February 23, 2010
Debunking Harry Dent
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that in the fall of 2009 my company launched an initiative to allow financial advisors in my home market of Canada to send clients videos of short interviews with portfolio manager and financial experts. Today, there are 250 short videos on the site, with an all-star cast of expert authorities.
Among these interviews are several with David Foot, an economist at the University of Toronto who’s a leading authority on demographics and co-author of the best selling book, Boom, Bust and Echo.
One of Foot’s interviews related to the thesis in Harry Dent’s book “The Great Crash Ahead” that demographics will cause a market collapse.
Last fall, an advisor called to tell me about an experience he’d just had.
A million-dollar client had called him, said he’d just finished Harry Dent’s book and had decided to go to cash as a result. Despite all the advisor’s best efforts, nothing could change this client’s mind.
In talking about this with some colleagues at lunch, he was made aware of the Foot video. After viewing it, the advisor arranged for a short meeting at the client’s office that afternoon – and played Foot’s interview on the client’s computer.
Afterwards, the client first thanked him, said that now he understood the advisor’s perspective, apologized for wasting his time – and asked if they could just pretend that morning’s conversation had never taken place.
“What made this work” the advisor said “was that my client could see and hear David Foot in real time. Even if I’d sent an article by David Foot making the identical points, it wouldn’t have had the same impact.”
Click here to watch David Foot’s views:
Adapting to a new reality
Let’s be clear, the written word will always be with us. In a time-pressed world, reading is still the most efficient way to assimilate information. And with the launch of digital devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s E-Reader and Apple’s IPad, reading in real time will become easier.
Further, there are some complex topics that just don’t lend themselves to video. And of course there are some clients who will always prefer to receive information in writing.
For good or for ill, however, those clients are shrinking in number. We live in a world that’s moving to shorter and shorter attention spans, with greater emphasis on immediacy and on the visual medium.
Radio and television revolutionized advertising by introducing the emotional impact of sight and sound – video is doing the same in the online space. One result has been phenomenal growth in online videos – Cisco Systems predicts that by 2012, 90% of consumer internet traffic will consist of videos.
As you move into 2010, take a hard look at every aspect of your business. As part of that, it’s essential that you closely examine not just WHAT information you send to clients – but HOW you communicate that information.
Only by fundamentally adapting how you communicate will the shifts in client communication preferences taking place today and tomorrow work for you rather than against you.
* 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.
Display article as PDF for printing.
Would you like to send this article to a friend?
Remember, if you have a question or comment, send it to .
