Ep 467: Crafting Effective Conversations To Build Business Development Rapport With Prospects with Derek Kinney

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A key part of converting a contact or prospect into a client is an advisor's ability to explain what they offer and to show how they're the right person to solve their pain points. This episode explores how leading with empathy, asking the right questions, and storytelling can help financial advisors turn curiosity into client commitment.

Derek Kinney is the founder of Success for Advisors, a speaking and coaching firm that helps financial advisors communicate more effectively with prospects and clients. Listen in as Derek shares how he teaches advisors to open conversations with relatable "You know how..." statements that frame a prospect's problem and position the advisor as the solution (without giving away the fix too soon). You'll learn how using a calm, deliberate speaking style can convey authority and trust, why his "million-dollar questions" uncover what clients really want, and how sharing the successes of current clients in similar situations can move prospects naturally toward engagement.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/467

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with
0:07.1	financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading
0:12.4	financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success
0:17.4	and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next
0:22.2	level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone.
0:29.0	Welcome to the 467th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is
0:35.4	Derek Kinney. Derek is the founder of Success for Advisors, a speaking and coaching firm that helps financial
0:41.4	advisors communicate more effectively with prospects and clients.
0:45.0	What's unique about Derek, though, is how his approach encourages advisors to find an
0:49.0	immediately relatable pain point for their prospective clients and then show how they help
0:53.2	their clients solve similar
0:54.6	problems without actually solving the prospect's issue until they become a client.
0:59.4	In this episode, we talk in depth about how Derek encourages advisors to create a pitch that
1:04.0	begins with a you know how statement that is an instantly relatable problem for a prospect,
1:08.5	how Derek sees value in using a low and slow speaking
1:11.5	style to demonstrate the advisor's seriousness in solving the prospect's particular problem and how
1:16.6	Derek finds that advisors can help move prospects from an initial encounter to an in-person or video
1:21.9	visit by offering to continue to explore their pain point without directly asking for a meeting in the
1:27.2	short term,
1:27.8	which could make it seem like the advisor doesn't have much other business.
1:31.4	We also talk about how Derek approaches the first visit after an initial encounter with a prospect
1:36.1	by asking what he calls million dollar questions, including what would be the greatest service
	...

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