Latest / Better Planner / #2 - Prospecting Process
Transcript
- Taylor Stewart: Welcome back episode two of the Better Planer podcast. I'm Taylor Stewart and I've got Colin Page with me once again. Colin, how are you? Colin Page: Great, Taylor, how are you? Taylor Stewart: Good, man, I a great time last time. Excited for this conversation today. ⁓ What have been up to? What's new in your world? Colin Page: gosh, just the rat race of May, children in school and activities and end of year plays and all the above. ⁓ And finishing up spring surge meetings. So we're just buckled up and along for the ride. Taylor Stewart: ⁓ you're in the middle of search meetings. Well, speaking of buckling up and the grind of school, had like a new reason for school to be closed yesterday, tornado watch, which springtime in Texas. yeah, it got a little unexpected, like school's closing in an hour, come pick them up, which is always freaking great. And this is like kind of an interesting, like there's like a hype to reality of storms. I don't think we got a drop of rain. Colin Page: Mmm. ⁓ my gosh, we have had a snow closure this year for rain. It was just threat of snow and all it did was rain. And we've had, ⁓ my gosh. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, yeah Yeah, I looked at it, and don't wanna make light of it because there were tornadoes and it did tear apart some small towns, but it was interesting to close school for this one. Like, I mean, we're pretty tornado savvy down here, and I looked at that, was like, mm, but I guess better safe than sorry is what they say, but it was kinda weird to be home with the kids for a storm and. Okay, know nothing happened, but. Colin Page: Yeah, I feel like an amateur meteorologist getting on my phone ahead of these weather events. I mean, I'm totally biased in terms of whether I think they should close the schools or not, because it's... ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Do you, are- Well, absolutely. So do you our weather? Could you name your local weather people? Colin Page: No. Taylor Stewart: Okay, so this is interesting. I grew up in Nebraska, then I moved to Oklahoma, and I've lived in Texas for however long now. Big weather, right down, know, kind of tornado alley-ish right now. Weather people are celebrities here. Everybody knows them, everybody has a strong opinion. In Oklahoma, there's all sorts of drinking games. Gary England was a popular one, he passed away a few years ago, but was like, when he says Ranger Nine, was like the name, like Hook Echo, all these things, so like. Colin Page: Hahaha Taylor Stewart: And even last night, texting local friends like, everybody gonna turn on Rick Mitchell? like, then some are Pete Delkis guys. So anyways, it's kind of interesting. Look, the weather people, they're straight up celebrities down here and people have strong opinions on who they listen to and not. And I think that's just fascinating that I guess that's not a big thing in Virginia. Colin Page: Yeah, you know I lied. There is a local weather caster who's been in the news a lot lately around here in Virginia, but it's not for anything he did on the air. It's for, yeah, well, some X-rated shenanigans. And so that's one way to know who your weather forecaster is. Taylor Stewart: ⁓ okay, that's one way to get popular too. The last thing I was gonna say on that is sometimes, like I watch them, we always watch them, there's like a severe weather, they take over whatever, know, NBA playoffs were supposed to be on NBC last night and said it was the weather guys. like, you know, being a meteorologist is a pretty hard job to get into. You gotta be pretty smart. Those poor guys, typically guys, spend so much of their time like, no, go to a central bedroom and grab, they're like, just, they have to say the same thing for every storm. And I wonder, does this get super old after a while? of just having to repeat the same, like, don't go outside. But that's Yeah. Colin Page: Yeah, well to kind of bring it back to like... what we do for a living. My son is a nerd and has these YouTubers he loves and they're always science videos. And I think one of them was on weather forecasters and grading them how often are they actually correct or not. And so what they found was that if you listen to your local TV station, they will over predict weather events. they'll say there's a 30 % chance Taylor Stewart: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, yeah. Colin Page: of rain versus the National Weather Association may say it's like 10%. And the National Weather Association is correct more often or statistically correct. When they say it's going to rain 10 % of the time, 10 % of the time it actually rains. The local weatherman over predicts it. the reason behind that is because you're going to blame the weatherman if it rains Taylor Stewart: Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Totally. Colin Page: and you didn't bring an umbrella. And so there's an incentive there to over project the odds of that thing. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Sure. Yeah, that, you know, that and even kind of having to say the same thing over and over again that may be slightly below your pay grade at a time. There's a lot of parallels to being a financial planner on that. Let's just be honest. I'm kind of like, okay, I'm having this conversation again. So that's interesting. Maybe more like weathermen and women. That's interesting. And women, let's be fair to all of you. Yeah, weather people. Colin Page: Yeah, we're financial weathermen, weather people. Taylor Stewart: That doesn't really have anything to do with what we're gonna talk about today, but that's an interesting parallel there. We wanted to talk about prospecting process, or kind of like what you do in those initial meetings, conversations. Last time we talked about getting clear on what you actually do for your clients, think everything has to start there. But you wanted to talk more about this, whatever we call it, kind of that, somebody's reached out, how do you handle that in between becoming a full client and just somebody from nowhere, not necessarily a marketing conversation, we might do that next time, but this kind of in-between process. So what's on your mind there? Colin Page: Yeah, I mean, think, whether we did it intentionally or not, I think starting with what do you actually do for clients is the right place to start and then work backwards. What do you do for a prospect? ⁓ cause without a clear idea of what you do for clients, how do you communicate with a prospect and give them an accurate picture of what it's going to be like to work with you and, actually answer the questions that they have, ⁓ you know, right off the bat. So yeah, mean, I don't know. Do want me to walk through like what I do from a, you know, a process standpoint or? Taylor Stewart: Sure. How do you define the process? it like when somebody reaches out to whatever marketing channel and they can enter your flow, tell us what your flow is. Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah, sure. So it all starts with scheduling an intro call. that's, it's usually I try to direct people to my website where there's a job form questionnaire that has basic demographics. You know, when were you born? Are you married? Who's your spouse? If so, ⁓ how did you find me? What are, are, what are, have you worked with an advisor before? ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Yep. Okay. Colin Page: pretty basic stuff. I make sure that in that intro jot form that there's a box that says they've reviewed my fees and ⁓ so it's a way to kind of pre-qualify or at least have some people maybe weed themselves out if they're not gonna be an ideal fit. Even though within that form, like I said, don't worry if... ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Mmm. Yeah. Colin Page: if my fees don't match your budget, like I'm happy to have a 15 minute call with you still and like try to find you the right fit. Cause I think there's so much value in that. ⁓ Just talking to people and being genuinely helpful. ⁓ So yeah, that's the first step. ⁓ They schedule a 15 minute call. They do it with me. I know other advisors would have their assistant. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Colin Page: do that intro call to further screen or get background information. But actually, you know, I think there's value ⁓ in if you are getting good qualified prospects who already are familiar with what you do, like they want to talk to you. ⁓ So yeah, that 15 minute call ⁓ try to understand what are they looking for? Why did they reach out? What's their biggest problem? Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Sure. Colin Page: and then talk to them about how I work with clients. For me, it's life. Taylor Stewart: So after the form, then it's 15 minute call. Okay. Okay. And in that call, you're talking through, go ahead. Colin Page: After the forum, 15 minute call. Yeah. Talking through, asking them what, you know, past advisor experience and what's their reason for reaching out. know, what, what, you know, everybody, there's usually a trigger for like, why now is the time they're reaching out. Whether it's like, oh, we need to get serious about retirement planning or we just got this inheritance or. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin Page: whatever it is, like, I wanna know why they're calling so I can tailor the rest of the process to address that. So. Taylor Stewart: Sure. Yeah, yeah, as Carl Richards calls it, the presenting problem, right? Nobody likes to say, what's the presenting problem? So that's good. Okay, so 15 minute call. And then that's kind of like to decide if you should talk more. Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think from, from there, like I'm putting them into three boxes. Like, this a, is this like a client who's, who's qualified that I would want to work with? ⁓ that's, that's track one. ⁓ track two is, is, Ooh, they're not, they're not qualified, but you know, I know who to refer them to, or I can post on, you know, the X, Y, P N group or, or NAF, ⁓ direct them to, to find another advisor that way. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm Yep. Colin Page: And then track three, you know, I will sometimes work with clients who are not my ideal, just if I have time, if I want to work with them, you know, for some other kind of either one time plan or. Taylor Stewart: Interesting. Colin Page: But yeah, the intro call is totally about qualifying. Do we want to move forward? Taylor Stewart: Okay. ⁓ And then what happens after that? Do you move forward after that call or is there something in between? Colin Page: Effin Yeah, so I asked them to send, at that point I asked them to send me documents. And I asked for everything upfront. And I used to not because I didn't want to put barriers to, ⁓ in front of people to like speak to me. Taylor Stewart: Okay. Yeah, the barriers are good. They show seriousness. Yeah. Colin Page: Yeah, but I think the more I've done it, well, yeah, the barriers are helpful. It shows like, you know, I know if somebody's willing to send me their tax returns, their investment account statements, like they're serious about this. And I need to know those things if I'm going to be able to give them any kind of personalized advice. So it signals seriousness on their part ⁓ and it makes sure, you know, doesn't waste my time. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm Sure. And then what happened? Yeah, okay. Colin Page: So yeah, that's the next step. ⁓ Give them document upload link. Send it to me and a Calendly link to schedule a longer one hour consultation in person if possible and virtual if not. Yeah, he's in SiRow. ⁓ That's a whole other topic we could talk about. I've gone down the rabbit hole there. Taylor Stewart: Okay. Do you use an is Is it in Syro or it how you pronounce it? it? Yeah. Okay. Sure. ⁓ Yeah. Okay. So send documents and then you have another meeting. Colin Page: Yeah, I have a longer meeting and ahead of that meeting, I've gone through their documents. And when I say I've gone through it, it's a quick 20 minute, 30 minute pass through all the documents they send me. The most impactful ones are going to be tax returns, pay stubs, investment account statements. And I build out their profile. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin Page: I use your software, Cordora, and I build out just a basic balance sheet and income cash flow statement. All their income sources, I know what their debt payments are at this point, I know what their savings rate is, for the most part from their investment statements or pay stubs. So I've got a pretty good high level understanding of where their money's coming from, where it's going, and what they have, which is like... Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Colin Page: nine tenths of the game. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Do you use the document extractor in Cordora for that? Or a blend of extractor? Okay. So you take the documents from Asairo, upload them into Cordora. Okay. Colin Page: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, blu- Exactly. Yeah, especially like account statements, ⁓ know, the ability to just like quickly pull out their holdings. And so like, I've got an accurate picture of how they're invested and that may spark thoughts for, know, that would be good to talk about at a meeting if I've got a client who's, you know, six months away from retiring, but they're 100 % in stocks. That's a, you know, that's a question. ⁓ You know, why still so much risk? ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Sure. How long does that take you to build that initial profile out? Colin Page: Yeah. You know, 20 minutes? Taylor Stewart: That's kind of like going through reviewing things as you go to. It's not just purely about like pulling, yeah. So 20 to 30 minutes to like upload and feel like you understand what's going on. Colin Page: Exactly. Yeah, I'm not just uploading it. feeling like I've got a good 10,000 foot view of the whole, you know, and if you've looked at enough. Taylor Stewart: Yes. Colin Page: plans and haven't seen enough clients, like that's, you can get a whole lot of information from that, just spending 20 minutes with their documents. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, nice. And then you meet with them. And do what? Talk through it all? Colin Page: It's gonna be with them. Yeah. Yeah, so the first part of that meeting is just like ⁓ try to understand their goals. I've got some idea of it, or at least their presenting problem, as you called it with that initial intro call. But this is where I want to kind of do the discovery of like, what are your broader retirement goals? Tell me about your family. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Colin Page: understanding their past history with money. If money weren't an object, what would you be doing differently? Or if there's all sorts of great questions or ways to get into seeking out that meaning that's behind the numbers. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. And what's the outcome of this meeting? Like work together or not generally? Or have you kind of already... Okay. So nobody's committed to anything yet. Okay. ⁓ Colin Page: Yeah. Right. Yeah. The output from this meeting is generally a one page plan ⁓ where, you know, I've already got their basic profile in in Cordora, the planning software, ⁓ and writing down their goals, you know, basically the statement of financial purpose and some goals listed underneath it. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Colin Page: and then an overview of their situation or some high level changes to be made. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Colin Page: Yeah, first half of the meeting, kind of understanding their goals. Second half of the meeting, I walk through, here's the things that I see. Having spent 20 minutes with your documents, I'll walk them through their cash flow and ask questions about it, try to understand, maybe I didn't capture something correctly, but highlight planning opportunities, highlight gaps with their actual data and try to answer as many of their actual questions as possible. Taylor Stewart: Yep. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Are you doing this like with software in front of them or just conversationally or both? It of depends. Colin Page: ⁓ yeah, usually that first part of the conversation is no, nothing on the screen. I've got a TV screen, you know, in here. And then the second half when I actually give them, well, here's my overview of your situation. ⁓ I turn the screen on and we'll walk through, ⁓ those different. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Nice. How many of these meetings are virtual versus in person? Colin Page: ⁓ For me, most of my clients are local, I would say well more than half are in person. Taylor Stewart: Nice. ⁓ Do they generally make a decision to work with you or not in that meeting, like on the spot or? Colin Page: Yeah, I usually have a pretty good idea at the time. Yeah, you can tell if they're ready to go or not. ⁓ And a lot of them will say, what do we do next? We're ready to go. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: You can tell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Colin Page: You know, at that point, you know, I, because I'm flat feed, I haven't really talked pricing with them yet. ⁓ and so that's, that's kind of my other reason for getting all their information upfront is that, that I pay price based on complexity and the time I think it's going to take me. And so I don't really know that complexity until we've had, I've seen their documents, I've gotten a fuller picture. And so, you know, the other outcome from the meeting is that I'll be able to propose a price. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Colin Page: whether it's just my base flat fee or whether I'm going to charge something additional for a more complex estate or investments or situation. So that's kind of the outcomes from the meeting is I've been able to give them a one-page plan. I've tried to answer as many questions as I can, be as helpful as I can, give it a ton of free advice. And then third, be able to quote them a price. And sometimes Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you that on the spot or do you need some time sometimes? Colin Page: Sometimes I'll do it on the spot, especially if it's straightforward, gonna be my base flat fee. Sometimes I'll say, gosh, I gotta think about it. Maybe something's come up and I don't wanna feel the pressure, but I tell them I'll follow up later today with a proposal. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I think one takeaway there, flat fee doesn't mean same fee, first of all, does not mean the same fee every single time. I hate this phrase, but like, what's your close rate, would you say? Colin Page: Mmm, yeah. I don't actually track it, but it's, it's darn near a hundred percent. I mean, if, Taylor Stewart: Yeah, would you say like basically the people you want to work with generally you end up working with? Yeah, because. Colin Page: Yeah, yeah. If we've had this sit down meeting, and I try to only offer it to people that I want to work with. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Mm-hmm. So you've kind of done your filter right there. Like you don't take that, because you got the form, the 15 minute call. They're not really going to move past the 15 minute call unless you are feeling pretty good about things. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Colin Page: Unless I'm feeling pretty good. Yeah, yeah. mean, you know, yeah, I will know whether they're a qualified prospect after that first 15 minute call and then offer the longer consultation only to the ones who were qualified. Taylor Stewart: Mmm. Yeah. Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, that's a great process. let's jot form, schedule a call, have the 15 minute call, then from there you decide whether you wanna have a longer conversation and you'll request the documents, go through everything before the meeting, then have that generally in-person meeting, make sure you understand all the facts and let them talk a little bit and then present your findings and then go from there. Colin Page: Yeah, yeah, I send them a proposal email right after that. And that's where I include, you know, all the link to my ADV, link to privacy policy. Here's a, I send them a contract at that point that they can e-sign if they're ready to move forward or schedule another follow-up, you know, a 30 minute call if they have any questions. But generally, you know, most people are ready to sign at that point. Taylor Stewart: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, how long does this whole, like what's the normal timeline from that first job form is submitted to that in-person meeting or actually past that they've actually like made their decision and signed. Colin Page: Interesting question. It's totally dependent on the client or the prospect. I've had some who are like, it's like a couple days from that intro call to the meeting, they're ready to go. They got me all their documents that same day. They scheduled the first available slot on my meeting. They're ready to go. within a week, we're onboarding them. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Colin Page: ⁓ Others, like I've had that meeting ⁓ and I reach out a couple times, they're not ready, ⁓ six months go by. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin Page: And I get a phone call like, remember me? Like, can we, can we actually do this? And so, yeah, when I say it was, it's, it's like a near a hundred percent close rate. That doesn't mean they're like signing up on the spot, but like, at that point, like you've shown your value, you've demonstrated like what you can do. Maybe, you know, maybe something else is going on in their life right now, or maybe they're just procrastinators. yeah. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. on the spot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Look at your own life right now. Could you take on all that? Yeah. And that 15 minute call, is it a phone call or a Zoom call? Is that ever in person? Okay. Nice. Nice. How much has this changed over the years? Your process. Colin Page: Yeah, always a Zoom or phone. I give them the option. Yeah, think if anything, yeah, it's gotten more restricted, and I've had to be more disciplined about who moves on beyond that first 15 minutes. Taylor Stewart: Mm. Yeah. Colin Page: You know, I think as I've like found my ideal client and niche, niche down, I retirement planning is my niche. That's not exactly that small. ⁓ But you know, like ⁓ I used to do work with business owners and younger folks and all that thing. So I think I've, I've, I've gotten more disciplined ⁓ as I've gotten more established and can afford to be pickier. ⁓ You know, I want to make sure that they will fit my process. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Right. Hmm? you Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Colin Page: You know, because that's better for both of us. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah, that's great, man. That's really good. Yeah, I love that. mean, because I just, it goes back to, like I said last time, we're all very well-meaning. We want to help everybody, but you just can't. And especially from a business perspective, you just can't help everybody. I think I have found every time I try to weed somebody out harder, it like, Colin Page: Hmm. Taylor Stewart: increases conversion because you just you have to you have to like it's a marketing thing your your ability to repel is equivalent to your ability to a chart ability to retract is equivalent to your ability to repel you have to repel speak you have and that friction shows a seriousness to it and I think that's great like we can if you make it just no friction at all which if we're talking about my process we could learn some things not to do but like you're gonna get the the looky-loo types you know just want to check it out and so which Colin Page: Yeah. Hmm. Hahaha Yeah. Taylor Stewart: can work, kind of, but I think this is great. You're showing, that's really nice, man. That's a lot of value. That's an involved process, That's a commitment for each client. Colin Page: Yeah, but at the end of the day, it's like, okay, what have I spent 15 minutes on an intro call, 20 minutes, maybe looking at their documents and building out a quick profile in an hour. So that's like less than two hours. You know, so it's not that, I mean, I know advisors who will have multiple meetings, know, three meetings, three one hour meetings before they've signed up. Boy, that would be hard if they don't move forward. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, that's true. In an hour. Okay, well when you put it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is, from my experience, because I started in traditional AEM and insurance world, that was normal. But you were asking for such a bigger commitment up front than like flat-flea planning, where you can just kind of start planning and the value's so much more obvious. Like if you're trying to sell a product, which is okay, you kind of have to prove it a lot. You know, got to go through a sales process call, what it is. And same with like move all your money. I know you do have people move their money to you, but like it just, have found wildly different prospecting process, close rates with flat fee planning versus move all your life savings and you know, or buy something from it right away. Like, don't, and I'm not saying that in denigrating way. It's just like, it's just a different level of commitment from people. And so, ⁓ Colin Page: Sure. Taylor Stewart: I think you can have a simpler process like this. And yeah, the three, I think we might know who we're talking about on the three meeting thing. ⁓ I think that's an insecurity thing on the advisors part. I don't think you have to do that. If you want to, fine. Colin Page: And you better make sure that they're really well-qualified clients and be pretty sure that they're ready to go because that's big investment. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a tricky, it's an interesting line, of, and I think this could also, your prospecting process is informed by your marketing too, like what you do, like what level of proof have you already put out there. If you have a bunch of videos and blogs and written a book or something like that, people kind of already know you. If they don't know you at all, you might have to show it to them a little bit. And so, yeah, this is blending the marketing thing, but I would say the more our podcasts that we've done, Colin Page: Yeah. Sure. Taylor Stewart: on the client side, that people kind of know. And so the prospecting process, I'll bet you, you don't have to go through all that if you don't want to. But I think it also just because you have such a high close rate, you just kind of, it's really like starting the planning process, right? I mean, cause like now your first meeting with a client is a pretty, it'll probably most people's third meeting. You've already gone through everything. You've already collected everything. And so I think that's, ⁓ yeah, that's great. think you're, yeah, that's actually the way I would describe it is like you're, Colin Page: Yeah, I mean... Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Taylor Stewart: We have the same process, you just go further on the prospecting side, but you end up in the same place. That's good. Yeah. Colin Page: Yeah. ⁓ Yeah, I don't have anything else to add. Taylor Stewart: How do you present your initial, I think this is interesting, what does it look like on your website? Does it say what's the phrasing you use? Is it schedule a call, reach out here, what do you say on there? Colin Page: Hmm. Yeah, I actually have to look at it. I haven't updated it in a while. I just have a contact us button in the top right. ⁓ Yeah, it says book a call. The 15 minute call will allow us both to make sure your situation matches our expertise. Taylor Stewart: That's it? That sounds familiar. Colin Page: And the book a call button takes them to that intro call questionnaire. So yeah, I I've set up, you know, the intro questionnaire to feed into my CRM. So the job forms connected to Salesforce. So that, you know, that auto generates their household and populates the two key people in it. So there's some cool, you know. tech enabled, you know, adds them to my mailing list, that sort of stuff. So all that happens behind the scenes. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I want to pause on this for a second because I didn't realize you'll see the 15 minute call will give us both the chance to make sure your situation matches our expertise. That's exactly what I have on my website. And I think, I think, no, I'm, I'm, I am a hundred percent confident you did because I've talked a lot about this and I stole slash borrowed it from another advisor, Terry Anderson, who's like big law planning or whatever. So that's a, I'm glad I wanted to pause on that because that has been one of the Colin Page: Maybe I stole it from you. Taylor Stewart: Unlocks I would say from like a prospecting product like that is such an approachable way to frame it and one more time It's like I call it I say if this sounds like what you were looking for then let's schedule a call This the 15-minute call will give us both a chance to make sure your situation matches our expertise like If this like how fair is that if this sounds like what you're looking for it didn't say like if you're ready to go like that's I think that's fantastic and like That's just Colin Page: Hmm. Taylor Stewart: like schedule a call, book console, I don't know, I think that is so much more approachable. ⁓ I just love that phrasing and I think it's not something like, even though it's implied like what the book now or call book, call schedule, whatever contact us means, like I found that like, I've just, I love that phrasing so much. And so I think like that's something to like review on your own website or consider updating to just match ours and go to Adderoke or Oakley and, Colin Page: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: use that language because it just, if you have a nice flow, like how can you argue with that? You know, like, yeah. That's great. Any, good. Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah, I think you nailed it with talking about, you know, I've got an active blog and we've done this podcast, but like, you know, this wasn't a marketing episode, but like, I feel like that is almost part of the process also. So that people know who you are ahead of time. You're not having to prove yourself. They've already listened to you talk about something and something resonated with you or with them. yeah. Taylor Stewart: Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm, that's interesting. Yeah, great process. Thank you for sharing that. ⁓ Colin Page: Yeah, feel free, know, listeners, steal, borrow, whatever. We all do it, yeah. Taylor Stewart: We all steal and borrow from each other. Yeah. ⁓ I will go through mine just kind of briefly, because like I said, it's pretty similar to yours, but definitely different enough. I told you I have the schedule, if this sounds like what you're looking for link. I don't have a job form. ⁓ But it all leads to that 15 minute call which is like, what do want to talk about? And I'll tell you, I am blown away by how much detail people will put in a Calendly meeting description. Colin Page: Mmm. Do you ask questions on yours or do you just give them space? Taylor Stewart: You could almost build a plane. I think I say like what would help us what would help us prepare for this call? Let me pull it up real quick. ⁓ Colin Page: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: It's just a... ⁓ USA. No, first name, last name, please share anything that'll help us help prepare for our meeting. And I'll get names, ages, income amount, how much is in like a lot of detail, ⁓ which is normally a pretty good tell that they're they have a pain that they want to talk about. ⁓ And I would say so I give the option of a phone or a Zoom call. And this is interesting. I have tracked this. I have a 100. 100 % of the people I have a Zoom call with, I end up working with in some fashion. It's 50-50 on phone calls. Colin Page: Hmm Why do you think that it is? Taylor Stewart: I have a couple of thoughts. I was gonna joke, I'm so engaging on Zoom. I think it's also, it's a different level of commitment from them too. Like if they're willing to put their face to it and get on a Zoom, they kind of already probably have a little higher trust. I don't know, I think, okay, I joke about being engaging, but like I'm more, there is something to that face and conversational and being able to use your hands and stuff. I do think there actually is something there to be able to connect a lot easier than just via phone. Colin Page: It's because you're so good looking, isn't it? Taylor Stewart: ⁓ I've also found just people who just want the phone call. It's just a of times they're busy, they're in the car. You have to like sit down and be ready for the Zoom call. And there's just a different level of preparation and commitment ⁓ for the people who are on a Zoom call. So yes, I think I can connect better on Zoom, but also I have found the people who just choose Zoom are generally more committed and prepared. Not everybody on the phone call. ⁓ It's like not prepared, but just that's it's just easier. You can kind of feel the connection on zoom versus phone and then ⁓ I I always tell people on that 15 minute call. It's just you know, I tell them up front There's no I don't expect any decisions today. This is just about deciding if we should talk more ⁓ And I have my three offerings is basically I say I got an hourly conversation on one end of the spectrum full comprehensive ongoing on the other and Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: and we can do some project or short-term based stuff in between. Don't expect you to know what you want right now, but are you leaning one way the other? it's kind of it. mean, because people said, no, we want an ongoing planner. Okay. Some people are like, I'm just looking for an hourly type of thing. And so I'm like, okay, you gotta be a little careful there, because sometimes, I mean, we talked about last summer, I don't wanna just purely be charging for time. I try to make an hourly conversation truly like a one-off. not a short term plan that we break into hourly things. Like I got a very pressing question. I inherited an IRA or like father-in-law is gonna die. What do we need to do? These are some real examples. ⁓ And so, well, I thought I was gonna be briefer than I was, but I've started now, it's not an onboarding fee necessarily, but I start everybody with, I call it my quick plan, which is, ⁓ it's basically a three meeting process, collect everything. ⁓ then have a of the, it's a fact-based meeting. It's just, I used to start with the big picture, but then we were talking about this big picture with no context. I'm like, you know what? This first meeting, sometimes we can combine it into two. It's gonna be fact-based going through what you have. I wanna understand how things got there is the biggest thing. It's like, what's this account for? How did it get here? How did you decide that? And then talk about the big picture stuff, then put that plan together. So really in a way is it's your hour meeting kind of Colin Page: Yeah. Mm. Taylor Stewart: I say three meetings, but probably two. Yeah, which I'm generally doing after that phone call. Yeah. Colin Page: But that's after they've already signed up. after that first 15 minute phone call, you've gotta go forward. Taylor Stewart: I don't require it, but people generally know. That's something I kind of skipped over because I was rushing through a little bit. Like it is interesting. People generally know what they're looking for. ⁓ I should say more. Hourly folks, we'll probably just start with an hour. Yeah, we're going to start with an hour, send them a client agreement for an hourly call. The folks who are not sure, I start all those people now with the quick plan and... ⁓ Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: Something I do on the quick plan is I charge half the fee upfront and half at completion and they have the choice if they want to roll into ongoing planning, the second half of that fee just rolls into ongoing planning. So it kind of effectively becomes like an onboarding fee ⁓ without them needing to commit to anything ongoing. The only thing, I tell them, you only pay the second half if you're completely satisfied or you wanna move on. And so the only thing you're committing to is the upfront fee. And that protects both of us. Colin Page: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Taylor Stewart: It protects me from like, okay, they're serious enough. And it's been, because I've found like, this might be a bad planner of me, but like some folks, like after a couple months of ongoing, you're like, I'm working with younger people. Like there's not as much going. You're pretty, we've made a lot of those changes and can be kind of awkward. So I just want to find that out upfront. so I've just found the, I've enjoyed this, this kind of upfront two to three meeting thing, people really. Colin Page: Mm-hmm. Taylor Stewart: ⁓ I actually started to be scattered, like stumbled upon this by accident. was using, or was having, was doing more of your normal like consultation meeting and it was using Cordora, built a plan, like basically talked through it with them. And by the end of the meeting, we had like very clear list of changes to be made, changes to their investment allocation, all these things to do. And it was kind of like, well, there's your plan. You know what I mean? Like there wasn't much more to say. And they said, we feel really good. Can we just pay you for this? Colin Page: Yeah, if they were... Yeah. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: And they said a number that was like way higher than I was gonna say, like 2,500 bucks. I was like, sure. And so I had had a couple of ongoing clients where we had reached that like six month part of like, I don't know, like, does this make the most sense? And so I'm sure I'm doing a hundred things wrong on that one and whatever, but that's how I approached it. And so that's where I I've started with this quick plan and it's been great. It's shown me who's really serious. We can identify a lot of things and. ⁓ Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah, I like that you, mean, on the one hand, I think my approach is like, just give away as much value upfront. And I think that was your approach too. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Colin Page: but you've adapted to, know, if you're giving away so much value that you're answering all their questions in that one hour meeting, this is where it comes into like knowing who your client is and what kind of service they want and how you want to provide that service. Like, yeah, you should get paid for providing all that value upfront too. You know, that's. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's something I talk about, like I will intro video on Adderrick. Like I founded this company based on two core beliefs. People have questions about what to do with their money and they don't want to be sold something. So like if you, if you just want your questions answered in a plan, go for it. That's fine. I'll help you with that. I don't need to drag, drag you into a long-term relationship if you don't want one. Some people want that. Colin Page: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: Fine, and it's a bit of a gateway drug. they try the, a year later they come back around looking for more ongoing help, which is fine. like, I don't like, I'm happy to do that. And I wanna make very clear, I'm not charging based on time. It's not like, well only took me an hour. Nope, it's value. Did you get a lot out of it? Great. I'm not gonna punish myself. I'm not gonna like, so yeah, I mean that's, yeah. Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah, $2,500 for a one-hour plan. That's a pretty good return on your time. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, and I do a lot of the 30 to 50 year old super busy cleaning stuff up for them. Let's get things dialed in. That's great. That's better than what they need. Colin Page: And your clients walking away feeling like they got value. That's, yeah. Taylor Stewart: Absolutely. Yeah, they got what they wanted and like I'm not gonna force you into a long-term thing if you don't want it It might be best for you, but like it's not for me to say Well, I might say you could benefit from it But like I feel like I'm pretty good about I mean there's times I'll tell people you really don't need an ongoing thing You're gonna be in a pretty good spot and others say like you probably benefit from like implementation help was more than anything and so ⁓ Colin Page: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, well, that 15 minute call I say, I don't expect any decisions to be made. They generally do make decisions. ⁓ I would say for the ones who want to talk further, I'll have another conversation, but we're not getting into like the full planning stuff. I haven't found a need for that necessarily. Can generally talk through enough on the call to determine if it could be a fit or not. so, yeah, I think two interesting ways to go about it between the two of us. Colin Page: Mm. Yeah, thanks for sharing. mean, a lot of parallels, but also some important differences in how we're approaching it. And I think it speaks to the type of clients that we're serving and the way we like to do it. And that's ultimately what it all comes back to. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, no right answers to that. Well, I'll bet 90 % of my clients first advisor they've ever talked to as well. Just different life stage. there isn't, which is different, you know? And so, yeah, and I would say. on that, I've learned to embrace passing on relationships, and saying, no, and here's a great person for you. ⁓ Partially just capacity right now. And the other is just, you gotta be so intentional with the people you work with. if you can, sometimes people will say, well, if we meet for 45 minutes, can you charge me for that? That's a red flag. You know what I mean? like, and just kind of say, ⁓ know, I think you might benefit from this. Colin Page: Yeah. Hmm. Taylor Stewart: just being super comfortable with that and picking in a good way. I wanted to be mutual. I don't know, to kind of wrap this all together, just thinking that prospecting process through, I ultimately the goal is, I think the goal is to work with the people you want to work with and that it's a mutual fit. Some could say it's just to work with people, kind of define what the goal of your process is and then figure out what that flow needs to look like. ⁓ The more proof you can give up front, the easier the whole thing will be. But yeah, I don't know. ⁓ How do you think about if you ever need to make a change to your process? Colin Page: Sure. Oh, I change it constantly or in the past I have. think I've settled into this now, but like, um, yeah, don't be afraid. That's one of the best things about being like a business owner and getting to call the shots is you can, you can run an AB test. You can do it one way for a week, do it a different way in other weeks. See what works. Taylor Stewart: That's it. I was just going to use it. I was gonna use that language because like, that's what, I'll say these are like normal businesses do. as I always kinda, like a lot of advisors aren't running normal businesses. We just don't do a lot of these things. But A-B test is super normal. Different landing pages, different booking links, different everything. Find out, try it out for yourself. You know, like is this fit? Is that too brief? Was that too long? You you gotta experiment and find it. Colin Page: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just changed as I've gotten busier and I've had to get more intentional about the process and yeah. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. I think the last thing I wanna ask about, just you plan on always taking that initial call? Colin Page: Ooh, I think as long as I have kind of a boutique firm where these are clients that are going to be working with me directly, yes. I think if I've ever got, you know, other advisors that I'm trying to direct. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Colin Page: prospects to then then maybe not but but also I you know, I always appreciated it when like You you call somebody's office and they are actually the one picking up the phone rather than The front desk so, you know, I don't know I think there's a lot of value if you can if you can do it and it's scheduled for Christ's sake It's like, you know, you know when it's coming ⁓ They're only able to book a time that's open on your calendar. I think I think there's a ton of value in Taylor Stewart: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Colin Page: in being the one that answers the phone. So. Taylor Stewart: Sure, yeah. I generally agree. I'm just thinking like, mean, so many other professions don't. But I don't think you have to, but. Colin Page: Sure. Yeah, I don't think you have to. Taylor Stewart: that we're all trained to. Colin Page: Yeah, and I think if you have, go back to what we said, if you've demonstrated your value in other ways, like maybe you don't need to be the one answering the phone. If you've got, they've listened to your podcast or they've read your blog post or newsletter. ⁓ Taylor Stewart: I think probably for a lot of the solo plan to share, you're just not running a high volume enough practice to need to, how many calls a year are we talking about? You know what I mean? If you're needing to sell 100 policies a year, then maybe, but if you're taking on five to 10 clients a year, or whatever the number is, you can take that call. Colin Page: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, can spend, yeah, do a couple of those intro calls a week. I can do more than that. It's more than that some weeks, but yeah, one or two a week, steady stream. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. That's great. Well, good stuff. Prospecting process in the books. Maybe we talk about marketing next time. Kind of wrap this whole flow up. What do think? Colin Page: Yeah, we're working upstream, know, we're swimming upstream. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, but I don't think that's an accident. We talked off camera, you've got to define what you do for clients and think figure out what your prospecting process is and that informs what your marketing is. Colin Page: Yeah, 100%. Taylor Stewart: Because otherwise, what are you marketing? You know what I mean? So they all do work together for sure, for sure. Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate it. See you next time. Colin Page: Yeah. Yeah. See you next time.