A childhood poem serves me well even today: ‘A wise old owl stood on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?’
As experts, we like to show off what we know. After all, that’s why customers come to us, isn’t it?
Well, yes. And no. Your customers are experts too and their specialist subjects are themselves. Your expertise, and what actually adds value to the customer, is helping them articulate what they think and what they want. Then you can direct them to the right course of action.
Questioning and listening
This takes excellent questioning and listening skills. 90 per cent of what you say to a customer should be in the form of a question.
How close are you to that level? If your natural reaction to the question is ‘I’d like to know more about this’ then you have an inquisitive mind and you will be good at asking questions. If your reaction was ‘nonsense’, then you might not have read this far.
Excellent advice comes out of knowing your customer. This is not just finding answers to the standard questions on a factfind. An inquisitive person would naturally ask the question ‘why?’ at every opportunity.
Why do they have an interest only mortgage now? Why have they taken it out over 25 years? Why do they not have any cover in the event of illness? Why have they got so much debt? Why do they want advice?
Knowing your customer
Knowing your client means digging deeper and includes establishing what they want from a solution. What would their perfect repayment method look like? What would they want if neither could work due to critical illness?
If a broker says it, it can be doubted, but if a customer says it, it’s true. To enable the customer to tell all means asking good questions in an open, non-leading way.
Listening skills are about showing that you have heard and understood what the customer says, how they say it and why they have said it.
To reach the 90 per cent level of questions, follow the five-step model:
- Aspirations – what do they want, why, and how important is that to them?
- Situation – what have they got in place? Why did they take that course of action and what alternatives did they consider?
- Problems – what are the likely problems with the current situation? Were they aware of these issues, and if so, why haven’t they taken action?
- Consequences – what are the consequences if those problems are not addressed? How would they feel if they happened, how important is it that the problems are solved, and what are the priorities?
- Solution – what are they looking for to solve the problem, and what help do they need from you?
So long as your writing is legible and the information is understandable, you will be doing your customer a valuable service.
