Why Are Face-To-Face Meetings So Powerful?

One of the biggest challenges we face in turning prospects into clients is getting that first face-to-face meeting. For not so obvious reasons, face-to-face meetings are a powerful means for turning cold prospects into warm leads and often into future clients.

There are hundreds of creative approaches used by successful advisors to get that first face-to-face meeting, even if it’s just a brief and informal one.

Here is a method that was used by a top producer out of Boston, MA. This technique brought in millions of dollars in new business in just a few short months and earned the FA the top-producing spot in his Boston office for two months in a row!

This advisor was very enthusiastic about opportunities in international investing and the diversification it could provide his clients and prospects. At the time there was a particularly strong-performing Asia-Pacific fund that he was recommending to many of clients and prospects.

One day, the wholesaler from this fund company came into his office and gave him a compliance-approved DVD on the fund. The DVD included short talks from the fund’s managers on the advantages of international investing and a brief overview of some of the fund’s top holdings.

After the wholesaler left, the advisor came up with a great idea. He called the wholesaler and asked if he would send over several copies of the DVD.

When the DVD’s arrived, the advisor began calling on prospects whom he had previously had discussions with regarding the Asia-Pacific fund. He reminded them of the Asia-Pacific fund they’d spoken about and told them he had a great DVD with more information on the fund.

In a very non-threatening way, he told his prospects he’d like to mail them the DVD so they could have a look at the material and see for themselves. Nine times out of ten the prospects would accept his offer. It wasn’t as if he was asking for an appointment or a check. All he wanted to do was mail a DVD. There was no harm in that!

So, the advisor sent DVD’s to his prospects. About a week later, he’d call and sounding somewhat rushed he’d say, “Hi Joe, this is Steve over at XYZ Investments! Hey, you know that DVD I sent you recently? (most times the prospect hadn’t watched it yet). Well, I have a meeting with one of my clients’ who is planning on taking a fairly LARGE position in that fund, but he’d like to see the DVD first and yours was my last copy. I’m going to be in your area tomorrow evening, would you mind if I dropped by and picked it up? I’ll send it back if you haven’t had a chance to view it yet. You’d really be helping me out of a tight spot!”

The prospect would always agree to allow the advisor to drop by and pick up the DVD. In fact, they’d usually watch it that evening so the advisor wouldn’t have to send it back to them! When the advisor rang the doorbell, the prospect would not only be friendly, he/she would be eager to discuss the fund–particularly knowing that someone else (who they assumed had much more money than they did) was planning on taking a “LARGE position” in it.

Not only did the advisor manage to get the face-to-face meeting, he wanted, when he arrived, the prospect was typically “pre-sold” on the investment idea!

I don’t know if the FA was aware but there were numerous subtle psychological tactics at play here.

These included The Rule of Reciprocity, which involves returning a favor. The Consistency Principle, which studies have demonstrated how the mind tries to make sense of WHY we agreed to perform some action. It’s important for us as humans to make sense of our actions. Most deduce that the reason they agreed to do a favor for someone must be because they liked the person.

And by asking this small favor you are literally getting your prospect to warm up to you. The Liking Principle dictates that we prefer to work with people we like and tend to say yes more often to people we like.   This is a very subtle compliance tactic. There are also various principles involving the need for Social Proof employed in this sales technique.

This method for getting that face-to-face meeting could involve a variety of uncommon marketing materials. DVD’s and CD’s work exceptionally well, but feel free to experiment with this concept and technique for meeting new prospects face-to-face.

We hope this idea brings in as many dollars for you as it did for our friend in Boston.