From Matt Robinson of PsyMetrics Global.
A retail client of our major client transferred $83,000,000 in assets to a major competitor a week ago, a huge loss to say the least. When the President’s Office called the client to try and win the money back they were told that the client would only speak to his PCS (Private Client Services) rep and he did not want any more calls from anyone but that rep, and his language was not friendly. The President’s Office called the Director over the PCS group and let him know. Because the language we teach is used from the top of the org all the way through to the front lines the following is, Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story…..
The director sat down with the rep explained what had occurred and asked the rep what he thought the client’s emotional need was. Without hesitation the rep said the client was a huge Controller (our level III language…high emotional need for control). What we coach is that to influence a Controller’s behavior it’s important to give options. The rep and director sat down and scripted the return call based on the knowledge of the client’s emotional need.
Last Friday the rep called the client with the scripted response saying “We’d like for you to give consideration to one of two options…..”. The client said “I don’t want calls from anyone about this anymore but I will call you directly on Monday and give you my answer.”
I am sure it was a long weekend for the rep and the director. The client did call back Monday morning and said “I’ll take option B”. By Wednesday the $83,000,000 was back in the hands of our client.