Pause Your Agenda. Turn on Agendaless Listening

The best way to be successful in conversations starts with your ability to slow down your own thoughts and a healthy dose of "agendaless" listening. So, drop your agenda and learn what matters most to existing and prospective clients right now. Here's how:

Ask great questions

The fuel for great listening starts with asking the right questions. Ask appropriate follow-up questions to move the conversation toward the next level of understanding to provide full balance sheet advice.

• "How are you faring in today's financial environment?"
• "Given recent market movement, would you like to take this moment to reconsider your risk tolerance?"
• "Are you open to reviewing your financial plans in light of today's interest-rate environment?"

Go beyond words

Listen carefully as the other person talks. Go beyond their words—their "text"—and notice their "subtext"—the meaning behind their words. Pay careful attention to their facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. That is often where deeper truths lie.

Dive deeper

To go deeper in conversation, consider replicating a doctor's method by saying:

• "Is there anything else?"
• "That's interesting. Please tell me more."
• "What I hear you saying is ___. Is that correct?"

Once they understand that you’re genuinely interested, you might want to say something such as, "The reason for my questions is to better understand your perspective before offering my thoughts."

Bottom line: To fully hear and understand existing and prospective clients, you need to do more than pause your presentation. You need to pause your agenda.