Communicating with clients and prospects about financial planning and the issues related thereto requires, in effect, that we translate a foreign language to and for them. Since dealing with financial matters is a daunting task, that emotional roadblock makes effective communication even more difficult. We must also listen to them and understand what they are communicating (or trying to communicate), even when they are less than clear.
I often work with producers who think that their communication with prospects is two-way and open, even when it is not. It is all but impossible to ask too many open-ended questions of prospects and it is impossible to overestimate how important it is for producers to listen not just to what is being said, but also for what is being withheld and to what is meant in a meeting with a client or prospect. Many of us are all too ready to go into "pitch mode" before we have heard the story the prospect needs to tell to give the background information we need to allow us to get into a position to be able to communicate the appropriate solution(s) to them. We need to know, fully and completely, what they are "sinking" in order to make the right recommendations and to make those recommendations stick.