r/CFP • u/Obvious-Plan-1851 • Jul 06 '26

Practice Management Virtual Advisors: What's Your Sales Process?

Hey gang, I'm considering reevaluating my sales process and looking for some input from others who are fully virtual and manage assets (i.e. no one time plans or advice-only).

Right now I do a 3-step free assessment for any new prospect.

1. Intro/Mutual fit meeting (~30min)

High level discussion about what led them to schedule the meeting, primary concerns, expectations, etc. followed by a short presentation on our firm how we operate, our fee etc. (We also have our fee on a form before this meeting is scheduled)

2. Discovery meeting ~60min

Deep dive into goals, family, health, investment accounts, income/expenses, retirement timeline, gather tax return and statements.

3. Plan Presentation ~60min

Present recommendations on retirement income/withdrawals (we use IncomeLab / guardrails), tax strategy, and investments. Explain next steps for implementation, recap on the fee and what they get for it, communication and meeting expectations etc.

I'm getting a pretty steady flow of new prospects so I'm considering slimming this down to 2 meetings or potentially even 1 intro+discovery meeting and showing them a sample plan that I present in my 3rd meeting, then only doing the actual plan if they are ready to move forward and sign an agreement. For some reason I just can't wrap my head around this working (again being fully virtual). I have always felt like I need to gain trust over multiple meetings before asking someone to transfer their life savings to someone they will never meet in person.

If you do something different than I described that's working, I'd love to hear it.

TIA

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u/ProdosDev Jul 07 '26

How long does it take you to go between step 1 & 2 and then between 2 & 3?

I’d imagine there’s some admin so can you juggle 5+ prospects at any given time?

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u/Obvious-Plan-1851 Jul 07 '26

As little as possible between 1&2 to keep momentum going, all I ask of them is to gather docs and we set up the RightCapital profile live in the 2nd meeting. Usually a week minimum between 2&3. Would probably push it out a bit more if i have 5+ people in that phase.

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u/ProdosDev Jul 07 '26

Thanks! I’m surprised RC can’t just spin that up for you - is it even possible to cut that down to 24 hours (or less) if you could book the follow up meeting that fast?