The Fiduciary Advantage of Zoom Meetings

You’re working with subject-matter that requires visuals. Money and math are visual! There’s a reason for all the charts and graphs we use to help people understand finance. For example, have you tried to talk someone through their eMoney dashboard when they aren’t looking at it? How does that go? Using online technology to show money and math is in the client’s best interest.

The third and most important reason online meetings are in the client’s best interest: trust. For clients to trust you and trust the process, they require certain things online meetings deliver better than the phone.

In my work with advisors on meeting management, the research is clear: When clients have clarity and alignment, their trust in you rises, the value they feel from you increases, and personal relationships grow.

Online meetings are clearly superior to the phone when you want clients to be clear and comfortable with the agenda and expectations for the meeting. Why? Because a visual agenda beats a verbal agenda.

Think about where else visual beats verbal:

• Establishing the facts;
• Aligning on needs and priorities; and
• Committing to next steps.

There’s one more, essential way online meetings serve the client’s best interest: Personal relationships.

As a client myself, I thoroughly believe in the power of looking into people’s eyes, of listening out loud, and making personal contact. And in the age of COVID-19, for many clients this is as close as we get to a handshake for now. Plus, you’re at each other’s kitchen table! Online meetings completely beat the phone in this case too.

Back to my story: At the end of my Zoom meeting with my advisor, I asked him, “How did this go versus a phone-only meeting?”

“This was way better,” he responded, “but my clients just want me to call them because it’s easier.”

Here’s where your duty as an advisor kicks in – it’s your duty to help clients become persuaded to do things that are in their best interests, even when such actions might rub up against the client’s natural inclinations. For instance, you may have spent time talking clients “off the ledge” and persuading them not to lock in losses by selling in a downturn.

This is another of those instances – clients might naturally opt for the perceived ease of “just a phone call.” And miss the greater value of the online meeting. In this instance, it’s your job to NUDGE AND PERSUADE clients.

How to turn “just call me” into an online meeting:

• Make online the default
  • Online meetings shouldn’t be an opt-in strategy
• Help clients get comfortable with the idea
  • Tell clients about the success you’ve been having getting people online and how much better it is
• Help clients get online
  • If you’re the one who unlocked Zoom for them, they will thank you forever!
  • Engage the digital natives in the house – it’s how I got my Dad on Zoom when he was isolated in the VA
• Position online correctly
  • Many advisors make the mistake of saying things like, “It’s not that much more than a call…”
  • We should be saying, “Online is way better than a call, and just as easy as the phone.”
• Migrate from phone to online
  • If you must start with a phone call, see if you can get them to click on your Zoom link and add the online element to your call

Online meetings are in the client’s best interest when you’re discussing their money, financial health, and future. Gently persist in getting clients to join you online. Turn “just call me” into an online meeting and you’ll strengthen client relationships.

Dan Smaida curates the AdvisoryEDGE Forum and coaches growing advisors on practice-building and consultative selling. Email Dan at [email protected]

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