These questions illustrate why you need to be truly consultative. Strategic questioning and dialogue are required. You've got to feel as though you are playing chess with your prospect. I coach a lot of advisors who enjoy chess. In the game, you need to think like a chess grandmaster, ten to 20 moves ahead. You should have that "sense," like Bobby Fischer or Boris Spassky had in their heyday, strategically moving your pawns, rooks, bishops, knights, queen and king.
A good chess move is like consulting at its best. You're listening and processing your client's answers respectfully. You see where the meeting needs to go. Your vernacular is smooth. Questions are flying. Your prospect wants more information on your background. Here is where the dialogue about your process is critical.
Client success is crucial at this point, so you confidently open your "umbrella" of differentiation (where each spoke is a unique ability of yours), and you begin to see this issue of real value entering the dialogue. The relationship-building process has been long and strategic. And just when you think you've been successful at maintaining rapport, the prospect looks at you and says in a nice, but challenging, way, "Why should I do business with you?"
When you hear those words, what are you thinking? How do you feel? More often than not, the nature of the question is challenging, even if a challenging tone is not used. This is a good time to reinforce everything you've been sharing with the prospect throughout the Value Ladder process. Do you feel you are ready to sum up everything now, and to be confident in your delivery?
Quantitative Versus Qualitative
Remember, business is first a meeting of the hearts, and then it becomes a meeting of the minds. When you have emotionally and logically connected with your prospects, you have achieved the ultimate alignment of your value to theirs. It's important to understand that real value is achieved by qualitative means, and measured by quantitative means.
Qualitative value means helping someone find peace of mind. Maybe you're in an estate planning dialogue with prospects and you're discussing their legacy. Maybe they have specific charitable goals, a desire to support the community more, or other personal plans for using their wealth. Perhaps they want to improve the quality of their life, or find an easier way to run a business that may have become too burdensome.
Quantitative value means making a logical connection. Mind-to-mind. For example, your prospect wants an increase in his assets-he gives you a half-million dollars and wants it to grow to one million dollars. You develop an investment policy statement, allocate assets, monitor the managers and evaluate the performance-and, let's say, you achieve his goal. That's quantitative value.
Many times, the achievement of quantitative value may lead to the achievement of what is in an individual's heart as well as in his or her dreams. You might have dialogues with prospects on qualitative issues first (heart-to-heart) then map out a plan to achieve the quantitative-or logical issues (head-to-head).
Maybe you've helped an organization increase its revenues. Perhaps the money manager you are working with was able to help your prospect's endowment or corporate retirement plan. If you help an institution reduce its fiduciary liability, well, that's a huge value for an ERISA plan.
Take a look at the chart below of real value qualitative and quantitative examples. It will help give you ideas as to where you might provide more real value to your prospects and clients.