Could your real differentiator be transformation?

Financial products serve a purpose. A financial plan gives clients direction. But the most referable advisors help clients change what they believe is possible.

In this lively, fun, and information-packed interview, Bill Cates, CSP, CPAE, and Yohance Harrison, BFA, CRPC, show how advocates are born from client transformation.

“The plan is not a product. The plan is a means to helping the clients achieve what they want to achieve”

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3 Ideas Worth Applying

1. Look for the Transformations You’ve Created

Transformation can begin with something as simple as getting a client to finally examine a financial life that has been ignored. It can also show up when a savings rate moves from 4% to 10%, or even 15% or more, through intentional cash flow management.

Go beyond asking, ‘What did the plan accomplish?’ Consider these questions:

• How does the client think or feel differently now?
• What can the client do now that wasn’t possible before?
• What anxiety, confusion, or inertia has started to change?

2. You Become Referable When Value is Delivered and Value is Recognized

Clients often reveal the value of the relationship in passing:

• “I feel better after we talk.”
• “You gave me clarity.”
• “I finally understand what I need to do.”

Don’t let those statements pass by. Get curious. Ask, “Can you tell me more about that?” As clients describe the value they receive, it becomes clearer to them.And they are “practicing” how to talk about you to others.

A structured Value Discussion can also help. Set aside market performance and the economy, then ask what’s working, what isn’t, and what should continue.

Neuroscience supports the fact that when clients speak the value they’ve received out loud, the impact becomes clearer to both sides.

Useful prompts include:

• “What stands out as most important from today’s conversation?”
• “How would you prioritize what we discussed?”
• “What tipped the scales in your decision to work with us?”
• “What feels most beneficial about the process?”

3. Treat Money Beliefs as Part of Planning Work

Every client brings a history with money. Family conflict, silence, scarcity, guilt, and shame can shape financial decisions, including for people with substantial wealth.

A simple opening can create a much deeper conversation:
“I’m curious about your relationship with money. What messages did you receive growing up?”

From there, “Tell me more” may uncover the money scripts, fears, habits, and hopes influencing the client’s decisions.

The Hidden Heist written by Bill Cates and Jeff C. West (www.TheHiddenHeist.com) was created as a way to open that conversation through a story about broken money narratives and unproductive self-talk.

The broader point is practical: when clients understand their relationship with money, saving, planning, and decision-making can become easier.

From Referrals to Active Advocacy

Cates and Harrison focused on a shift from passive referrals to active advocacy. That shift begins when the advisor believes the value of the work is worth sharing, not when the advisor treats introductions as a way to build a business.

A client may already be an advocate but not aware of how to be an effective advocate. Cates gives one example where one of his coaching clients – using the Value Discussion – discovered a client was telling her friends about him, but none of those friends had reached out.

Cates shares an example of an advisor he coached who used a Value Discussion to discover that a client was recommending him to friends – but those conversations weren’t leading to introductions.

The next step was teaching the client how to go beyond word of mouth and make more effective introductions.

Be intentional about transformation. Be gently purposeful about introductions.

Episode Sponsors: 

• FiduLink.ai
• The Cates Academy for Relationship Marketing
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Connect with Yohance Harrison, BFA, CRPC

• Website:moneyscriptwealth.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yohanceharrison
• Podcasts:
  • https://podcast.moneyscript.com/787676/episodes
  • https://www.buzzsprout.com/2441684/episodes
  • https://podcast.becominganattending.com/
• Email:  ceo@moneyscriptwealth.com

Resources:

• RapidFire Referrals
• Get a copy of “The Language of Referrals”
• Get a copy of “Radical Relevance”
• Grab your copy of The Hidden Heist today!

Connect With Bill Cates:

• BillCates@referralcoach.com
• Referral Coach Homepage
• Hire Bill for Coaching
• Enroll in The Cates Academy™