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Today’s article outlines why client communication gets derailed – and three success stories from advisors who changed just one thing and saw their message stick with clients as a result.
Advisors often tell me of challenges getting clients to assimilate and retain the key messages about their finances. In part, the difficulty is the constant stream of alarming headlines that throw clients off track.
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But advisors’ mistakes contribute to this. Here’s an email from an advisor in California who speaks to the challenges of getting communication with clients to stick.
“ I meet with my top clients every 90 days. One of my best clients is someone that I like a lot and enjoy dealing with, but I find it incredibly frustrating that we seem to start every meeting from ground zero. Nothing I’ve said in the last meeting seems to have penetrated; in fact it feels like our previous meetings never happened. Any suggestions on how I can get my client to retain the key messages from our meetings.”
If a client has retained absolutely nothing from your last meeting, there are likely more serious issues at work. Butthere’s no question communication gaps with clients are a common source of frustration. There are two big problems here: what we say compared to what clients hear and what clients hear compared to what they remember.
What we say compared to what clients hear
When meeting with clients, the tendency is to focus on your message – what you say and how you say it. What’s often missed is that what’s important is what clients hear.
Lots of things drive miscommunication:
- Emotions and fears can get in the way of your audience’s ability to focus on what you say.
- Clients may be unclear on key points you’re making but too embarrassed to ask for clarification.
- And sometimes people tune out because you’ve gone on too long. At some point we’ve all listened to a money manager go through a PowerPoint presentation and experienced the MEGO (“my eyes glaze over”) effect.
When talking to clients, your first goal is to maximize the chances that key points will register:
- Address emotions off the top – one advisor starts meetings by saying, “Given all the headlines recently, many people are anxious about their investments – how are you feeling?”
- Ensure you engage clients in conversation – use the two-minute rule: never talk for more than two minutes without asking clients a question and getting them talking.
Keep technical buzzwords and PowerPoint presentations to a minimum. It is helpful to use a chart to illustrate a key point and engage clients, but don’t let presentations become the focus of your meeting.
What clients hear compared to what they remember
Even if you’ve done a good job of delivering your message in the meeting, there’s no guarantee that clients will retain it afterwards. That’s because there’s a limit to how many things people can remember at one time – this article points to research that our working memory limits most of us to three or four items at a time.
And that’s immediately after a meeting – the list declines rapidly over time. But the news is not all bad – in recent conversations, advisors have told me of ways to they get their key messages to stay with clients after meetings:
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One advisor wraps up meetings by saying: “ Here are the most important three things we’ve covered today, ” and then lists the top-three takeaways.
Along similar lines, at the conclusion of meetings, another advisor says, “ If you take away nothing else from today’s conversation , here’s what I hope you walk away with.”
- A second advisor sends clients and prospects a follow-up email after every meeting that highlights the key things they discussed and next steps from the meeting – and includes a section titled “ the most important things we talked about.”
- One final advisor sends an email after meetings summarizing next steps – but takes this one step further and attaches an audio file in which he thanks clients for taking the time to meet and reiterates key takeaways from the meeting.
I shared these strategies with the California advisor whose top client doesn’t retain conversations from previous meetings. He resolved to give these a try. If you share his struggle in keeping your message top-of-mind with some clients, try one of these yourself.
All you have to lose is the frustration of having your carefully crafted words vanish into thin air.
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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