One of the biggest challenges we face in turning prospects into clients is getting that first face-to-face meeting.  For not so obvious reasons, face-to-face meetings are a powerful means for turning cold prospects into warm leads and often into future clients.

Hundreds of creative approaches have been used by successful advisors to get that first face-to-face meeting, even if it's just a brief and informal encounter.  Here is a method used by a top producer I once knew who worked out of a Boston, MA office.  This technique brought in millions of dollars in new business in just a few short months and earned the FA the top-production spot in his Boston office for two months in a row!

This advisor was very enthusiastic about opportunities in international investing and appreciated the diversification that international markets provided.  At the time there was a particularly strong-performing Asia-Pacific fund that he was recommending to many of his clients and prospects.

One day, the wholesaler from this fund company came into his office and gave him a compliance-approved DVD on the fund.  The DVD included short talks from the fund’s managers on the advantages of international investing and a brief overview of some of the fund's top holdings.

After thinking about it for a while, the advisor came up with an idea.  He called the wholesaler and asked if he would send over several copies of the DVD.

When the DVD’s arrived, the advisor began calling on prospects with whom he had previously discussed the Asia-Pacific fund.  He reminded them of the Asia-Pacific fund and told them he had a great DVD with more information on the fund. 

In a very non-threatening way, he told his prospects he'd like to mail them the DVD so they could have a look at the material and see for themselves.  Nine times out of ten the prospects would accept his offer.  It wasn't as if he was asking for an appointment or a check.  All he wanted to do was mail a DVD.  There was no harm in that, right?

So, the advisor sent DVD’s to his prospects.  About a week later, he'd call and sounding somewhat rushed he'd say, "Hi Joe, this is Steve over at SIS Investments.  Hey, you know that DVD I sent you recently?  (More often than not the prospect had yet to watch the DVD.) Well, I have a meeting scheduled with one of my clients who is planning on taking a fairly LARGE position in that fund, but he'd like to see the DVD first and yours was the last copy I had. 

I'm going to be in your area tomorrow evening, would you mind if I dropped by and picked it up?  I'll send it back if you haven't had a chance to view it yet.  You'd really be helping me out of a tight spot!"

The prospect would always agree to allow the advisor to drop by and pick up the DVD.  In fact, the prospect would usually watch the DVD that evening so the advisor wouldn't have to return it.  When the advisor came to the door, the prospect would not only be friendly, he/she would be eager to discuss the fund--particularly knowing that someone else (who they assumed had much more money than they did) was planning on taking a "LARGE" position in it.

Not only did the advisor manage to get the face-to-face meeting, he wanted, when he arrived, the prospect was typically "pre-sold" on the investment idea! 

I don’t know if the FA was aware but there were numerous subtle psychological tactics at play here.  These included the Rule of Reciprocity, which involves returning a favor.  The Consistency Principle, where studies have shown how the sub-conscious mind tries to make sense of WHY we agreed to perform some action.  It's important for us as humans to make sense of our actions.  Most deduce that the reason they agreed to do a favor for someone must be because they liked that person.  And by asking this small favor you are literally getting your prospect to warm up to you.

The Liking Principle dictates that we prefer to work with people we like and tend to say yes more often to people we like.  This is a very subtle compliance tactic.  There are also various principles involving Social Proof at play here.

This technique for getting that face-to-face meeting is extremely powerful and you can easily utilize a variety of marketing materials for this purpose.  DVD's and CD’s work exceptionally well, but feel free to experiment with this concept and develop new techniques for getting that initial face-to-face meeting.

We hope this idea brings in as many dollars for you as it did for my friend in Boston.