Dive in to learn more about your Decision Persona, how to recognize other personas, and how to effectively adapt your approach to different clients.
While we all inherently blend aspects of all personas, The Emoter is your most dominant.
As an Emoter, you are a vibrant and dynamic force, radiating energy and enthusiasm in every interaction. You thrive on connections, freely sharing your feelings and thoughts, and are naturally forward-thinking and highly expressive. While you might occasionally act on impulse, this spontaneity is part of what makes you uniquely adept at navigating dynamic, fast-paced environments. Your ability to create meaningful connections and engage with others is a powerful asset in both your personal and professional life.
Because let’s be honest: at the end of the day …
You, as an Emoter, rely heavily on your relationships and emotions. Your natural ability to connect with others allows you to leverage your emotional intelligence to build strong bonds and make empathetic choices. However, it’s important to balance this with a structured decision-making process to prevent impulsive actions, particularly for significant decisions.
You enjoy the buying “experience,” and you need to envision the future and understand how a purchase will enhance your life in order to buy. You relate to stories that capture the emotional appeal and show you how this decision will enrich your life.
Let’s pretend you are buying a boat. Bogging you down with technical specifications and details will fall on deaf ears. But painting a vivid picture and walking you through the exhilarating experience of boating with friends and family while creating unforgettable memories on the water will have you placing the order on the showroom floor.
While leveraging emotion-driven decisions, it’s also beneficial to use concrete data judiciously. This balanced approach helps ensure that your choices are robust and well-founded.
Keep in mind that not everyone makes decisions like you
Read on to discover how to identify and connect with other Decision Personas to enhance your relationships and business success.
Kudos to you for discovering your Decision Persona. At first glance, this may seem like a futile exercise. But don’t be fooled.
Knowing your Decision Persona is only the beginning. This report does not stop there.
In the coming pages, you will learn how to identify your Persona and your client’s Decision Personas. The ultimate secret weapon is the ability to recognize other’s personas and flex your Persona to theirs.
This soft skill can increase your closing ratio by 75% and is the way top advisors put intangible skills like behavioral finance to work for them.
We’ve been taught to operate under the Golden Rule:
Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.
It is an excellent rule tool for ” morally ” treating others.
However, when it comes to sales, the Golden Rule doesn’t cut it; we must use the Platinum Rule.
Do unto others as THEY’D have done unto THEMSELVES.
Here’s the “good” news & “not so good news” of it…
About 25% of the population identify as a Harmonizer, and you will likely work well with this group. It is not uncommon for your book of business to look and act like you. This is no accident.
But what if you could just as easily work with the rest of the population and increase your client conversion rate by 3 – 4x?
Approximately 75% of people do not identify as an Emoter. These are the clients that can feel a bit harder for you to work with and, in some cases, can be downright brutal to work with.
Read on to discover:
1. How to identify the “3” other Personas
2. How to adapt your approach to each “Persona”
3. How utilizing Decision Personas will help grow your practice
Decision Persona
Specific to their Persona
Biggest Fear: to make mistakes
Values tasks over relationships
Concerned with:
• Avoiding risk
• Past performance
• Being Right
Listen for phrases like: Am I looking at this or thinking about this correctly?
If this doesn’t work, what happens?
What is the ROI?
Biggest Struggle: Analysis Paralysis or coming to a decision
Biggest Fear: Being left out or not liked
Values relationships over tasks
Concerned with:
• Legacy
• What people think of their decisions
• Approval
• Future
• Being on the leading edge
Listen for personal stories or anecdotes, enthusiasm
Biggest struggle: Impulsive
Biggest Fear: Conflict
Values relationships over tasks
Concerned with:
• Security
• Trust
• Loyalty
• Making everyone happy
Biggest struggle: Cautious nature can appear indecisive
Biggest Fear:
• Not being in control
• Being taken advantage of
Values relationships over tasks
Concerned with:
• Getting Results
Biggest struggle: Active
Listening
If you cannot identify from observation or listening alone, try asking yourself these (2) questions.
Are they more task & results-oriented or more people & relationships oriented?
Tasks & Results:
The Mathematican or The Commander
People & Relationships:
The Emoter or The Harmonizer
Are they more outspoken & forceful or cautious & reflective?
Outspoken & Forceful:
The Commander & The Emoter
Cautious & Reflective:
The Mathematician & The Harmonizer
**In the beginning, this is a game of horseshoes and hand grenades – getting close or
narrowing down to 2 Personas is a good place to start.**
Additional Identification Questions:
We’re not all wired the same—it’s what makes connecting with people an art. Different personas prioritize different factors, like harmony for Harmonizers or data for Mathematicians. Some folks might value relational comfort or thoroughness over the speed and efficiency you excel at. By incorporating a bit more patience and empathy, you can bridge those gaps and connect more effectively.
You might find it especially tough dealing with Harmonizers because their need for consensus and slower pace can feel frustrating. To bridge that gap, show some understanding for their desire for clarity and gradually bring them up to speed with your approach.
Check out the chart below to learn how to speak each Decision Persona’s language and boost your chances of them wanting to work with you.
Decision Persona
Language / Needs
• One option
• Help them clarify the info they need to come to a decision (providing more will be a mistake)
• Give them time to decide with a deadline
• Use mistake-free proposals
• Focus on facts over relationships
• Show how your solution has performed in the past
• Slower pace (Avoid being pushy)
Why they buy: It has to make “logical” sense to them to move forward
• Options (no more than three)
• Stories: Make the process to be fun
• Relationships over facts (Ditch the facts)
• Post-sell: have them reiterate their commitment
Why they buy: to make themselves look good, for fun, to bring family or friends together, because they like you, or because someone they admire referred them to you.
• One option (best foot forward)
• Trust & loyalty
• Give them time to decide with a deadline
• Be a leader: don’t educate unless they ask to be; instead, tell them what to do once trust is gained
• Slower pace & patience (Avoid being pushy)
Why they buy: Make everyone happy, and they trust you
• Options (no more than three)
• Confidence: they need to feel your conviction
• Tasks over relationships
• Fast-pace: Keep meetings moving, end on time, & implement quickly
• A Partner: they will want the final say. (Remember: Don’t tell a teller.)
• Always give them the credit
Why they buy: to get results
The cool part is when you can adjust your Decision Persona, you will naturally:
When you can identify a client’s Decision Persona, getting to a “yes” faster is easier, which
speeds the sales process, increases product implementation, and gets you paid faster.
Client Retention/Renewal/Referral
You are in touch with the client’s needs, allowing you to provide a great client experience that syncs with their buying rhythms. They become “lifers” to your business and refer others because they are happy.
Bonus: Team Harmony
When you understand your “Decision Persona” and those of others, all interactions are more harmonious.
You can now appreciate others’ differences and what they bring to the table when, before, it seemed like they were acting just to annoy you. Everything becomes easier with Decision Personas.
Mindshift Financial Coaching supports financial advisors to modernize their advising and selling methods. We show our clients how to leave behind an increasingly outdated commission & asset-fee-only advising model and start using a less transactional & less salesy approach that prioritizes the best interests of advisors and their clients.
Most importantly, at Mindshift Financial Coaching, we are advisors like you.
Ten years ago, we made the shift to charge our clients annually for financial planning
— or what we have named Financial Management Oversight.
Since then we have collected over $1,500,000 in planning fees and delivered nearly 500 financial plans!
Today, planning fees account for 20% of our annual revenue, with product sales accounting for 80%.
AND while we have organically increased our investment and insurance implementation,
deepened our client relationships, and increased our overall and recurring revenue…
… the coolest part is we virtually eliminated the need to market and gained back 50% of our
time (which we now use to coach other advisors on how to adopt our business model).
Today, in addition to running our practice, our greatest fulfillment comes from helping other
advisors duplicate and often exceed our success, hopefully saving them at least a few years of the
stress & anxiety that we endured before cracking the code.
Financial advisors make a significant impact by taking the stress out of people’s interactions with their money.
MORE financial advisors need to claim their value, charge for it, and treat their time as a precious commodity.
Great financial advisors deserve to be paid well for the valuable work they do, without working 24/7 and without bringing their business everywhere, even on vacation.
For financial advisors to stay relevant, we need to modernize our approach.
The new way of financial advising is about helping clients make the best life decisions for themselves -- NOT delivering 500-page financial plans that never get read…
And last but not least, we believe you can make your own rules … and grow your business exponentially along the way.
Now that you are on our email list, we will be sure to send you our special series, which is all about putting Decision Personas to work in your business.
And … now that you know your Decision Persona, mastery of the framework comes down to 3 main things: becoming a ninja at identifying others’ personas, changing your perspective on where your value
lies, and what this business has to look like.
Here’s exactly what to focus on moving forward…
Print a blank copy of this matrix
Bring to every prospect & client meeting
During or after the meeting
Prospect/Client Name: _____________________
Are they more task & results-oriented or more people & relationships oriented?
Tasks & Results The Mathematican or The Commander
People & Relationships The Emoter or The Harmonizer
Are they more outspoken & forceful or cautious & reflective?
Outspoken & Forceful The Commander & The Emoter
Cautious & Reflective The Mathematician & The Harmonize
Here’s the truth: too many financial advisors lead their client presentations with a value prop about THEM. Why
Because it seems like the most effective way to convince potential clients to work with them
Listen, if you’re doing this, we get it.
When you’re trying to earn someone’s business, surely it makes sense to tell them about you?(Plus, this is how many financial services companies teach new advisors to sell…)
But, if you ACTUALLY want to be different from everyone else out there…
… You need to stop focusing on YOURSELF and make your meetings more about the client.
Here at Mindshift, we teach that client meetings should have the client speaking 80-85% of the time.
Because all the most current research shows that the best way to win over new prospects is to LISTEN to them in a meaningful way
That means: asking the right questions, shifting from “how can I sell to this person?” to “how can I help this person?” and possibly even turning away people who aren’t the right fit.
It’s an approach which leads to people naturally wanting to do business with you.
And more good news?
It’s less work.
No more time wasted on creating 25-page report presentations that may or may not be looked at.
Lots more connection with your potential customer
Many financial planners are hesitant to move away from the approach they’ve always used in this industry.
In the seventies, financial planners were typically stockbrokers.
Now, people buy and trade their own portfolios,
Then, not so long ago, our role was more like that of asset managers.
Now, we have Vanguard and Fidelity attempting to drive commissions to zero.
So much has changed in our industry. (And continues to!)
If you think about it logically, the only people who really want to work with a financial advisor are the
people who genuinely want advice from them. (Because they could do all the rest themselves…)
This means there is tremendous scope for you to charge for your advice.
Right now, you are most likely charging for the commodities you offer while giving away your intellectual
capital for free.
(Since when has “but this is the way it’s always been done” been the argument that wins out?)
Ultimately, the most important person who needs to get on board with doing things differently right now
is YOU.
Because if you decide to work with us, we can walk you through our proven roadmap to get everyone else
(your clients, your prospects, your team) on board with these changes in the most efficient and effective
way possible
… If this exercise taught you something about yourself,
share it with a friend in your industry