The Invisible Close: Influence Techniques That Turn Prospects Into Clients with Evan T. Beach

Hello and welcome to Financial Behavior Thought Leaders. I'm Mary and this podcast takes you behind the scenes with top speakers in financial services. In season two, we're focusing on the future of financial conversations, how trust, communication, and decision making are evolving and what that means for the way we engage with money in our work and in our lives. So whether you're in financial services, planning events, or simply navigating your own financial decisions, you're in the right place. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a conversation.

Today we're going to explore the psychology of influence and how that shapes our prospects to decide to become clients. So what financial planners can do with those mental shortcuts rather than going against them. And joining me is Evan Beach. Evan is a first partner, a G2 partner at a 1 billion plus RAA scaling firm under 300 million to over 1 billion in AUM in under five years. He now runs exit 59 advisory where he's more than doubled revenue in AUM in a single year.

and he's a columnist for Kiplinger and a regular on CNBC in Bloomberg. Let's dive in. Welcome, Evan.

Thank you, excited to be back.

Yeah, it's great to have you. So what I want to talk about this season is really diving into what you see changing in the way that people think and talk about money and what we really need to be paying attention to.

All right, let's do it. Let's dive in.

Let's do it. What are you seeing different?

I two things come to mind. Number one, think younger people are talking about money much more openly. And I'm guessing our parents are in similar generations where money was not really discussed. It became more more obvious kind of the financial situation you were in as you get older, but not because there was ever a conversation about it. So I think that's number one is that

younger generations are very open to talking about money and not just talking about money, but talking about specifically where they are financially. And maybe that's the internet and that there are so many more mediums to have those conversations with people who are sort of strangers. Anyway, that's number one. then number two, I think you're starting to see people. And once again, I think this is this is younger people teaching us very

important lessons of, money is a tool. It's not there to be accumulated, right? It's not highest score wins. It's there to do things for us, right? To give us time or to a, and I, this really became obvious to me. And once again, this is kind of like a social media thing and internet thing where coming out of COVID, you saw people quitting jobs, moving abroad, you know, figuring out ways to make

enough money that they could live their best life. Now lot of those people didn't have kids yet. We'll see how that equation changes when they need a little bit more money. But using money as a tool, not just as a scoreboard to compare yourself against your peers.

Yeah, yeah.

Interesting. So really two things. One, we're talking about it more. And when I hear you say that, you're really talking about the younger generation, what we're kind of seeing that trend and that change, which you're right. If I think back on mine, we didn't talk about money at the dinner table. And maybe that is have to do with somewhat of the shifting. I mean, go to AI now and just ask, what should I be making or what does this financial plan look like? What are you seeing show up in your conversations when you talk to these clients?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so it's important for the listeners, watchers to know that we work with baby boomers and Gen X, Gen Y. So we have older clients, we have retirees, essentially, that's who we work with. And now you're starting to see that be Gen X. And I think that that kind of attitude towards money, that openness about money has shifted up, right? It went from Gen Z to millennials to Gen X to baby boomers. I don't see it in the silent generation clients we work with. They are still very closed off.

Mm-hmm.

But I think two things have become apparent to me within this theme. Number one is that that money as a tool is also, it's present, right? People are talking about not returns as much as they are. Hey, can I afford to go on this safari with my kids and my grandkids, right? It's a tool, not necessarily, hey, I need to have.

three million dollars instead of two million dollars or five instead of two or whatever that number is. And then I think the second thing is that on the theme of being open and talking about it is that generations are talking to each other about it. So you have you have our clients now having open conversations with their kids about money and the impact of money and okay, is this going to hurt them or help them?

Mm-hmm.

And those conversations I think weren't just happened, just weren't happening before. was like, okay, I my kids as a beneficiary and they get what they get and, and we'll see how it works out. But now we're having conversations. So, you know, it's not, it can be used as positively as a tool and not negatively as quicksand or, know, however you want to view that in a negative context.

And interesting on that, because I think a lot of times it was like, well, hey, you get what you get, deal with it and I'll be dead. So you guys fight it out. And that's as we have found has not been a great approach for anyone to take to the planning. But I love this thought that you're kind of honing in on is not only are we talking about it more, but then the attitude towards money itself has shifted with this generation. How are you seeing them show up?

Yeah. Yeah.

Now!

as perspective clients in a financial planning relationship.

You know, I think it's that's where the challenge is, that, and there's research behind this, that people don't know how to judge good planners from bad planners, right? So we run a wealth management practice. are all, you know, we're certified financial planners. People cannot differentiate one from the other. And so when they come to us, it's, we're probably not serving ourselves well to say like, Hey, we're the financial planner that's going to like,

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Maximize the number of vacations you take. Right? It's just too frothy. So I think a lot of this comes into practice with clients more so than it does with prospects. With prospects, I think, and I'm happy to dive into this because it's related to the presentation, I think we do really need to open the door and show them what we do with clients instead of just tell them because that's when they can start to see and feel that.

Hmm.

Right, I bring in a prospect and I build a financial plan with them, whereas maybe I wouldn't do that previously, I'd say, we build financial plans for all of our clients, but what if we actually did that for prospects too? And we start to have those conversations and we're talking about the trips they're taking, we're talking about the values that are guiding their decisions, and we have those kind of deep conversations, then I think they can start to get sort of a feeling for.

for what we do. But I do think it can be a little bit too frothy to say, hey, we're the clients who care about you using money as a tool. And that's just like, what does that mean?

Yeah, well, so the the keynote that you're talking about is called persuading prospects to become clients by leveraging influence techniques. And there's a lot to unpack in just that title because there's a lot here. But I really want to hone in on this idea in the beginning of having a plan for prospects. I mean, we know that for clients, but I think this is so interesting that you're saying, let's set this up as a plan for prospects. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Yeah, so this is based on the principle of reciprocity, right? And the way I train on this is like, if you walk through double doors and somebody opens the door for you, you're going to open the door for them. Like you have to be a psychopath not to do that. Or just incredibly rude, maybe. But the idea in the context of your onboarding process, and when I tell everybody that

that I'm training or speaking to is treat every prospect like a client, right? Completely open your door to your, the door to your services and show them, like give them a test drive of what it feels like to be a client. Don't hold back advice. Do all of that because when you get to the decision of one, because I think it's the right thing to do. Let me just start there. But two, when they get to the decision of like, should I hire this person? There's that,

Hmm.

look at all these things they've already done for me, not that I owe them, but I'm probably gonna get more from this person because I know what they're capable of. They do not hold back. And I should preface this by saying I didn't come from this world. I came from a fee for plan. Like my first six years in the profession, we had to charge a financial planning fee. We had to send in a check to open up the financial plan for that client. And so this is not the world I came from.

Mm-hmm

But I have evolved into this model one because I read this book and was like, the research supports doing it this way. I hold the door for somebody, they're going to hold the door for me. You could think of it like at the farmer's market, I give you a piece of cheese. You're more likely to buy a block of cheese because of this tiny little sample I gave you, as long as the cheese is good. So I think that's the only way to truly open your door to prospects. we do free planning for people.

But at the same time, you have to have a cutoff there. And that gets into the next component, which is scarcity. And the way we do this is say, you're going to be treated like a client of ours. You're going to get all of our best advice, but you're going to get it for 21 days. That's it. And you see other businesses do this. If you want to go watch HBO Max or whatever it's called now, you can go watch it.

Yeah? Yeah.

It's free for one week. And as soon as you realize how good the shows are compared to Netflix, you keep it going or you don't, right? But you have a choice there. You've got to walk into that world and see what it was actually like to be a subscriber.

Yeah.

And then the third thing being social proof. So reciprocity, scarcity, talk to us about social proof. What is that?

Yeah, social proof. So my wife is telling me about this resort in Mexico that her parents are going to. And the first thing I do, if you have the TripAdvisor app, which I think a lot of us do, you go to TripAdvisor, you search the resort, and you either look at pictures or you scroll down to reviews. It's one of those two things that you always start with. Social proof is that. You want to figure out, is this a legitimate service? And you don't rely on the people who

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

built the service, rely on the people who have experienced it to tell you whether or not it's a legitimate service. It's just like when you go to Amazon and you click the star rating so you don't have to scroll through everything else, you go straight to the reviews.

We used to not be able to do this, right? In our industry that you couldn't have testimonials, now you can. So that's easier, but there's all sorts of ways you can do this, right? A referral is social proof. When somebody gets referred into your business, there's already an element of social proof there. There are all sorts of services out there. Like I'm on the board of the Financial Planning Association. They have a media tool where

Right, right.

You can respond to media inquiries and perhaps you've done this in the past and it's easy, it's painless and all of a sudden on your website you can say, as seen on Wall Street Journal, as seen in New York Times, all these places where somebody gets your website and they say, okay, this is one way I can differentiate Evans firm versus the firm down the street is that there are these legitimate outlets or people saying that they have a good product or service.

Yeah. Okay, so let's back up a minute because you mentioned the research and I want to bring up the name. It's Robert Cialdini's influence principles that you're building this trending around. And so one, his work wasn't specific to financial services. Can you tell us how you've taken that work and made it where it's central and how it's part of your business plan? Maybe kind of walk us through what that looks like.

Yep.

Yeah, so this book, I would put it in, once again, it's Robert Cialdini's influence. I would put it in required reading for anybody who is responsible for any business development function in any business. But I think naturally when I read things, I think it was...

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Daniel Crosby maybe who recommended this on a different podcast I was listening to on Brendan Fraser's podcast. I said, and that's how I learned about it. And I read it. And you know, if you work in this, this business or any business and you're a business owner, you start to think about, how do I apply this here? And I think the really cool thing about this is like every advisor I talk to wants to grow. Almost none of them are growing. And I think a lot of that has to do with growing his heart.

Right, it's like when you, everybody wants to lose weight, everybody wants to be fit, but like nobody wants to eat less and nobody wants to go to the gym before work. It's like nobody wants to do burpees, they suck. Right, this is something where it's just a, if you apply these, he calls them weapons of influence, which sounds really negative and I think he changes that in the latest version of this book. I don't think he calls them weapons anymore, but.

Yeah, yeah.

these are mental shortcuts that we use to make decisions. And what he did is he researched them. And when I read the book, I said, okay, well, these are shortcuts that people use to make decisions. How do we reduce friction in our onboarding process, right? Make it easier for the right people to say yes during our onboarding process. so, right, scarcity is the idea of, okay, you have 21 days or when somebody comes to the

to your booking site, they don't see 15 slots every day, right? I was trying to book with a ear, nose and throat doctor once and I went to, gosh, now I can't remember the name of the website where you can book doctor appointments, but there are two doctors on there. One had every appointment every day and I was like, this must be the worst doctor ever.

See that good? Yep.

It's like they don't have more hours than everybody else. They just have less patients. And if they have less patients, right, you have that kind of, yeah. And then you have a doctor whose their first appointment is three weeks from now and you're like, I guess I'll wait three weeks to see the good doctor. Right. And so scarcity applies in a lot. It applies in every business. Right. It's I think in a negative context, it's like I tried to book an airline ticket the other day and I searched for one person and it said only one ticket left at this price.

What does that mean? Yeah, yeah.

You're right.

and I adjusted the search for four people and it said only four tickets left at this price, the exact same price. like, I think it goes without saying you have to, you have to do this with the best intentions in mind. You have to believe in your service. You have to believe that people are better off with you than without you, even after they pay you. And if you believe in those things,

Mm.

And it was still there.

make it easy for the right people to say yes, for the wrong people to say no, because if the right people aren't saying yes to you, they're gonna say yes to somebody who's gonna sell them a lesser product or service. So, now I can't even remember where we started on that question, but.

Well, I think what I like about this though, is you're not just jumping into scarcity first. You mentioned at the very beginning that you have to open the door and that you do this yourself. You treat any prospect like you would a client, where you are helping them for whatever, that 21 day period, and they're getting a feel of it so that they can make an informed decision. And they get a sample, for lack of a better word.

of what that is like and then build in the scarcity. So it sounds like there is a specific way to go about this. It's not just make sure that you have these principles intact. It's a specific training on how to do that. Is that right?

Yeah, totally. It's easy. It's the anti-burpee of business development. This is not like, you don't have to go out and make, right, I started making 500 phone calls like the first week in the business. I did that for five years, 500 phone calls a week. And those are burpees, right? Like those are painful. And these are very subtle.

You

Wow.

Yeah, that's brutal.

maybe sometimes not so subtle shifts, but they don't require working harder. So yeah, the keynote is in all of these presentations, but we're talking about this one today. It's like, here's A, B, and C you can do in your practice today.

Very practical, helping them take away. How have you seen this change your prospects? Because you started your own firm. How have you seen implementing these change how you've turned prospects into clients?

Mm-hmm.

So few things, think probably what would be most helpful for those listening, like people who are advisors who are out there prospecting, is that you don't chase people anymore. Right, so you go, and from two ends, I would say, one, if you apply scarcity correctly, you go from the hunter to the hunted, right? Instead of saying like, hey, I'm out here hunting you and people are running away from me, like,

Mm-hmm.

you when you employ scarcity correctly, people are coming to you and you are saying, look, we have scarce resources. We can do this, but we can only do it for X number of people. And here's where we are with that. Like you have to be willing to say those things. And the number two is you don't chase people anymore beyond that 21 day. I think the most painful thing if you're prospecting is not the yeses or the nos, it's the maybes.

Mm-hmm.

And you eliminate maybes this way. Because if you open your doors and then you close them, it's like, look, you have three weeks to make a decision. Like what else in the world are we able to do that? Like very few services will allow you to be a client, if you want to call it that from a compliance perspective, you probably can't call it that, but very few services will completely open their doors without costs for three weeks.

So you don't need to feel bad doing that. But if somebody can't make a decision in three weeks, it's that they can't come back six months or a year down the road, but it's not on you to go chase those people.

Is it the right fit? And is the, I think that's the other part of this is the time now. I'm thinking about motivational interviewing and even trans theoretical model of change. You have to be in that action phase to want to change. And I think often we think of everyone's, if they're reaching out to us, their action, they're ready to take action. And research actually has shown only 20 % of people are actually in.

Mm-hmm.

that action phase. And yet what I like, what you're saying about this is treat them as if they're in that phase and then let them choose if they're ready to take those next steps and that you're there, whichever decision they make.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, one of the things that I like about your speeches is how practical they are. And what I want to hear from you is if someone were to listen to this idea and want to apply it in a client conversation this week, or even in their own financial life, what is one thing you would tell them now they could start doing right away?

Yeah, I think the obvious one that we've sort of already touched on is just schedule blocking. Like that's such an easy one to say, okay, look, your clients deserve your time, probably more than anybody in your business. so block that time, right? If you know, okay, I have 100 clients and each client takes 20 hours a year, then you block that much time for your clients. And then beyond that, you block your prospecting time.

Mm-hmm.

and your marketing time and all you block all of that out, right? It's kind of like the rock pebble sand idea. You block out those rocks first and what you're going to be left with is a lot less white space, but that's where your prospects go. And if there's less white space, it's going to be perceived as more valuable by your prospects. So I think that's one is it's been one, it's been very intentional with your time and leaving time to market into prospect, but to making it so like.

Nobody looks at your calendar and says, this person's not busy, their time is not valuable, and I can see them whenever I want to.

Let me ask you the opposite side of that question because I have the opposite problem is someone looks at my calendar and says, Hey, I can't get on until three months from now. That's also a problem. So how do you find that balance between not having enough time and having too much time? What does that middle ground look like?

Yeah, that sounds like a capacity problem and maybe a service model problem. So.

What we follow here right or wrong, and Mary, I don't know how well this carries over to your business because it's different, but we follow a seasonal schedule, a surge schedule, if you will, but a seasonal schedule where we see all of our clients in March and we see them again in October. so we are fully booked during those times. But the other times of the year, we have ample capacity to see people.

But I actually even get in front of that. So I'll go at the beginning, and this is another one that's easy to apply. I'll go to clients in January and say, look, are, or not to clients, to prospects in January and say, hey, we are entering our busy season. Our calendars will be completely unavailable in typically in March and in April. And then again, in October and November, if you have something that you need to get addressed before May, you need to book with us in the next three weeks.

Going back to applying that scarcity mentality, but also that open door of saying, I'm giving you the information upfront so that you can have it. I love that. I think that that's a good balance where you're able to say, here's what's going on. And really just looking back and restructuring that calendar to where you're meeting the client's needs while not overwhelming, but meeting enough. I love it.

Yeah.

So if you want to learn more about Evan and bring this keynote to your audience visit financialbehaviorkeynote.com forward slash speakers to find everything you need. So Evan if there's one important principle, this is the big walk away. If someone's in the audience listening to this now, what should they carry into their next financial conversation?

think reciprocity is real, right? Like any time, I have literally gone to restaurants I hate for like periods of years because people are nice to my kids. So like, I remember I used to go to this coffee shop below my office for like years because one time they gave my kids free hot chocolate. I was like, I don't like their coffee, but I like them. So.

Wow. Wow.

I think reciprocity is real. And the way I was trained, like literally I remember people saying, bosses saying to me, don't spill all the candy in the lobby, right? Like don't give away all your best, like your secret sauce. Well, AI, right? We haven't talked about AI. It's probably the first conversation anyone's had this year without talking about AI, but like I'm about to ruin it. AI is making all information available.

Right?

Right? You holding something back, they're just going to go and ask Gemini or chat, GBT or Claude or whatever. And so experiment with that, right? Experiment being as giving as possible. Like if, even if it doesn't work, you're going to deliver a better experience, but it will work. People are going to be blown away. this guy who I haven't paid anything has already delivered more value in these three weeks than my advisor that I pay.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

X amount to per year has in the entire year, right? Try it. Try being as giving as possible and it will benefit you as a, you it'll benefit you down the road, but just try it. Just try it.

as person and a planner. Yeah, I love it. You know, I just listened to Stephen Colbert say this exact same thing about Taylor Swift with his daughter, where his daughter was there, really wanted to meet Taylor. And so he kind of tapped Taylor on the shoulder and said, hey, you know, I'm Stephen Colbert, this is daughter. And she turns around and just gushes over his daughter. And he said, I'd be willing to walk on hot coals for that woman because she was so good. But I think the part of this is not just, it about me and what am I getting in this relationship?

Yeah, there you go.

But I love what you're saying here is it's the generational effect. You go back to that coffee shop because of the way they treated your kids. Now apply that to financial planning. How are you not just serving the client in front of you, but their generation and even their grandchildren? Because if you're treating their spouse, their kids and their grandkids well, that's going to go along for generations, not just the moment you're in.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally.

I think that those are the types of conversations that I love to hear come up. It's just this fact that it's not just about what am I getting. It's not about I don't have enough time. It's making the time, showing the social proof, and just putting it as not as tools of manipulation, but like real clients getting what they want and what they need, what they deserve from the financial planner. And then this has been great. I really appreciate your time and I love hearing.

how research can be applied into everyday practice. And so if you're looking for a speaker who books this kind of perspective with your audience, you can learn more at financialbehaviorkeynote.com. If this episode resonated with you, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Every conversation we have on the show is designed to move the needle on how we think and talk about money, and we're glad you're here for it. Thanks for joining us on Financial Behavior Thought Leaders, where keynote ideas meet real-world application. See you next time.