How To Deal With The Internet Johnny

FINANCIAL PLANNERS: How many times have you had an ‘Internet Johnny’ sat in front of you?

Those clients who have spent weeks, months, and possibly years researching the technical aspects of their financial policies on the internet.

And now they have so many different answers, they’re more confused and misinformed than when they started.

So reluctantly they have come to see you in the hope you can fill in the gaps.

And that’s what they’re after.

They don’t want you to provide a professional, holistic, coaching, planning and advice service to really get to the knub of their human needs and desired outcomes. They don’t want a tailored financial plan that helps them to achieve their ideal life and lifestyle.

No.

They want you to be an extension of Google.

To answer the questions that Google couldn’t.

Or to decipher the mixed messages they got from YouTube videos.

And it is tempting, isn’t it?

Come on, after all, you’ve spent years honing your craft.

All those nights studying for your qualifications, interminable technical seminars to get your CPD and a lifetime of working with clients have led you to this moment!

A chance to demonstrate your depth of technical knowledge. To proudly show off why Google isn’t king of all the world and that you still have your place!

But if you do…you’ve failed.

Because you will never beat Google for answers.

Right or wrong, that’s just what it does.

But that’s not what financial planning is about is it?

No.

It’s about QUESTIONS.

And you are the KING OF QUESTIONS.

Google can’t explore and probe someone’s thoughts and get them to tell you about a life they didn’t even know they wanted.

It can’t help people to see things about themselves that they hadn’t seen before.

It can’t identify and challenge inconsistencies and contradictions in someone’s thoughts.

It can’t pinpoint unidentified opportunities and unspoken dreams.

It can’t notice a partner shifting uncomfortably in their chair when a certain subject is discussed.

All it can do is give technical answers to technical questions.

And if you give in to temptation and go toe-to-toe with Google to try and mistakenly prove your worth, then you’ll do two things:

• Unintentionally reinforce that they were on the right path, but just hadn’t gone far enough.
• Blow the opportunity to show what only YOU can do.

So, as difficult as it is, we must resist.

The only way to deal with ‘Internet Johnny’ is to get him off the internet and into his own mind.

To help him see that the answers aren’t on a screen.

They’re in his head, his wife’s heart and his children’s eyes.

That’s where he really needs to be looking.

And only you can show him that.

So don’t be the fastest fish in the pond trying to prove you can climb a tree.

Just swim.

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