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Can changing how you spend the first 10 minutes of your day make a big impact on your business? For one advisor who altered his routine in January, the answer is a definitive yes.
At a recent conference, I had a conversation with an advisor name David based in Chicago who’d been on a panel of top producers. I asked David a question I’ll often use when meeting an advisor for the first time: “What’s working for you these days?”
His answer provided an important lesson for others in the business:
“ In January I changed how I spend the first 10 minutes of my day to do one thing differently,” David said.
“ I’ve had a great response from clients and my productivity has gone up significantly as a result.”
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A small change that made a big difference
In December, David read an article about 10 proven ways to communicate more effectively with clients. One of the suggestions in the article was sending clients hand-written thank you notes after meetings.
“ This was not a new idea” he told me “ far from it. I’ve been in the business 20 years and have come across this suggestion at least 100 times. The difference was that this time I decided to do something about it.
I did three things to make this happen:
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I visited a stationery shop and bought five boxes of really nice, high quality thank-you notes, this was right after Christmas so I got them on sale. I paid $120 for 100 cards. Then I went to the post office to buy stamps for the cards, because they were an odd size each stamp cost me $1.40.
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I asked my assistant before she left each day to put three cards on my desk and to print off a list of clients whose birthday was coming up in 10 days time.
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Finally and perhaps most important, I went into the calendar on my computer and I blocked off the first 10 minutes each day to write three thank-you notes.
“ Now when I come into the office in the morning, before I get my coffee and before I turn on my computer, I take 10 minutes to write three thank-you notes to clients. These can be clients who I’ve just met with or spoken to on the phone or who have birthdays coming up. Or maybe someone’s kid has gotten into university or they’ve had a grandchild.”
What to say in a card?
I had several questions about this.
I asked David if he struggled finding something to write.
“ Not in the slightest” was his answer. “ If a client has a birthday coming up, I write: ‘In advance of your birthday, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the opportunity to work together.’ If there’s something to celebrate, big or small, I’ll send them a quick note on it. Or if we’ve met or spoken on the phone, I’ll send them a quick note to express my gratitude for them being a client.”
Another question was whether he was concerned about sending two notes to the same client or saying the same thing twice:
“ That was a concern initially. But my assistant keeps track of all the cards I’ve sent in an Excel file and also enters what I wrote, so if I’m not sure if I’ve sent a card to a client already or what I said, I can look it up.”
Does David ever run into a problem identifying three clients to whom to send cards, I asked:
“ I’ve yet to run into that situation” he said. “A number of my clients are sports fans, as I am – worst case if the Bulls or Blackhawks have won the night before, I have simply written: ‘Paul, I thought of you last night as I watched the Bulls pull out another game - hard to believe that the playoffs are only three weeks away. Let’s plan to connect for a game. ”
The benefits of three handwritten cards to start your day
Finally, I asked David about the return he’d seen from the time and effort to send those cards.
“ This has been one of the most positive things I can recall doing” was the answer.
“ First, I have been astounded by how positive the response from clients has been, especially when I’ve written notes wishing them happy birthday or congratulating them on something related to their kids or grandkids. I took my biggest client out golfing last summer to my club. When we had dinner afterwards. It was a great bonding experience, I really felt I got to know him better and he did thank me – but I got more of a response to a note congratulating him when his daughter got engaged than to that afternoon outing.”
“ Second, it has changed my thinking on trying new things. I am in the process right now of talking to my team about a couple of other ideas related to client communication.
“ And perhaps most important, it’s had a powerful impact on my motivation. Ten minutes into my day, I feel positive because those three notes are written and I can point to something concrete and specific that I’ve knocked off my to-do list. In fact I have two associates on my team who deal with smaller clients, about a month ago they began doing this also, and if anything their response has been even more positive.”
David’s experience presents an important lesson for every advisor. We’ve all read about an idea and said “ I should do that.” Whether you like this idea or another initiative you’ve heard about, consider doing as David did and putting Nike’s “ Just do it” motto into practice. You too might be pleasantly surprised by the impact on your business as a result.
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, go towww.clientinsights.ca. Use A555A for the rep and dealer code to register for website access.
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