Welcome back to the 250th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today's podcast is Deirdre Van Nest. Deirdre is the founder of Crazy Good Talks, a communication coaching firm that helps financial advisors be better communicators, in both private and public settings, in order to help their clients and prospects actually take that next desired step.
What's unique about Deirdre, though, is that she has developed a very specific process that she uses to teach advisors how to employ a variety of foundational stories that in turn let them make a deeper connection with those they’re trying to reach and connect with.
In this episode, we talk in depth about why Deirdre feels that it’s less important for advisors to worry about whether or not the people they’re communicating with “get” what they’re saying (and how it’s far more important to focus on making an emotional connection instead), how Deirdre teaches financial advisors to take the technical body of content that every other advisor (as well as the public) has access to and present it in such a way that prospects will be more inclined to take a specific next action, and why Deirdre feels that every financial advisor can learn to be a highly effective and emotionally compelling communicator, even for advisors for whom public communication doesn’t come naturally.
We also talk about the key question that Deirdre recommends that advisors should ask in the first 30 minutes of a prospect meeting in order to get, as she puts it, “into their hearts instead of their heads,” why, after getting the answer to that question, advisors should avoid showing prospects how they can solve whatever issue it is that a prospect is dealing with and instead use that opportunity to create empathy by sharing one of their own foundational Why, Desire or Teaching stories, and why Deirdre believes that advisors who truly feel that the service they’re offering is in the best interest of the people they work for have a duty to learn how to be as persuasive, inspiring and compelling as possible.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Deirdre shares how advisors can make the intangible service they offer more tangible in the eyes of prospects by emphasizing (and even naming) their planning process (rather than focusing on their service alone), the key mindset shift that Deirdre made in prospect meetings that helped her focus on simply helping the person she was meeting with rather than feeling pressured to do everything perfectly in order to close the sale, and why Deirdre feels it’s so important for advisors to look at their words, message and stories as business assets that they need to invest their time and efforts into over time.
And so with that introduction, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Deirdre Van Nest.
