Free template: How to structure a conversation using Fluidly

by Lucy Wayment

One of the linchpins of a good client conversation is knowledge, and with Fluidly you’re armed with lots of powerful insights to discuss.

But having the information and knowing how best to communicate it is a different matter. Where should you start? How do you make sure you don’t bombard the client with data overload? And how can you most effectively structure the conversation?

In this free template we give you a basic structure that you can easily personalise, along with useful tips and tricks.

Get the call booked in

We recommend booking an investigation call of 30 minutes with your client, this should be enough for an initial exploratory conversation.

Depending on the outcome of the meeting, you will likely want to book a follow up planning call where you can discuss actions and advice (this might be more like an hour – and we’ll be producing a template for this call too very soon!)

Preparing for the conversation

Before the call, we recommend logging into the app yourself and spending some time just exploring the insights and data for the client you’re going to speak to.

The Fluidly forecast is generated in seconds, and will reflect real-time information for your client’s accounts so there’s no need to spend time extracting, interpreting and reformatting data. However if you’d like to refine a prediction, or add in something new, it’s very easy to make changes.

You might want to add in a one-off recurring transaction that you know is missing, or exclude specific bank accounts (like a savings account) from being pulled through.

Once you’re happy with all of the data you’re ready to plan the conversation.

You can download the Fluidly conversation template structure here too.

Planning the conversation

For any initial conversation with a client, we recommend starting in the portfolio tab. From here, you’ll be able to structure the conversation around 3 key talking points. For each talking point, we’ve suggested questions to steer the conversation. They are planned in a way that will help you start to offer advisory services using Fluidly’s tools.

#Talking point 1: Are the debtors higher than the opening cash?

Quite often, clients will find their cash balance with a significant amount overdue. If this is the case, we’d suggest starting with a discussion around this.

Suggested questions:

What are you currently doing to bring more money in? This will allow you to get an insight into your client’s plans to see if they are struggling.
Do you need help with your credit control? This is your chance to start offering an additional, more advisory service. You can help them through our debtor-management tool.
Have you ever considered invoice financing? Lots of businesses aren’t aware of invoice financing as an option, so this is a chance to explore if it could be worth looking at.

#Talking point 2: Creditors look very high

Another key talking point is around a client’s creditors. Does it look like they might be struggling?

Suggested questions:

How are you coping with your current payment terms? This is a chance to get your client to open up.
Do you need my help with negotiating new terms? Again, once you have a clear idea of their situation, this is your chance to introduce your advisory services.
Do you need help with funding? Depending on their answers to the above questions, it might be worth thinking about a cash injection. If they are interested, you can discuss their options in your follow up meeting.

#Talking point 3: Funding insights

When you’re in portfolio view, you can switch from the cashflow tab to the funding one. Our insights here provide perfect conversation starters that are tailored to your clients.

The questions that you’ll ask here will be dependent on the particular insight, so we’ve put a couple of examples below.

Overdraft

It looks like you’ve been consistently overdrawn for the last 6 months.

Shall we take a closer look at your cash in and cash out each month?
Have you thought about other finance options that could offer better rates

Assets

Due to the nature of your business, your fixed assets could provide you with some additional cash.

Have you ever considered asset finance?
Did you know you can use your existing assets as security to borrow money at a low rate?

Christmas stock

It looks like you’ll have some expensive stock outlays coming up soon, especially with the current supply chain issues.

Do you need additional cash to cover this?
Have you thought about a revolving credit facility perhaps?

These are just some talking points to help you structure a conversation. Obviously the more you talk to clients about Fluidly the more comfortable you’ll become with having advisory conversations but we hope this helps you get started.

What next?

After this initial conversation, you should have a better sense of what an individual client might need help with.

Finish the call by booking in a follow up planning meeting, where you can go through actions to take in more detail, be that running through our scenario-planner or using our debtor management tool.