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Small investments of time often pay big dividends. That message was agonizingly clear to an advisor who wasted several minutes having a coffee at a Starbucks, when he should have been preparing for the prospect he was about to meet.
Being a financial advisor can be a roller coaster – one week you get a referral that leads to a terrific new client, the next you lose a long-standing relationship for reasons entirely beyond your control. A recent call from a successful advisor looking for advice reminded of the fine line between success and failure.
An engineer by training, Bob came into the investment industry 15 years ago; today he runs a growing practice focused on mid- and high-level corporate executives in the tech and manufacturing industries. Last fall, he invited top clients to a market outlook lunch at a private room at a top local restaurant. He asked clients interested in attending to call him directly to discuss specific questions they wanted to address.
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Bob sent out 50 invitations and had about 15 clients say yes, over twice his typical response to sandwich lunches. (A free meal shouldn’t make a difference to million-dollar clients, but experience shows that it does.) After talking on the phone to the clients attending about what they’d like to cover, he mentioned that while this lunch was primarily for existing clients, he did have a few extra spots and asked if they had one friend or co-worker who might be interested in attending as their guest.
Capitalizing on an opening
A client in a senior role at a mid-sized tech company brought along a work colleague – let’s call his guest Jim. Both the existing client and Jim had substantial equity in their firm. While neither were huge clients currently, they both represented very significant future potential.
The lunch went well with lots of interaction and discussion. Next morning, Bob called his client to get his impressions of the lunch and also to get permission to follow up with Jim. While that follow-up call was politely received, Jim begged off an immediate meeting due to travel and work pressures, but did agree that Bob could add him to his monthly email list and then follow up in January.
Bob connected with Jim early in the new year and they agreed to meet for a casual conversation over a mid-morning coffee at a Starbucks across the street from Jim’s office. Bob got there early to ensure that they got a table in the corner and was waiting when Jim arrived.
After getting their coffees, Bob thanked Jim for taking the time to meet and said that his goal was simply to get to know Jim better, then asked if he had anything in particular he’d like to get out of their conversation. Jim paused, thought for a moment and said, “Not really, no” … and then went on to say: “ Before coming over, I glanced at your profile on Linked-In and was a bit surprised to see that the only thing there was your current role without any history or background, so I’d like to hear more about you.”
He then went on to say: “ I assume you’ve looked at my Linked-In profile, do you have any questions about my background?” There was an awkward pause while Jim waited for Bob’s answer. Bob first of all explained that updating his Linked-In profile was on his to-do list, but other priorities had got in the way. And he apologized that he didn’t have a chance to look at Jim’s profile before their meeting and asked him to tell him a bit about himself.
Bob and Jim went on to have a cordial conversation. When the meeting wrapped up after 30 minutes, Bob suggested scheduling a time for a more in-depth discussion of Jim’s situation. Jim thanked him for the offer, said that while he’d enjoyed the conversation, but given how busy he is, he’s not interested in talking further at this point. Jim did agree that Bob could keep on his monthly email list and that he could check back in 12 months, but Bob walked away feeling that what had seemed a promising opportunity had turned cold.
The new expectations for meeting preparation
Bob called me later that day to get my thoughts on how he should follow up with Jim and also what he could learn from the meeting. There were two obvious takeaways from the meeting with Jim:
Before contacting prospects and certainly before meeting them, advisors need to check prospects’ Linked-In profiles. This is obviously less relevant if you work with retirees, but if you work with business owners or professionals and certainly if you work in the tech space as Bob does, this has become expected behavior. More and more, not checking someone’s Linked-In profile before calling them or meeting them will send the signal that you’re not serious enough to invest three minutes in basic research. (Bob could have checked Jim’s profile while waiting for him at Starbucks.)
Second, advisors need to get serious about their own Linked-In profiles. I recognize that some firms still limit what advisors can put on their Linked-In profiles (although I’m not clear as to why there should be different standards for Linked-In versus public advisor websites), but the industry as a whole needs to adjust to today’s reality here and do it sooner rather than later.
With regard to how to follow up with Jim, I suggested that Bob update his Linked-In profile and then send Jim a note, thanking him for providing the impetus to move this up Bob’s priority list. This won’t recoup all the ground that was lost, but perhaps will be a beginning.
For advisors who want to know more about how to incorporate Linked-In to your practice, here’s an article that appeared last year on how Linked-In is changing the game for attracting affluent clients.
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, go to www.clientinsights.ca. Use A555A for the rep and dealer code to register for website access.
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