Advisor Spotlight: Attracting New Accounts & Opportunities with the Vision Coach Relationship Builder—How one advisor landed $1.6 million in new accounts!

Creating Happy Clients: Harness the Science of Attraction—Why traditional sales & techniques don’t work any more.

Become a Vision Coach: Next 2-day training workshop for owners of the Vision Coach Relationship Builder is in Santa Ana, CA on February 12 & 13. To enroll call 800-678-1701 or e-mail American Business Visions at smoeller@businessvisions.com

“After our first trial run with the Vision Coach presentation we find ourselves buried in opportunities and business. We have already gotten commitments for $1.6 million in new accounts and have lots of wonderful opportunities to follow up on. I’m amazed at how attractive your new system is to wealthy clients and centers of influence.”

An Industry in Transformation
Greg and Mary built their wealth management business by marketing and presenting financial education classes at a local college. This was expensive and time-consuming, but it used to generate enough clients to make it worthwhile. Over the last few years, however, the clients have been dropping in quantity and quality.

Now this once-profitable marketing system has completely hit a wall. “We spent $6,000 marketing our last seminar.” Greg told me. “Only 8 people showed up for the 9 hours of classes I taught. Two of them agreed to meet with me and neither of them was qualified for my services.”

A Need to Add More Value
“We’re seeing major changes in the industry,” he told me. “Prospects are more knowledgeable now. Investment products are becoming commoditized. In response, we need to add value in new and different ways to attract and retain ideal clients.”

Greg is a self-described “early adapter,” eager to try new ways to serve his clients and grow his business. Greg and Mary experimented with legacy planning and flirted with life planning services. Then they heard about the Vision Coach Relationship Builder.

“Your new business development system is a more sophisticated version of what we were already trying to do on our own,” Mary told me. “We were excited about taking part in the program’s development and the beta test. We like the fact that you are working with world-class scientists to ground this ‘soft’ topic in empirical research. We’ve been astounded with the positive results.”

Testing a New Approach
Scheduled for release in early January, the Vision Coach Relationship Builder is a disciplined process for attracting and serving wealthy clients. It is based on the new science of happiness called positive psychology. It attracts clients with a subject that interests them more than money—happiness.

Since introductions and recommendations are the best way to build a high-end financial advisory business, we started by inviting Greg’s best clients, their friends and centers of influence to a one-hour preview of a longer “Happiness Coaching” workshop. Our goal was to turn their existing clients and centers of influence into “raving fans.”

Happier is Better than Just Richer
“Most of our clients have not taken time to reflect on what will truly make them happy,” said Greg. “By walking them through a fun, experiential workshop that asks the right questions, we start to understand what emotional payoffs they want from their money and their life. By focusing on making them happier instead of just richer, we inspired them to share us with their friends.”

This approach is sharply different from the usual “let’s-review-your-portfolio-performance” conversation or data-centered marketing seminar. But it doesn’t require a whole new skill set. As Greg and Mary have seen, the Vision Coach Relationship Builder is a turn-key system for repositioning their business and for delivering this compelling new service.

Effort-Less Marketing, Lower Costs
So far, Greg, Mary and I have delivered the Living in the Endorphin Zone presentation to 51 people including clients, their friends and a handful of centers of influence. They didn’t spend one dime on marketing. “I just told people that we were hosting a lunch presentation about Vision Coaching and the new Science of Happiness,” said Mary. “We sent about 50 e-mails and I made a few calls to alert people to look for it. We had 31 people register immediately and all of them showed up for our first lunch meeting. I was surprised at how motivated people were by this topic.”

Phenomenal Results
In fact, word about the first presentation spread quickly. Attendees told their friends and generated new accounts and some wonderful opportunities. For example:

• Mike, a client who was unhappy with his job, decided to leave and is investing his $300,000 rollover with Greg.
  
• Patricia, a client who is well connected in the community, was greatly moved by the presentation. Soon after, Mary was at a Soroptimists meeting when a fellow member said, “Patricia told me she loved your seminar. I want to attend the next one.”
  
• Greg and Mary’s neighbor, who is a CPA, told Greg that he was reviewing his client list for happy, wealthy investors that he could introduce to them for their new service. Then he sent one of his best clients to the second presentation. After the presentation, the new prospect met with Greg and hired him to develop a financial plan and manage her $500,000 account.
  
• A pastor from Greg and Mary’s church invited Greg to present the seminar at a couples retreat for his church members in January.
  
• Participants in the lunch seminar we so fired up they inspired 10 of their friends to attend the second seminar. We held it in the evening for people who couldn’t attend the lunch meeting. We served refreshments and cookies but no real food. In all, 20 people attended that meeting.
  
• The head of the adult education program where Greg had been doing financial education workshops asked him if he would be willing to present this topic in their new “Life Transition” class. She said the school would do all of the marketing.
  
• The sole non-client who attended the workshop told Mary that she had a relationship with a broker for 10 years but she wanted to continue with the Happiness Mentoring. That’s a great way for Mary and Greg to build a relationship that may eventually turn into a large new account.
  
• A financial planning client who earns over $900,000 a year finally agreed to let Greg manage his $800,000 investment portfolio. He didn’t attend the presentation but was impressed with the invitation and inspired by what Mary and Greg were doing.

Attract Instead of Chase
This is the Science of Attraction (see related article in this issue) at work. These people were not sold, they were inspired.

“There was a high level of excitement,” Greg said. “People especially liked the scientific information and the interactive exercises that created positive emotions. They really do want to be happy. And we can show them how.”

The preview, or lead-generating presentation, is designed to motivate people to participate in an interactive two-part, 6 hour workshop called Envision Your Ideal Future (also part of the Vision Coach Relationship Builder system). We just completed the second part of the workshop with 13 people who paid for the more intense working session.

What is especially promising is that Greg and Mary’s best clients enjoyed the presentation immensely. They rated the information an average of 9 out of 10 and the fun factor rated an 8. Not bad for a beta test. That means it will appeal to new prospects that are just like their “ideal clients.”

Connecting to Personal Values
But for Greg and Mary, the Vision Coach Relationship Builder is not just effective at adding value for their clients and for attracting ideal prospects, it also resonates with their personal values.

“In our society, success is externally driven,” said Greg. “I am frustrated with this approach because I believe true happiness comes from within. This new system is helping me become the advisor I have always wanted to be.”

Both Greg and Mary believe it is important to identify personal strengths, talents, interests and values then utilize those gifts to serve others. He told me, “I like your approach because it is self-empowerment based on science, positive emotions and higher values. Some people will not find this approach appealing, but others will immediately identify it as something they need. Those are the people we want to work with.”

Resonate with Wealthy Baby Boomers
The traditional value proposition in financial services has been “we will help you beat the market.” But today, most consumers are skeptical at best.

With the Vision Coach Relationship Builder, your proposition is different: “We will help you define what will bring you happiness and fulfillment, then deliver an organized process to achieve those aspirations.” This scientific and humanistic approach resonates with baby boomers, and particularly with wealthier ones. In this way, it positions Greg and Mary to attract many more “ideal” happy and wealthy clients.

“We will have a viable business as long as we can contribute value to the lives of our clients – with clarity, compassion and excellence,” Greg told me. “We need to broaden our own horizon in order to do that.”

Mary added, “Our business has grown in the last few years from referrals, but they have been sporadic. By incorporating this exciting new approach, we see that we can generate a steady stream of introductions and recommendations. Our clients will recommend us to friends and colleagues for our unique presentations and services. The word will spread effort-lessly. It’s already happening and we are still testing and refining the process.

Harness the Science of Attraction

As I learn more about the science of happiness, it’s becoming increasingly clear why it’s so hard to attract and sell wealthy investors with traditional methods. In this column you’ll learn how to use positive emotions to motivate wealthy clients to want to work with you.

Let’s start with the basics. Logical analysis drives thinking processes, but not behavior. Emotions drive all human behavior. Evolution has given human beings two types of emotions: negative emotions repel us from threats and positive emotions attract us to opportunities.

Data Creates Resistance and Stress
When you sell with numbers and other data, watch how your clients react. They often hunch their shoulders forward, furrow their brows and scowl as they put on their “thinking face.” You’ve seen this hundreds of times. What you are seeing is the outward manifestation of negative emotions. When people think, they go into a slightly negative emotional state. Negative emotions narrow peoples’ thinking and prepares them physiologically to focus on the “threat” and “fight or flee.”

When you try to attract or sell investors with numbers and other data, you force them to think about this information and analyze it. If they are confused, they experience even more negative emotions. These emotions urge them to resist or “fight” you and to “flee” to get away from the stress creator—you. If you use sales closing techniques to motivate them to make a decision, this creates even more stress. This additional stress makes them resist harder and want to escape even more.

This sales strategy is perfect for creating negative emotions and resistance in your prospects. The more information you give them and the harder you sell, the worse you make them feel and the more their body wants to get away to “think about it.” It’s a real lose-lose strategy. You’ve experienced this many times in your career. You know how it feels in your body when you try to sell this way.

Positive Emotions Open People to Opportunities & Relationships
Now contrast this negative emotional state with a positive one. Research has shown that positive emotions open people up to new ways of behaving and attract them to new opportunities. When people experience positive emotions, they are more open minded and inquisitive, they want to learn more. Since they associate you with the thing they want most in life—to experience positive emotions—they want to build a relationship with you.

In a positive emotional state, people are drawn to opportunities; they are less skeptical and more motivated to take action. When investors are in this emotional state, you don’t have to sell, because they want to buy.

So how can you foster positive emotions in your clients?

Evoke Positive Emotions to Motivate Investors to Act
The best way to tap into your investors’ positive emotions is stimulate the emotional, or right, hemisphere of their brain, not the analytical left-hemisphere. When you help them clarify their deepest dreams and aspirations, you create positive emotions which motivate them to take action to make their dreams come true. They are attracted rather than repulsed.

The traditional value proposition of financial advisors was, “I can help you beat the market.” That promise is not deliverable and it forces you to offer proof in the form of (questionable) data and numbers. You are creating negative emotions from the get-go.

If you want to motivate your investors with positive emotions, try this more powerful promise of benefits: “We have an organized process to help you clarify what will make you happy and fulfilled. Once we understand what creates positive emotions in your life, we have a process to help you take appropriate actions to get it.” This creates positive emotions including trust, clarity and confidence.

Instead of beating them up with data, help them visualize authentic happiness and true success, as they define it. Then show them a path to achieve it. The positive emotions they experience will urge them to take action on their dreams and aspirations. Then the numbers are just details, they won’t stop them from taking action on their dreams.

Think Win-Win
By understanding what emotional state you want to evoke, you can harness the science of attraction to help your investors and yourself achieve true happiness and fulfillment. When you start having the right conversations, you will see your clients relax, open up and shift into a more positive emotional state. They will smile rather than scowl in your meetings. This win-win approach is proven to create positive emotions for you too.

Most of the time, financial advisors elicit negative emotions by accident. Instead, you should be eliciting positive emotions on purpose.

This marketing and sales strategy doesn’t require a whole new skill set or a long training course. My new, turn-key Vision Coach Relationship Builder system will guide you to create positive emotions and raving fans with much less cost and effort than left-brain marketing and selling processes.

In the end, investors don’t really want a financial plan, investment policy statement or even financial products themselves. They want the emotional payoffs these products and services can provide to them—they just want to be happy.

By focusing your conversations on emotional payoffs that your investors want from their money and their life, you create positive emotions. This eliminates resistance and negative emotions. Both you and your investors will feel happier and more fulfilled. And you will make more money with less effort. That’s the payoff from harnessing the science of attraction.