Ask them yourself!

I get so excited when I get such a positive response from so many of you who have been reading my column, here on Advisor.ca. So I wanted to say “thank you”. I know so many are listening and preparing for change, if you aren’t down that road already. The last article I wrote attracted comments from professionals involved in other industries and from other countries, all wanting to weigh in on the great debt dilemma and tell me their thoughts on the future.

As exciting as this type of result is, I know that it will matter not what stats I can gather (and I’ve got piles) or what proof I have. No, that will not be enough for the majority. It will not be enough to make them change their way of doing business tomorrow. Not enough to motivate a mass climb of the debt-mountain to get a better view. So what is enough? What if I could tell you your clients’ debt stats? Faced with those stats, what would you do? Will the facts be enough to force you to change direction tomorrow?

Truth be told, you can get this information easily and depending on the number of clients you’ve got, its either free or really cheap. You call imagine how I feel about cheap!

Here’s what you have to do. Tomorrow, or even today if you’ve daylight to burn, you can create an online survey and get your clients take on this issue. You don’t need a fancy company to provide this service. No, you yourself can create surveys that can be sent as a link, or even embed in an email. It’s really easy. I do it all the time and if I can figure it out anyone can. If you take the time to do a Web search, you will find plenty of free Internet poll and survey services that are available to you.

If you’d like to check out a little survey I created for the readers of my column, please visit my blog to answer a very important question. In my next column I’ll write about the results and what they may mean.

Back to the matter at hand, publishing a poll or survey is an outstanding opportunity to gain insight. You could even offer to enter clients’ names in a draw for a great prize if they answer your survey; the industry does this with us all the time, and it works! Better yet, you could let your client know that if they forwarded the survey to a friend, and that friend answered the survey, they could get an additional entry in your draw as well as an entry for that friend. You just need to add an extra question so that the “non-clients” can fill in the name of the person whom sent them the survey to when they submit their answers.

If you choose to ask your clients about debt and cash-flow via this method, you will do four things:

• You will let them know you are thinking about their finances as a whole picture and really wanting to service them better everyday.
• You will give them permission to talk about debt and cash-flow with you as their advisor
• You will give them an opportunity for some water cooler bragging rights about what a great forward thinking, conscientious and technologically advanced advisor they’ve got!
• You will give them a chance to introduce you to their friends and family via a survey that is about what so many clients have top of mind. It’s about them, not about you and that’s what they want.

So, see for yourself how your clients really feel then use their stats to decide how much you should focus your practice development on this area. A word of advice though, careful with the way you ask the questions. You don’t your question to send them in to defense mode. You won’t get the truth.

Here is a sample question and sample answer choices that you are welcome to use if you like:Would you like to see debt and cash-flow management as part your financial plan?