When you’re working with a new prospective client, you want to show them what you can do, and provide a sense of urgency, so the client wants to move forward with you. This prospecting playbook shows you several approaches that make closing the deal easier using Nitrogen. Learn how Nitrogen can provide a cohesive, easily-understandable view of your prospect’s risk tolerance and goals, make it obvious where their current portfolio isn’t serving them, and give you the opening to step in with solutions they can’t resist.
We hope you find this guide helpful and would love to hear how you incorporate Nitrogen into your prospecting playbook.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Preparations — Gather Information
The first step is gathering information about why they’re in your office, what their risk tolerance is, and where their portfolio currently stands:
Why are they here? Find out why the prospect has come to you in the first place. Why are they open to change? Look for subtle clues to provide insights. For example, take a statement of "I like my advisor, I'm not interested in changing—but I'm curious what all is out there." This sounds very tentative but can point to an underlying discomfort with their current situation.
What is their risk tolerance? Send them the Risk Questionnaire to quickly assess what risk level they’re comfortable with.
What level of risk is their portfolio currently at? Enter a client portfolio into Nitrogen to find the Risk Number of the portfolio, plus tools to help you model different possibilities with your clients.
With this information, you’re ready for game day!
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Nitrogen Tip: Working with a Team
If you are working with a team or have an administrative assistant, check out these articles for tips and best practices on including everyone:
Data Sharing- available through Office Pricing
Administrative Assistant Best Practices
Act 1 — Analyze their Current Portfolio
The first step in this stage is to examine your client’s portfolio. Either import a portfolio from their custodian or use an integration to get their portfolio into Nitrogen. Then use portfolio analytics to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the portfolio and model different scenarios. Some options to look at:
- Show how the portfolio will be affected by interest rates.
- Show the effect of different scenarios, such as what happens in a Bull vs. Bear market, using Stress Tests and Scenarios.
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Nitrogen Tip: Integrating with your CRM
When you integrate Nitrogen into your CRM, you can seamlessly connect each client in your CRM to Nitrogen for a more holistic approach. Check the Integrations list in your Settings for details on how to get started, or check out the Integrations help section of our knowledge base.
Use your interview with the client to direct your exploration, and jot down some notes, or print a few reports to use as illustrations when you meet. These analytics can illuminate where a prospect's unconscious concerns are and help you fine-tune their portfolio to address them.
Read up on the full range of portfolio tools available in Nitrogen.
Act 2 – Just the Risk Number
Using the Next-Gen Risk Questionnaire—either before or during your initial meeting—is a great way of getting the conversation started.
Using the resulting Risk Number as a springboard for a deeper discussion on risk, objectives, and where they want to be in X years. This discussion helps address the question: "what are your goals?"
Optionally, during the meeting, you can fire up a Risk Target and raise and lower it, then discuss the impact on the prospect's portfolio. Also, review the 95% Historical Range™ to confirm the approach.
If you need help introducing the Risk Number to your client, and selling them on the benefits of taking the questionnaire, we’ve drawn up two sample introductory emails you can copy:
Example Email 1
Hi {CLIENT NAME},
We recently partnered with Nitrogen, a company that quantifies your risk tolerance as an investor in a new, fun, and intriguing way that is built on decades of academic research. It introduces the concept of a Risk Number, which we will discuss at our next appointment.
To help prepare for our upcoming meeting, please follow the link below and answer a few brief questions by [DATE]. It should take about 5 minutes.
Before our next meeting, I’ll review the risk in your current portfolio and your Risk Number from this questionnaire. This analysis will give me a lot of great insights on how to best serve your investment needs. I’m excited about the possibilities and I think you will be too!
{INSERT QUESTIONNAIRE LINK}
Example Email 2
Hi {CLIENT NAME},
We’ve recently partnered with Nitrogen, a company that quantifies your risk tolerance as an investor in a unique and innovative way that is built on decades of academic research. They translate your risk tolerance into a Risk Number that gives us a way of comparing how your risk tolerance compares to the risk in your investment portfolio—I think you'll find it intriguing! There is a link below with a few brief questions, which should take about 5 minutes. I’d love to have you fill it out to help us as we evaluate your long-term goals and needs. This is the first step that we’re taking behind the scenes to ensure you’re invested correctly or set up to meet your long-term goals.
{INSERT QUESTIONNAIRE LINK}
Pro Tip: Many advisors choose to insert a link to the Nitrogen Client Facing video as well to easily add additional context to the Risk Number.
Example Email 3
Hi {CLIENT NAME},
Nitrogen is a software we recently started using at our firm that quantifies the risk of each person. It’s a great tool—I think you’ll like it. It’ll introduce you to this concept of the Risk Number, in our next meeting, which I think will be as much benefit to you as it has been to me. It’s grown my understanding of risk and how it’s viewed by many people. I know it can help you, too.
It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Can you click on the link and answer a few questions for our meeting coming up on [DATE]? It’ll help lay the foundation for our discussion and future goals we’ll set. If you have any questions on it, don’t hesitate to ask.
{INSERT QUESTIONNAIRE LINK}
Example Email 4
Hi {CLIENT NAME},
You know this already, but with me being such a visual person, I’m always looking for the best way of looking at concepts like risk and return. I think I’ve found it. It’s called Nitrogen.
Nitrogen is a company that quantifies the risk tolerance of each investor in a fun and creative way (it’s also built on decades of academic research). I think you’ll find it intriguing and it only takes a few minutes.
Could you click on the link below and fill it out by [DATE] for our upcoming meeting? It’ll set some of the discussion points for your long-term goals and needs. Don’t worry—we’ll have plenty to discuss but it’ll help me get a better understanding of what areas we should explore.
{INSERT QUESTIONNAIRE LINK}
Just a reminder: you may need to get approval from your compliance department before you send these emails to your client.
Act 3 — Assess Long-term Goals with Retirement Maps
So you have the investor's Risk Number and know about their current portfolio. But are their assets and returns sufficient for their long-term objectives and retirement?
Cue Retirement Maps.
A Retirement Map is the precursor to a full financial plan and is fantastic in a prospect meeting. It provides rich information with only a few inputs. The Retirement Map tells the story of how your customer gets from where they are to where they want to be at retirement.
Use Retirement maps to show your customer a before-and-after picture of their portfolio during the client meeting. Show how you can not only monitor their risk and settle them in their comfort zone, but also attend to their long-term needs:
- Compare the probability of success for both their current and your proposed portfolio.
- Highlight the long-term viability and strengths of your proposal.
- Show how your risk-first approach can result in a portfolio that is more suited to their needs and risk tolerance
Modeling portfolios for a client goes a long way toward relieving the uncertainty in retirement planning and gives them concrete steps to move toward their retirement goals. And, it can help you close the deal!
For help creating Retirement Maps, see Creating a Retirement Map.
Act 4 — The Better Way
For the last act, you compare a Prospect’s risk tolerance with the risk in their current portfolio, their Retirement Map, and offer them a different path. In terms of risk, this is where advisors match up the current portfolio (has), Risk Number (wants), and Retirement Maps (needs) with the proposal (should have).
Here’s an example that demonstrates how powerful this act can be.
A client, let’s call her Diane, came to an advisor with that exact statement we talked about earlier…she was “just curious what’s out there.” The advisor gathered her information, and the real reason Diane was “just curious” came to light as the advisor analyzed the results: her portfolio’s Risk Number was a 62 and her risk tolerance was a 23! Diane had just retired, and the volatility of her portfolio was causing concern. Lastly, she didn’t need all that extra risk—her needs were met.
The advisor just needed to show her the difference between where she was and where she wanted to be. The simplicity of comparing where she was (her portfolio Risk Number) with her comfort zone (her Risk Number from the questionnaire) closed the deal. They signed the ACAT form that night!
And, the story doesn't end there—they still work together as the advisor continues to provide great advice using the Risk-First approach.
For more on risk exercises, see Capturing a Risk Number, Reviewing a Client’s Risk Number, and How to Find the Risk in your Portfolio.
Creating a Common Language
Nitrogen invented the Risk Number to serve both investors and you. When you can quantify their risk and represent it with a number, it opens up very powerful possibilities. This common understanding is fundamental to demonstrating to prospects your strengths, abilities, and how you can take care of their needs. And it helps create urgency: the investor sees the cost of not moving forward with you. Think about how powerful that is.
All of these strategies work toward creating a common language with your client. They help clients understand that risk and returns go hand-in-hand: you've got to take on risk to get a certain level of reward. The common understanding and clear communication you can provide with Nitrogen drives up your practice efficiency by minimizing panicked calls because your investors know what is normal for their portfolio.
Closing Thoughts
Nitrogen is flexible, simple, and designed to be used in a myriad of ways. Be creative and integrate Nitrogen into your practice, starting with one of the strategies above. No matter which approach you use—or if you combine several together—at the end of the day, you’ll find it a fun, enjoyable process to demonstrate your value.
When your prospect says "yes!” they are on the path to be a long-term investor with you.
Keep them engaged with Nitrogen:
- Send six-month milestones, giving them confidence and ultimately boosting your credibility: Getting Started With Check-Ins
- Have an amazing answer for the client who wonders why the market is beating their portfolio: Stress Tests and Scenarios.
Our Customer Care team is always ready to help you find creative ways to approach your challenges. Send us your scenarios (with some context so we can be prepared) to care@nitrogenwealth.com, and let’s set up a time to talk through possible strategies to conquer your unique prospecting challenges.