The fee conversation is often treated as one of the more delicate moments in a financial advisory sales conversation.
How to present the numbers, how to frame the value, how to respond when a prospect's eyebrows move slightly at what they hear.
There is a significant amount of thinking organized around this moment and how to navigate it well.
And yet there is a different kind of sales conversation in which the fee question, when it arrives, feels like a formality rather than a negotiation.
In those conversations, the prospect asks about fees not to evaluate whether the value justifies the cost, but because they need to know the practical details of something they have already decided they want.
The difference between those two versions of the fee conversation is entirely a product of what happened before the fee was mentioned.
When a prospect has arrived at a genuine feeling of trust, when they feel that the advisor truly understands their specific situation and is genuinely on their side, the fee is evaluated against that felt sense of the relationship.
And a felt sense of genuine understanding is difficult to put a price on.
It tends to make the number feel much less significant than a comparison to another advisor's fee structure would suggest it should be.
The prospect who asks about fees as part of a comparison process is a prospect who has not yet arrived at that felt sense.
For them, the fee is the variable because the relationship has not yet become the variable. The comparison is between numbers because the comparison between human experiences has not yet resolved clearly enough to make the numbers secondary.
This is an observation about the sequence of a sales conversation and what it produces at different stages.
A prospect who feels genuinely understood relatively early in a first sales conversation has already made the most significant part of the decision before the fee is ever mentioned.
A prospect who is still in evaluation mode when the fee comes up has more work to do, and the number becomes part of that work rather than a detail of a decision already made.
The practical implication is simply this.
The fee conversation is worth thinking about in terms of when it arrives rather than in terms of how it is delivered.
When genuine trust has been established before the fee is discussed, the conversation about cost is usually brief and relatively easy.
When the fee is discussed before that trust is in place, the conversation requires more work than a number should require.
The sequence matters more than the delivery.
Earn the trust first. Let the fee be what it actually is: a logistical detail of a relationship the prospect has already chosen.
Related: Why Selling, as It Is Taught, Creates the Problem It Tries to Solve
Ari Galper is the world’s number one authority on trust-based selling and is the most sought-after high-net worth/lead generation expert for financial advisors. His newest book, “Trust In A Split Second” has become an instant best-seller among financial advisors worldwide – you can get a Free copy of Ari’s book here and, when you click the “YES” button in the order form, you’ll also receive a complimentary “plug up the holes” lead generation consultation. Ari has been featured in CEO Magazine, Forbes, INC Magazine and the Financial Review. He is considered a contrarian in the financial services industry and in his book, everything you learned about selling will be turned upside down. No more chasing, no pressure, no closing.
