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financial advisors in this video we're going to go over the one question i use to start all of my first meetings with prospective clients and i encourage you to give this a try in your next first meeting because one it's very easy and two you'll be amazed at the response that you get and where the conversation goes it works because it's a fail-safe way to start a chat that quickly turns into a real conversation because that's what we're looking for right and it invites people to get to the heart of the matter and share what's most important to them and there are actually two follow-up questions that i use after that first one so i'll share those along with that opening question and these questions come from the book the coaching habit by michael stanier and it actually includes seven crucial questions that coaches use to ask their clients but i picked out the top ones that advisors can use and it's really been so good that's how we've been opening our question or opening our meetings for the last four years and very quickly if i haven't met you yet i'm dave zoller i run a successful wealth management firm streamline financial with my business partner tim and we created this channel because most of the other channels teaching practice management for advisors or communication techniques they weren't created by advisors who are actually growing their business like we are so subscribe if you'd like to have this as a free resource for you as you're growing your business now on to the first question it's very simple and it's just so what's on your mind that's it once you say those four words just be quiet and you'll be amazed at the information that they start to share with you why does it work so well it's a question that really says let's get to the thing that matters the most about you i've actually never had a dead end answer like well i just want to plan for retirement or i just need help with financial planning usually the prospective client will talk for at least 30 seconds and really up to two to three minutes and while they talk all i'm doing is writing down the quotes that i hear the problems that they have and what they need help with if for some reason they don't talk much which i can't really see that happening there are two more crucial follow-up questions that i'll ask and really even if they do talk a lot i'll ask these questions anyways that really moves the conversation even deeper the second question is one that's called the ah question so once they're done answering that first one you say and what else this innocuous question invites them to go a little bit deeper it helps them become more self-aware of the problems that they want to solve for and the help that they might be looking for and you can actually ask this question a few times and wait until they say i don't think there's anything else and then the next question after that it is one that will help them identify exactly how they want you to help them and actually now that i think about it there's really two questions that i'll use interchangeably here depending on how the conversation goes and you'll notice that as as you're starting your own conversations i'll share both of them with you here and then we'll see which one fits better in each conversation so some of the time i'll ask so what's the real challenge for you here this is the question that'll help them slow down so that you can spend time solving the real problem and not just the first problem that they think of and then part of the time i'll ask this question and i'm aware here sorry i put a few more questions in here than i was planning so i'll make a list at the end of this video so that they're all clearly there so that second question that i'll use interchangeably is so what do you really want this is direct and it has the effect of pulling people to that desired outcome that they're looking for and once you can see the destination the journey becomes more clear now before that final question if this was helpful please click the like button and subscribe so that i know to make more videos like this one just for financial advisors like you so the final question that we'll ask to close this series of just the first few minutes of talking is a question it's a great way to find out exactly what they would like in a relationship with you and that question is simply how would you like me to help it forces them to make a direct and clear request and it stops you from thinking that you know how best to help and then leaping into action so now the summary of all the questions here are one so what's on your mind and what else and then what's the real challenge here or interchangeably what do you really want and then how would you like me to help so really i guess there's five questions here but the first one what's on your mind has been the best way to start our client conversations in in our prospective client conversations but i encourage you to test it out to try it and then try some of the other ones too and see where the conversation goes you might be surprised at how well it does go and i'd love to hear from you in the comments if you try these let me know how it went or if you have a great way that you open up meetings right now or questions that you like please put them in the comments below and then i'll i'll send you a response as well so thank you and then i'll see you in the next video