Somebody has been meaning to sort out his pensions for three years. He has four of them, no idea what they contain, and a growing sense that he is losing money by doing nothing.
He looks at three adviser websites. None of them says whether the first meeting costs anything. He assumes it is expensive and does nothing for another year.
The checklist
Answer these and the meeting gets booked.
1. Whether it is chargeable
The first sentence on the page. Free, a stated fee, or chargeable and credited. Ambiguity here is the single largest cause of an unbooked meeting.
2. How long it takes
An hour, ninety minutes, and whether it can be split. People are fitting this around work and need to plan.
3. Where it happens
Office, home, video or telephone, and whether the choice is theirs. Preference varies enormously and offering the choice removes an objection nobody voices.
4. What it covers
Circumstances, objectives, what you do, how you charge and whether there is a fit. Describing the agenda removes the fear of an unstructured sales conversation.
5. What to bring
Or that nothing is needed. Many people delay because they think they must gather paperwork first, and telling them otherwise books the meeting this month.
6. Whether a decision is expected
Say plainly that it is not. This sentence does more work than any other on the page.
7. What happens afterwards
A follow up, a written summary, a proposal or nothing at all unless they ask. People want to know what they are agreeing to be sent.
8. Who they will meet
A named adviser, their qualifications and whether that person would handle the work. Being passed to somebody else later is a common complaint.
9. Whether there is a minimum
Portfolio size or asset thresholds, if they exist. Publishing it is kinder than discovering it after somebody has taken an afternoon off, which is part of fee questions financial advisers should answer openly.
10. How fees work if they proceed
The structure at least, in outline. People will not book a meeting whose only purpose appears to be revealing a price.
11. What the regulatory position is
Independent or restricted, who regulates you and where that can be checked. It matters and it belongs beside the practical detail.
12. How quickly they can be seen
Current availability. Somebody who has finally decided to act will go to whoever can see them, which is the capture problem in first meeting requests captured with useful context.
12b. What happens to what they tell you
People are about to describe their finances to a stranger and want to know where that information goes before the meeting rather than during it. Saying how notes are kept, who sees them and what happens if they decide not to proceed removes a hesitation that is rarely voiced and frequently decisive.
12c. Say who a first meeting is not for
Somebody with an immediate debt problem, a dispute with a provider or a question that needs a different professional is better served by being told so. An honest signpost costs one meeting and earns a referral source, and it stops people arriving with expectations nobody can meet.
13. The same threshold exists everywhere
People weigh a first appointment the same way in specialist clinics and the questions before a first consultation, and answering it at any hour is the point of how financial advisors use chatbots to answer client questions.
Getting started
Publish whether the first meeting is chargeable, what it covers and that no decision is expected, then book at any hour. SpideyChat for financial advisers answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.