by Tony Vidler       

Advisers do not have a prospecting problem in todays world.  They have an “attention-keeping problem”.  Prospects have never been easier to find or reach out to, and getting their attention is not so hard – but keeping their attention most certainly is.

It is probably the most critical step in developing a well qualified prospect into a client: moving them to the step beyond “got their attention”.

Creating interesting conversations that intrigue clients enough to want to hear more and continue to engage with you is a bigger challenge than finding prospects or getting their attention to begin with.

It helps if we step back and think about the emotional decision-making cycle that most humans engage in, where getting their attention is simply the first step…but then you have to arouse interest – or intrigue – to begin the engagement process.

The best way of doing that is talk briefly about something which is very likely to be of interest to them because they can see a benefit immediately.  That sounds incredibly simple, but there is a little bit of structure involved if you are to do that effectively and very quickly (we are talking seconds rather than minutes here).

Is it possible in a very short space of time to:

• show the prospective client that you know something of their world
• show the prospective client you understand some (or even just one) issues that they face
• show that you know how to deal with that issue relatively simply.

If you could do that and be interesting enough then the prospective client will usually be willing to invest further time and attention in what you do and how you might be able to benefit them.  In effect, you are simply looking to obtain permission to engage with, and get the active involvement of, the client in more depth and detail.

In this edition of Tony’s quick tips we very quickly roleplay one such example….

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