Ep. 190 - When a PNC Wants to “Think About It”

Member Dee debriefs with Ali 2 recent planning sessions where the PNCs left without committing but where Dee thinks they will return and engage. She wants to know what, if there was anything, she could have done differently to engage them during the planning session.

Both sets of potential clients had a lot of similarities:

• Both either knew her personally or were referred to her.
• Both were couples.
• ·Both owned investment properties, which was part of their concern.

Ali brings to light 2 different issues that may have been at play, causing them to need to leave and think about it before engaging.

1) During the FWPS, Dee may have placed too much focus on the specific documents themselves, instead of the outcomes the clients desired.  Remember, documents themselves standing alone will fail. It is the plan that the clients can rely on to bring them their desired outcome.  Offer the outcome as the solution, not the documents!

2) When a PNC truly can't make a decision in the design part of the meeting, guide them to, at a minimum, engage for the base level plan.  Then schedule a second design meeting to make final decisions.  You don’t want them to get hung up on making big decisions and have that get in the way of them having base level protections in place. That means at the conclusion of the FWPS they pay the base rate. If, at the second design meeting they make decisions that require more work, they will pay the additional amount at that time.

Ali provides sample language to use to support clients (and you!) during these seemingly tricky situations.  Ultimately, you want to support the client to make what decisions they can make that day, to enable them to move forward.

Host: Ali Katz