Rebuilding Trust When Clients Have Had Bad Advice Before

How do you have a great protection conversation with someone who’s already sceptical before you’ve even started?

In this episode of Let’s Talk IP, Stevie and Matt explore why many clients don’t resist income protection itself; they resist the way it’s been presented to them in the past. Whether it’s feeling pressured, overwhelmed by jargon, or having protection bolted onto the end of a recommendation, those experiences can shape every conversation that follows.

Together, they discuss how advisers can rebuild trust by slowing down, creating clarity, setting expectations early, and involving clients in the decision-making process rather than making them feel like they’re being sold to.

This episode is all about replacing sales pressure with genuine advice, helping clients feel heard, understood, and confident in the recommendations they’re receiving.

If you’ve ever worked with a client who’s been put off by a previous adviser, or struggled to overcome scepticism in the room, this episode will give you practical ways to rebuild trust from the very first conversation.

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Produced and edited by SEA Studios

Transcript

Stop Selling Start Advising

SPEAKER_02 0:02

What's really interesting about what you just said, and I think you've absolutely nailed it once again, mate. Sometimes you come up with these little gems, don't you? Bless you.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

I think Sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Yeah, occasionally, and I'm joking. Um what I really love about you just said there is this is something I teach when I'm doing a lot of coaching, which is you know, of advisors, if you don't want to feel like a salesperson, stop selling. Yeah. You don't need to sell anything. What you need to do is understand what's motivating the customer, what they want to achieve, and then manage their expectations as to what could affect them, being able to do that, and then put plans in place to stop it from happening.

Why Trust Breaks In Protection

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Hello, this is Let's Talk Income Protection, Proper Conversations, and Advice for advisors who want to help clients properly, not just push products. And this episode is all about trust. Because a lot of clients come into conversations carrying baggage. They felt pressured before, confused before, overwhelmed before, or they've had protection thrown in at the end without really understanding why it mattered. And that's something I personally experienced with my first interaction with protection advice. So today we're talking about how advisors can rebuild trust, remove pressure, and make protection conversations feel natural, clear, and genuinely helpful. Yeah, absolutely, Steve.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

I'm really looking forward to this one because I think this is a common misconception that advisors have because I think a lot of advisors, when they experience this from a customer, they think that the client's resisting protection full stop. Well, they're not. They're just resisting the way it was presented to them the first time round, or they've almost kind of got this protection hangover, right? So clients rarely resist clarity. And I think all this talks of all we're trying to talk about today is how advisors can almost like reset, clear the slate, start again, and show clients the difference in how they intend to give that advice this time round versus what they experienced before so the client can feel empowered, heard, listened to, and engaged with in a way that probably works for both parties.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Okay, Matt. Well, let's start here then. So why do so many clients already feel skeptical about protection conversations?

SPEAKER_02 2:13

There's loads of different reasons. I mean, at the end of the day, let's think just first and foremost that that often clients' first experience of protection is a TV advert where they're literally selling it like it's a bottle water price commodity, you know, from as little as six pounds a month. And then they jump on a call with an advisor, and typically the way it's worked is particularly if they've gone down the mortgage route, it'll be there was a conversation about the mortgage, and all of a sudden they were ambushed with this kind of bolt-on conversation around the importance of protection. Or now we've got the debt for you. You really need to think about protecting yourself from it rather than having that kind of conversation we talked about in the previous episode where we were talking about the foundation of how they can get the borrowing in the first place and what the property means to them, right? So most of these conversations end up being fairly poor experiences as you experienced yourself, you know, product dumping, jargon overload, too much options, confusion. And and I talk about this all the time in my coaching. I see examples where advices give clients three options to consider. Well, here's your full-term plan, here's your age-costed plan, here's your short-term plan, what what do you think? And of course, that's not an advice conversation, is it? It's uh here's a pick and mix, you select what you want based on where you think the value lies. But of course, without context, you're gonna pick the cheapest or the middle one. So it's this kind of optionality confusion, which then kind of makes people signal that you've got a sales motive. And I was gonna say about sales energy, I think a lot of the time, you know, many of us would probably argue that protection conversations, certainly the ones that I've listened to in the past from from places, have got this real sales energy about them where it sounds like someone's being persuaded or convinced to do something or are being convinced that they might get ill. And this, of course, the conversation doesn't feel particularly palatable for a consumer if you're doing it that way. Um don't be wrong, it you know, it is an inevitability and it's it's it's got to be done. But I think a lot of advisors historically have maybe rushed through that conversation because it's stuck on the end of a mortgage or a wealth conversation. And clients' expectations are just typically poorly managed. You know, clients are stung with

Protection Hangover And Scepticism

SPEAKER_02 4:10

a huge premium. There's no expectation managed, like we talked about in last week's episode, or last month's episode, I should say, sorry, where we were talking about this idea of, you know, clients are often ambushed with this price and suddenly it's like not without any context, it's like we're forcing you down this road of spending more money that you hadn't budgeted for or anticipated for. And I think unfortunately, that's pretty much how most people experience their initial protection conversation. So for those advisors who want to do it differently, you want to do it properly, it can often be quite daunting to get clients out of that mindset where they've got this so much protection hangover and a negative experience. I mean, you're the perfect example of this, haven't you? Because you went, you've been through it in in both ways. You've been through an initially negative one, and then you had a slightly better version, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah, 100%. It was a uh, it was bolted on the end of a mortgage conversation when we were going for our very first home. So very new to it all, no context provided. Uh and for us at the time, it was confusing because we didn't know whether this was something that was 100% necessary just to get the mortgage. And it was confusing. And and you know, we I think we signed off to whatever was was presented to us, and we sort of said yeah, but very quickly we called up and sort of cancelled it because we were just we didn't really know what it was or what the what the reasoning was for it. So at the time it was it's very confusing, and it it did leave a s a sour taste in you know in our mouth around protection. And you know, essentially I think we're the sort we're the sort of case study for this this particular episode. So do you think the issue, Matt, is that clients are are they objecting to like protection in the first place or to the way it's presented? For me, certainly, it was the latter.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

I completely agree with you, and I think that's often the case. It's funny because a lot of advisors I work with, their initial expectations that clients don't want protection, they're not interested in protection. And I think what that is, that comes from a a sort of a negative bias that we've got within the industry that we think protection's something that's less important than everything else that's done in the financial service industry. Whereas I would argue it's the the thing that underpins and gives foundation to good advice, because you can't, like I say, invest without ongoing money or buy a house without ongoing money. But I I think you're absolutely right. There's a couple of really interesting things at play here. Advice is assuming clients don't want protection, where I've actually proved that's not the case. So I often ask advice, I say, put your hands up. If you've got someone in your life or your family that you care and love deeply, they will put their hands up and say, right, leave your hand up if you do anything you could to make sure they were financially secure in life and that everyone keeps their hand up. That's every single client we speak to. It's just how we present it is the problem. So when we present it in a way where it sounds like we're trying to convince someone that they're going to get ill or that they need to do something without first understanding what's driving and motivating the client, they develop a psychological condition known as persuasion resistance. It's like anything. It's a bit like if you were buying a car and the guy starts trying to sell you gap insurance off the back of the car. Or when you buy a fridge freezer and someone starts throwing extended warranty at you, initially you, even if you know it's in your best interest, you pull back because the resistance is I don't want to be lured into doing something. I want to retain my autonomy and my agency as an individual. So what happens is clients react emotionally to pressure. They don't like being told that they're going to get ill. And that's how a lot of protection conversations start, which is, did you know the average claim is seven years and eight months or whatever it is? And it's kind of like it's it's almost trying to convince someone they're going to get ill. Well, of course, no one wants to believe they're going to get ill. We are optimistically biased, but also pessimistically biased. And when I say pessimistically biased, what I mean by that is that most customers also believe that if the if the product won't pay out, they'll be the one that doesn't pay out. So they're optimistically biased and they're not going to get ill. But when they do get ill, they're not going to get paid either. So humans are very strange creatures. But I think what's really important here is that rather than trying to hard sell clients, convince them they're going to get ill, try and create value using, you know, statistics and claim stats and pressuring people. We've got to create value for them because people don't like feeling sold to. Because I don't, anyway, I don't like walking into a shop and having someone going, hi, I can help you today. And they're literally hovering around, trying to almost get under because I fight, I find I get resistant to that. Even if I do intend to buy something, I get resistant to the idea. But I also don't believe that advisors particularly like selling, particularly mortgage and wealth advisors. Protection advisors are a slightly different kin of people because they're, you know, they're typically used to dealing with objections on a regular basis. But if you go into a conversation with a mortgage advisor, they're not expecting the client to say no to the mortgage because they need the mortgage to buy the home, but they've already got the mindset they're expecting a rejection around the protection. So their whole tone of voice changes. And what they do is they try and tiptoe around the conversation to not sound salesy. And in doing so, they bring it up at the end of the conversation as a bolt-on to avoid sounding salesy. But what they do is exactly the opposite of what they're trying to do, which they then sound like they're being salesy, right? Because they sound persuasive. And a self-fulfilling prophecy, really, isn't it? Absolutely, man. It's exactly what you experienced yourself, which is when someone does it that way, it triggers this sales-led motive and the client feels ambushed and they become naturally resistant. But for me, nearly all objections I ever come across when I'm doing coaching are usually framing problems because no one's agreed a goal with the client or no one's created any value with the client for them to have that conversation. As I said in last month's episode, it's never about convincing you you're gonna get ill. Instead, it's about what are you hoping to achieve and how do we make sure that can happen even when things don't go to plan. It's a different type of conversation. So if I if I don't do it that way, where we talk about what matters to you, anything I push at you is going to feel like a sale. It's gonna feel like you're being sold to, and then you will naturally shut down and be r

Persuasion Resistance And Sales Energy

SPEAKER_02 9:45

resistant to it.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

It it ties in with everything we've been saying this season, which is around actually advisors want to advise, and this selling part is something that it needs to be reframed. That's the mindset shift that advisors need to do. Is I realize that you are the expert here, and it's your role to highlight the value and the uh importance of these products. The essential nature of income, mate. Exactly. That's that's the truth.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

The essential nature, how reliant you are on income. And what's really interesting about what you just said, and I think you've absolutely nailed it once again, mate. Sometimes you come up with these little gems, don't you? Bless you.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I think sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Yeah, occasionally, I'm joking. Um what what I really love about you just said there is this is something I teach when I'm doing a lot of coaching, which is you know, of advisors, if you don't want to feel like a salesperson, stop selling. Yeah, you don't need to sell anything. What you need to do is understand what's motivating the customer, what they want to achieve, and then manage their expectations of what could affect them, being able to do that, and then put plans in place to stop it happening. And the key here is it's still a regulated advice process, right? So you are an advisor, you are a competent, qualified advisor, giving advice in this area. And the other thing I would say that's really crucial about all of this, my friend, is that the the value of an advisor is not in the products they have access to or the knowledge they've got. It's how they disseminate it for your average consumer. The value that I have, Steve, is my ability to try and convey this in a way that you can understand, that the listeners can understand. And it's like that's where the value is in the financial education because we don't learn about this stuff at school. No one's teaching us about our reliance on income, how important it is, how crucial it is. There's not this kind of like standardized, normalized process where, well, I've got a new job, I've got a new income, I ought to protect that income, which is what people should be doing. We shouldn't be trying to convince them to do it. It should just be a standardized process when you get a job. You say, Oh, I need to make sure this has got income protection including the job. And if it hasn't, I need to take out a private plan. Because that should be the mindset of people. But until that happens, we've got a duty to educate using the knowledge that we've got to make it make sense to you because the value becomes inherent when you understand it.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Yeah, that's the role of an awesome advisor. So thank you guys for listening and trying to improve your skill set. So let's bring it back to the topic at hand. When uh a client has had that poor experience, how do advisors rebuild the trust early in the process? Uh, you know, and and I I'm thinking, well, they must be potentially willing to try again because they're on that they're willing to have this conversation with you at this point.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Potentially, but as you rightly say, it could be that they're not quite aware what the conversation's going to now start to uh include. And so it could be that you get shut down very quickly. But for me, I think a couple of key things that advisors can really be doing, which is to be very transparent about what you're doing. You know, I think a lot of advisors, unfortunately, because they shy away from the conversation because they're fearful of sounding salesy, naturally sounds salsy, like I said a minute ago. So being transparent and actually explaining the process up front. I mean, I often used to say to clients, look, I'll briefly explain what this process is going to entail. The number one thing I need to sit down with you is understand

Rebuilding Trust With Transparency

SPEAKER_02 12:50

what truly matters to you. You know, what are your financial goals, what's non-negotiable for you and your family about what it is you're trying to achieve. Because if all we do in this conversation is you leave this conversation very clear in your mind what good looks like for you, what your financial goals are, and you've been able to vocalize and document them with me, we've had a really great result. But in doing so, what will happen is we will just stress test your ability to achieve those things. So I'll just be giving you some guidance and advice on what you ought to be thinking about to make sure you can achieve that. Now, hopefully you've got all the things you need and you're not going to be vulnerable. But if you are, I'll be able to show you what you need to be thinking about, what might be essential to help you achieve, and what other things you might want to be thinking about. Now, what we're doing here is I'm engaging with you in a way where I'm giving you the sensation this is a very different type of conversation to the one you had previously. And you can even refer to those previous conversations if you know the client's gone through them, which is I appreciate you may have had other experiences where this has been done a certain way. But let me briefly explain how we do things here at this business or how I do things as an advisor so that you're clear, because this is not about trying to sell you insurance products. This is actually about helping you to understand what your financial goals look like, what's non-negotiable for you in your life, and then helping you understand what things you can do to make you and your family more financially resilient moving forward. Now, at the end of the day, you don't have to take anything I'm recommending. But if we find there's gaps in your coverage, if we find you're vulnerable, if we find there's things that could genuinely threaten what it is you're trying to achieve, I'll let you know what they are and we're gonna have a chat about how you might want to put them into place. Now, that is a very different type of conversation to, um, yeah, okay, so we need to talk about your protection. I can see you've had a conversation before with one of my colleagues, and and and you you said you didn't want to go ahead. Do you want to do you want to tell me what that is? So it it's it's not the same type of thing. I think for me, the danger is a lot of advisors jump straight into recommendations, straight into we've got this product and this product and this product and this product and and budget and premium and conversation and price. And what they ought to be doing is slowing it down and putting the client front and centre, right? Making it all about you, Stevie, like what it is you're trying to achieve. Because when you open up to me and you tell me that, I've now got the value in which I've earned your trust and I've earned the right to start talking about potential recommendations. But until I get to that point, I've earned no right to even have a conversation with you about product.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Let's say that initial part of the conversation goes well, you start to rebuild the trust a little bit, and now we want to start advising, but we don't want to sound salesy. You know, you often talk, Matt, about reducing that, you know, sales energy. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 15:19

So, sales energy in particular is where the customer has the sensation that they're being sold to. And what I mean by that is that we all use language in a specific way. Um, and I think advisors can often bring that into a call where you'll almost see it if you listen to um like a mortgage and protection call, and you will have experienced this. You know, you said you're the case study here. It's like the conversation's bumbling along nicely about the mortgage. You sent in your paperwork, you submitted the mortgage application, and everything's going really well, you feel like you've got trust with this advisor, and then all of a sudden it's like the temperature in the room changes. Yeah? And it's almost like we're now talking about something else, and your brain instantly goes, hold on a minute. If it was this important, you'd have mentioned it sooner. Or if it was this important, it would have been part of the advice early on. You've explained it to me. So you instantly recoil and think

Co-Authoring Decisions From The Start

SPEAKER_02 16:10

I'm being sold to. And you and what's really crazy is it erodes all the trust that we've just built. That's what I mean about sales energy, where because I've not managed your expectations, because I sound transactional, because I've gone into pitch mode, because I'm I'm telling you what you ought to be doing, or or even asking you opinion about this, or giving you options, you're going, well, this isn't this no longer feels like the same advice conversation, right? What I should be doing to remove the sales energy is give you the sensation that you can come and sit up in the front of the car with me. I'm going to drive, but Stevie, you get to choose the destination. So come and sit next to me. I'm going to drive the car to make sure you get where you want to get to. But you're welcome to sit up front and tell me where you want to go, but don't touch the steering wheel. And first things first, put your seatbelt on. Right. So that's the kind of analogy that I'm thinking, which is it's almost like I'm trying to create clarity for you about what we're doing and why we're doing it. I'm I'm being assumptive, but not to the point where I sound salesy. I'm being assumptive in that, look, I assume you want my advice because you're here. And what I'm going to do is work with you to understand what goals are that you've got, you know, what good looks like for you. Because what that does, it allows you to retain your autonomy and your agency as an individual. You don't feel like you're being pitched or sold to. You you feel like you're co-authoring and co-creating the outcomes. You're the co-co-pilot, co-driver. 100%. Of course, because what's going to happen there is you're going to feel like you're involved. You're going to feel like this is not happening to you, but with you. You're going to feel like you're part of the decision-making process because it's all about you and your goals and what makes you happy and what you're working towards. And the trust will naturally build alongside it. And it will inevitably be a very different experience to what they've had previously. And so they will naturally feel very different. They will understand that this isn't the same as what they went through. You're, you're actually moving into an advice model. And we used the doctor analogy before, and I know you keep referring to it, and I agree with you, because the truth of it is, doctors don't apologize for what they do. They don't skirt round the subject. They don't, neither does a lawyer. You know, every everyone as a professional that knows they're a professional goes, well, you're here for my advice, and I'm going to give you my advice. It's not very difficult, is it? And I think advisors often downplay the importance of the advice and the knowledge they've got. And instead, what they should be doing is being calm, being consultative, not rushing through, because as soon as I do, it's like I'm trying to get you to an endpoint, I'm trying to get you to a sale. You know, we talked in the previous episodes, didn't we? I think early on in the in this season, this three season three, where we were talking about why advisors default to short-term recommendations. And do you remember we were saying how, because for example, if I'm selling you a full-term income protection plan, and I I specifically use the word selling there, that you push back on cost, and I go, oh, well, we have got cheaper alternatives, we've got a short-term option. What's happening there is I'm indicating a sales led motive. What I should be doing is saying, but we had a conversation on how important it was for you to have money coming in every month, Stevie. So, right, let's just revisit this then because initially you said it was non-negotiable. So what you're saying is it might be negotiable. In that case, let's work out what's the minimum you need every month to maintain a lifestyle that you're happy with. You tell me what that figure is, and we'll work off that instead. Now, I'm inviting you to collaborate and co-author with me, but I'm not just giving up and abandoning the recommendation because that's a disservice to you and actually indicates a sales-led motive. So that's how we remove the sales energy. We make it about consultative advice and co-authoring goals.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

In that driving analogy, Matt, who's uh who's the car DJ then?

SPEAKER_02 19:35

You can put whatever songs you want on within reason, but I get to decide the volume.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Fantastic. Uh in the next episode, we're going to talk about this next question in quite quite a bit of detail. This is a bit this is around a three-step framework. So, what role

The Three-Step Framework Explained

SPEAKER_01 19:55

does your three-step framework play in building trust? So, talk talk to us about us first about what what is this three-step framework?

SPEAKER_02 20:04

So, the three-step framework, um, it was originally conceptually taken from a a book that I studied called The Women Without Picture Manifesto by Blair Enns. And I took kind of the bare bones of what they'd done and applied it into an advice setting because I felt like some of the principles that they were teaching at it were were really profound. And it has led to exceptional results with the firms that I work with. And really what it does, it allows us to create a consistent structure to go through when we're dealing with clients. And what it does, it allows the client to feel involved, heard, listened to. It allows us to create a more consistent approach to what we do because it's structured. It allows us to be more compliant because what we're really doing under consumer duties is being very clear about what the customer feels is a primary goal for them and then making recommendations that are aligned to that and are ultimately designed to execute and deliver those outcomes. But it just makes things very clear. And for me, it works exceptionally well because it involves basically step one is agreeing a customer's goal or several goals. It's often multiple goals, but it's just agreeing a goal or a set of goals for the client. The second step is then manage their expectations, either in terms of the process you're about to go through, you know, underwriting, level of investment, what's going to happen, the types of solutions that will be needed. And then thirdly, it's just agreeing that's how they're happy to move forward. So what we're doing is at each stage, we're getting the client involved, we're educating, and then we're getting them to agree to how the process is going to look, because it allows them the sensation they've still got agency, that they're still involved in the conversation, but it allows the advisor to retain that professional integrity all the way through because it's structured in a way that leads to great outcomes. It removes the sensation of ambush, it creates repeatable structure and framework, so it allows for consistent performance. Because the one thing I've learned dealing with advisors is the one thing that most advisors that deal in protection do is they hate this the roller coaster experience of advising on protection. It's the best month ever, it's the worst month. And so I'm I'm sort of I'm trying to create this almost stable approach. But what it also does, it reduces uncertainty, it creates control over the advice process, it helps the client feel psychologically safe, it removes the resistance and the sensation of ambushing. But what I really love about it is it gives you a framework to refer back to for your self-development. So all of those awesome advisors who are listening who just want to get better, which is why they're tuning in in the first place, it gives you reference points in your conversation to reflect on, to say, well, did I do enough to establish the customer's goals? Or how well did I manage their expectations? Or did I get them to agree to what we were doing? And so if you're not doing those things, that's an area that you can then focus on to improve the dynamics of your conversations. So you're more likely to create the right kind of outcomes.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Yeah, that's that's fascinating. I I I love the fact that, yeah, you can refer back to those different areas of the framework to see where maybe there's some improvement there, which makes me think um is probably wise and some I'm not sure if it's something we've touched upon uh in the past, but listening back to your recordings, you know, use some handy AI to record the meeting, listen back and and and review and see how you've done, check, check in on your progress.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

It's fascinating, Stevie, because um nearly every advisor I've coached, and we're talking thousands now, right? Every advisor I've coached, if we do that exercise of listening over a call, I will always ask them to grade themselves immediately after listening to a call, right? Or sorry, immediately after a call. And what happens is they'll go off the call and they'll go, yeah, do you know? I think it went really, really well. I think the client was receptive. I think, and then they go back and listen to the call, and suddenly the blood drains in their face and the shot

Review Calls And Build Microhabits

SPEAKER_02 23:40

kicks, and they go, Why did I say that? Oh my god, I can't believe I said that. Because our perception of how the conversation went versus what actually happened are two very different things. And I think for me, what this is really about above all else, and we'll get into this probably in a bit more detail on next month's episode, is actually about it's not just about having a repeatable framework, but it's about having something that allows you to create sustainable microhabitual change. What I've learned as a coach, and this is everything to do with behavioral coaching, high-impact coaching, and this idea of taking people away from sales culture into meaningful advice culture and outcomes-based, goals-based advice, is this idea that you don't just go, oh, I'm getting really, really good, and now I'm going to go back to my old ways. The only way to create sustainable habits like going to the gym every day, like changing your entire diet because you want to live healthier, is to do things gradually, repeatedly and sustainably, where you master a skill and you move on to the next. And so the whole purpose of this is to build something on which you can reflect routinely, assess your calls or assess your conversations, view the outcomes, reflect against those three steps and say, where do I need to narrowly focus next in order to get the best results? You know, the Pareto's rule of 80-20. You know, 80% of the problems in these conversations come from 20% of the things you do. So it's about having a very simple mechanism to which you can reflect and improve so that you're always making progress. So think about CPD now, not as something that's a box sticking exercise, but as a method in which you can get consistently better so that you're writing more business, producing better customer outcomes, becoming more compliant, gaining confidence. Because for me, that's how you grow, right? That's how you get really good, is how I have managed to be able to do what I do today. I didn't do it by kind of just one day saying, Oh, I'm gonna be a protection advisor and hopefully you'll be a good one. A lot of the coaching work, in fact, I do is constant improvement. Even the work I do now, it's like every week I come up with a new idea, I'm like, I'm gonna try that one. And and it's all about continuous development. I think that's the only way the the awesome advisors that are listening can get where they want to get to by doing something consistently for long enough that it becomes habit and then moving on to something else.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Note that one down, awesome advisors. Certainly review now and again, uh maybe once a month, one of your calls and see where you can improve. Might be uh a bit daunting to start with, but over time it become easier and easier. What's one thing you think advisors do that unintentionally

The Fastest Way To Lose Trust

SPEAKER_01 26:05

damages trust?

SPEAKER_02 26:07

They jump straight into products. I've listened to so many vice conversations where the the advisor jumps straight into explaining products to clients without reading the room, without really understanding the person they're speaking to. You know, they're jumping straight into solutions. And I always use the example of imagine like a plumber who's got a leak and the water's pissing out the pipes, right? And he runs into the plumber's merchant, and before he's even had a chance to explain, he's got a leak and he needs a specific part to stop the leak. Yeah. The sales agent behind the counter's telling him about all the offers they've got that week. And you're like, shut up, mate. Yeah, I've got a leak. Do you know what I mean? And and I think it's leading with the cost, the features, the products, how they work, the technical elements, and I think over-explaining too quickly, bombarding clients with facts and information and and options, and it just creates cognitive overload. It just forces clients down a rabbit hole. And assuming clients understand what you're talking about, they make recommendations before they've got goals or context. You know, this sounds scripted or even sales-led, sounds like a sales pitch. And I think we, as we said in the previous month's episode, you know, the idea of giving clients too many choices or options, all that does is just firstly it's not advice. And secondly, it's just again cognitive overload. You know, clients don't know what to do. What clients really want is conviction from the advice. They want them to slow down, understand the customer, what they're trying to achieve, and then give very convicted advice like the doctor does with the prescription, right? Which you don't do, you don't do when the patient walks into the room, you have to sit down and talk to them first and go, Well, what's wrong? What's happened? Yeah. Yeah. So it's that kind of thing, I think, that that that damages trust, where it just, it's all about the product, it's all about the sale, it's all about the solution, it's all about the price, not who sat in front of me, what are they trying to achieve, and how can I make my solutions make sense to this individual where they see the value in what I'm offering.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Fantastic, Matt. Let's start wrapping things up now. Matt, what is one simple thing advisors can do immediately to

One Immediate Change And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 27:55

make protection conversations feel more trustworthy?

SPEAKER_02 27:58

I think by explaining what they're about to do, which includes helping the client to vocalize a set of key crucial goals. And I think for me, that's how you invite the client to almost co-author the solutions in the process by default, um, and allow the client to feel like they're part of this advice process, not just something that's being sold to. So I think that's probably the number one thing I'd do.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Amazing, Matt. Okay, so the the big shift here is this clients don't need less advice, uh, they need better experiences. Uh, and when advisors, you know, slow down, explain things clearly, and focus on the client's goals first, protection then stops feeling like a you know, a sales pitch and starts feeling like proper advice, proper planning. Is that right, Matt?

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Absolutely. I mean, think about this for a second, Steve. Has anyone ever sat down with you and said, right, Stevie, let's have a talk about your financial goals and let's try and write them down in a way that they make sense to you, right? And that's the same with nearly all the clients in the world. No one's ever done that for them. And if a financial planner is doing that, they're typically charging a lot of money, which is something that protection advisors can do for free as part of a value-added service. To me, that's how we move away from this kind of sales culture into actually let's put the client front and centre, let's make it all about them, and the solutions will naturally sell themselves so that you don't need to.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Incredible. Thanks, Matt. Okay. Next time we bring everything together into one episode: the actual three-step income protection conversations that work every time. Trademark, copyright. The Protection Coach Limited. Yeah. Joking. In other news, go to iptf.co.uk now to register for iPal. Registration is open and you can sign up just once for all sessions. We have a new profile of an IP customer report to check out. And do go check out Seven Families revisited as well. And look out for the individual family films on the IPTF social accounts, YouTube channel, and a website too. And finally, if you found this useful, a quick follow or review wherever you listen really, really helps, or even better, share this with your advisor colleagues and friends and get the message out there of this fantastic, well, hopefully fantastic podcast that you are enjoying listening to. Okay, that's it from us. Catch you next time. Appreciate you, Ling, guys. Good luck.