Think about how much work went into getting this meeting. The ultra-high-net-worth family sitting across from you found your firm through many touchpoints along the way: a referral from a client or a trusted center of influence, your thought leadership, your social channels, your emails. You've been working toward this conversation for a long time, and a lot is riding on it.
Here's the hard truth. An ultra-high-net-worth family can hire anyone they want. What they're deciding in that room is not whether you're capable. It's whether you understand them, whether you get them, whether they feel a connection with you.
In this episode of the 3-Minute Marketer, Rosemary shares the most common habits she's watched cost advisors these relationships over 20 years, and what to do instead to win the next meeting.
Mistake #1: Leading With Your Credentials
We've all seen it. The thick binder, the long PowerPoint about the firm's capabilities, credentials, and services. Meanwhile, the family's eyes are glazing over. They're disconnected because the meeting is all about you, and this first interaction should be all about them.
Mistake #2: Doing Too Much of the Talking
In this first meeting, the family should be doing the talking, and there's research behind that. Psychologist Moira Somers has found that client satisfaction depends on how much talking the client family gets to do in that initial meeting. The more they share, the more valued they feel, and the more they feel heard and understood. Every minute you're talking is a minute you're not learning what they care about, what worries them, and what challenges them.
Mistake #3: Using the Same Presentation for Every Family
A family approaching a liquidity event from selling their company is in a completely different situation from a family passing down wealth generationally. Using the same approach for both signals that this is not a customized experience, and that your work for them probably won't be either.
So what wins the meeting?
First, be prepared, and prepared with what they're worried about. It's the same audience-first discipline behind any strong marketing campaign: know their concerns, their challenges, and what's keeping them awake at night, and walk in with answers.
Second, plan on letting them talk more than you present. Rosemary once met an advisor who never brought anything to a first meeting except a yellow notepad. No presentation. Just notes and full attention, the entire time. He claimed he won every meeting, and it's not hard to see why. The families across the table felt they had 100% of his attention and that all he cared about was what they cared about.
Third, be consistent and authentic with your branding. A family will often come to the table already knowing all about you from the content you publish across your public channels. Don't create a disconnect between what they experienced online and who shows up in the room. Authenticity in your content and your brand ensures a consistent experience when they finally sit across from you, and since they may already know what you have to say on a topic, the meeting becomes your opportunity to hear what they're focused on.
The bottom line
Your marketing earns you the meeting. The meeting converts the family. Make sure the family feels heard, make sure the experience is personalized, and make sure it's delivered with polish and professionalism.
And if you're wondering what this looks like in practice, don't miss Rosemary's upcoming conversation with Chris Fenning, a well-known author and communications expert, on The Wealth Marketing Podcast. They cover the first prospect meeting from start to finish. Follow the show so you catch it right at launch.
Questions about how your firm shows up before and during that first meeting? Reach out anytime at hello@wealthmattersconsulting.com.