According to research from Harvard, people spend 47% of their waking hours thinking of something other than what they’re currently doing.¹ Given that, it’s difficult to get clients and prospects to listen, engage, and act.

As a communication coach, one of the biggest challenges I hear from financial professionals is that everyone seems too distracted—yet clients and prospects need your insights and expertise to help move toward their financial goals.

So, what can you do? Learn how to leverage the following concepts to make your conversations more compelling:

• Flagging Phrases Turn Signals What?
• So What?
• Now What? 

Use Flagging Phrases to Help Clients Listen

We all know techniques that can encourage listening such as using people’s names, talking about topics of interest, and not overwhelming them with information.

Another lesser-known way to encourage listening is to use flagging phrases. The term comes from the world of public relations, akin to waving a flag to indicate the listener should pay attention to what’s said next. It’s like a teacher saying to students, “This is going to be on the final exam.” The students pay more attention, right?

Examples of flagging phrases include “Here’s why that matters…” and “Here’s how this affects you...” “Picture this…” also works well, especially when describing something. “If there’s one thing you remember…” can also be effective, though it should be used sparingly. Overusing these phrases would be like highlighting every word in a book—there’s no way to tell where to focus.

Another good flagging phrase is to encourage people to jot something down. We can’t require people to do that, but I find they often do it when encouraged. This is a meaningful step toward our next goal: more engagement.

Use Turn Signals to Increase Engagement

Having clients listen or jot notes is a good start, but we also want them to engage with us. Asking great questions is one powerful technique. Another is to encourage clients to ask us questions.

The challenge? While it’s important to occasionally pause to see if a client has questions, it’s difficult to tell why they may not have any. Is it because we’ve explained something so well, or because they weren’t really listening? (Remember that Harvard research: 47% of the time, people are thinking of something else.)

So, instead of just asking, “Do you have any questions, Mary?” we could instead use a turn signal. Simply put, a turn signal in communication is an indicator we use to steer the conversation. Just as with driving, using turn signals in conversations can make for smoother lane changes and fewer accidental collisions. They make transitions between subjects or speakers seem less jarring or abrupt.

Here’s an example how to do use turn signals in a 1:1 client conversation: “I’ll share one last thought, then I’d love to get your feedback, Mary.” She now knows you’ll be looking for her input soon, which will help her to focus and come up with a more thoughtful response. The key is that you need to keep speaking—even if it’s just for another 15 seconds—before turning things over to her.

By using turn signals over the years, I’ve noticed that I receive more insightful responses. I hear fewer less-than-helpful answers such as “sounds good” or “okay by me.” There’s also less of a sense that I’ve put someone on the spot or called them out.

There are additional ways to use turn signals to smooth conversations:

• If you want to ensure you’re interacting with each person in a couple, alternating turn signals can help. For example, you might say, “Thanks for your question, Mary. I’ll answer that, then I’d love to hear your thoughts, Steve.” 
• If there’s one person in a group setting who’s monopolizing a conversation, you can use turn signals to invite input from others. “Dave’s asked some thought-provoking questions. Let me respond to those, then it’d be great to hear what others are thinking.”
• If you and a colleague are presenting together to a client or prospect, you can leverage turn signals to make smoother transitions between speakers. Instead of just saying, “Over to you, Jim”—the reality is that Jim’s mind may have drifted—you can say, “I’m going to share one more idea, then I’ll turn it over to Jim to discuss the proposed investment allocation.” Now the listener and Jim are both better prepared for the handoff.
• If you have colleagues who typically don’t speak up in team meetings, using turn signals can be a gentle way to solicit their input and ideas as well.

Use ‘What? So What? and Now What?’ as Catalysts for Action

We’ve discussed some ways to increase the chance that people listen and engage, but how do we encourage them to take action? Providing information in a motivational structure can be very powerful.

One of my favorite frameworks to use and teach is ‘What? So what? Now what?’ This was originally created back in the 1970s as a way to reflect on learning experiences. Over the years, it’s morphed into a potent way to help ensure we don’t just tell people things. Instead, we share particulars, perspective, and a plan to move forward.
 

Let’s look at the key elements:

What? This is information, data, details, updates, or recommendations. We’re good at this aspect in our profession, though we often tend to stop at this step.

So What? Why does this matter? How does acting on this information help clients move toward a positive outcome or avoid a negative consequence for themselves or someone they care about?

Now What? What’s the next small, yet meaningful, step that will help them move forward?
 

Here’s a basic example:

What? Chris and Adam, after consulting with my team, we’d recommend [explain suggested course of action].

So What? Doing this will help you to [share potential benefits gained or consequences avoided].

Now What? The next step would be to have you [describe the following part of the process].

You can leverage ‘What? So what? Now what?’ when providing client updates, creating a presentation, or even telling a story. You can also use it when giving feedback to a colleague. In this case, the ‘what’ is the revised action that you’re recommending the person take. The ‘so what’ is how they, your firm, or your clients will benefit from the changed behavior. The ‘now what’ is how you’ll help them adopt the change—for example, by providing training or related resources, by checking in regarding progress made, or acting as an accountability partner.

To Summarize

Now that you understand the framework, let’s use it to wrap up this article.

What? You can enhance your communication skills by leveraging flagging phrases, turn signals, and the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ framework.

So What? This can increase the chance that clients and prospects will listen to and engage with you, then act on your insights and recommendations.

Now What? Try one of these techniques in your next meeting and visit hartfordfunds.com for more communication tips.