The Neuroscience of Conversations that Build Trust
We were joined today by national speaker, author, and consultant, Mary Schmid, who specializes in teaching financial advisors how to have deeper, trust based conversations with clients. A skill that we could all use more of, for sure!
The neuroscience of conversations is something that surpasses any identifying criteria like gender or generation. It's based upon our brain's cause and effect reactions to feeling “safe” or not; all based on what you as the advisor are saying (or not saying) to them. The truth is that 9 of 10 conversations we regularly have are not the kind that we would be deemed as trust based. Most of them are simply the exchange of data; telling each other facts and other information that we need to know. How dull, right? It's no wonder many of us struggle with listening!
Another type of advisor/client conversation is also too one sided and tends to give advice prematurely, dumping more information than the person needs or wants. We all do that from time to time, don't we?
Yet another, is where the advisor shares all kinds of facts, figures and data to “educate” the client, who politely nods in agreement and acts like they're interested, but asks no questions and ends up not making a decision to work with the advisor. Why? One reason is because no real connection was made by the advisor with the client; the advisor was out to impress instead of connect. Another is that the client is too confused by all the information; a confused mind is not in a position to decide, so they don't.
Mary says the best way to establish a trust based conversation is to have a conversation with yourself before you meet with the client. What will you ask them? What are some ways you can empathize with their situation? How will you relate and get to know them better? Preparing ourselves ahead of time for these kinds of meetings is a powerful way to establish trust and build rapport with clients and prospects much faster than the traditional way of attempting to impress with how much we know.
As I've always said, “clients don't care how much we know until they know how much we care.”
Listen to this informative and insightful episode here
Find out more and connect with Mary here and Julie here
Thank you to our show sponsors! Dayta, JAK, Sunbelt Business Advisors and Trust Point
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