Two-Day Discovery Meeting Is Virtual—Watch From Your Home or Office on May 19-20, 2025. (Sessions will be recorded and replays will be available for 90 days.)

Attend Our Discovery Meeting Workshop and Learn to Transform Your Approach to Add New Clients With Greater Ease and Efficiency…

The Discovery Meeting Workshop is our industry’s only two-day, research-based, virtual workshop that:

• Examines how advisors run their all-critical Discovery Meeting…
• Identifies 20+ challenges that interfere with getting your best results…
• Teaches you what really motivates prospects to accept your offer to become a client and why…
• Shows you exactly how to start making immediate improvements in nearly 30+ different areas…
• Offers you the option, after the workshop is over, to have your new Discovery Meeting recorded with our Discovery Meeting actors and analyzed by our team (This is optional but recommended for best results.)…
• Gives you an immediate ROI by showing you how to find better clients, more efficiently…
• Gain critical insights that boost results by 10%, 20%, 30%, or more.

What’s the heart of the matter?

Many advisors’ Discovery Process is disorganized, inefficient, and, surprisingly, more self-centered than they realize. It’s a challenge many advisors instinctively suspect they have.

Yet guidance and solutions have been difficult to surface for advisors. Why? Because, until now, the Discovery Meeting has been a behind-closed-doors encounter. It’s hard to get genuine feedback from prospects. And half of all advisors have never received training on how best to run this very critical meeting.

That’s why we asked Chris Holman, Horsesmouth’s executive coach, to spearhead our new Discovery Meeting Workshop project. One of the first things we did was survey advisors. Here are some findings from our research with 400+ advisors:

NOT ORGANIZED. Only slightly more than one-third of advisors described their Discovery Process as highly organized. Sixty-three percent said it was very loose or a mixture of loose and organized. Is your Discovery Process as effective, efficient, and organized as you could be?

HOW MANY MEETINGS? There’s no consensus on how many meetings it should normally take you to close a prospect. About half close in two meetings. More than one-third take three meetings or more. Only 13 percent close in one meeting. Is your current approach really the ideal and most efficient way to go?

PERSONAL INFORMATION? Collecting personal information about prospects is an important aspect of Discovery. Again, there’s no consensus: 25% percent get the data before the first meeting; 54% use the first meeting to collect the information; and 21% get it after the first meeting is over. Our research suggests there’s some correlation between when advisors get personal information from prospects and how many meetings it takes to close them. Have you ever wondered if your approach could be improved to save time while still being effective?

TECHNOLOGY/SOFTWARE? Advisors are evenly split on the merits of using, or not using, software and technology in their Discovery Meetings. Those who do use software and technology often report that prospects seem impressed with the custom outputs that speak to their specific challenges. Have you thought about whether you could more effectively use software and technology in your Discovery Meetings?

MAKING IT PERSONAL: One benefit of using software in your meeting with prospects is that it can enhance the quality of the meeting and give you a chance, especially with a small amount of advance work, to add some prospect-specific, personal, custom topics to the meeting agenda. When prospects see your meeting agenda with their name on it and specific issues about them, you’re conveying competence and expertise—one of the three important “social judgements” prospects unconsciously evaluate you on. Competence is the easy one. Do you know the other two?

TALK TOO MUCH? Based on our research, it’s highly likely that you unknowingly dominate your Discovery Meeting with prospects, talking 50 percent more than you think. That’s right. We asked advisors to estimate their talk time. Most said they spoke about half the time and prospects talked the rest. Nearly all advisors in our research talked 75 percent or more in the meeting. To make matters worse, they mostly never asked open-ended questions or follow-up questions. The other two “social judgments” are warmth and trust. Have you ever wondered if you’re fully connecting with prospects during your Discovery Meetings?

What’s the impact of not examining your Discovery approach?

When you consider that over 60 percent of advisors acknowledge that some or all their Discovery Meeting process is “very loose,” it raises a question: What’s the impact of running your Discovery Meetings the same as you always have? Well, the impact is considerable. Here a few that come to mind:

• You don’t know what you don’t know : With little to no training on Discovery Meetings, it’s likely you’re doing one—or many—things in your meetings that far from ideal.
• Inefficient : Whether you’re having many, or just a few, prospect meetings each month, you know the value of your time. Spending three or more extra hours with prospects that might not be necessary, really adds up over time.
• Uncertain and Inconsistent : If you don’t have a solid, repeatable framework for running Discovery Meetings, then it’s hard to really know what aspects of your approach work well and what aspects are just okay, or not working well.
• No feedback : Typically, there’s no one in the Discovery Meeting who can give you unbiased and objective feedback on how the meeting played out.
• Can’t be replicated : Because you have no regular meeting-to-meeting framework, every meeting is different. There’s no solid baseline.

You Taught Me My Greatest Lesson This Year

“When you told me I spoke 75% of the time in my ‘listening sessions,’ I immediately figured it was part of the reason my prospect conversion ratio was not as high as I wanted. “Now, it really is amazing. I have dramatically cut down on the time of the sessions, the items I talk about, and just let the prospects tell me their feelings about everything. “The best thing about it all is how much fun we are all having.” — John Halterman, West Virginia advisor and Discovery Meeting participant

John Halterman, Beacon Wealth Management

Discovery Workshop Discovery: Understanding What People Truly Expect

"Before the Horsesmouth’s Discovery Workshop, my process was pretty organic. With 20 years’ experience, I'd led many meetings, often winging introductions, and seeing mixed results. Some of them signed up and some of them didn't. "After deciding to take the workshop, I found valuable insight about the discovery meeting process. Horsesmouth's research revealed prospects' expectations and worries in discovery meetings - elements I thought I understood but never fully grasped. This was a great insight: understanding what people truly expect from a meeting. "The workshop introduced effective best practices that have worked for other folks and showed me how that worked for them. This systematic approach transformed my discovery process, making it more efficient. "The workshop also included a personalized one-on-one consulting conversation, which I hadn’t expected. This tailored experience allowed me to discuss new or potentially beneficial ideas for my practice and receive immediate feedback that made good sense. "And to take it to another level, there was the opportunity for video role-play, an unexpected but useful tool. It's amazing what you see when you record yourself and when you reflect on it. It helped me visualize and improve my discovery process, thanks to feedback from participants and the Horsesmouth coaches. It was really, really helpful. "Today, I approach new clients with a more structured process. I’m a lot more confident. I have a clear plan for each contact, making me more effective and efficient. I've got an idea of what I want to do in the first contact, the second contact, the third contact, and it really helps me be a lot more effective and a lot more efficient. So, I think it's great. I think you should sign up. It's a great value. Everybody should do it."—Richard F. Dunn, Dunncreek Advisors, St. Paul, MN

Richard F. Dunn, Dunncreek Advisors

Attend our two-day virtual “Discovery Meeting Workshop

• Learn what really motivates prospects to accept your offer to become a client and why…
• Gain critical insights into your process so you can boost results and revenue. (Getting just one more client will recoup your investment many times over!)

Yes,  please sign me up for the two-day VIRTUAL “Discovery Meeting Workshop” at the rate of $1,597, so I can improve my own process. (Sessions will be recorded and replays will be available for 90 days.) I will receive admission to the two-day workshop experience. Please note, attendees who sign up after May 5 will have access to digital versions of the classroom material. Your hard copy materials may not arrive until after the workshop begins.

The Discovery Meeting Workshop

Dates:

• May 19 at 12:00 PM-3:00 PM EST / 9:00 AM-12:00 PM PST
• May 20 at 12:00 PM-3:00 PM EST / 9:00 AM-12:00 PM PST

Here is a partial list of the concepts that will be addressed:

1-Introduction

• Why now is the Perfect Time to Remake Your Discovery Process
• The 9 Discovery Process Objectives, and How to Achieve All of Them
• How it All Works

2-Preparation, Content & Knowledge

• Fact-Finding or Trust-Building? What’s Most Important?
• How Many Meetings? 1, 2, or 3?
• How Using Software Builds Credibility and Confidence
• Whose Agenda is it…Yours or the Client’s?
• The Good Fit Call, and How It Can Help You to Be Even More Efficient
• Laura Basballe: One Meeting Discovery Process
• A Pre-Meeting Primer. What to Send Out to the Prospect(s) Before the First Meeting

3-First Impressions

• In-person vs. Virtual…and How to Use Virtual Meetings as a Differentiator
• What’s Your Office Telling Prospects?

4-Communication

• Warmth, Trust, & Competence…and How to Build Rapport Quickly
• W.A.I.T. (Why Am I Talking?)
• Questions That Get Prospects to Think…and Talk
• Listening: The Forgotten Skill
• Pay Attention to Women

5-Drilling Down

• Asking Even Better Questions, e.g. Advanced Open-ended Questions
• Line Up with Client Emotions…the Shortcut to Building Rapport and Trust…and Finding Clients

6-The Value Discussion

• Fees and Value…and What Every Prospect Wants to Know
• Trust…Talk is Cheap, Actions are Everything

7-Differentiating

• Your Value Proposition. You MUST Make It About the Prospects
• Your Why Story and Why It Matters

8-Consolidating the Discovery Meeting

• Close the Meeting with Purpose…What to Do, What to Say
• Commitments & Next Steps…The Secret Tools of Successful Advisors
• New Client Onboarding…The Key to Finding Referrals and Introductions

7 Reasons to Attend the Discovery Meeting Workshop

1. Because as good as your current self-made process is, many advisors realize it’s inconsistent and will benefit from make-over, maybe even an overhaul.
2. Because you’ve been “flying blind” and have never had any formal training on how best to run a Discovery Meeting. (Only about half of advisors have received such training.)
3. Because most advisors don’t know for sure whether they’re being effective listeners in their meetings or if they’re unconsciously acting in a sales mode.
4. Because it makes sense to get an objective evaluation of the things you say and do in your Discovery Meetings, since you only have a few each month and maximizing your chances of success makes sense.
5. Because you want the chance to examine “best practices” used by other advisors that might help you improve your Discovery Meeting process.
6. Because even boosting your close rate by 10% to 20% can have a meaningful impact on new AUM and revenue.
7. Because your Discovery Meeting process sits at the absolute foundation of your business development activities. Why wouldn’t you want to maximize your potential for success.

Your Discovery Workshop Meeting Leaders

Chris Holman is Horsesmouth’s executive coach. His career in financial services spans 40 years as a financial advisor, a national director of investments, and an executive coach. He is a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), specializing in coaching financial advisors, especially through group coaching.

Sean M. Bailey, editor in chief of Horsesmouth, has been giving webinars since 1999. He has interviewed and worked with hundreds of advisors about “what’s working now” in growing their businesses and built all that insight and experience into the Financial Education Webinar Coaching Program.

Go Ahead and Sign Up Now: Discovery Meeting Workshop Program

Your Discovery Meeting Workshop fee will be charged directly to your credit card. Our online process is secure, and you can safely provide your credit card information in the form below. (Note: If you are a Master Member, the Discovery Meeting Workshop program fee of $1,597 will be discounted 25% for a $1,195.75, our introductory pricing for this exclusive program.)

Cancellation and Refund Policy

Cancel and contact Horsesmouth's Member Support team 30 business days or more before the event. You must call to receive a cancellation confirmation number. You can reach Member Support at 1-888-336-6884, ext. 1.

Cancellations received between 7-29 days prior to the event will receive a Horsesmouth store credit for 50% of purchase price towards a future event, subscriptions or products, minus $100 processing fee. For cancellations received 6 days or less prior the event, no refunds will be made nor store credits given. the event without penalty.

Your fee will be charged directly to your credit card. Our online process is secure and you can safely provide your credit card information.

About Horsesmouth

Since 1997, Horsesmouth has been helping financial professionals succeed by providing timely guidance on key topics such as business development, practice management, financial planning, and investment strategies.

FOR INSTANT SERVICE: Call Toll Free:1-888-336-6884 ext. 1 or (Outside U.S.: 1-212-343-8760)