"No." is a complete sentence

In my 20+ years of coaching and consulting, one of the travesties that run rampant in our industry are discounted fees, or “exceptions” as advisers like to quietly call them. In fact, most advisers really have no idea how many fee exceptions they have on the books by the time their practice is 5, 10 or 15 years in the business.

I ask advisers if they know why they made the exceptions, and the response is pretty common, and critical to mastering your mindset: “I don’t know really; I guess I didn’t want to lose the client. I didn’t know what else to say.”

When I probe a little deeper, most advisers describe a typical situation.  They would be having a good meeting, and then unexpectedly the prospect would indicate that they really liked what they had heard—but… would you be willing to reduce his fees? 

Stop the presses. In what world does it make sense that when someone feels good about the work you do, and the value that you will add, and their first response is to ask for a discount? 

And, in what common sense world does the professional respond by essentially saying, “I just told you all the value I can add to your life, and you just told me you agreed, so yes it makes perfect sense for you to ask for a discount and for me to say yes and for us to both feel great about this relationship as we begin on those terms.”

Which, if we’re being honest, is precisely what happened.    

If you’re like most people I share that example with, you cringed a little bit when you read that last part. Why?  Because it intuitively makes no sense whatsoever.  When I re-frame situations and issues like this for clients, I usually hear something like: “Well, when you put it like that…”

Advisers readily discount fees, take referrals below their minimums, and say yes in ways that compromise their standards… and unwittingly put a stranglehold on their own success. This isn’t because any of us want to do these things to ourselves (who would!?), or because there’s even a good business case for doing them (there usually isn’t).

Advisers do these things because they aren’t comfortable saying “No,” leaving “Yes” as the only good option. With a strong clarity/focus mindset, you will no longer feel the need to back down off your standards, because you’re clearly focused on building the practice you want and have no interest in a business that doesn’t align with your definition of success.

If you want to learn more about how to actually change the conversation you hold with yourself and your clients, including some short scripts you can use, you can read the entire article that was published in Investment News.  To learn more about how you can build a wildly successful business and life you love:

• WATCH our training Mindsets & Methods: Build a $1M Practice and Take 100+ Days Off a Year
• SUBSCRIBE to the Success 2.0 email series
• READ the entire article on Investment News or on our site, StephanieBogan.com