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Module 2 · Strand A — what you deliver

The Advisory Conversation

When you finish this, you can

You can turn the audit into a client decision — presented without blame, anchored on dollars, closed with owned next steps.

Time
About 30 minutes to work through. The meeting itself is 30.
Before you start
A delivered audit from Module 1. This module is unusable without a real report in your hand — the whole method hangs off a number that belongs to a specific client.
1

Present findings, not faults

The audit describes the pipeline, not the person. “$68,500 is sitting in estimates older than 90 days” lands as information; “you never follow up” lands as an accusation and ends the conversation — and both sentences describe the same fact. Read the numbers as observations, let the owner react first, and resist explaining every chart. The report does that. Your job is the pause after the biggest number.

Same fact, two sentences. One opens the conversation and one closes it.
2

Anchor on dollars, then ask one question

Lead with the single largest dollar finding, then ask: “which of these would you want back first?” The owner picks the priority — which means the plan that follows is theirs, not yours. Advisors who rank the problems for the client get polite agreement; advisors who make the client rank them get decisions. This is the difference between a report that gets thanked and a report that gets acted on.

Make them rank it. A plan they ordered is a plan they own.
3

Three recommendations — only one is Setell

The action plan carries three recommendations. Two are process fixes the client can do without buying anything: chase or close every 90+ day estimate this week, and set a standing follow-up rhythm on new quotes. One is the structural fix — put the quote-to-invoice pipeline on rails with Setell. The two-to-one ratio is deliberate and it is not modesty: the majority of your advice is non-self-serving, which is exactly why the third recommendation gets taken seriously. An advisor whose every finding resolves to “buy the thing I sell” gets heard as a salesperson, and their next finding lands weaker even when it is right.

Earn the third recommendation with the two that came free.
4

Every item gets an owner and a date

A recommendation without an owner and a date is a wish. Close the meeting by writing both on each action — the client owns the follow-ups, you own the check-in, and if Setell is on the plan, the trial starts through you. Then book the debrief before you leave: the second audit gets scheduled while the first one is still warm.

5

When they don’t bite

Sometimes the number lands and nothing happens. That is data, not failure, and what you do next matters more than the meeting did. Log the objection verbatim — not your summary of it, their words — because the actual sentence is what you will use with the next client and it is the most valuable thing the meeting produced. Then hold the momentum rule anyway: book the second client’s audit within fourteen days. Advisors who stop after one flat meeting conclude the method doesn’t work off a sample size of one.

Write down their exact words. A verbatim objection is worth more than a polite yes.
The conversation, minute by minute

Thirty minutes, seven beats. Don't read these lines aloud — a script read to a client you've known for six years sounds exactly like a script read to a client you've known for six years. The clock and the stage directions are the parts doing the work.

0:00
Open — say why you did this, in one sentence
“I was in your books anyway, and I pulled something I don’t think anyone has shown you. It’s about the quotes that went out and never came back either way.”
No preamble about methodology, no explaining what an estimate is. You have about thirty seconds before an owner decides whether this is a meeting or a favour. Say the thing.
0:01
The number — then stop talking
“There’s $68,500 sitting in estimates older than ninety days.”
This is the whole meeting. Say the single largest dollar finding, then be quiet and let it be uncomfortable. Every instinct will tell you to fill the silence with context — do not. Their first reaction is the most valuable thing you will hear today, and it only exists if you leave room for it. Whatever they say next, write it down verbatim: that sentence is what you will use with the next client.
0:03
Walk the findings — describe the pipeline, never the person
“Here’s what’s converting and what isn’t, how long it takes you to get a quote out, and where it’s concentrated. About a third of that number is sitting with two customers.”
“$68,500 is sitting in estimates older than ninety days” is information. “You never follow up” is an accusation, and the meeting is over the moment it lands — even though both sentences describe the same fact. Don’t explain every chart; the report does that and you left it with them. Ten minutes, maximum.
0:13
The one question — make them rank it
“Which of these would you want back first?”
The hinge of the entire method. Rank the problems for them and you get polite agreement; make them rank the problems and you get a decision, because the plan that follows is now theirs. If they deflect — “well, all of it” — hold the question. Ask which one keeps them up.
0:16
Three recommendations — two of them free
“Three things. Chase or close everything past ninety days this week, even the no’s. Put a standing rhythm on new quotes so nothing sits. And the structural one: put the quote-to-invoice pipeline on rails so this stops rebuilding itself — that’s where Setell comes in.”
Two free, one structural, in that order, always. The free ones are not throat-clearing — they are what earns the third one a hearing. If the owner hasn’t asked “so what would actually fix this?” by now, the third recommendation is a pitch rather than an answer, and you should let it stay small.
0:22
Owners and dates — on every item
“Who’s chasing the ninety-day list, and by when? I’ll take the check-in on the second one.”
A recommendation without a name and a date is a wish, and wishes are why advisory work gets remembered as “nice conversation, nothing happened.” Write both on each item while you are still in the room.
0:26
Book the debrief before you leave
“Let’s put fifteen minutes in for two weeks out to see what moved.”
The second audit gets scheduled while the first is still warm — that is the momentum rule, and it is the difference between a program and an anecdote. Book it on the calendar in the room, not in an email you’ll send later.
The page you leave behind

One page, left behind, under your firm’s name. It is the artifact that turns a good conversation into something with a due date on it. Client-facing — so it looks like your work, because it is.

Action plan — one page, client-facing
Swap the {placeholders}. Their numbers come from the audit report exactly as printed.
QUOTE PIPELINE — ACTION PLAN
{Client business name} · Prepared by {Your firm} · {Date}

WHAT WE FOUND
  Open estimate value:             ${amount}
  Sitting longer than 90 days:     ${amount}  ({n} estimates)
  Estimate-to-invoice conversion:  {n}% by count · {n}% by dollars
  Typical time to get a quote out: {n} days

WHAT WE DECIDED — you ranked {finding} as the one to get back first.

  1. Chase or close every estimate older than 90 days.
     Owner: {name}          By: {date}
     Even the no's. A closed no is worth more than an open maybe.

  2. Set a standing follow-up rhythm on new quotes.
     Owner: {name}          By: {date}
     Day 2, day 7, day 14. It does not need to be clever, it needs to exist.

  3. Put the quote-to-invoice pipeline on rails — Setell.
     Owner: {name}          By: {date}
     Trial starts through {Your firm}.

NEXT
  Debrief: {date, 15 minutes} — what moved, what didn't.
Four rules that keep it working
Three items. Not five. A plan with five items is a plan with zero items.
Every item has a name and a date, including yours.
The findings section is their numbers, copied exactly from the report. Do not round to make a point.
Your brand, not ours. Setell appears once, as a line item they chose.

Now do it

Reading this module does not complete it. These do — and they are what certification is issued against.

Completion checklist
0/4

Progress saves in this browser only — nothing is sent to a server. Certification is reviewed personally, so the checklist is your working memory, not the credential.

Done looks like
A meeting held, an action plan left behind with owners and dates, and the outcome written down — whichever way it went.
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