Understanding what makes a good advice process
- Understand the use of the first meeting and what this means for advisers.
- Learn about the five steps of the advice process.
- Grasp why first meetings should not be the focus of client/adviser interactions.
- Understand the use of the first meeting and what this means for advisers.
- Learn about the five steps of the advice process.
- Grasp why first meetings should not be the focus of client/adviser interactions.
Once upon a time, in a land now seemingly far, far away, intrepid financial advisers would prospect for clients and try to secure the all-important ‘first meeting’ with a client.
Some may have worked in organisations where they were targeted on the number of first or second meetings.
For some, the first meeting with a client would be the one and only chance to ‘pitch’ their services, impress a client and potentially move towards 'closing' at the second meeting.
How times change; changed by the number of advisers active in the UK, our suitability focused regulatory environment and the way in which consumers consider, research and consume financial services.
For any purchase, there are myriad external influences to take into account within this process, which inform each stage every time we undertake it.To discuss “What makes a good first meeting?” in 2018 is to miss the point entirely about the ways in which advisers today interact with clients – often before the client ever has the first meeting in the physical sense (if it even happens face-to-face) with an adviser.
The compliance aspects of the first meeting, in terms of disclosure and knowing your clients, are set in stone. So the more appropriate question is “What makes a good advice process and how will my clients interact with it to ensure better prospects for all?”
What being hungry teaches us about the advice process
Imagine, if you will, that you are hungry and you’ve decided it’s time for food.
You are on the train and look around for all the possible sources of food near you at the moment. Having found the options, you consider which is best for you and make your purchase.
Afterwards you may think you’d made a good choice and would repeat it, or made a bad choice and wished you’d chosen differently.
The process for buying that food is replicated the world over, billions of times a day, by consumers of all types buying all manner of goods and services.
Leading academics and strategists have pored over this process and have boiled it down to five steps:
- Problem recognition - e.g. I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I want a new car, etc.
- Information search – e.g. what is there to eat/drink around here, what cars are in my price range?
- Evaluation of alternatives – e.g. the chocolate bar looks tasty but may make me feel sick, the salad looks boring but may help with the diet; the Porsche looks cool but is pricey, whereas the Ford SMAX looks terrible but fits all the kids’ car seats.
- Purchase
- Post-purchase evaluation – e.g. would, and should, I do that again?
