As I work to build my new firm, I am becoming more aware that while my pitch to clients needs to be well rehearsed, it also needs to be flexible.
I have had conversations recently over the past couple of weeks with two very different prospects. One was a young married couple, both of which were teachers. The other was another married couple, in which the wife was a teacher nearing retirement.
One part of explaining my firm's approach is to explain how integral the use of technology is in the approach to planning. One of the key software components is an account aggregation platform called Blueleaf. Clients get one place to view their accounts and create on-demand performance reports, while I get an automatic feed of this data to my financial planning software, Money Guide Pro.
The two sets of prospects reacted quite differently. The young couple loved the idea, realizing that they didnt have to wait for me to generate reports and data. The older couple, however, did not feel secure providing their various account login details to this provider.
This may be a generational issue (Im not entirely convinced it is), but it has made me realize that I need to adjust my pitch to prospects depending on what they say in the meeting, asking questions that gives me insight into their service needs.
One question that might be helpful: Do you use online banking? If the response is no, I need to adjust my explanation of my company, its approach and the value I can provide them. In some cases, I may even learn that a prospect is not a good fit.
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