Start Meetings With This One Question

I’m going to share the one question that I use to start 90 percent of my meetings with prospective clients. And I encourage you to give this a try in your next first meeting. You're going to be amazed at the response that you get and where the conversation goes. It works because it's a fail-safe way to start a chat that quickly turns into a real conversation. It invites people to the heart of the matter and to share what's most important to them.

That opening question is, very simply, “so, what's on your mind?”

It's so simple but it works because it's a question that says, let's talk about the thing that matters the most to you. I've actually never had a dead-end answer, like, I just want to plan for retirement. Usually, they talk for a minimum of 30 seconds and up to five minutes. And while they talk, it’s important that you’re writing down the quotes that you hear about the financial problems that they have and what they need help with.

Click here for a video on the best first-meeting questions to learn how to be even more effective when meeting with new clients.