Most Popular ArticlesJune 2, 2009
My recent conversations with some successful advisors drove this point home.
One is a Memphis-based advisor who sends clients a short weekly email. Part of it talks to what’s happened in markets in the past week – but in the other segment she talks in her own voice. Her personality and humanity really comes through here – whether it is inviting clients to come in to figure out if they need to cut back on spending, talking about the impact of lower gas prices while driving to visit family, describing a visit to her daughter in university or highlighting how her bar-b-que team did in a local competition – and offering to share their winning recipe.
Another advisor has, over the years, let clients know about his support of a children’s home in Africa that he came across while participating in a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for cancer research. He commented that he’s amazed by how long-standing clients often ask how the children’s home is doing when they come in to meet.
Other Articles by Dan Richards
Client Communication
A Five-part Conversation to Rebuild Market Confidence
Five Steps to High Impact Client Meetings
How to Consolidate Client Assets
Lessons from the Loss of a Multi Million Dollar Account
What to Say When You’ve Said It All
Prospecting
A Prospecting Tip from Barack Obama
Becoming the Fall Back Advisor for High End Prospects
Overcoming a Key Barrier to Moving Accounts
Talking to Prospects about Last Year’s Performance
The End of Prospecting
Turning Corporate Downsizing into Prospecting Success
Practice Management
Developing an Optimistic Outlook
Lessons from Winning Athletes
Structuring Your Day for Maximum Productivity
The Pendulum Never Stops…
Three Myths of Market Underperformance
Twelve Pieces of Good News in the Gloom
Tips for Motivation in 2009
Along the same lines, another advisor joined a two-day bike ride last summer to raise funds for a local hospital and offered to match contributions from clients interested in supporting him. He was overwhelmed by the response from clients – not just in terms in terms of the money raised, but also to the periodic notes he included in his newsletter about his training schedule for the ride.
Years ago, a veteran advisor told me he spent the first fifteen minutes each morning calling clients celebrating birthdays, with the simple words “I just want to be among the first to wish you happy birthday.” In his experience, the time he took to do this was often the most important fifteen minutes he spent each day.
Your paramount goal is to ensure clients are well-served in the financial advice they receive. Yet, in many cases, your personal connections to clients are just as important as the advice they receive. To build truly deep bonds, focus on both the professional and personal aspects of your relationships.
* Dan Richards conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written and video commentaries and to reach him, go to www.strategicimperatives.ca.
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