15 Sep Encouraging Clients to Ask the Right Questions
Our recent webinar with Doug Robbins continues our webinar series designed to help Business Advisors, Intermediaries and M&A professionals with an array of tips, tricks and tools of the trade. Robbins founded Robbinex, Inc. in 1974. Today he is an internationally renowned Canadian Business Intermediary and Business Broker. He has completed 1,000+ assignments related to advising his clients over the years and has completed more than 400 business sales.
Robbins is a man who is most decidedly focused on the future. It is this focus that has shapes and formulates much of his advice. From Robbins’ perspective, guiding clients is about asking questions. After all, it is only through asking questions that one can hope to understand where a business should be in the future.
Contemplating the Future
Business brokers and intermediaries should be asking themselves, “How do I get this client’s business into the future? Where should this business be in five years?” Another equally important question is, “What do we need to do today to get that business where it needs to be in five years?” In the end, properly guiding your clients is about focus.
Part of the process of guiding clients begins with another two additional key questions, “What do you want to be when you grow up” and “If you were 20 years younger, what would you do with your business?” These two questions are all about reframing the client’s state of mind and opening their mind to what is and is not possible.
Gaining Perspective Beyond the Day-to-Day Routine
It is important to note that many business owners are so engrossed in the day-to-day operations of their business that they often fail to take the time to ponder questions like “What comes next?” and “What do I have to do to get there?” And yet, there are some of the most important questions that business owners can ask themselves.
In Robbins’s view, business brokers and intermediaries must have the right mindset if they are going to help their clients move into the future. In our next article, we’ll explore more of Robbins’s approach for helping business brokers and intermediaries achieve optimal outcomes for their clients.
