The confusion of movement and distraction made it hard to focus on how to properly move forward. It felt like the sweeping of one branch would sting my face whilst another would hit me in the gut, sending me flying back several steps. The urgency to calm the entangled frustration in front of me increases with every jab.
But why am I being attacked? I’m trying to help.
The knots of many years are visible from the triggered responses I’m receiving but I know that I need to find the right one to calm the interaction down and find a way for us to move forward that will benefit everyone.
Grabbing onto one sweeping sentiment and trying to hold onto it just has me flying off in the completely wrong direction. Timing and patience are everything. I need to focus, find the knot that really matters and we’ll be fine.
Not all meetings are like this. Sometimes a new client is easy and trusting, but other times – they come with so much baggage and a legacy of bad experiences with previous financial planners that it feels like I’m battling the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I haven’t been trained to really listen to a client, and having only a few minutes to establish trust makes meetings like this seem a waste of time.
But what if I had a way for clients to find out about me before the meeting, where they could discover more about the conversations I like to have and how they might be refreshingly different to what they’ve heard before? Images and words, an online experience that begins to build trust and new conversations.
If I had a website that spoke to who my ideal clients are, if I had blogs that reinforced that and a social media profile that could engage with my network – perhaps I’d have less meetings like this.
If I had better content to send over email, before and after these meetings, it would help us talk about issues that matter far more than volley the surface-deep pitches and fickle engagements from previous charlatans back and forth.
