What Is Your Storey?

I watched a memorial CD of Duncan Robinson’s son Michael who died of leukemia in 1997. It was extremely moving watching Michael growing from a new born, through his childhood, to a beaming young man and then being stricken with leukemia and then going into Canuck Place and fighting the good fight to help to find a cure.

Michael has provided Duncan with the legacy of delivering his message of “What Is Your Story?”

Duncan’s “What Is Your Story?” message is about using adversity to dig down deep to find the conviction that it takes to deliver a strong message to a client to enable them to take the necessary steps to insure their family’s financial future.

Duncan and I are talking about creating a presentation where we co-present the “What Is Your Story?” in forthcoming speaking presentations.

This is expanded in the following article.

What Is Your Parable?

You must capture the attention of your clients and one of the ways to do this is through a Parable.

I do this every time a do a presentation and starts with;

To best describe what I do, I’d like to share with you, a couple of defining moments in my life.

When I was eight years old, my mother came to me to tell that she was afraid that there wasn’t enough money for groceries and for Christmas. My father was an entrepreneur, and from time to time he sometimes was better at buying things to sell versus selling the things that he had bought. As a result, I lived in constant fear.

( If you want to read the entire Parable you can click Free E-Newsletter to subscribe and this will give the Passwords to the Resources Section of my Web Site. You can then use the Search Engine to Search “Parable”. )

Why do I do this?

To make myself real, vulnerable, open, honest and to engage the people that I am speaking with.

There is nothing worse that some salesperson starting off their conversation with I, I, II (song to the tune of I am the Frito Bandito – if you go that far back). It looks and sounds like this;

– I’ve got this great new product
– I would like to ask you a few questions
– I’m wondering if you would be interested in ____________

The minute you start of with I it is all about what you need versus adding value to the client.

The minute you start off with I it can hook you into left brain and you can again slip into the unconscious dysfunctional unmet needs of the ego mind and this can make you look just like another bloody salesperson which the world has no time for anymore. The days of the fast talking salesperson are over.

When you start off with a well written parable, it comes from the heart, it keeps you in your heart, it keeps you in your right brain and it connect your heart and right brain with your customers heart and right brain.

Relationships are built via the heart and right brain.

Your clients will be associated to you and they will be on the edge of their seats. Your parable will demonstrate that you have heart and people want to be associated with people with heart.

A client’s parable comes to mind;

Duncan Robinson of Freedom 55 Financial has a profound experience. I am not calling it a Parable out of respect because this is and Experience that Duncan lived to that has provided the passion and the dedication to become one of Freedom 55 Financials top advisors in eight short years. Duncan’s experience relates to the diagnosis of leukemia and later passing of his son Michael. Duncan experienced on a first hand basis that he knows what it feels like to be underinsured. Duncan shares that he wished that he would have had the resources to be more available for Michael and the rest of the family over the three years that Michael fought the good fight to battle the leukemia which he beat once and then eventual succumbed to the disease. During Michael’s journey they received support from Canuck Place which is one of the many charities that Duncan champions today.

Duncan knows first had what families never want to go through and Michael’s legacy lives on through Duncan’s conviction of taking care of his clients by asking them the tough questions that it takes to be a valuable resource for their certain futures.

What would you do if something happened to one of your clients and you knew that you failed to do your job to get over your fear and ask them to make the right kind of investment in life, disability or critical insurance?

The Parable will give you the heart to find the passion that will develop the conviction to ask the tough questions.

You will be less concerned with your own needs of approval and safety and more concerned with providing value for your clients.

Remember, an undisturbed client will not purchase. Most people are addicted to the socio-economic experience of living for the now of material goods, lattes and socializing and like most boomers they are fooling themselves that they are going to live forever.

In a recent conversation with Bryce Allen of G & B Allen Insurance Brokers Ltd., I was talking about families being so invested in taking their kids to this practice and that tutoring and while they are all speeding down the road in their SUV’s, all it would take is a split second in an intersection of a car running a red light and they would all find out in a very hard way the absence of or the lack of life, disability or critical illness insurance. I mentioned to Bryce that there was a fiduciary responsibility of not asking a client about their insurance needs and being strong in your conviction about their needs. I said that I am not sure if fiduciary is the right word and said I’m trying to think of a word. Bryce said it is “Sacrilegious” not asking clients about their insurance needs.

The Parable will help you get your clients associated to the heart of the matter and get them out their heads about the precious money that they will have to part with. For the price of a latte which they guzzle a few a day, they could be protecting their families.

The Abundant Advisor Book Blog – (Day 10 of Completing The Abundant Financial Advisor Book in 150 Days – April 4th – August 31st)

No book activity today as I have a full plate for today and tomorrow looking after clients – isn’t that what it is all about?