Root Ready

Why Clients Don’t Take Action—and How to Change It

• James Conole, CFP® • Episode 21

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What if the single biggest unlock for your advisory practice is the smallest move on your calendar? We dive into the habit that quietly drives win rates, client follow-through, and delivery quality: scheduling the next step before the call ends. Not pressure, not pushiness—just smart momentum management rooted in how humans actually behave.

We start with the real reason great prospect calls go cold. Clients spend energy to reach out, prepare, and show up; that’s peak momentum. Then life intrudes and inertia takes over. Using a clear script—“Could we pencil in ten minutes next week? I’ll send a recap and hold time for your questions.”—we show how to respect autonomy, frame the benefit in their terms, and keep progress effortless. You’ll hear why the word “pencil” matters, how to use a tight follow-up email with owners and due dates, and how to protect motivation while the reasons to act are vivid.

From there, we apply the same approach to ongoing work where tasks often stall: estate planning, 401k reallocations, and open enrollment choices. We share practical tactics like coordinating live intros to attorneys, hosting short working sessions to complete reputable software together (without giving legal advice), and drafting partner emails on the spot. Along the way, we connect Newton’s first law to human inertia and pull a lesson from Atomic Habits: make the right action the path of least resistance, and make procrastination just a little harder.

Submit a question for James here: https://rootreadypodcast.com/

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The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements

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SPEAKER_00:

Today, we're going to talk about one single thing you can do as an advisor to immediately increase your success. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Root Ready Podcast. I'm your host, James Cannole. And sometimes as an advisor, it feels like there's a million different things you need to do to be successful. That's why, when there's something that you find that is a very simple thing to do and has a disproportionate impact on your success as an advisor, it's really important we pay very close attention to that. That's exactly what we're going to be talking about in today's episode. And that thing that we're going to be talking about is setting next steps. Before I elaborate more on this and give you some specific examples, doing this is going to increase your success as an advisor. Doing this is going to help you as an advisor help your clients actually take action and do what needs to be done. Doing this is going to increase your success in getting things done that need to get done. So before you dismiss this as being overly simplistic, let me walk through an example with you. You have a call with a client as an advisor, and that call goes awesome. They're excited, you're excited, you both feel like this would be an excellent fit. And you ask them if they'd like to move forward. They say, you know what, I think so. This is great. Everything that we've gone over sounds like exactly what I need, but I never like to make decisions on the spot. Can I take a couple of days to think about it? You say, of course. That's very reasonable. Take a couple days. Let's reconnect after that and see if this is still something that you want to move forward with. You part ways, you're happy, they're happy, you feel like you've done everything you need to do. You reach out to them after a week, you don't hear anything. You reach out to them after a couple weeks, they say, you know what, this sounds like something we want to do. Now is just not the time. And all of a sudden you're scratching your head saying, I thought that call went so well. Why is it that they're not moving forward? In many cases, the reason they're not moving forward is not because they don't think that you're a great advisor. It's not because they don't think that the solutions you have can help them fix the problems that they have. It's because you failed to take advantage of momentum. It takes a lot of effort to reach out to a financial advisor. It's a big, scary decision. It takes effort, you've got to clear your schedule, you have inertia that you're dealing with. By the time you've actually held that first meeting with a new client, keep in mind that took a tremendous amount of effort on their part, not necessarily on yours, to get to that point. You're at peak momentum levels. And when you're at peak momentum levels, if you don't capitalize on that, there's a very good chance this prospective client is going to drift away, even when you know and they know this could be a good fit to work together. This is simply Newton's first law of physics in action. An object at rest will remain in rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force. This is also called the law of an inertia. And what it's saying is that an object, whether this is an inanimate object, whether this is an individual, like we're talking about now, there is a tendency to resist changes in its state of motion. So keep that law of physics in mind and let's apply it to what just happened in this situation. Okay, you had the prospect meeting. What did that mean? It means the prospect had the desire to reach out to you, it means they had the need to reach out to you, it means they took time off their calendar or their work schedule to reach out to you, to meet with you. It means they gathered documents, it means they mentally prepared, it means they did the scary work of saying, I'm gonna go talk to somebody about my finances. All that had to happen for you simply to have a conversation with that prospective client. By the time you've had that conversation, that object is in motion. What does the first law of physics say? Is that object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force. So we mistakenly think as advisors, hey, this all went great. This object's gonna stay in motion. Well, what are the net forces? What are the external forces that are gonna act upon that? If you don't schedule the next step on that call, kids happen, work happens, deadlines happen, distractions happen, life happens. Those are net external forces that are resisting that motion. They are taking that object that was in motion. This isn't designed to be a physics lesson, but that object that was in motion, all of a sudden those forces act upon it, and now that object is back at rest. That object at rest is now gonna be very difficult to get back in motion. And as simple as this sounds, this is why most people don't move forward. It's of course not impossible to get that prospective client back into motion, but it's much harder. You're having to change their state. So, what should you do instead? Well, go back to what I mentioned. Set the next step, keep the momentum going, is essentially what you're doing here. And if they say, you know what, James, this sounds like a great meeting. I just don't like making uh big decisions after one single meeting, the way you respond is, Ms. Client, of course not. I fully respect that. I respect that you want to take some time to think about this, you want to make sure this is the right decision for you. I want to make sure this is the right decision for you. How about we do this? Would it be okay if I sent you a follow-up email outlining everything that we talked about, outlining why I think that this might be a great step based upon the goals that you shared with me? And also, if it's okay with you, would it be okay if we penciled something in, maybe this time next week, so that I can check in with you? I say that because my schedule gets pretty busy. I want to make sure that I have time carved out to address any questions that you might have that might come up as you think about this. Would that be okay with you? 95% of the time, that individual is gonna say yes, of course. And by the way, in the 5% times they say no, that's not okay. All that means is they're saying no, but they don't want to tell you no to your face. And so this is a nice, easy way from the drift off and just not speak to you ever again. But in most cases, they're gonna say yes. They're gonna say yes, let's pencil that in. Why does that work? Number one, you're showing them that you're on their side. If they ask for a couple of days to think about it and you fight that and you resist that, what that shows them is all you care about is yourself and you closing a client and what's in it for you. You're not caring about what's in it for them. If this is a situation where you can truly add value and you want to see yourself working with this client for years and years and years and years, what's a couple of extra days? So show them that you're on their side. Take time to sleep on this, take time to think about this, take time to talk amongst yourselves if it's a spouse that you're talking to. And in doing so, you're showing them that you want them to make the right decision for them. Number two, when you say, can we pencil something in? What you are implying is there's nothing that's committed in this. You're not making a hard and fast commitment like you would be if you sign on the dotted line today to move all of your assets over or to engage in a financial advising relationship. You're simply asking to put something on the calendar that you could easily remove or reschedule as needed. And then number three, you're framing it as what's in it for them. You're not saying I need you to move forward because I need to hit some quota. That's exactly not what you're saying. You're framing it as would it be okay if I set some time aside on my calendar for you? My schedule does fill up. If we don't do this right now, this might get pushed out for some time. So I'm framing it as what's in it for you by doing something right here. And in doing so, a majority of the time they're going to move forward. And when I say move forward, I don't necessarily move forward to become a client, but they're going to move forward in setting that next step. What you've done is you've taken that momentum and you've continued it. Typically, what happens for those of you watching this on YouTube, and by the way, if you're listening to the podcast, be sure to check out the YouTube version of this show, the Root Ready Show. It's on YouTube under Root Ready. What happens is there's momentum building up to that first meeting. You had that first meeting, you're excited, they're excited. If nothing happens, if you don't send a follow-up and set next steps, that momentum starts to fade. It takes a lot of work to get that momentum back just to where it already is today. Compare that to you had that first meeting. Meaning, all this work has gone into that. The content you've done, the marketing that you've done, the sales that you've done, whatever it is to get to that point, you're capitalizing on that for your sake, for the client's sake. And if this is a good partnership, if this is a good potential fit, by setting that next meeting and sending follow-ups, you're continuing that momentum as opposed to letting that momentum fade. James Clear has an excellent quote in his book, Atomic Habits. That quote is sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. End quote. What's the core principle there? The principle is make the path of least resistance the one that leads away from bad habits, not towards it. And you do that by increasing the difficulty of engaging in that bad habit. Apply that here. If you schedule the follow-up meeting after your initial call, it's more difficult to make the effort to reach out and say, hey, I need to cancel that or reschedule that. It's easier just to say, okay, it's already on the calendar. I know I need to do this. Let me take that path of least resistance. Now let me give you a couple other examples because this isn't just about how do you increase your close rate as an advisor. This is about how do you do many different things, increase your effectiveness as an advisor. Ari Talbleb is our chief growth officer at Root Financial. And he no longer works directly with clients, but when he did, he used to do something like this. And now, this is maybe more out there example, and I don't recommend you do it unless you feel very confident in your ability to execute it effectively. But he would do, or what he would do, is he'd be talking to a new client. And in one of those initial calls, it's say, what do you want to do more of? What do you want more out of life? What's one thing that you're not doing today that you wish you did more of? And inevitably, what would come up a lot is, well, we want to spend more time together. Let's assume this this is a spouse he's talking to, and not just together, but we don't have enough time, we don't make enough time to spend time with our friends. And say, okay, well, tell me more about that. And they talk about how life is busy and work is busy. And if they could design their ideal life, spending more time at friends, maybe at restaurants that they really love, that would be great. They'd love doing that. And he'd, you know, pull out of them, well, what are some of those restaurants? I'm curious. And they would list them, they would start talking. And as they're talking, Ari's pulling up open table. And on open table, he's finding their restaurant. He's looking out to the following Friday, and he quite literally will book a table for four at the restaurant they just told him they'd want to go to. And so at the end of this, he's saying, uh, hey, Joe, hey, Sally, thanks for sharing that. By the way, I just booked a reservation for four at this restaurant for next Friday at seven. You don't have to keep it. And by the way, I'm not paying for it, but there is a reservation for you. And that reservation is booked. And I booked four because it's two for you and two for your best friends, two for a couple that you'd like to invite with you. I'll leave that up to you to whoever you want to invite to that. So I'm not going to pay for it, but remember, you just told me this is something you want to do more of. And by the way, people would do it. People would show up, they would invite their friends because what did Ari do here? He made the path of least resistance the one that was aligned with a good habit. In this case, doing the thing they wanted to do. The path of more resistance would be okay, actually reaching out and canceling that reservation. Could they do it? Of course they could do it. But if they just said they wanted to do something, one of the best things that you can do to actually increase your odds of doing it is to make the path of least resistance the one that's aligned with the habit that you want to engage in. So once again, going back to James Clare, sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. So in this case, make the bad habit, not spending time with friends, not spending time together, make that the hard thing because it would require going and canceling a reservation that was booked on your behalf. Now I'll use one more example. And this next example is more about how do you get your clients to follow through on the things that you talk to them about. I have a bookkeeper, and this bookkeeper, they're excellent. They're very intelligent. I like them a lot as people. They're very, very good at what they do. And every time we meet, they show me new ways of looking at the numbers, new ways of running projections, new ways of understanding the company financials at a different level so I can understand how to make better informed hiring decisions. So I can better understand what the financials will look like, so I can better run different types of projections. It's always awesome. But here's what doesn't happen enough of. We'll have a meeting and we'll talk about so many different things and so many different ways to run the numbers and chop it up and to tag things, whatever, so it flows into QuickBooks most appropriately. In that meeting, they'll say, James, this is what you need to do next. This is what we're going to do next. And then we'll uh meet again to make sure that we're able to implement this. It all sounds great when they say it. But then the meeting wraps up and I jump right into another meeting. And after that next meeting, I remember maybe a little less what we talked about in that. I remember it sounded really good, but I remember a little less why we're doing it and what it actually is. Then I have another meeting and another meeting and another meeting. And by the end of the day, I remember thinking, man, that was really good stuff that we're talking about in that meeting with my bookkeeper, but I can't remember exactly why we were doing it. I didn't remember what exactly I'm not going to do. And what doesn't happen enough is I don't get a follow-up email. And more importantly, we don't schedule next steps. We don't schedule a follow-up meeting that becomes that forcing function to make me do what my follow-ups are supposed to be. Now, this is just as much on me as it is on the bookkeeper. I should have been taking notes. I should have been making sure that I understand what my action items are. But as an advisor, you need to operate under the fact or under the assumption that everything that doesn't get done is your fault. Now, is that 100% true 100% of the time? No, but operate with that attitude that if something's not getting done, what am I not doing here? What am I not doing to drive this home? In many cases, what's not being done is giving very clear follow-up steps and then setting the next action item for them. Because going back to that example of me with the bookkeeper, everything we did was really exciting. I loved it all. It was very cool to see what things could look like. But after the meeting wrapped, after I'd done 20 other things, but I just couldn't really remember it. I couldn't really remember exactly what we're doing. And because I didn't have clarity on next steps and an actual next step on the calendar, nothing ends up happening. I say, you know what, forget it. I don't want to have to try to remember or wrap my mind or burn brain calories trying to go back and figure out what exactly was it that we're doing and why are we doing it and when is the next step? I just let it slide. And therefore, things that should be getting done aren't getting done. As an advisor, how can you make sure that does not happen with your clients? How do you take full ownership of whatever we talk about doing? If the client states they want to do it, you of course can't force them to do everything, but operate under the assumption that if something's not happening, how can I own that? How can I make this my issue? How can I make this my fault, so to speak, that that's not happening and set next steps to ensure that it's getting taken care of? What are some common examples of that? Probably the biggest one that I see is estate planning. We talk about how important it is. We talk about the fact that you need a basic trust depending on your situation, or maybe more complex trust depending on your situation. How often does that actually happen? Unfortunately, not often enough. And by happen, what I mean is people actually go implement their estate documents. Why? It never feels urgent. It never feels like a priority. It always feels like you don't know exactly what needs to be done. How can you address that? Well, there's a couple of ways. Number one, if you have an actual estate planner that you're referring to, can you help them schedule that meeting? Can you get on a call together? Can you coordinate an email together to get the ball rolling, to get the momentum moving? Number two, I know a lot of you probably use uh estate planning software, whether this is vanilla, whether this is trust and will, whether this is wealth.com. Those softwares enable clients to set up their own estate documents. Now you need to be careful because if you're listening to this, you're probably not actually an attorney. You are the advisor. So you can help guide, you can help recommend that someone set up their estate plan, but you cannot give estate planning advice. What you could do, or what I've done in the past, is actually just set up a meeting of telling the client I'm not an attorney. I cannot give you advice on the actual specifics of your estate plan, but I'm gonna send you a link to wealth.com or trust and will, whatever it is. I'm gonna schedule a meeting with you and with me. I'm not gonna be giving you estate advice. I'm not even gonna be guiding you through the software. The software is gonna do that on its own. Trust and will, vanilla, uh, wealth.com, whatever the case might be. I really just want to make sure this gets done. It's important to me as your advisor that we get this finalized. So I'm gonna schedule a meeting where we're gonna be on it together and you're just simply gonna go through this. I didn't do anything as the advisor or as the attorney, I should say here. I did not give estate advice. That's not what was missing. The reason they weren't moving forward and getting the estate documents done wasn't because they didn't know where to get advice. It was just a lack of momentum. There was inertia there that we were dealing with. So by setting something up on the calendar, either with an estate planner or just something on the calendar where I would go through that or schedule that with them and sit there while they completed it, that helped them to get this done. So, what can you do this with? Estate documents, 401k documents. Maybe you want to give feedback on how they're investing their 401k and they don't get around to logging in. Can you log in with them? Set up time on their calendar. Maybe it's time for open enrollment and they're not making the time to get you their documents or get you their new options. Schedule a time with them, do it together. What are those little things that you can do by scheduling the next steps and also sending a very clear email, very clear action items of what you need them to do? Doing this is going to incentivize the right behavior. It does not matter how much you know, it doesn't matter what your advice looks like, your goal as an advisor is to remove some of the burden of having to deal with these things on their own. How do you remove that burden? You set the next steps for them, you send follow-ups on why it's important, what exactly they need to get done. So back to what I mentioned at the beginning. If there's things that we can do as an advisor that are relatively low lift, but have a disproportionately high impact on success happening, the odds of success increasing for a client, those are the things we need to make sure we're taken care of. Scheduling the next step with clients is one way in which we can do this. Continues the momentum, make sure that things are getting done, and enables you to be the best advisor you can be. That's it for today's episode of Root Ready. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review if you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcast. If you're not already doing so, check the show out on YouTube. It's under the Root Ready. That's the show name. Thank you as always for listening. See you next time.