Latest / The Perfect RIA / Bad Ways to Answer Clients [Episode 256]

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Bad Ways to Answer Clients [Episode 256] · The Perfect RIA

0:10
Matt: Good news. It really doesn't matter how you answer
0:14
any client question.
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important details. All right back to the show.
1:14
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of The Perfect
1:19
Micah: Jarvis, doing absolutely fantastic. I thought was gonna
1:31
be from a secret bunker somewhere in Alaska, but
1:33
apparently you gave that away so that's great yeah. I'm doing
1:40
really fantastic right wrapped up with Surge, had just a ton of
1:44
fantastic client meetings. I always enjoy that so much. Going
1:47
in with clients and to go through things and and life is
1:50
really well.
1:51
Matt: It was funny Micah, you mentioned Surge, and I started
1:54
talking about surge on this podcast six years ago now seven
1:58
years ago. We're doing it for many years before that, but you
2:00
can really tell advisors who sort of understand the idea of
2:04
surge and the advisors who actually do surge and really
2:07
look at the advisors who are starting search this cycle in
2:10
the advisors who are ending surge. The ones that are
2:12
starting Surge, it's like a kid going to school the first ride,
2:15
it's gonna be so much fun, and it wasn't like midway through
2:17
like - lot of work. A lot of work, totally worth it. A lot of
2:21
work.
2:22
Micah: But that's what it is. Right? It's work in order to
2:25
deliver massive value to clients. It's work. So the
2:27
question is, are you going to be the top 1% or are you not?
2:30
That's it that's as simple as this question is, and everything
2:34
we do is hyper intentional with clients in order to deliver the
2:38
massive value. Now how work was defining this massive value
2:42
we're delivering to clients is helping them achieve their goal,
2:45
right? And what is the most effective means of communication
2:48
of meeting sequences of order operations in which we go
2:52
through things like all of these things matter, everything
2:55
counts, everything counts together, and we got to do it in
2:57
a certain way that helps the client keep moving forward with
3:00
their financial plan. And certain things I tell mine all
3:03
the time, Jarvis is hey, what's the best diet program and what's
3:07
the best workout program? And they can all answer that
3:10
question. The one that you do, and I say, and this is the best
3:13
RIA podcast. I'm your co-host Matthew Jarvis and with me as
3:14
financial plan is the one that you do and here's what I can
3:16
tell you after doing this for 24 years, is working with clients
3:20
side by side through this process, we have a process of
3:23
success. And there's a certain way we're going to do it,
3:25
because at the end of it, you're actually going to have an
3:27
implemented financial plan. And when we don't follow that
3:30
process, it's going to blow up and you're not going to have a
3:33
financial plan and that's not what we want. So that's the
3:35
reason we're going to do that. Now. That's the client facing
3:38
side. But that's the reality of the back office as well, right?
3:41
We still have a process of success we have to do and really
3:45
what I find on client communication when we start
3:47
seeing issues is when advisors go outside of that for some
3:51
silly reason.
3:52
Matt: Quick sidebar here when you mentioned that client script
3:54
there which I know you use on a regular basis with clients for
3:56
24 years how many years in the industry before you told people
3:59
how many years. Like that's obviously right now appointed
4:02
credibility, but it is right. Last week, as I've never seen,
4:07
but but I just feel we have a big spectrum of advisor as one
4:09
of the most popular if not the most popular advisor podcast by
4:13
advisors for advisors, right and some of our advisors like
4:16
yourself and myself been doing this for 20 plus years, a lot of
4:19
credibility there some that have been doing this for under 20
4:22
weeks, right? So if you're a newbie or a newer advisor,
4:26
right, what do you say for credibility instead Micah?
4:28
Micah: Well, a couple of things.
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Matt: So hope they don't ask right?
4:30
Micah: So if you have any of those questions, because we all
4:34
do that, they don't ask, you got to write those down and we got
4:38
to practice those. We got to rehearse those, we got to go
4:40
through those, right because those will come up. So that's
4:43
why it's a whole separate pod. On the credibility side for our
4:46
younger advisors that are on our team, right? I say that is say,
4:49
look, here's what you're gonna say is, look, we as a firm have
4:52
been doing this for over four decades. And this is what we can
4:57
tell you is going to work really, really well. That's 100%
5:00
accuracy. And so I'm using the firm's our inside of that
5:03
because they're following that same process. And I like decades
5:07
in there, right? I know I said 24 years for me, but this is
5:09
sort of saying it right now. But decades is a really powerful
5:11
usual the man, the myth, the legend coming in live from
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thing. If you're solo or you've been doing this and you don't
5:15
have that I would just kind of leave the time out there or put
5:18
your clients in there. How many clients have you work with how
5:20
many things you'd have says, Look, I've done this process
5:22
over 100 times I've done this over 50 times. I have worked
5:25
with clients just like you and here's what I'm going to tell
5:27
you is going to work really, really well. So remove the time
5:31
element or the client element if that's not a strong suit. Hey, I
5:34
work with clients just like you and here's what I'm going to
5:37
tell you works in order to make sure they're achieving their
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financial goals.
5:40
Matt: And what I like that you talk about its pivoted to your
5:42
strong point, if you're a younger adviser highlight that.
5:45
Hey, great news. I will be here throughout your entire
5:48
retirement and you can still bring in that credibility. Hey,
5:50
advisors who mentor me, I've been doing this for decades and
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they said to always watch out for this right? So always play
5:56
to your strong suits, but Micah to your earlier point if there's
5:58
something you're afraid is going to be asked you're gotta be
6:00
ready for that question.
6:01
Micah: I was laughing about that when we were kind of talking
6:02
about it because I remember in there about being the the
6:03
younger advisor in there, but one of the things that I would
6:05
go with is because I was really worried about that question
6:06
because Micah, you look like you're 12 like what are we
6:08
doing? And I would always throw in there. Like what's the most
6:16
important question you need to ask another financial advisor
6:18
and I was like, hey, one of the most important questions you got
6:20
to ask another financial advisors, you're interviewing
6:22
them, are they going to be with you through your entire
6:24
retirement? And if they're not, maybe that's not a good fit for
6:28
you? Because that was a strength that I had. I had youth. I was
6:30
like, I'm gonna be here a while right. I was gonna play that
6:33
card and it's a really good card to play. So that is an okay
6:36
thing to throw out there and play to your strengths.
6:38
Matt: Now. Here's what here's one, whether you've got it one
6:41
day in the industry, or you're pressing 40 years in the
6:43
industry, something that can come up for all of us. So Micah,
6:45
I know you're gonna have to dig deep and hypothetical and is
6:48
when a client asks you a question to which you don't know
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the answer. Now this could be because it's an obscure
6:53
technical question, which we'll talk about in just a second. It
6:56
could be because they're asking you the outcome of the next
6:58
election cycle, or when interest rates will move, or just
7:01
Wasilla, Alaska. Yes, that's really a place Wasilla, Alaska
7:02
something totally unrelated. Like, hey, what does this rash
7:04
do you think I should see a doctor about this, right?
7:06
Whatever the scenario is, there will always be times where
7:08
client or prospective client asks you a question that you
7:11
either don't know the answer, or you don't know how to articulate
7:14
the answer and confidence in a way that they can relate to.
7:17
Micah: No, I do want to call this out, right? Because there's
7:20
times that with my other advisors on the team that will
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kind of be doing a debrief, and they'll get caught up on this.
7:24
They're like, well, I'm not going to know the answer. But
7:26
that's not a problem. Like what's the script that we use?
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How do we go through this? And they're like, well, oh, Micah,
7:31
that's easy for you to say, the script. This doesn't really
7:32
happen to you. And I gotta call them out on it. I'm like, wow
7:35
wow, we had a joint meeting last week with Bob and Sue, and X
7:38
question came up, and how did I answer that? And they pause.
7:43
They're like, well, you told him that was a really good question,
7:46
and that you wanted to make sure you got them a good answer. And
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so you're going to do some research and you're going to
7:51
follow up and get back to them and ask them if that was okay
7:53
with them. It's like, aha, and what did they say? They said,
7:57
they said, okay, great. That'd be fantastic. Thanks, Micah. I
7:59
was like, kkay, so here's a situation that I didn't know the
8:03
answer to that question right away the client asked, and I
8:06
didn't know what was coming. I didn't know the answer to that.
8:09
And I just phrased it in a way that gave me time in order to
8:12
answer the question it best benefits the clients and clients
8:15
understand that and now we get to the second part of this,
8:18
which is super important that you can screw up the second part
8:21
doesn't matter what you did - the first part you shot
8:22
yourself. That second part is really important. But there's a
8:26
lot of things you got to be thinking about Jarvis, you know,
8:28
right. It is okay not to know everything, right? It is okay to
8:33
say hey, I got some resources that have experienced with this
8:36
and I want to reach out to those resources, and I want to get you
8:39
the best answer I possibly can. And I've never ever had a client
8:43
mad about me about that.
8:44
Matt: So let's contrast that Micah with the opposite extreme,
8:46
which could be it which is also factual. He was like, Hmm, I've
8:50
never heard that question before. That's that's a stumper.
8:53
That's a real thinker. Hmm. So so how much confidence is that
8:56
going to instill? Now both of them could be accurate right.
8:59
Micah Shilanski. Micah, how are you my friend?
9:00
But again, my job or my biggest jobs is give my clients
9:03
confidence in the future right. And just like me when I meet
9:06
with a professional, so if I got to be with a doctor, I say, Doc,
9:09
I got this thing going on. Have the doc says ha, never heard of
9:11
that before. I'm thinking I'm in the wrong place, or the wrong
9:15
plan is find a different doctor.
9:17
Micah: I've always wanted to work on that. That's fantastic.
9:20
I was at a doctor's office actually once and that's what
9:22
they said it was a dental office, and that's what the
9:24
dentist said in the room over and I could hear him. He says
9:27
Ha! I've read about these but I've always wanted to work on
9:30
one of that. I looked at the doctor I said, if you ever tell
9:32
me that I am leaving, this is not the place for me. So
9:35
immediately erodes your confidence.
9:37
Matt: Well think about Joe Schmo as the Alaska airline flight
9:40
where the fake door blew off right. Had that pilot ever had
9:43
that happen before? Absolutely not. How about the Miracle on
9:45
the Hudson did solely get on the thing he's like, Huh? He
9:48
literally had never had that happen. All right. So it's all
9:50
been Miracle on the Hudson never had a chance time we're both
9:53
engines have gotten taken up in bird strikes. Probably almost
9:56
never happened in the history of aviation, right? Did he get on
9:58
the thing? Ladies and gentlemen, we are at Royal F right here.
10:01
I'm not really sure what to do because it's never happend
10:03
before. Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts.
10:05
We're going to be making a rough landing, right? That's your job
10:08
as an advisor and so anything you're doing that pulls back the
10:12
client's confidence is a failure of your job. It's not where we,
10:15
by the way, we're not lying, this isn't about feeding the
10:17
line of BS. This is about a half to give confidence all that they
10:20
do.
10:20
Micah: Yeah, don't give me a false answer. No, you can still
10:23
have confidence in saying you don't know something right. I
10:26
think that this comes into, and I'm probing into this a little
10:29
bit in my mind. And I wonder if this comes into advisors are
10:32
worried about that they're going to be saying I don't I don't
10:35
know. I don't know the entire meaning and never answering any
10:38
question. And I think that's an emotional response that comes up
10:41
because let's think about in a client meeting. Let's say you've
10:44
only been an advisor for five to 10 years. You got to know 80% of
10:47
the stuff that the clients are going to be bringing up and
10:50
asking right and you're like, Oh, I'm not sure about that.
10:53
Yeah, you do. You got a good handle on cash flow by this time
10:56
in there. You have a decent handle on investments, at least
10:59
where your strategy is going to be, you know about taxes. You
11:02
may not be that great at taxes, but you're probably better than
11:05
they are and understanding how taxes work. You understand how
11:08
retirement distributions work, right? So you know a lot of
11:11
these things and so again, our job isn't to know everything we
11:14
know a lot. We're in the business, you know, 15-20 plus
11:16
years, you know, 99.9% of your niche market of the questions
11:19
that they bring in. That's the caveat right here my niche
11:22
market right. You put me up in front of federal employes. I am
11:25
really, really good because I do that every single day inside and
11:28
out. You put me through an expat with RSOs and other things and
11:31
moving around. I'm like, Man, these are fantastic questions. I
11:34
had a client recently moved to Japan. And one of the other
11:37
advisors working on it says Hey, Micah, why do they owe so much
11:40
taxes and Japanese tax I was like, I have no idea. I would
11:43
suggest you reach out and find an advisor that understands
11:46
Americans moving to Japan, and how the taxation works. And he's
11:49
like, what do you mean, you don't know what's like? I don't
11:52
know Japanese tax. Yeah, there's a lot I don't know. Right? So
11:55
this is where we're going to pull in this other resource.
11:58
Now. That's not how I would phrase it to a client led to
12:01
that advisor. It's okay that we don't know stuff what was what
12:04
we know inside of our niche.
12:05
Micah: So many things inside of that.
12:05
Matt: This also plays into a bigger thing on systems and this
12:09
Matt: Oh, yeah.
12:10
Micah: One - The empowering Colleen to set an appointment
12:12
and it's not just a return phone call. And sometimes if our
12:21
clients give us a little push back in setting an appointment,
12:25
is Micah when advisors run astray all the time. This is
12:27
says can Micah just call me back to say Micah would love just to
12:45
also where we see kind of self proclaimed experts run a
13:05
straight read. So they think like, oh, I just need to know
13:21
call you back. But this could play a game of telephone, and I
13:24
know that will just be frustrating. It's frustrating
13:26
how to answer that. One question. Let me give you a
13:26
for me, I'm sure it's frustrating for you. Is it okay
13:28
if we just set a time to avoid the game of telephone? And
13:30
they're like oh yeah, of course that makes tons of sense. But
13:33
this is training that you work with Colleen on so that that
13:35
little nugget is huge. Her asking some additional
13:38
questions. Jarvis to set you up for success. It was Hey, Bob has
13:41
some questions. You need to give him a call back. What questions
13:44
does Bob have? What am I supposed to prepare for in order
13:44
specific example. I had a meeting on my calendar, a quick
13:48
to answer these questions? Now Colleen has that details right
13:51
now. It's probably not all of the information that you would
13:54
ideally like it's going to give you 80 to 90% of it is alright
13:59
now this is where I need to focus at Bob has a question on
14:02
taxes about 22 vs 23. Sweet. I can pull those records I could
14:05
phone call with a client who the client had a question. His
14:06
grab some 1099 some investment information. What else was
14:09
happening? I can read over the notes as it relates to taxes. I
14:12
can now have an impactful call with Bob, which is what we're
14:15
going for.
14:15
Matt: I got one other one for you, Micah. I think I haven't
14:17
told you this one yet. We had a client come in during surge. So
14:20
that one I just gave I had preparation for had a client
14:22
come in during surge we're getting done. I say Bob any
14:24
other because again, again for new podcast listeners where we
14:26
say Bob and Sue for client confidentiality. Bob, any other
14:27
question was, hey, last year, we have a $7,000 refund. This year,
14:29
questions or concerns again, you don't actually have to get one
14:31
more. I was doing my taxes for 2023 and I owe $83,000. Bobby
14:37
owed 82 - I'm not really sure why. Bob, that sounds a little
14:42
unusual. Now Micah at this point, I have no idea why. I
14:45
have no idea.
14:46
Micah: I'd love to see his taxes.
14:47
Matt: That's well that's what I said Bob, you know what, I would
14:49
love to take a look at those taxes. Well, Matthew, I do the
14:50
we owe $3,000. Can you help me understand what's going on?
14:51
taxes myself in tax and I can't figure out how to get a preview
14:55
because they've really locked it down trying to get a preview.
14:57
Micah: Oh they I have.
14:58
Micah: Holy crap!
14:58
Matt: So I said Bob let's do this. Why don't we do this
15:00
because I could have guessed that I could say a lot about
15:01
this you must have missed them. Why don't we do a zoom meeting
15:05
or come back into the office with your laptop and I'll click
15:08
through it with you and we'll kind of see what's going on.
15:10
Matthew that would be great right so I could have lost it
15:11
That's a great question to ask. And it's a question that if it
15:12
like i by by making some here's what it was. He had bought. This
15:15
is like a calculator thing.He had bought like a collectible
15:18
Porsche that he got it for like 70 grand he put 20,000 into it
15:22
sold it for $400,000.
15:24
Matt: So it's like a $300,000 capital gain. They didn't
15:29
connect it. That could be why he owes 83K. That was just sold the
15:33
car I don't know why it's an issue. That's I'm putting it
15:34
was just asked off the cuff, I would really have no idea and I
15:35
through a capital gain. 400,000 What is this Bob? Oh, I sold my
15:40
car. What kind of car did you sell? But it was a trap I could
15:44
have fallen into.
15:45
Micah: Alright. Well Jarvis you and I got to have a conversation
15:47
off the podcast about how you were reviewing the clients bank
15:50
accounts and missed a $400,000 deposit. I don't know. That
15:52
would be another question on why we do cash flow first and I'm
15:56
always asking clients, how much money do they have in checking
15:57
could speculate at it. I can't I would never say I had no idea.
15:59
and saving. And clients now come come for but this is why. But
16:03
that's the reason cash flow is so important in this
16:08
conversation - it is the heartbeat of retirement. If I
16:11
know a client's checking and savings balances, I can see
16:14
things like this either coming up or you know, be ahead of them
16:17
or I can start seeing problems right. The clients are spending
16:19
the same amount of money but their account was 100 grand now
16:19
But let's step back in this system. How did this come down?
16:21
it's 80 grand now it's 75 grand now it's 60 grand. Okay, you're
16:25
not spending the same amount of money. You can see these things
16:28
coming up.
16:28
Matt: Yeah, that's great Micah. What about totally unknowable,
16:30
right? So let's talk about cash flow for just a minute you say
16:33
cash flow is the heartbeat of retirement. It's a brilliant
16:35
wind to use and the client said hey, it's an election year
16:38
interest rates are moving you know, whatever Apocalypse du
16:41
The client called my office said, Hey, this question about
16:41
jour Am I okay to keep taking x amount out I mean, we don't know
16:46
what the future will bring right but we still have to come in
16:48
with competency and this is how much we're taking out this year.
16:50
So how do you handle it? How did you handle that during surge?
16:53
Micah: Yes, so this is one of the ones and again I love having
16:55
a growing advisor team we're going to onboard advisor this
16:58
year to super excited about and so one of things I get to hear
17:01
these these questions kind of directly from them and go
17:02
my taxes, call in my relationship manager said that's
17:03
through which is awesome extra questions. I had that I might
17:07
have kind of forgotten about in one of them that I have to
17:10
remind our team on this this is look - It's our job to know what
17:14
levers we can pull and to know when we can pull levers, but we
17:18
don't create new levers. We can't make these things up. So
17:21
a great question for Matthew, can you give me a few more
17:22
what does that mean? If a client is overspending that's not our
17:26
fault. What is our responsibility? Our
17:29
responsibility is to look at them and say, Hey, under the set
17:33
of circumstances, here's how much money you can safely take
17:36
out. You're probably never gonna outlive your money. And here's
17:38
our safety net that when x happens, we will do y and this
17:42
details and can I schedule a time for him to call you? Yeah,
17:43
is how we're going to watch it. That's our job. Now if x
17:46
happens, and we have to do y whether x is the market fell by
17:49
50% whether they had a life event and how to pull a lot of
17:51
money out of their accounts and now they need to spend less,
17:54
right. That's not our fault. Our job is to look out there and
17:58
say, hey, look, here's the parameters. And when things go
18:02
off the rails, here's our plan. Here's how we're going to keep
18:04
that'd be great. Here's some details. So then, Micah I had
18:05
it on track. But when life happens we get off track. Here's
18:07
what we're going to do that's to know the levers and know how we
18:11
can pull the levers in order to get the maximum result but our
18:13
job is not to create another lever. Our job is not to say
18:16
clients taking out 9% rate means you can keep taking out 9%
18:20
Right. That's not our job is to say hey, you're overspending and
18:23
here's how we can get you back on the same track. And if we're
18:25
time to pull up all this information from 2023 kind of
18:25
not, we're not the right advisors for you.
18:29
Matt: And so in your example, right 9% in most scenarios seems
18:32
like pretty hard, high number it seems like an unsustainable
18:34
number, right. And it's easy. I saw an article the other day in
18:37
a major industry publication saying that advisors need to
18:39
update their capital market assumptions, whatever. What does
18:42
that mean whatever that actually means that advisors can spend so
18:45
figure out like, what's sort of going on here. Think about my
18:46
much time going down this rabbit hole of well as ideal
18:48
distribution rate 4.73 or 5.412. You guys and girls, you got to
18:54
just you got to pick a number, right? And the best way to do
18:56
that, especially if that's not your cup of tea is find someone
18:59
that you respect, who has the practice that you like the
19:01
expertise that you trust and say great is one of your
19:04
conferences, I go around ask every advisor what distributed
19:06
are you using and if they hesitate, I stopped the
19:07
questions. Make sure I do all the moving pieces that I can
19:09
conversation, because what that means is that they're just
19:11
hoping the software's right and by the way, the software is not
19:13
any more right than anywhere else. I could throw a dart at
19:15
the wall it's just as accurate as the software.
19:18
Micah: Wo,wo wo! Software throws 1000 darts at the wall takes the
19:21
averages of all of the darts therefore it is more accurate
19:24
where the next dart will be thrown.
19:27
Matt: And the AI makes its own darts and its own wall inside of
19:28
call. Hey, buddy, what's going on today? Really glad to chat
19:32
the metaverse.
19:33
Micah: That's a good twist. I didn't think about that one.
19:35
Matt: But I just want to see who's got confidence in what
19:37
they're doing, how they articulate to clients. If that
19:39
it resonates to me, right because by the way, if the
19:41
markets go to zero tomorrow and they stay at zero, no
19:43
distribution strategy is going to work. None of them right. So
19:46
it's again we've got a lot of side tangents here. It's so
19:49
critical. When you're meeting with a client, it's perhaps one
19:50
with you. We can walk through that. So good.
19:51
of the most critical things that you're instilling confidence in
19:55
the path that you've chosen, even if that path is really the
19:58
least bad of the options.
19:59
Micah: Alright, so Jarvis let's break this down a little bit
20:01
more. One of the things that kind of came out a little bit is
20:04
you know it we started talking about it and we got a great
20:07
quantification which I always love. Let's go back to it. But
20:09
when a client asks a question, and you don't know the answer to
20:14
that, right, let's kind of dive into that one just a little bit
20:18
more. Because the reason I bring this up is this is where you can
20:20
really blow your credibility. So there's a couple things that I
20:24
learned from the Amercian Tax Council Rod Zeeb. So many years
20:26
ago, when I was first starting in the industry, I was learning
20:29
about taxes and estate planning. One of their comments was,
20:32
nothing can surprise you in that conference room. Whatever the
20:35
client brings out. Whatever happens, right? You better have
20:38
a good game based there's nothing that surprised you. That
20:41
doesn't mean you're emotionless. Right. But you need to have
20:43
poise, you need to have a good response to these things. So
20:46
it's I've really taken that to heart over the years. It's a
20:48
good one. Yeah. And it comes up when someone asks a question
20:52
that I don't know. Now, if somebody asks a question, I
20:54
don't know, I could very truthfully and honestly say, I
20:57
don't know. But does that help the client? Right now? Not
21:00
saying why that's not what I'm talking about here with me,
21:03
right? But there's different ways I can answer this. I could
21:05
say, I don't know what, what do I do with that? How do I come up
21:09
with an answer? Or I could say, You know what, that's a really
21:12
good question. And I could give you an answer on the back of a
21:15
napkin, but I really want to do a little bit more research and
21:18
come back to you with something with more information or really
21:21
I want to reach out to some additional resources that I
21:23
have. Because this isn't an area of my expertise and I want to
21:25
pull in the people whose area of expertise it is, and let's get a
21:29
good answer for you. Is that going to be okay with you? And
21:32
clients always say yes. Now, out of those two answers, one is I
21:36
don't know. And the other one says that's a really good
21:38
question and, right. Which one is going to inspire more
21:42
confidence with the client to achieve their financial goals?
21:45
We can't lose sight of that. Our main objective is to help the
21:48
client achieve their financial goal. So which one of those
21:51
answers does that?
21:52
Matt: The one where you're saying that's a good question?
21:53
I'm validating their question. I'm saying I'm going to get you
21:56
an answer to that question every time because it's the answer I
21:59
want.
21:59
Micah: Yeah, and clients don't need the answer right away. They
22:02
need to know you have it at your fingertips that you could get
22:06
the answer for them, as well. Right. And we've had questions
22:09
from clients about hey, what roofer should I use, right
22:12
what's gonna happen with this election? When these bonds go
22:14
through? What does this mean? How should I vote on these
22:16
ballots that are coming up, etc, right? We get all sorts of these
22:19
fun questions that are there. You need a system in order to be
22:22
able to answer those.
22:23
Matt: By the way, if you're not getting those kinds of
22:25
questions, it should be a bit of an alarm, that you've drawn too
22:28
much focus to investment management, right? So clients
22:31
questions are all numbers and money related, you're missing
22:34
the mark, that's a warning sign. But here's another approach to
22:37
that right client comes in and says, Hey, Mike, what's the
22:39
what's the Fed funds rate right now? Or what's the price of
22:42
Bitcoin or what's the discount rate on 10 year treasury bonds?
22:46
There's always a spot where I can say mister missus client
22:48
that's a that's a great question. Can you tell me a
22:50
little bit more about why you're asking? Right? So I can always
22:53
go with, which by the way it goes through things like we just
22:55
talked about this before, hey I'm thinking about buying a
22:57
rental property, I'm thinking about buying real estate, I'm
22:58
thinking about buying gold. That's a great idea that
23:01
strategy can really work in some situations. Can you tell me a
23:04
little bit more about what you're thinking? Now I bought
23:06
myself time, I've bought myself time to process, but more
23:09
importantly I've validated the client and I'm letting them tell
23:12
me more about the situation. This might have just been like a
23:14
random flow through their head, because on the radio on the way
23:18
in, they heard about a gold comercial or something. Or it
23:21
might be something that they've already done or something that
23:22
they're really thinking about. I gotta suss that out a little bit
23:25
Micah: You know, this allows you to see what the client's
23:25
more.
23:27
perspective is on it, which is so so important, right? What are
23:30
they solving for? How many times if somebody came in and said
23:33
that and it was that same thing? It says, I don't know. I thought
23:35
we should have a more diversified portfolio. Okay,
23:37
well tell me a little bit more what diversified means. Let's
23:39
talk a little bit about how your setups, do you feel that this is
23:41
diversified, right? So with asking that to get more
23:44
information on this question, Jarvis. That's such a solid
23:47
point.
23:48
Matt: Highlights again, the critical nature of spending time
23:50
with other successful advisors. So let's use just a real quick
23:53
one on gold. Whenever a client asked me about gold, I always
23:55
say good, it's always the husband that's ask him. I always
23:58
say you know what, Bob here's my philosophy on gold. You should
24:01
buy Sue as much gold as she'll ever wear. Because then no
24:04
matter what happens to the price of gold, you'll still win. And
24:07
we all smile and we all laugh it defuses the the situation. He
24:10
kind of realizes how silly the question is, and nine times out
24:13
of 10 we've won. Now where did I get that from? Because I used to
24:16
go to conferences I'd ask every advisor about hey, what do you
24:18
say when a client asks about gold? And 99 out advisors out of
24:22
100 give me some stupid answer. And one old timer one day says:
24:25
Jarvis, let me tell you what I say. I say Bob buy Sue as much
24:29
gold as she can wear because no matter what you'll win, my
24:31
friend. Perfect, that's what I'm gonna use!
24:33
Micah: Solid line!
24:34
Micah: It moves that conversation off to where it
24:35
Matt: Yeah!
24:36
Matt: Because if you don't deliver on that, right? Then the
24:37
should be. I love it. Well Jarvis this podcast is all about
24:39
action items. Right? And it's before we get into those I want
24:42
to follow up on member we said earlier, there's two parts of
24:45
answering a client question right? If you screw up the
24:48
second part, it doesn't matter what happens on the first part,
24:49
clients mind consciously or not, they're gonna say hey, Jarvis
24:51
and the second part is setting the expectations of when they
24:54
are going to get an answer. That is that is, in my opinion, the
24:57
most important part of answering the client questions, because if
25:00
you answer the client questions outside of their expectations of
25:04
when they were going to get a response, the answer is invalid.
25:05
didn't do what he said he was gonna do where else is he not
25:07
Right? Because it's Micah you didn't get back to the agency of
25:10
how to do all this other work, man. I wish he would have told
25:13
me this sooner. So it's always the second part of it is once I
25:16
defer the question, I set a time in which I'm going to get backto
25:19
them. Bob, it's a great question. I'd love to do a
25:19
reliable? The worst version? I see that Micah I was talking to
25:21
little bit more research before I get you a final answer on
25:24
this. Is it okay if I get back to you by Wednesday of next week
25:27
with this answer? Now, maybe it's more complex, this is a
25:30
this is going to take me a few weeks because I'd got to reach
25:33
out to some other resources etc. Is it okay if I get back to you
25:35
one of my attorneys the other day and he says I'll get back to
25:36
by the end of the month, and that looks like it's X date in
25:39
order to get back to you. You know, I'm always going to be
25:42
setting some expectation with that. The expectation also could
25:45
be Hey, Bob, I'm gonna get back to you Wednesday of next week
25:48
and how long I think it's gonna take to get this in place, you
25:50
next week on that unless I don't find anything and then I won't
25:51
know, so I can update you on a timeframe. But I always am
25:54
setting an expectations for that communication. Because if I
25:57
don't set them the client sets them, and the issue that is I
26:00
don't know what they're expecting. So I can't meet that
26:03
objective, right. I can't meet that goal. If I don't know what
26:06
they're thinking so I'm always pushing out to set that
26:06
send you anything. So if you don't hear from me, it's because
26:09
communication standards.
26:10
Micah: Oh, man, something you got to do we all need to do more
26:21
I didn't find anything. Horrible! Or you forgot or the
26:22
of and yet we don't want to it is practice, practice, practice,
26:35
email got lost or you're just trying to brush me off or really
26:51
any of those things didn't? Didn't instill a lot of
27:01
practice. You got to rehearse these scripts. How are you gonna
27:03
confidence. But speaking of confidence might be the best way
27:04
say them? How are you going to deliver? What does it look like
27:07
zoom? What does it look like on the phone call? What does it
27:09
look like in person? Practice, practice, practice! So you can
27:13
roll of with this answer as if it was your name.
27:16
Matt: Micah, I love that action. I remember to this is the best
27:18
kind of practice, of course to practice with other advisors,
27:18
you're gonna get more confidence in client meetings is by taking
27:22
other successful advisors not, hey, let's imagine a scenario
27:25
and figured out like, tell me a real scenario. Or here's, I'll
27:28
tell you one, right? And then tell me how you would answer
27:31
that. So you've got to make sure these are advisors that have the
27:33
practice that you want. Not that you both dreaming about the
27:34
action. So Micah, let's kick us off with an action item here.
27:36
practice because otherwise it's an echo chamber of really bad
27:38
ideas.
27:39
Micah: Yeah, amen to that. And number three, share the podcast
27:42
we're always looking to grow give us five stars kick the
27:44
podcast out. We're always looking to help transform other
27:47
advisors lives and how they do financial planning. Jarvis as
27:50
What's something that listeners can do so that in their next
27:51
always, it's been a blast, my friend.
27:53
Matt: Yeah, Micah. Thank you. So much. To all our listeners:
27:55
Until next time, happy planning!
27:56
Micah: Happy planning!
27:57
Matt: Before you leave a word from our sponsors. Hey,
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