Tips for running a Values session [Best Practices]

During the Values conversation: 

The key to success in the Values process is the ability to turn your initial Values conversation into tangible goals that are accessible for you as an Adviser, and your client.

Often in the moment it can be difficult to decide on how best to progress the value for your client, as the Values sessions are full of an influx of important information. 

Before your Values conversation begins, we recommend ensuring you have at least 1.5 hours set-aside for the initial conversation with your client. Without setting aside an appropriate amount of time, the full effect of your Values conversation will not be felt by yourself or the client. 

As a starting point, we recommend always recording your Values conversation with your client; whether you’re a sole adviser or have an associate with you, this is a great base to be able to re-assess the outcomes of your conversation at any point in the advice journey. In doing so, you’re able to focus on the moment and dig deep with your client to ultimately get the most out of your Values conversation.

As well as this, Lumiant has integrated Amazon Transcribe that allows you to convert voice to text during your Values conversations. This gives you more time to focus on your clients in the moment, rather than worrying about taking notes. To learn more about Lumiant’s voice to text feature, you can read here: Voice to Text 

During the session, if you do feel the need to capture information quickly – we recommend utilising Quick Goals. This can be used most efficiently by hearing a goal come up in conversation, hitting quick goal, capturing it and then moving on and re-visiting once your session is over:

Another useful tip in utilising Quick Goals is to add them off the back of your client’s initial survey. From here, you will have them accessible and then can edit them after your Values conversation if needed. 

How to get the most out of the Values conversation: 

We recommend using your Lumiant Value card statements as a ‘cheat sheet’ to success by using the specific wording and terminology in your Values conversation. For example, if a client says they would like to ‘feel more confident in my finances’, ask them if that means they aren’t feeling confident right now in order to understand better as their adviser how this goal can be achieved. By putting the question back on the client, you will receive a more clarified answer.

It’s important to not have assumptions on where your clients are in their financial journey. When utilising your cards as a cheat sheet, make sure you don’t have expectations of what cards they will pick – listen to what your client says first then ask accordingly. To gain the most from the Values conversation and truly understand the client’s goals, we suggest asking the client the same question multiple times, voiced in different ways. 

An example of this would be if one of clients mentions that they would like to ‘spend without guilt’. To understand this value at its core, you can ask ‘how do you feel about the way you normally spend your money?’, ‘what would your life ideally look like if you could spend without guilt?’, ‘how does your current spending compare with your desired spending?’. By re-wording the question in different ways, you will further understand your client’s values; this will allow you to turn this value into a goal more effectively. 

For more examples on how you can ask a values based question in multiple ways, read this article:What are the Values Statements? 

As well as this, we believe success in turning Values into goals can come from asking just one further question when your client is already in a comfortable situation. The reasoning behind this is that often probing that one step extra when your client is already comfortable, allows for that deeper level of information to come out so you have a full understanding of the why behind their values. 

In terms of quick goals, we recommend fleshing these out during the conversation to gain the context needed for the goal. For example, if a client wants to make work optional, be sure to ask why this is important to them. 

It is not uncommon to encounter some discomfort or challenges during your Values conversation, as clients may have topics they wouldn’t like to discuss. The aim of your Values conversations is to listen to the client with open ears; it’s also important to read their body language and be mindful of their personal experiences. A few go-to questions that will help your client to open up during the Values conversation are: ‘what was life like for you growing up?’, ‘how many siblings do you have?’, ‘did you have money growing up?’. This will ensure the client is opening up so you can extract the best quality goals from the process. 

Goals at the end of the Values conversation: 

Often at the end of your Values conversation, there may be a lot of information to process and goals needed to define. It’s important for you as an adviser to guide your client by helping them decide what goals to prioritise now and what is best to focus on later in their journey.

You want to ensure each goal recorded is achieved, so a priority order is important to be established. Deciphering between your client’s ‘must-haves’ and ‘nice-to-haves’ and ‘dreams come true’ will help you determine where your efforts are best placed to help them to live their best lives. 

Once you have had the conversation with your client and used your adviser experience to determine what is important or urgent, you are able to drag these accordingly on the platform to establish their order.

Our final tip in turning values into goals is to go back into the goals after the Value session to re-edit and ensure the Dashboard is grammatically correct and embodies what your client would like to achieve. This ensures your conversation accurately reflects the Dashboard. 

For your review clients, we recommend following a similar process with the Values conversation. Whilst you already know what their goals are, you will be able to flesh these out further and also see what new goals arise from the conversation.