How to Implement Pre-Meeting Potentiation (P.M.P) to Supercharge Your Close Rate

If you’re like most insurance and financial advisors, you:

  • Spend a lot of time putting yourself “out there” by publishing content, creating funnels, and optimizing your LinkedIn profile so that you can book more meetings and fill up your calendar with qualified prospects.
  • Spend additional time preparing for these meetings so that you can convert prospects into clients.

And at first, you think it’s working…

You go from two meetings per week to five, then seven, then 12!

Now we’re cooking, you think to yourself.

But you’re quickly sobered by the fact that more meetings doesn’t necessarily mean more clients, commissions, or AUM.

In fact, more meetings can actually be a waste of time, IF…

You aren’t doing an effective job of mastering something called Pre-Meeting Potentiation, or P.M.P.

The 3 Keys to Successful Pre-Meeting Potentiation (P.M.P.)

P.M.P. is an acronym that I use to describe the process of establishing preeminence and setting expectations prior to any meeting.

P.M.P. is important for any type of meeting, but is especially critical when it comes to virtual meetings where prospects are much more likely to show up late, be disengaged, or not show up at all.

There are three key elements to P.M.P.

Let me unpack them for you…

P.M.P. Element #1: Ground Rules 

If you don’t respect your time, nobody else will. This is why I highly recommend setting up ground rules at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. 

You can do this via email, phone, Loom, or any other medium or platform that you find convenient. 

The ground rules you set up will be specific to your objectives, but here are a few that I recommend using:

  • Let the prospect know that you will start on time. Not only does this encourage them to show up on time, but it also lets them know that you respect their time. As a result, you’re both able to schedule the meeting with confidence.
  • If the prospect is married, it’s a smart rule of thumb to require both spouses to be present. This prevents misunderstandings and prevents unnecessary followup meetings where you have to repeat everything you said the first time. (If one spouse can’t attend, consider recording the Zoom meeting and sending the link over via email.)
  • Ask your prospect to have all required documents already pulled up before the meeting starts. Otherwise a huge chunk of the meeting might be spent tracking down the appropriate statements, forms, and numbers.
  • Kindly request that the prospect refrains from joining the meeting while driving in the car. Not only does this prevent them from using video, but it’s highly distracting for both parties. Ask the prospect to find a quiet and private place where they can focus.
  • Always set a strict time budget to let the prospect know how long the meeting will last. Not only is this respectful, but it also holds you accountable and forces you to be precise with how you approach each facet of the meeting (so as not to run long).

As a footnote, please don’t use the word “ground rules” with a prospect.

It sounds too much like you’re the “professor” and they’re the “student.”

Instead, say something like: 

“This is how it’s going to go…” 

OR 

“In order for me to serve you at the highest level, here’s what I’d suggest you come to the meeting with…”

This simple shift in verbiage makes it feel more like expectations than rules.

P.M.P. Element #2: Indoctrination

Do you struggle with prospects saying the following?

“I need to talk to other people and then I’ll get back with you.”

“Will you please give me some references?”

“I need to think about it before making a final decision.”

If so…you aren’t alone.

I’ve known many advisors over the years who find themselves constantly facing this noise…and it’s frustrating!

You put in all of this work to win over a prospect and then they push you to the proverbial back burner to see if there are better options out there.

But there’s a way to get around this issue. 

It’s called indoctrination.

And as an advisor, I believe you should be using techniques to indoctrinate people about you, your belief systems, what you stand for, and your expectations before people even show up to speak with you.

Any time you invest into creating an indoctrination process, sequence, or methodology will pay dividends. However, there are a couple of things that you must know:

(1) Indoctrination is a process, not an event. It doesn’t happen in a moment. It happens over time. 

(2) An indoctrination process doesn’t have to be complex. Find what works for you and tailor it to your objectives.

If you’re prospecting in the cold market, here’s a sequence I recommend:

FB Ad → Lead Form → Landing Page With Thank You Video → Email Sequence

At the end of the landing page, include a CTA for people to book a meeting.

But remember, we don’t call them “meetings.” Use a unique mechanism like

  • 15 Minute Retirement Strategy Chat
  • Financial Security Breakthrough Session
  • Money Mavericks Clarity Call
  • Retirement Revolution Discovery Session

If the prospect doesn’t book a meeting on the landing page, you can use the email sequence to indoctrinate over a series of messages and drive them back to the calendar. 

For best results send a four-part email campaign on Day 0, Day 1, Day 4, and Day 7 and be sure to:

  • Make yourself human
  • Send pictures of you and your family (show your personality)
  • Share your ideas (stop using cookie-cutter industry language and set yourself apart).
  • Avoid being pushy

Not every prospect will respond to these emails (and that’s fine). 

If you don’t hear anything back by the fourth email, place the prospect into your weekly newsletter for long-term nurturing.

P.M.P. Element #3: Video Confirmation 

Just because people say they’re going to show up, doesn’t mean they’re actually going to show up. (That’s just the reality of the cold marketplace!)

But you can increase your show rate exponentially by using one little trick: Personalized video.

This is definitely the hardest element of the P.M.P. methodology, but it has the greatest payoff. And if you really want to have powerful confirmations, video is the way to go.

There are three good tools you can use:

BombBomb is awesome, but runs you $49 if you want all of the integrations, templates, and advanced analytics.

Bonjoro is less expensive, though it doesn’t have as many editing features or all of the user-friendly options that you’ll find with BombBomb.

Finally, there’s Loom.

Not only do they have a great free option (which lets you record videos up to five minutes in length), but their screen recording and interface is top notch.

You literally press a couple of buttons, the video records, and then it spits out a shareable link that you can pass along to the prospect.

Best of all, Loom notifies you as soon as the prospect has viewed the video. (Which keeps you in the loop and ensures you know precisely where they stand.)

If you do want additional features, like unlimited recording length, video drawing, calls-to-action, custom branding, and additional analytics, it’s only $10 for a business account.

(If you’re an Advisorist MAX member, you can actually go into your account and I’ve loaded a 16-step walkthrough guide with screenshots and diagrams showing you the precise steps I use to record and send Loom videos.)

Win More Virtual Sales Meetings

As important as pre-meeting potentiation is, you still have to execute.

The meeting still matters.

And if you want to improve the close rate of your virtual sales meetings, you may need to adjust your approach.

This year was not some blip on the radar.

While COVID-19 won’t be around forever, many of the effects of this pandemic on our industry will be permanent.  

Virtual selling is the new norm.

It’s here to stay.

And I want you to THRIVE in this new virtual environment.

So I put together a powerful playbook just for insurance and financial advisors.

And I’m offering it to YOU for FREE.

The book is split up into six different sections with a total of 44 tips and tricks you can use to master virtual meetings in 2021 and beyond.

Inside you’ll find tips on the best virtual meeting software, setting meeting agendas, lighting suggestions, rules of thumb for meeting times and lengths…etc.

Once again, it’s my gift to you…totally GRATIS.

Fill out your info below to learn the battle-tested strategies insurance and financial advisors are using to thrive during this virtual SHIFT.

 

 

The Best Hour of My Week

Every Wednesday night I have a standing “date” night with hundreds of the industry’s top insurance and financial advisors.

It’s a 60-minute virtual gathering where we get to share ideas and discuss the proven strategies that are working RIGHT NOW.

To give you an idea of what we discuss, here’s some of what I’ve taught over just the last couple of months:

  • How to use Unique Mechanisms to create powerful movements & crush your competition.
  • The simple strategy that gets prospects and clients to do 80% of the talking.
  • The 2 most important components in removing yourself from the process and growing your business
  • Airtight security features to prevent embarrassing Zoom mess-ups
  • A dead simple 3-step process for making a strong first impression in any virtual meeting
  • The proprietary 5-step formula for making any LinkedIn post go VIRAL
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  • The one type of email that gets a 4X-10X response rate vs. standalone email 

And that’s maybe 10% of what I’ve taught over the past few sessions.

The information we discuss – and the bonds that we form – are worth thousands of dollars every week.

Every week, I’m getting feedback just like this…

And we’re seeing advisors do BIG things…like this:

It humbles me to think that so many are being positively impacted by the discussions we have.

I’d love to have you join our family for the next Virtual Advisor Power Hour.

These LIVE trainings take place every Wednesday afternoon at 12 noon ET.

The only catch is that there are no replays.

I do that intentionally, because I want you to show up and play full out. 

And if you do…

I can promise you one thing: You’ll walk away better equipped to serve your clients and grow your advisory. 

Click HERE to add the Virtual Advisor Power Hour to your calendar!

Jeremiah Desmarais

Jeremiah Desmarais

Jeremiah is the founder and CEO of Advisorist® and is a 23-time award winning financial marketer, a TED speaker and philanthropist. He’s been featured on Forbes, CNN, and Worth. His work has generated over $2 million insurance leads and helped advisors in over 51 countries generate over $300 million in sales commissions. He is the author of the best selling book, SHIFT.

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