Responding to the Comment ‘I Don’t Want to Lose Money’

I received an email from John in Texas with an interesting question. He said, “Every time I go into an appointment now, the first thing out of somebody’s mouth is, ‘I don’t want to lose any money.’

And I’ve been saying, ‘I don’t know anyone that ever does,’ as an ice breaker but I don’t feel comfortable. Can you give me a suggestion how to respond to that comment?”

Watch the video or read the transcript below to hear Don’s thoughts on how to respond to this question.

So here are my thoughts in no particular order.

Number one: ‘I don’t want to lose any money’ is an objection. You’re going to handle it like an objection.

Number two: They want to see you, you’re there in the appointment, so they want to do something about their future. It’s not a be-all, end-all objection. Maybe you’re their third, fourth, even fifth advisor, and they’ve lost money with other people. So it’s a serious objection.

I’d be tempted at some point to ask them, by the way, “Obviously you have a reason for saying that, may I ask what it is?” I’d ask that at some point before I left that day.

Related: Being Accountable Will Be The Key to Your Success

Nonetheless, you can’t answer an objection. You must turn it into a question.

“I don’t want to lose any money.”
“If I understand you correctly, you don’t want to lose any money, is that correct?”
“That’s correct.”

Now you can answer that question. “Well you know what, most of my clients don’t want to lose money. None of them want to lose money, in fact. That’s why they chose me in the first place. Let me tell you how I conduct my practice. I don’t feel it’s my goal to make you money, to make you rich. I think it’s my goal to keep you from being poor. And that’s the way I conduct things. So the emphasis isn’t on not losing any money at all. How do you feel about that?” I think they’re going to be fine with that.

But try that, John. Just say, “I don’t want to lose any money. Nobody does. I don’t run my practice that way. I don’t try to make people rich, I try to keep them from being poor.” I think you’ll get back on stable ground with them.