To engage the client in your advisory process in a collaborative way, and to develop the client’s trust in your recommendations, take 20-30 minutes of quiet office time after each information gathering session and create a Discovery Agreement.

Power comes from disclosing what you discovered in factfinding and the other party agrees to your findings. Discovery is most powerful when it is reciprocal—openly disclosed by the advisor and formally agreed to by the client as the accurate and correct basis for proceeding from that point onward.

The discovery agreement helps bridge the gaps—for you and your clients—between the intense factfinding session and the anticipated intensity of when you present your recommendations. It also helps defuse any negative intensity, instead building a positive tension and anticipation for your recommenda­tions.

Following factfinding, draft a letter to your client reciting that person’s goals and the information that you have “discovered” is pertinent to working towards them. Ask for your client’s agreement that this information is correct so that you can then proceed to study the situation and develop your recommendations.

1. Explain the purpose of your letter

2. Recite your clients’ goals as they described them to you

3. Cite the facts you know about your clients’ situation

4. Restate the client’s concerns, attitudes and relevant issues

5. Ask for your client’s agreement on these statements (or for corrections), signified by their signing one copy of the letter and returning it to you in the envelope you provide. When they agree and/or set the record straight, you will proceed.

You can see in the way the content is organized that the buyer would know whether to agree, reconsider goals or priorities, or offer additional facts not thought of at the factfinding session. Your client may develop greater trust during this timeframe and decide to “remember” something important to tell you that s/he previously did not divulge. Time has passed since then, which is good. The power of “sleeping on it” overnight is an important clarifying aspect of this technique. Clients working with planners who employ discovery agreements solidify their thinking. They

• anticipate hearing cogent recommendations,
• make more effective decisions more quickly when they do, and
• become stronger long-term clients.

Many advisors have found that routinely sending discovery agreements to their clients after factfinding reduces their own worry about how anxiously their clients await their recommendations. Their clients like it for the same reason: it reduces tension. It also shows progress being made in which the client participates. Most of all, a discovery agreement demonstrates to the client that the advisor understands.

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This newsletter is designed and distributed by Kirk Lowe of Freedomarketing (faWebProfiler.ca). Content by John H. Melchinger - The Marketing Coach™