Client discovery meetings are not simply about the adviser gathering facts about their client, they are also designed to allow clients discover things about themselves, according to panelists at the CISI conference.
"When you do this right...it's not just a session about you gathering information and having these 'aha' moments,... when it's done right it's an 'aha' transformative, meaningful experience for this client or prospective client, where they are walking out saying 'you know that's something I never thought about before,", said Brendan Frazier, founder of Wired Planning.
"One of the best is when you're meeting a couple, spouses or partners, and they're looking at each other...and they go 'I never knew that you wanted to do that, I never knew that that was important to you'. And so just being able to create the space for this couple or the person to discover things about themselves is I think overlooked but equally, if not more, important than what we want to discover about them."
We spoke to Frazier, psychologist Dr Moira Somers, and Kusal Ariyawansa, adviser at Appleton Gerrard, about the best way to hold client discovery meetings, after their panel discussion today (October 4) at the CISI conference.
To hear their views on the psychology of meeting a stranger and getting them to trust you, how to tease information out of clients, and when it's time to say good bye to a client, click on the link above.
carmen.reichman@ft.com
