First Meetings: Avoid the Mushy Pipeline Syndrome

Do your first meetings end with prospective clients saying, “Let us think about it”? If so, you may have what we call the mushy pipeline syndrome—a devasting disease that can zap your spirit and time efficiency.

The seeds of a mushy pipeline are sown in a first meeting as many advisors admit to simply winging it. Whether a first meeting occurs in person or virtually, we believe the same fundamentals apply for running purposeful, coordinated and conclusive first meetings.

Let’s look at the flow for an hour-long meeting:

1. With the rarest exceptions, first meetings start with small talk. It gets things started and is especially important for establishing rapport in virtual meetings. Limit it to five minutes or fewer.
2. Articulate the purpose of the meeting. This should take about two minutes; however, we suggest you allow for five, as there’s a good chance you’ll run past five minutes of small talk. Make sure that by the end of 10 minutes you’ve: finished the small talk, described the purpose of the first meeting and gained the prospective client's agreement regarding the meeting's purpose.
3. Interview the client. This is at the heart of a better first meeting and takes about 40 minutes. By the end of the client interview, you should have developed a historical perspective of, and strong insights into, how the prospect’s life and money intersect with their past, present and future.
4. Succinctly tell them why they should pick you. This should only take five minutes. This is the time to bring your value to life in the context of what you just learned is most important to them, and pepper in specifics of their story. Delivering this eloquently can create a moment of inflection as the prospective client begins to understand and appreciate what you could bring to their lives.
5. We’re down to our last step—only five minutes to go or no-go. This is when you ask, "How do you feel about taking the next step?" In contrast to asking, “What do you think?”, asking people how they feel takes them to another place—a deeper, more personal place.

Note that the "close" in a first meeting should happen during step three, the client interview. Focus on deep discovery, forging strong connectivity and developing great chemistry.

Bottom line: Follow these five steps for better first meetings to grow your business without being perceived as a salesperson.