Checklist For Your First Meeting

You as an individual may have come across many intermediaries who provide you different kind of services, may it be legal, financial, insurance, investments, etc. However, it is very rarely seen that people prepare themselves for such meetings. The result of which is a lot of confusion after opting for the service. Sometimes we are ourselves responsible for the experience of 'bad service'. So to avoid this, you should have your own checklist in place, which we will discuss below.

To make an impact and get better engagements, not only does an individual need a checklist while meeting, but also the professional who is offering his/her service needs to have a checklist too so that the meeting runs smoothly and creates a wonderful experience for the client. So let us discuss some of the points that you may include in your checklist before meeting your client. 




Checklist for Independent Financial Advisors (IFA) before meeting the prospective client

1 Take prior appointment
It is very important to understand as an IFA that you are not a salesman. You are a consultant. So you should follow certain professional ethics. The first step while meeting your prospective client is to take his/her prior appointment by asking about the convenient time and venue. Don’t forget to send him/her a reminder email or give a reminder call for the meeting.

2 Prepare agenda for the meeting
Before going to the meeting, it is very important for you to prepare the agenda. This will contain all the points that you are going to discuss in the meeting. The agenda must include the timeline as well. So once you have prepared the agenda, send it to the prospective client so that he/she is also aware of the same.

3 Make a final call
Make a final call to the client before the meeting and confirm that the meeting is as scheduled. This will allow the client to get ready for the meeting. This will also save your time in case the client wishes to reschedule the meeting due to some reasons.

4 Introduction
You must introduce yourself and your company in maximum five minutes and allow the prospective client to introduce himself/herself. This will help you to get the client speaking. Allow the client to open up and speak at least 70 per cent of the time. Doing this will allow you to understand him/ her in a much better way.

5 Go through the agenda & start with your presentation
Before going ahead, it would be a good practice to quickly go through the agenda which will allow you as well as the client on what is going to be covered in the meeting. Post this, start your presentation.

6 Schedule next meeting
As this would be your first meeting with the client, it would help you as well as the client to understand each other. However, it is important to schedule the next meeting which would help you to complete all the documentation and formalities required from the client’s end in case he/she wishes to avail your service.

7 Send feedback form
Once the meeting is done, you should send out a feedback form to the client asking him about the experience of the meeting and also the reason for availing or not availing your services. This will show you where you are lacking and, in turn, help you to improve.

Checklist for Individuals

1 Do your own research
It is important not to waste your as well as the financial adviser's time on discussing his/her credentials and qualifications. Do your own research before the meeting or before approaching him/her so that your focus would be only on the things you cannot find online, such as their approach, knowledge and understanding, comfort level, etc.

2 Know yourself
Though at the very first meeting, you won’t be diving deep into your finances, you should have basic understanding of your financial situation, which includes how much money you have and where it is invested, just a fair idea of your income and expenses and your financial goals like retirement or child’s education, etc. so that you can have informed conversation with your adviser.

3 Ask questions

Don’t worry and hesitate to ask questions. In fact, before the meeting itself, you can prepare a questionnaire and can also ask additional questions based on the discussion. However, some of your questions should include,
a) How are you paid? Is it fee-only, fee-based, commission based or a combination of fees as well as commission and whether the fee is flat or as a percentage.
  
b) How often do they meet their clients? - Quarterly, semi-annually or annually. This will allow you to match those with your expectations.

c) What services do they provide? - Whether they provide comprehensive services, which usually includes risk management and insurance planning, retirement planning, tax planning, investment planning and estate planning.
  
d) What type of clients do they work with? Do they specialise for retirees or businessman or professionals like doctors, architects, etc.

4 Have realistic expectations

It is important for you to have realistic expectations from the financial adviser. People usually choose their advisers based on the fees or commissions they earn, which is not the right way. Choose your financial adviser based on his knowledge and expertise and not on how much less he/ she is charging. Lower fees or free service does not mean quality service. Keep your expectations realistic

Richard Branson "The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them - preferably in unexpected and helpful ways."