"I wrote 'Adviser vs Client' to help advisers step outside their own industry perspective."
- Terry Blackburn - The Wealthy Advisers Club
Terry Blackburn, founder of The Wealthy Advisers Club, has launched a new book called 'Adviser vs Client', aiming to bridge the gap in protection conversations between advisers and customers.
As highlighted in the recent FCA Pure Protection Market Study, 58% of people don’t hold any protection products, and 59% of those without any protection products have never considered their protection needs.
'Adviser vs Client' deconstructs common customer meetings through fictional client archetypes, including Remortgage Richard, Home Mover Martyn, Self-Employed Susan, and Peter the Parent.
The book goes through each persona’s motivations, unvoiced anxieties, and potential objections, comparing them against the adviser’s instincts and highlighting where and why the conversation breaks down.
Terry Blackburn says the objective is for any adviser reading the book, whether they are experienced or new to the industry, to be able to identify and remember each client type with a script of what to say and questions to ask each particular type of client.
In addition, the book includes practical tools, positioning strategies, and appointment-ready sales scripts, providing word-for-word phrasing and discovery questions that mortgage advisers, protection specialists, and brokerage managers can deploy.
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"Throughout my 17 years in financial services building two advisory firms and coaching hundreds of brokers, I’ve consistently seen that the barrier to selling protection isn’t a lack of technical knowledge or product choice," Terry Blackburn, founder of The Wealthy Advisers Club, said.
"Advisers understand the catastrophic impact of being unable to work, but clients simply don’t view the world through our professional lens. When an adviser is discussing life cover and the client is focused on shaving £30 off their monthly payment, an immediate wall goes up.
"I wrote 'Adviser vs Client' to help advisers step outside their own industry perspective, understand the emotional and practical realities facing everyday buyers, and bridge that communication gap.
"The book looks at psychology and the differences between the way clients think and how advisers think, as this is fundamentally different, which often dictates and determines the outcome of the sale. When an adviser and a client are thinking differently and talking differently, it results in an out-of-sync conversation, which ultimately means the sale is lost.
"Ultimately, this isn't about teaching high-pressure sales tactics; it's about asking better questions and helping people recognise the risks they’ve overlooked. By giving advisers recognisable characters and real-world conversation scripts, my aim is to make these principles immediately usable in their very next appointment.
"When advisers master client psychology, their conversion rates naturally improve, but the far bigger victory is the outcome for the consumer, as more families, homeowners, and business owners walk away with meaningful financial protection in place."
