that they may be looking at and may not be looking at even the right thing. So what that allows you to do is to make sure that you can redirect in a positive light without going down the tunnel that somebody is trying to take you down, when in reality, that's probably not the pressing issue, there's probably something deeper there that they want to focus on. So I think that's a really important question to ask just to understand where the client is at and where their headspace is right now. The second thing, definitely download the client preference sheet, and we're giving you this golden opportunity, I would take it, I would use it, I would put it into place, you can use it in survey format, if you don't have anything like this for your existing clients, but absolutely implement it for anybody new coming through the pipeline. It is hands down a great way to really get to know somebody in a quick snapshot, so that you can surprise and delight which we're going to talk about next week. The next one, I think this is so incredibly important. And I think actually the most important out of the top three takeaways is to stop accepting surface level answers. You know, Bryan and Draye both talked about this. And I think this is so darn important that you need to ask the questions that five why's that Draye talked about? Go deeper, get more answers, get more context, get more details, because a lot of times what somebody says on that surface is absolutely not what they really mean. And not what they really want and not what they're really focused on. So doing the due diligence of saying, Tell me more? Or well why do you feel that way? Or what made that come up? You know, instead of just jumping into answer mode, again, going away from listening to reply or respond to actually getting to the core of what somebody needs or is saying, man, you master that and you're serving at a whole new level. So making sure that you're going that doing the five why's asking the good questions and really getting to the core of what people need. So that wraps up today's episode of the ultimate advisor podcast. We are going to show up again next week. And we're going to talk a little bit on surprising and delighting.  Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you're hearing on our Ultimate Advisor Podcast, don't keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is to simply send them to ultimateadvisorpodcast.com. And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com. As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the Ultimate Advisor community and we look forward to a continued relationship!