Why Do Some Advisors Practice Their Golf Swing More Than Their Value Proposition?
You wouldn't expect to fix your slice without practice. Why should an important conversation be any different?
The Allure of Golf
There are more than 130 million golfers in the world.
At least three out of ten are women.
Golf is alluring, to say the least.
What makes it so alluring?
It has an unusual combination of qualities that make it almost addictive to people who love it.
It’s played in beautiful places.
For four hours, real life is background noise.
You can’t perfect it. And there’s always something to work on.
And that’s the interesting part.
The better golfers get, the more they practice.
Which Leads to This Week’s Question
We spend a lot of time at the driving range.
We pay someone a lot of money to watch our golf swing and offer suggestions.
Isn’t it interesting that we understand the value of practice almost everywhere else in our lives?
We Practice the Technical Side
I think we do prepare well for the technical side of the business.
We take tests. We acquire credentials.
We do research. We prepare financial plans.
Yet we tend to wing the human side of the business.
We don’t rehearse the conversations that actually determine whether somebody wants to work with us.
And the value proposition is just one example.
When is the last time you practiced answering these questions?
Why should I hire you?
What makes you different?
When is the last time you practiced simplifying your definition of diversification?
What do you say when a prospect tells you, “I already have an Advisor”?
These aren’t obscure situations.
These questions come up all the time.
And yet, for some reason, this is the stuff many of us rarely practice.
Practice Shouldn’t Feel Artificial
I find that interesting.
Pilots practice in simulators constantly.
Professional athletes practice every day.
Actors and musicians practice continually.
Yet in our business, practice seems like a quaint notion.
It feels artificial.
Some Advisors tell me that they don’t want to sound scripted.
Well, neither does Tom Cruise.
The purpose of practice isn’t to make you sound rehearsed.
It’s to make sure you don’t sound unprepared.
You practice until the words come naturally.
A Bogey Is One Thing
If we don’t practice our golf game, the consequences are relatively trivial.
We miss a few putts.
We slice one into the woods.
We lose a couple of balls.
We shoot 96 instead of 88.
We lose twenty dollars to our playing partners.
We have a lousy Saturday afternoon.
We’re not professional golfers and our livelihood is not at stake.
But if you can’t concisely explain what you do for a living, if you talk too much in an important meeting or if you fail to explain your value clearly, now the consequences are real.
You can lose a prospect.
You can lose a client.
You can lose a referral.
You can lose millions of dollars in potential assets over the course of a career.
We practice relentlessly at something where the consequence of failure is a bogey, and we improvise at something where the consequence of failure may be losing a million-dollar relationship.
Golf Gives You a Scorecard
A golfer usually knows when lack of practice costs him or her.
An Advisor often doesn’t.
The prospect smiles, thanks you for your time, shakes your hand and says, “We’ll be in touch.”
And you may never know that the meeting was lost because you couldn’t clearly explain why someone should choose you.
Golf gives you a scorecard.
Business often doesn’t.
The golfer shoots 94 and knows exactly what happened.
The Advisor loses the prospect and may walk back to the office thinking,
“Good meeting.”
Spend Some Time on the Other Range
Maybe we need to spend a little more time on the range.
Not the driving range.
The conversational range.
Pick one question you know you’re going to be asked and practice your answer.
“What do you do?”
“Why should I hire you?”
“What makes you different?”
Keep working on it until you no longer sound like you’re practicing.
You wouldn’t walk onto a golf course having never swung a club and expect to play well.
Why would you walk into an important conversation and expect anything different?
Practice doesn’t make you sound scripted.
It makes you sound prepared.
And in our business, a bad swing can cost you a lot more than a golf ball.
A final thought.
I’ve spent nearly fifty years helping Financial Advisors get better at the conversations that matter.
If you or the Advisors on your team could use a little practice on the conversational range, I’d be happy to help.
That’s what I do.
