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Steve Wershing:
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Becoming Referable, the podcast that shows you how to be the kind of advisor people want to talk about. I’m Steve Wershing. In this episode, we talk with Chris Westfall, National Elevator Pitch Champion and author of the book The New Elevator Pitch. In our conversation, we talk about the idea that although our industry has sort of gotten past the idea of a pitch, that the idea of an elevator pitch, which is to be persuasive in a very short period of time is more important than ever. We’ll talk about how you can’t judge the effectiveness of an elevator pitch based on what you say, but rather on what people do once they hear it. Chris will cover will some of his surefire conversation openers to help you get into discussions about what you do. It’s a great episode with a lot of practical ideas. Now, Chris Westfall. Well, Chris Westfall, welcome to the Becoming Referable podcast. We’re so happy to have you here. Thanks for joining us.

Chris Westfall:
Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

Steve Wershing:
One of the things that’s interesting about your background is that you are the national elevator pitch champion. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience and what the whole competition is about?

Chris Westfall:
Well, it all started with a Tweet, which is kind of strange to say that because I have about 13,000 followers on Twitter. My Twitter stream is pretty busy, but I saw a Tweet somehow that there was an interest in finding out who had the best two-minute speech in the country. It was put together by a gentleman named Jeffrey Hazlet, and that name may be familiar to some folks.

Steve Wershing:
Sure.

Chris Westfall:
He was on Bloomberg TV and he’s written a few bestselling books. He put together this contest to see who had the most compelling and persuasive two-minute speech. I thought to myself, why not? Why not check it out? I had been doing coaching and working with clients and helping them on a number of different things, including their elevator pitch. I said, I’m just going to try. I went and I recorded a two-minute video and submitted it to this competition. I had to get votes from all over the country. It was a contest where you solicited votes via social media to watch the video. Actually, I came in second place in the national voting. Second place.

Steve Wershing:
Wow.

Chris Westfall:
Yeah. An entrepreneur in Atlanta actually got the most votes. I thought, well, this was a great experience. I’m really glad that I did it, but then my phone rang and it was one of Jeff’s team letting me know that I was the grand prize winner and the national champion. They had done a Voice-American Idol kind of thing and they said, second place in the voting, but first place with us.

Steve Wershing:
Interesting.

Chris Westfall:
Then, everything changed. That was how that recognition came to be, and that was what launched the books and really transformed the work that I was doing to help me to engage with financial advisors, Fortune 100 companies, etc.

Steve Wershing:
That’s very interesting. What went into that? How did you go about putting together the pitch that won the competition?

Chris Westfall:
Well, it’s an interesting story because it has to do with the nature of what I recorded. By the way, if anybody’s interested, you can check it out on my YouTube channel, which you can find on YouTube at Westfall Online. Or just put my name into YouTube, you’ll find me. I believe that the designations that we all have; CPA, MBA, maybe some of the folks out there are professional engineers. Or whatever the distinctions, CFA. Whatever those distinctions might be, they’re not enough today because there are a lot of folks that have a lot of designations. Being able to distinguish yourself and not relying on your laurels, accolades, or accomplishments to create real value is the challenge for all of us. I believe that people have to be able to tell their stories in a way that’s compelling, that’s engaging because it’s not enough. It’s great that you passed the CFA exam, but what else? My elevator pitch, if you will, was about how you’ve got to have an elevator pitch and you’ve got to be able to tell your story.

Steve Wershing:
How meta of you.

Chris Westfall:
So, that’s what I did, because I believe it. It was authentic. It was sincere, as sincere as I can be about something. So, that was the result.

Steve Wershing:
And you bring up a really important point, too. We talked a little bit about this before we started the recording, which is it’s not enough to be a CFA/CFP/CLU, any of the designations, because first what people want to know is not what credentials you have, but what you’re going to do for them. But more importantly, there’s a zillion financial advisors people can choose from and the big question is, why you out of all the people I have access to, right?

Chris Westfall:
Absolutely. Absolutely, and that question has to be something that goes beyond past performance, whether that’s academic credentials or whatever it is, people are not interested in your history. They don’t want a history lesson. They want to know the answer to this question. What can you do for me now? You hit it. That’s the thing. People want to know why should I do business with you and what can you do for me right now? It’s great that 2006 was a good year for you. It’s not here anymore. What are you going to do for me now?

Julie Littlechild:
Do you find, and Steve, you may hear this, that some people are recoiling a little because of the name elevator pitch, that we sometimes get convinced that somehow that sounds too salesy. I’m not pitching people. I’m trying to connect. Do you actually think that term gets in the way?

Chris Westfall:
Steve, do you want to take that one, or do you want me to try?

Steve Wershing:
I’ll just throw something in here. It’s a question for you, Chris, and what I do with advisors; I’ve actually gotten away from calling it an elevator pitch. We call it a positioning statement. What are your thoughts on that?

Chris Westfall:
Well, the book that I wrote is called The New Elevator Pitch because of exactly what Julie is talking about, is that I don’t want this idea that it’s a pitch to shift people into some sales mode or to make a financial advisor think that they have to become someone that they’re not in order to be compelling. Because the most authentic story is always the one that’s most compelling, and if you’re being someone that you’re not, how is that effective? The new elevator pitch, it’s not a pitch at all. It’s a conversation, and that’s what clients want. They want a dialogue. They want a dialogue with someone that sees their needs in ways that others don’t or won’t or can’t. That’s why people are going to do business with you, and it’s not about the financial vehicles that you offer or the annuity plan. It’s about the way that you connect, first and foremost. Ultimately, it’s going to become about the numbers and those sort of things, but numbers are points in a narrative if you do it right. A narrative that’s your story, and it’s not salesy. It’s not pitchy. It’s not fake.

It’s just preposterous to think that there are some words that you could somehow say or some memorized speech where the 9^th word is abracadabra and because that’s a magic word you get magic results. Preposterous. It doesn’t work that way. You have to get clear about who you are and what you can do for the people that matter most to you. And not just them, but in many cases the people that they care about. If you’re talking anyone succession strategies, if you’re talking about family members, if you’re talking about transitioning a business. Whatever the case may be, it’s not about your experience. It’s about your client and the people that your client cares about the most. That’s not a sales conversation. That’s a dialogue about creating real results. I think of what Edward R. Murrow, the great American newsman said, I guess it was in the ‘50s that he said this, but it was ‘our greatest obligation is not to confuse slogans with solutions’. I think that that’s really true when it comes to thinking of an elevator pitch, that it’s about creating solutions not about magic words or some memorized prescriptive speech that makes people pull out their checkbooks. It just doesn’t work that way.

Steve Wershing:
It’s a critically important point, too. I’m glad you were talking about it, because financial advisors tend to talk in their own technical speech, even when they’re talking with prospective clients. Where you really need to get is to connect with somebody, like you’re saying, and for the prospective client to say, oh, he gets me. He knows me. He understands. Because only at that point will a prospective client say, yes, you’re the one I want to give me advice because you get who I am.

Chris Westfall:
Absolutely right, Steve. It’s about seeing people in ways that maybe they don’t see themselves. It’s not about jargon, at least not initially. It’s about really seeing people and really engaging with them. We were talking a little bit before about Julie’s book and about engaging with your business even more fully. I think that starts when you engage with your clients and really take the time. One of the things I talk about in my book and in the speeches that I give, the presentations and workshops, really focuses on something that I call ‘you language’. In other words, so many times we talk about our business and what we do. It’s easy to talk in first person. We talk about, I do this, I do that, or we, first person plural. But when the conversation really gets powerful and engaging is when you make the second person first. The second person is you, and I don’t mean you Steve or you Julie or you the listener. You, the person that matters most to you. The client.

Steve Wershing:
That’s right. That’s right. One of the best points, I think, in your book in general is that what you say is that the best communication is judged not by what you say but what the listener does when you’re done. Can you tell us a little more about that idea?

Chris Westfall:
It’s a call to action, to think about the action that you would like to create. It’s a variation on what Covey says, begin with the end in mind, but it’s really thinking about if you are authentic, persuasive, and successful in what you’d like to create for your client, what’s the next logical step? That word logical is really important because the action that you create, sure, you’d love to have them move all of their assets to you immediately and cut you large checks and all these kinds of things and a four-day workweek and a country club membership and a pony and all those things that we want. But realistically, what is the logical step, the logical action? Going for that in a way that’s clear helps to show your client that you’ve thought things through, that you’re not out over your skis. That’s the thing, I think, that characterizes a sales pitch, is broad ambitions that don’t make sense. That’s the death of a financial conversation because there are four words that have to ring true at every step in the client conversation, and those four words, at least from my perspective are I’ve thought this through, and maybe to add two more, I’ve thought this through for you.

Julie Littlechild:
You bring up this really interesting point, because as you’re talking, one of the things I keep thinking about is advisors I hear who’ve either swung the pendulum too far or they’re trying to become almost too cute for their own good and say something quite vague, and it doesn’t feel right. Where I actually find advisors that struggle the most is if they haven’t thought through the value. That might sound like something very obvious, but if your elevator pitch is, hi, I’m a financial advisor. I’m going to make you more money, we’d probably argue that’s not very compelling. But if you haven’t actually articulated what more you do for clients and you’re not confident in that, is that really one of those first barriers that gets in our way of having an effective pitch?

Chris Westfall:
I think it is, Julie. I think it is because opening with a bold, unsubstantiated claim about what you can possibly do for a client, how is that different than bragging? Immediately, the client’s going to come back and say, you can make me more money. How do you know that? How do you know anything about my portfolio? How do you know about where I’m positioned now or what my goals are? It’s a bridge too far. Think about it. If the new elevator pitch is a conversation and what you want to have with your client is a conversation, think about where the best conversation starts. Does it start with your accomplishments? Does it start with a history lesson on who you’ve served? Or does it start with what your listener is thinking? Does is start with where your client is?

So many times financial advisors, and this is true across multiple industries, but what we try to do is convince clients to get where we are rather than starting where they are. What this means is that, for the folks that are listening to this and thinking, I’ve got 23 years of experience in this industry, put it to work. Based on your 23 years of experience, what is the person right in front of you thinking right now? This shift is the key to creating a new kind of conversation, a conversation that lets the client know exactly where your focus is. It’s not in the financial vehicles. It’s on their interests, and that shift is transformational when people understand how to create that.

Steve Wershing:
Why don’t we get into your process, then? You talk about seven steps for creating a new pitch. Since you’ve given us that introduction to it as that pivot point, can you start walking us through how people can put together a pitch?

Chris Westfall:
Absolutely. In the book, I talk about a concept that actually comes from Marcus Buckingham. He wrote a great book called The One Thing You Need to Know. I read the book. Surprisingly, there’s more than thing you need to know. Spoiler alert. It’s a book, it’s not a pamphlet. He talks about how the one thing that all business leaders who are effective, the one quality that they all share is clarity, the ability to express an idea clearly. I believe in that. I subscribe to that. So, I use clarity as a seven-step letter guide to step you through the process. The different letters in the words stand for different things, like L stands for the language of leadership. There’s just a number of different things. T stands for tact. A number of steps, because I believe that business, of course, is a process, and so too is creating the kind of conversation that you want. Of course, you never know what someone else is going to say, but by crafting and engineering the conversation, you can guide the dialogue towards the outcomes that you want.

So, that’s really what The New Elevator Pitch, the book, is try to do, is to provide people with a process so that they can engineer a new kind of dialogue and become more aware of how to convey their insights. I use that word very carefully because there’s a difference between data and insights. What clients are interested in are insights, not just data. That’s what The New Elevator Pitch allows the reader to understand is, what is that step-by-step process? And there’s seven steps that I go through. It’s not about, did you include all seven steps? Check every box? Then, you will create a great outcome. No. It’s about seven areas for people to think about, to be provocative. Like any guide, it’s up to the financial advisor to choose what works best for them. By providing this outline, it helps people to put a process to conversation, which is not something that we typically think about. That’s how the seven-step process works in the book.

Julie Littlechild:
If you were an advisor coming to you, for example, how would you get them started? How should somebody listening to this get started in refining that pitch, or creating it?

Chris Westfall:
I provide in the book, and the speeches I provide, I offer four conversation starters that help to connect with the client and to transform the conversation. If you’d like, I can share these with you right now.

Julie Littlechild:
That would be great, yeah.

Steve Wershing:
That would be great.

Chris Westfall:
These conversation starters, a couple of things I want to point out. They help to connect with the client and acknowledge their expertise, which I think is very, very important when you’re dealing with high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals. If you come in and say, let me tell you what you don’t know about financial planning, that’s a non-starter, isn’t it?

Steve Wershing:
And it’s funny that you mention that, because I think a lot of advisors do that. Yeah, it totally turns the conversation in the wrong direction.

Chris Westfall:
Well, and what happens if you acknowledge the expertise that’s right in front of you? I don’t know whether you’re talking to a doctor or a professional or a business owner. I don’t know who the client might be. I have suspicions, but when you’re talking to that individual, that acknowledgement, that recognition, is very powerful. Let me give you a couple of introductions, just statements, that can help you to set the stage for a conversation. Somebody comes up and says, why should I do business with you? Tell me about yourself. First one is, ‘have you ever noticed’, and again, this is a phrase that leads into something that the client would notice. Have you never noticed how doctors are always looking for ways to take better care of their families and to extend their business? Something like that. Something that all God’s children would say, oh yeah. That’s true.

Have you ever noticed, and the conversational construct goes like this. It’s something that your client would recognize as being true, followed by something that is unexpected, surprising, counterintuitive, or innovative. Have you ever noticed is one. Another is, ‘you know how’. You know how…something that your client would say, yes, that is absolutely true, followed by something that is counterintuitive. A couple of things that I want to point out. When you start the conversation with a question, which by the way, they’re leading questions, the impact to your listener—in fact, scientific studies show that you have a 71 to 82% better chance of being heard and listened to and understood when you begin the conversation with a question. It asks your listener to put themselves in the story, to imagine, if you will. Now you’ve got an active participant rather than someone who’s being pitched. You follow me on that?

Steve Wershing:
Sure.

Chris Westfall:
These two introductions, they borrow from the presentation strategies of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs, who would come out on stage and say, you know how, we see the world a certain way. How do you like the world when I pull my laptop out of a manila envelope? He did, not with the spirit of arrogance, but with the spirit of invitation, with the spirit of innovation. Those are two strategies that can open up the conversation. The third one, which I think is really powerful is, ‘I’ll never forget the time when’. This is very useful. If you have a defining moment in your past that has put you on the path that you are on today. I’ll never forget the time when a business owner, 54 years old, just like you are, came to me in a similar situation, owning a manufacturing company, unsure how he was going to transition out of the business…it’s an entre into a conversation. When you say, ‘I’ll never forget the time when’, if you do this right, there’s no way you can’t be completely authentic, because you’re speaking of a memory. You’re speaking of something that you’ve done. While the past is no indicator of future performance, it does showcase your thought process, the way that you interact with clients, and I think that’s so vital because at the end of the day, and Steve you’ve said it, people engage with financial advisors because of the experience of working with you. And ‘I’ll forget the time when’ is an entre into that experience.

Steve Wershing:
One of the things I love about those comments are that you’re either using a question which will engage people or you’re initiating a story which will engage people. At no point are you making really statements, but you’re either drawing the listener in and having them participate, or you’re telling them a story which we’re all wired to be really interested in.

Chris Westfall:
And the takeaway I think for folks who are listening to this, the financial advisors is, when you get done talking to someone do you want them to say, wow, that financial advisor was really an expert? Or, wow, that financial advisor made me feel like an expert, and I think their expertise can help me to be better and to reach my goals? I think category two, because there are a lot of experts out there—

Steve Wershing:
Not only that, but you’d like to leave people with the feeling that this is somebody I’d like to talk to further.

Chris Westfall:
Sure, absolutely. For the clients that financial advisors are dealing with, they don’t have to be in bad shape for you to help them to be better. In fact, if they’re high net worth or ultra-high net worth individuals, as I suspect they are, they’re in pretty good shape. So, acknowledging that expertise and creating that shared dialogue, and there are more steps of the process, obviously. We’re just scratching the surface. But understanding how to negotiate those waters and use a leading question that doesn’t come across like, hey, this is my first rodeo. Where are all the cows? That’s not the objective. It’s a question about something that they will identify and they will know that demonstrates not just your expertise but your understanding.

Your understanding of their situation. The fourth one, in case you’re curious, the fourth one is ‘doesn’t it seem like?’ Which is to say, doesn’t it seem to you like? But the you is implied. Doesn’t it seem like, and again, the conversational construct is, doesn’t it seem like the world works a certain way? Well, guess what? When you work with us, there’s some interesting surprises. There’s something that’s counterintuitive about the way that we go about business, and articulating that in a way that makes your clients say, ‘tell me more’ is the key, because tell me more lets you know that you’ve created a dialogue, a conversation. So many times, the financial conversation gets shut down. Oh, I’ve already got a guy. I’ve already got a guy.

Steve Wershing:
Sure, sure. Exactly.

Chris Westfall:
The antidote is, tell me more. That’s what you’re looking for. What’s the tell me more? What is the tell more about for you? That’s the action that you want to create.

Steve Wershing:
And I think one of the things that you’re talking about, too, is that you’re asking a question but you’re not asking an obvious question. We bump into a lot of advisors that will say, what kind of questions could you ask potential clients? They’ll come back with obvious questions like, wouldn’t you like to feel more comfortable about your financial situation? Or wouldn’t you like to make more money? Or wouldn’t you like to have less risk? Those questions, they don’t engage people. They’re not interesting, and they do sound salesy. You’re talking about questions that, like you said, acknowledge the client’s experience and acknowledge their worldview and maybe even clue them in that there’s a surprise coming.

Julie Littlechild:
Can I just ask a quick question as well? We work with so many advisors who are skilled and authentic and can change the lives of these folks. Yet, it’s almost like they need to work a different muscle based on what you’re saying. If for 23 years I’ve been telling people I’m a financial advisor, and people generally get what I mean by that, and now we’re asking them to do something that’s quite different and might feel uncomfortable at first, do you run up against that, Chris? How do you help people break through that?

Chris Westfall:
It’s by sharing a process, and understanding that yes, Julie, you’ve hit it. It is using some new muscles. The good news is that we all have these muscles and it’s something that we can grasp. I share these strategies and tactics with accountants, engineers, scientists. These are strategies that are inside all of us, but we fall back to old habits, don’t we? We fall back to wild promises, to try to be enticing, and it does feel salesy. The clients know that, and they know what that smells like and they don’t want to step in it.

Steve Wershing:
Tell me a little bit about using this with engineers. I’m fascinated by that, and there are a number of financial advisors who either dread working with engineers or relish working with engineers. Most people in our business acknowledge that the engineering personality is an animal unto its own, and not one that’s necessarily responsive to the emotional appeals or the more—those kinds of expressions. I know that not to be the case, but it sounds like you’ve got some real insights on that. Tell us a little bit about having a conversation like this with an engineer.

Chris Westfall:
When you’re working with an engineering personality, and by the way, I’m going to speak in general terms and there are always outliers when you speak in general terms. Let me just preface that. When you’re working with an engineering personality, an analytical personality, bold emotional claims are to be avoided, but at the same time, all of us, and now I’m speaking not about engineers. I’m speaking about human beings, we are all wired to listen to our emotions. Our heart drives our head. Believe me, when my wife and I were buying a house, I didn’t present her with a spreadsheet that provided her with the information about the best areas that we could afford. I didn’t do that. I waited until we walked in and she went, wow. This is the place. And then I got out the spreadsheet, and then I did my homework and the analysis followed. They key in dealing with the engineering personality, if there is such a thing, is to understand that what is top of mind for engineers is creating things that work.

If you have a solution that works, getting quickly to that path, that process, can be very, very powerful. At least that’s what I saw last year when I was working a team of engineers and scientists that actually, I coached them to victory in the Rice Business Plan competition, which is the largest and most lucrative of its kind in the world. I watched these young men win, it was close to half a million dollars in cash and prizes in one evening based on their business pitch. I know that these ideas work. I know that they resonate. In fact, it’s absolutely not about making bold claims and throwing things out there hoping that people will go, oh wow. So, you could help me to create a wonderful life. What the hell does that mean? That’s not a path. That’s not a strategy. There has to be a process that engages both the heart and the mind, and that’s really what the book is about. That’s really what my platform is about, and the workshops that I’ve done for financial advisors and companies. Step them through how to do that and how to handle objections and create the dialogue they want, really engineering that conversation.

Steve Wershing:
Interesting. Now, financial advisors have the challenge of talking not only to prospective clients, but they also have to talk with centers of influence who may be in a position to refer them to clients, accountants and attorneys and folks like that. Would you create a different process or a different elevator pitch for talking with centers of influence rather than prospects directly?

Chris Westfall:
Well, an effective pitch, let’s say an effective new elevator pitch isn’t a memorized speech. It’s a recipe. It’s a process. As you understand the process and you change who you wish to influence, obviously, the conversation changes. When it comes to providing ammunition to attorneys and folks who are in positions of influence, it’s really about asking yourself this question. What’s in it for them if they refer you? Maybe that answer is cash or whatever. I don’t know how you structure it financially, but why from an intellectual standpoint, why is it in their best interest to provide you with that referral? Giving them that ammunition, what you’re doing is, you’re helping them with their pitch. You certainly don’t want them to say, well, there’s 20% coming my way if you use this guy. No. Stop the truck. There needs to be a conversation about why this individual, this financial advisor, is intimately, personally, and powerfully focused on your needs and the attorney or whoever else is making the referral needs that ammunition. You have to, I think, understand how to craft your message first so that you can help others to create theirs. Then, when you do that, now you’ve scaled your business because now you’ve got evangelists out there who are articulate and clear on the value proposition that you can create, and that’s going to create a groundswell. That’s the best marketing you could ever hope for, is that word of mouth from other trusted advisors.

Steve Wershing:
It brings up a really important point and that is, a lot of what I’ve done is organized around referrals. What you’ve just articulated is, you’re not just talking with that one potential person who might become a client, but you’re teaching them how they can talk about you to other people.

Chris Westfall:
Think about it. You’ve touched on something, Steve, that I really want to underline here. Isn’t it about teaching people how to buy? I don’t think it’s about sales. I think it’s about teaching people how to buy. It’s about teaching people how to use their resources more wisely, and that’s a different conversation. There’s no push there. There’s only service, if you do it right. For me, my business is about service, and the clients that I serve understand that as well. When you get clear on the service that you provide, it’s not about the vehicles. It’s not about the annuities. It’s not about that. It’s about where your client is and getting clear about them.

People listening may think, well, that’s why we ask 72 questions and that sort of thing, which is important. You have to be able to probe effectively, and you have to do your due diligence as well to find out what you’re really looking at and what you’re really dealing with, but to start the conversation, to accelerate the conversation, what is it that you know about your client right now? When you realize that you’ve been in the financial game long enough to set your business aside and focus on theirs in new and more powerful ways, that’s when the conversation changes. I’m going to speak frankly here, Steve. If you don’t change the conversation, how do you change your results?

Steve Wershing:
Right. That may be the most important question. When this gets uncomfortable for advisors and they’ve got to do something different and new where we get a lot of resistance is, we talk about what to do, and then we send the advisor out to try it on a bunch of people. Half the time, they come back and say, well no, I didn’t have a chance to talk with anybody. I’ve even had people drop out of the program because it just gets so uncomfortable to be in that zone where you’re not that good yet trying something new. What you just said is exactly right. You need to do something different and you need to change if you’re not satisfied with how your business is going now. Let me ask a broader question about that. There’s a lot that’s changed in marketing and communications over the past bunch of years in terms of reaching directly out to clients instead of going through intermediaries and social media and all those kinds of things. What’s changed in the last few years that makes understanding the new elevator pitch more important?

Chris Westfall:
I think today it’s about a conversation. It’s not about the posts. It’s not about the blog. It’s not about the content. It’s about the comments. There’s a quote that I love from a guy named Jack Stack who wrote a book called The Great Game of Business. He says people will support what they help to create. If you want to know if you’ve got a powerful branding message, of course, you’ve got to look at what’s your logo like? What’s your website look like? Of course, that’s stuff is important, but the really important stuff is, how are people helping you to create your brand? How are you driving that engagement? Today, so much of marketing is focused on content. Everybody hears that. Content marketing is king. You’ve got to have content and stuff like that. Here’s what I think is important for financial advisors to realize.

Context is more important that content. That context is not, here are the products and services that we offer. That context is, I see you. I see your puts and takes. I see your challenges. I see the people that matter most to you, and I see what legacy means to you. To have a conversation around these ideas really starts the conversation with what your listener is thinking, what your audience is thinking about. When you start the conversation there, you create resonance. That resonance that says, I see you. I see things the way you see things. If you think about that, the clients that come to you, the clients that you have now, even your friends, even your spouses and partners and things like that, the source of that connection is resonance.

We see things in the same way. Or, you have a perspective that I’d like to share. Sharing that perspective is a broader and more compelling conversation than simply talking about the products and services that you offer, or your track record, or your list of clients. Because quite frankly, your next client doesn’t care about your current clients. You know what business your next client is focused on? They’re focused on their business, not on yours. That inflection point, focusing on your client in a more powerful way, is the key to a very, very powerful conversation. That where it all starts.

Julie Littlechild:
That’s so important. Hey, you’re speaking my language now. We talk a lot about cocreation of value. In a way, with the Stack comment and what you’re saying, it is about conversation. It’s about a very different thing. So, I appreciate that. I know we’re just coming up on time, and your insights have been just so great and so actionable, which I thank you for because I know we’re looking for something specific. Let me ask you that question that we always need to ask at the end of these things, which is if you’re listening to this, you’re a financial advisor, what do you think they should put on their list to do today to get started?

Chris Westfall:
If you’re a sole proprietor or you have a team, I would encourage you to sit down and think about what is top of mind for your current clients and what’s top of mind for your next client? It’s the difference between walking in and going, hey, tell me. What is it that keeps you up at night? That’s the financial services equivalent of, would you like fries with that? You know. You know what it is, don’t you? If you’ve been in this industry for more than 10 minutes, you know what people are thinking about. Why not start the conversation there? Why not say, you know how, and what comes out of your mouth next is the most honest thing that you can say about your client’s current state? What would happen? What would happen if you had the courage to start there? What would happen if you had the courage to say, I’ll never forget the time when I was working with a client that was in, I think, the exact same situation you are? What would happen?

Follow it by something that demonstrates the experience of what it’s like working with you. If in the first two minutes, you mention any products or services that you offer, please stop. Don’t make that mistake. Make the connection first because context, connection, that trumps content. That would be the place where I would start. If you have a team, ask them. What is top of mind? What do you think? Start the dialogue. Practice it. Financial advisors, we don’t practice. We just go play. You look at the folks that are—pick your favorite sports team or think about a theater performance, or if you go to the ballet or whatever. Those performers, they rehearse for hours and hours and hours. Those athletes, the season, is only a portion. The game is only a portion of what they do. Why don’t we practice? Why, as financial advisors, don’t we practice more? Maybe it’s that we don’t know the drills. Take time to think about that and invest in your business before you ask others to invest with you.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah. So perfect. It doesn’t happen by accident. You’re absolutely right. You’ve mentioned a few things. We’re going to make sure we include all the links in the show notes. What are you working on right now? Where can advisors find you?

Chris Westfall:
You can find me online at my website, and it’s WestfallOnline.com, and my last name, it’s spelled just like it sounds. It’s the direction and the season. WestfallOnline.com. You can also find me on YouTube. Julie, I have over 200 videos on YouTube and I’m close to a million video views of some of the things that we’ve been talking about today, demonstrated in front of live audiences so you can see how these communication strategies come to life. You can find me on YouTube.com/WestfallOnline. I also have a pitch course, if you want to know how to pitch your business effectively. It’s called The 118 Pitch Course. You can find that on a website called Udemy.com. If you plug in my name there, you should be able to find it. It’s called The 118 Pitch Course. I did it in conjunction with Jeffrey Hazlet. He and I are on that course together. It’ll show you with about an hour and a half of video content how to pitch your business more effectively. Those are some resources that are out there.

Julie Littlechild:
Thank you so much for taking the time. This has been great. Appreciate all that, and we’ll make sure that we get all of these links in the show notes. So, thank you again.

Chris Westfall:
Thank you, Julie, and Steve, thank you so much for having me and just to everybody who’s listening, I wish you all the best. If I can be of service to you, don’t hesitate to contact me. My business is about service. So, thank you.

Steve Wershing:
Hey, folks Steve again. Thanks for joining us on Becoming Referable. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please do us a favor and rate us on iTunes. It really helps. You can get all the links, show notes, and other tidbits from these episodes at BecomingReferable.com. You can also get our free report, Three Referral Myths That Limit Your Growth, and connect with our blogs and other resources. Until next time, so long.

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