Category 8: Comparison Statement Breadcrumb
Recognize what clients and prospects are looking for when they make comparison statements.
Category eight breadcrumbs, a comparison statement. What's a comparative breadcrumb? Any statement, term, phrase in which the speaker is comparing something to something else. Any statement in which there's a measurement of time, or distance, or value of gain. You might hear somebody say, "Yeah, it's been a down year for my portfolio. This quarter wasn't as good as the last." We hear these statements all the time. What do we typically do? We give our analysis of what maybe that would happen. But what they want to do is talk about the comparison. You'll notice this. When you start hearing comparative breadcrumbs, it really doesn't matter what you say. Their response to you is going to be on the comparison. We're not really happy with how this department's doing right now. We might say, "Well, with the economy, it's really hard. I guess everybody's been struggling."
What you hear him say is something to the effect of, "Yeah, but really, they've had the necessary resources. The circumstances of the market shouldn't be affecting them." They're going to tell you about the comparison. What we want to do is make it easy on them. Say, "I'm curious, why do you think they haven't been doing as well as other departments? What is your disappointment?" All we have to do, just go with them. It doesn't mean it's going to change their response. It simply means, I am curious what you have to say. It just gets us on their stage almost instantly when we can pick up those comparative breadcrumbs.
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Neither MFS nor any of its subsidiaries is affiliated with Eric Maddox. The views expressed are those of the speaker and are subject to change at any time.
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