Use This 2-Step Process to Win Prospects’ Trust

Matt Donaghue, an advisor with Mission Financial Planners in San Antonio, Texas, works to perfect his system of hosting financial education events to identify prospective clients. A key to his system: pre-screening prospects. He described his system in a recent Horsesmouth conversation with Chris Holman, Horsesmouth’s executive coach.

Key takeaways from the conversation

• Pre-qualify prospects before allowing workshop attendance—expect to screen out 85%–95% of potential attendees to focus on prospects who are willing to commit to follow-up meetings.
• Focus workshops on a specific niche (in Matt’s case, Social Security planning for women) rather than trying to appeal to everyone.
• Maintain high-end experiences (such as delivered premium steakhouse meals for virtual attendees) to reinforce credibility.
• Use personal stories and authentic connections to build trust and rapport with your attendees.
• Develop and maintain a robust prospect database for ongoing nurturing and follow-up.
• Balance virtual and in-person events to maximize geographic reach while maintaining personal connections.
• Invest personal resources rather than relying on wholesaler funding to maintain control and commitment to the process.
• Commit to mastering the process through repetition and consistent implementation, recognizing that expertise develops over time.

Refining the workshop marketing model

Four years ago, Matt Donaghue’s advisory practice looked like many others: pack the room for seminars, hope for the best, and chase down prospects afterward. Today, his San Antonio firm runs a precision-targeted workshop system that pre-qualifies every attendee, maintains and works with a 6,000-person prospect database, and generates leads at half the cost of traditional methods.

Through years of refining, Matt has developed a structured approach to prospecting that integrates webinars, workshops, and a carefully designed “2-step commitment” model to qualify prospects and to build trust with them.

A Texan’s two-step approach

Matt begins with a focus on outreach, using targeted mailers and invitations for workshops or webinars, often centered on a specific topic, such as “Savvy Social Security Planning for Women.” Matt and his team host both virtual and in-person workshops.

To boost participation and engagement, the events often include food, either as in-person dinners at upscale venues or high-quality meal deliveries for people attending virtually.

The key: Attendees must pre-qualify by agreeing to a follow-up one-on-one meeting, known as the “lab,” which is a detailed Social Security analysis.

Matt says the transformation began with a simple question: What if we stopped trying to maximize attendance?

Matt: “You get 100 buying units in a room, you’re talking five to 10 to maybe 15 clients are going to come out of those 100 buying units that show up for an event, virtual or in person. Which means, well-intentioned or not, you have anywhere from 85 to 95 even, of those buying units are never going to do any business with you, at least not now.

“So what we then started thinking about was, ‘Wait a second. What if we just asked a couple of pre-screening questions?’ ‘Do you already have an advisor? If so, what’s the nature of your relationship with your advisor? Why are you doing these? What’s your interest in this? Have you ever attended a workshop like this before?’

“If you just ask those three or four questions in a pre-screening call, you’re going to find out real fast who is just kicking the tires or who actually has a serious interest in being there.”

Then comes the commitment question.

Matt: “So then the natural next step for us at any rate was to say, ‘OK, well I’ll tell you what. If you’re interested in attending the workshop, we’re going to make it a prerequisite to be able to let you in that within a week to 10 days after the workshop, you’re doing a one-on-one with one of the partners. And all they’re going to do in that one-on-one is a Social Security analysis.”

Always, Matt says, some people balk at that point. But the ones who agree keep moving through their engagement process.

Stories: The power of personal connection

Matt said a key to engaging with attendees who come to their Savvy Social Security for Women events is for presenters to tell personal stories about the women in their lives.

Matt: “We talk about our moms, actually. One of my partners was the youngest of three. [His mother] had all three kids by the time, I think, she was 21 or 22. Got divorced while she was pregnant with him and went and started her own business, which later on she was able to sell for $3 or $4 million. She did all that. And nobody was there to really coach her along the way from a planning standpoint, because our industry would ignore someone like that until they had the $2 million or $3 million. My other partner: Dad’s a doctor, mom is not. They got divorced, single mom situation, basically. My parents, my mom was pretty much marginalized by her family because she’s female.

“And the thing is, you have to be comfortable telling those personal stories because once you start telling them, a lot of people, men and women in the room are nodding their heads.”

His workshops’ focus on a single topic and a specific demographic—women—has proven effective, as women tend to ask more questions and engage more deeply.

Taking careful steps to build trust

The two-step commitment process hinges on the importance of building trust and security. After the workshop, which Matt and his team refer to as “the classroom,” prospects attend a “lab,” a meeting to develop a personalized Social Security analysis.

To help avoid people’s concerns about sharing personal information and data, he offers to produce a Social Security analysis using only the prospect’s age and full retirement benefit amount.

Prospects can then proceed to a “tech demo,” which demonstrates the firm’s secure collaboration methods.

After those three events, prospects are then invited to a full discovery meeting where deeper financial planning can begin.

Matt’s approach saves time and resources by filtering out non-serious participants early on. He describes the evolution of this system, starting pre-Covid with a “get as many in the room as possible” strategy, which shifted to prioritizing quality over quantity during the pandemic. This change helped streamline efforts, identifying committed prospects and increasing conversion rates without wasting time on unqualified leads.

Matt also highlights the value of consistent follow-ups, maintaining a mailing list of more than 6,000 names. His team actively scrubs and updates this list, using interns to re-engage past attendees through monthly financial wellness webinars. This approach has brought clients back even years after their initial interaction, showcasing the long-term value of nurturing leads.

Matt emphasizes that his process isn’t about saving on meal costs but maximizing efficiency and respecting his team’s time. His system aligns with the CFP Board’s seven-step planning process, further demonstrating its professionalism and rigor.

By combining strategic outreach, trust-building, and an iterative approach, Matt has created a repeatable and scalable method for growing his financial planning practice. His commitment to refinement ensures it adapts to changing circumstances, such as the shift to virtual engagements during Covid, and his results speak to its effectiveness.

Building your own system

For advisors interested in adopting this approach, Matt recommends paying for the workshops with your own funding rather than relying on wholesalers. That way you can control the entire event agenda.

The key is committing to the process, maintaining high standards through premium partnerships (such as high-end steakhouses for hosting workshops), and focusing on building a secure, repeatable system that prioritizes efficiency over volume.

The process

Matt’s approach follows a four-step pathway:

1. Initial workshop (“The Classroom”): Focused entirely on Social Security planning for women.
2. Social Security analysis (“The Lab”): A focused 30–45 minute session requiring minimal personal information.
3. Technology demonstration: Addressing cybersecurity concerns and showcasing secure communication methods.
4. Discovery meeting: Scheduled during the lab session, typically within a week of the tech demo.