Get them talking: how to dive deeper with your clients

Getting your clients talking takes skill and patience. Expecting them to open up and divulge their experiences, issues, and goals within the first meeting isn’t easy.  Here at Advancetrack, we’ve devised a five-stage funnel system.

Jump to:

• Stage one: multiple choice
• Stage two: clarification
• Stage three: listen and advise
• Stage four: what else?
• Stage five: take action

The key is to start with simple, easy questions, working your way up into larger, more detailed conversations that cover a range of topics and provide a chance to advise. This prevents your client from feeling overwhelmed or leaving you without answers. In turn, you can use those initial answers to expand on ideas with them and create an atmosphere of understanding and mutual collaboration. Let us take you through each stage of the funnel:

Stage one: multiple choice

Begin this first stage by presenting multiple choice questions that allow your client to see some options so they can be gently prompted into answering. This stage should be easy for the client to provide insight without overarching pressure or delving too deep too quickly. Some examples of these multiple choice questions are:

• What is one thing you keep looping back to when it comes to your finances right now?

1. Cash flow
2. Tax time stress
3. Growth and risk assessment
4. Work/life balance

• How long has this been on your mind?

1. It’s been getting more prominent over time
2. Since the very beginning
3. It’s seasonal

• When it comes to tax season, which statement rings true for you?

1. I’m reactive and deal with it when I need to
2. I prefer to plan ahead
3. I’m not confident I’m doing it correctly
4. I need help ASAP

Multiple choice is a great way to gain a deeper insight into your client’s way of thinking and how they might react. It presents a moment to gather valuable data about their processes and illuminates how you can step in with your services based upon short, sharp answers.

Stage two: clarification

Use the first stage to get them thinking, and the second stage to get them talking. Ask detailed questions about their answers in Stage 1 so you understand where the pain point is coming from. Ask for examples in practice where some of the issues they have taken place. Some example questions you can use are:

• What stops you from being ready to submit your tax on time?
• Are there particular clients or seasons that cause cash flow pressure?
• Is there a specific opportunity in front of you that you want to explore but aren’t sure how to assess your finances to achieve it?
• Do you feel confident enough to be able to step away from your business and let your team run it? Why/why not?
• Can you walk me through the last time this issue occurred - what happened? 

 If this is the first meeting with a new client, ask them about their financial/business history before they began working with you so you can understand their answers in Stage 1 of the funnel. . 

Stage three: listen and advise

This part of the funnel process requires an exploration with your client after easing them in with multiple choice and clarifying questions (as shown in the example questions above). Each client has an emotional attachment to their business. Ask them questions that open up discussions about how their business is making them feel. Listen carefully to their responses and come from an empathetic viewpoint when offering advice.

A client may respond by flagging stress challenges within their business and emotional overwhelm when it comes to tax time. You can offer packages that offer their capacity concerns and work with them to find solutions for their pain points.

Perhaps a client wants to grow their business, but doesn’t know where to begin. You can offer business advisory services to bridge the gap between compliance and strategy. 

• Investment advice
• Partnering them with solicitors or financial advisors
• Working on business strategy together to ensure steady growth

Stage four: what else?

A great way to keep the conversation flowing and diving deeper once topics have been covered is to always follow up at the end of each answer with ‘what else?’. You can adopt this strategy throughout any of the five stages to keep the discussion flowing and inspire definitive thoughts from your client. 

After each answer, ask them ‘what else?’ and those moments can often reveal more than expected. The last three or four pieces of information that come from asking this simple question can often be the most important aspects of the conversation. The goal is to use this discussion to draw out as much information from your client as possible so that you, as their advisor, are able to provide the highest level of service with the most insight about your client.

Stage five: take action

Now is the time to show your client where your advice matters. If they’re concerned about their cashflow, suggest setting up invoice reminders over a weekly and fortnightly basis to chase up payments and build a 14-day cashflow forecast to assess what needs tightening up. If tax time stress is what keeps your client in a state of anxiety, advise them on setting up a savings account to input a small amount per week so the quarterly bills don’t overwhelm them.

If a client wants to grow but is worried about the risk, you can help to review their current business structure against the growth they want to take on. Assisting them with the risks involved and what to do next so their decision is based upon fact, rather than feel.