Ten years ago, I was especially controlling about the preparation of these reference documents to be used in client meetings. I recognized that it was my reputation under threat if I reported a number incorrectly to a client or if I didn’t accurately articulate the current asset structure or incorrectly stated an income flow or a planned withdrawal. I knew it was my keister on-the-line if I incorrectly reported something to a client based upon inaccurate reports in front of me.

Even so, I was able to get to the point of delegating this important task of “meeting prep” once I authorized my Administrative Manager to implement the organized process called The Dry-Run Prep Meeting™ (DRPM).

Ideal Client Progress Meetings Are About People Not Numbers

For the clients of many ordinary, even high-end, financial advisors, face-to-face meetings are not enjoyable.  Rather than looking forward to these meetings, many clients have figured out that their financial advisor's behavior in the meeting is either like a salesperson pitching products or a technical analyst describing investments and the markets by using confusing and overly technical jargon.

In mentally preparing for a client progress meeting, keep in mind your larger objective of being able to convey the following message to your Ideal Client: "My objective is for you to leave this meeting with an overwhelming sense of confidence that you are making progress towards your goals.”

With that objective in mind, rather than pitching products or educating your client using technical jargon, make the meeting fun. These are the client's goals; they should be excited to come. Your conversations during the meeting should seek to fulfill the meeting objective of helping clients grasp the progress which has been made, bench-marked against their goals rather than abstract measures such as the markets.

TIP: You should also have discussions about the action items and recommendations from your team about what needs to happen in the future to continue making progress towards your client's stated goals. 

You may offer as little or as much support to the individual as you like, but the best results seem to come from advisors who start out by giving limited hands-on training regarding the creation of these documents in favor of encouraging resourcefulness. 

Devote some time to providing sample reports or documents you want, along with notations regarding any helpful advice as well as guidance regarding where source information can be located for information that will be fed into the items you want created. While your Administrative Manager should feel welcome to set a time to approach you for help if they get stuck, you should encourage them to be as resourceful as possible, and to create a draft to review before approaching you.

In my experience, having an organized process run by your Administrative Manager to have all your meetings fully prepared a week prior to the client's arrival, simply puts you in the top percentiles of financial advisors worldwide. 

Allowing your Deliverables Team, with your Administrative Manager in charge of coordination, to take over the preparation for all client meetings allows you to grow your business while continually increasing the quality and consistency of your service.