One of the ways you can improve is through the questions you ask and how intently you listen.

As we all embrace and further deepen a client-centric model, there are many challenges to overcome and many changes to make.

People of all ages and financial situations need caring, knowledgeable advisers of all kinds to help them deal with the complexities of modern life.

They need expert financial advisers to simplify their financial lives and help them identify and achieve their visions and aspirations.

The opportunity has never been more significant [or expected] for financial advisers to put their clients first; you are needed today more than ever before.

You have the opportunity to take an active role in understanding their ‘investment wiring’ and their circumstances, purposes, goals and then to take a stand and advise them what you think is the best course of action for them.

Marketing a financial advice business is about positioning change because at the end of the day that’s what you are going to help your clients achieve; change. You’re going to deliver not only a financial strategy but more importantly change in their emotional state and a step closer to their desires.

One of the ways you can achieve all of that is through the questions you ask and how intently you listen. 

Below are some proven ideas that you can use yourself or, distribute to your team. The question you should be asking when you read through this list is, ‘How well are we doing this?’ Perhaps rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10.

1. Get on your client’s side of the table and let them know you’re there for them. [My question to you is, how do you know you are?]
   
2. Ask great questions. That’s what will distinguish you as a great Adviser. And never be afraid to keep asking.
3. Listen very carefully not only to how your clients answer your questions but to the subtext of their answers. Focus. Remember when you can articulate someone’s problem better than they can, they will look to you for the solution. But, you can only do that if you ask great questions, listen and then repeat back to them what you have heard.
4. Understand their unique investment wiring; how they feel about money. Help them set and strive for their goals. 80% of us are visual people meaning we make decisions easier if we can ‘see’ things. 
5. Diagnose the person and their situation thoroughly before prescribing their solution. Engage with mentors and others if required to deliver the best solution for your client. Clients love to hear that there is a team looking after them as well as you.
6. Respect your client’s point of view. While you as their adviser can and in some cases should disagree with their position on things, always honour and respect them.
7. Temper the financial jargon with plain English speak. An obvious one but you’d be surprised how many Advisers struggle with this.
8. Take a stand. Great Advisers aren’t merely ‘yes’ people; don’t just tell your client what they want to hear rather what they need to hear. That’s another sign of a great Adviser.
9. Treat every client as an honoured guest but also feel comfortable saying no to the ones that aren’t suitable.
10. Your work is essential; be proud of it.
11. Never stop learning about your clients. Continue to ask great questions, continue to listen because then you can keep offering great financial advice.

I know through the research that I do, most clients are overwhelmed with all the investing information available to them through the media and Internet. Make sure you don’t overwhelm them too. Don’t ask someone who is overwhelmed with lots of options, confused by the jargon and unsure what is the right thing to do, what they think? If you ask that question, there is a high chance they will say, “I think I need to think about it and talk to others, there’s just so much to take in.”

Once you know your client’s situation and fully understand their investment wiring, it is time to tell them what you as a professional think they should do. Tell them what they should do; that’s value.

As a great adviser, don’t ever lose sight of the fact that advice is about making a difference in your client’s lives. With the right tools, the right questions and commitment, you can advise your clients based on a deep understanding of their needs, wants, hopes and dreams far better than even they can!

Remember it’s the questions you ask that will enable you to differentiate yourself.

To end this post, I’ve jotted down some proven questions. If you don’t use these already, add them to your list. 

1. What are you hoping your money will accomplish for you?
2. When you visualise your future, does anything concern or scare you?
3. Does anything about money keep you up at night?
4. In what ways do you and your spouse or partner feel differently about money?
5. What motivated you to meet with me now?
6. What are some of the best financial decisions you have made?
7. Tell me more – this is a classic coaching question, you simply keep asking the question until you feel you’ve got to the bottom!

By Rachel Staggs

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What do your clients value? Ask them!

Do you truly know what your clients value about your business? If you’ve never asked them, how can you possibly know the truth?

Through the work that I do, I get the privilege of talking directly to clients of financial advisers all across Australia to find out what they value, why they remain a client plus much more.

The question of value is everywhere at the moment so I thought that in this short article I would share the top findings from years of research into what clients value about their financial adviser.

For you, it might be different but collectively the below statements are an excellent sample of what clients say they value:

1. My adviser’s experience.
2. They were recommended to me.
3. The personal service I receive.
4. Their knowledge; they are always attending training and completing further study.
5. Value their advice; their opinions about my personal circumstances.
6. Access to my adviser; they always call me back.
7. Maximising my portfolio.
8.  Their honesty and integrity.
9.  The relationship I have with my adviser; we’ve known each other for years. so they know about me, my family, what we like and what we don’t.
10.  They speak to me in a way in which I can understand; plain English.
11.  They give me peace of mind that my financial future is being looked after.

Much of the above are what we call intangibles; you can’t see them necessarily only experience them.

The question is, how do you communicate intangibles to a client who hasn’t experienced your advice yet? There are many ways. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one size fits all approach or even a magic bullet! Sorry! What it comes down to is developing a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy that enables you and your business to demonstrate all of the above in a way that will resonate with your ideal client. Times have changed; there are so many ways to reach people these days which means you need to consider a multi-channel approach. People need to hear and see you [your marketing that is!] at least seven times before they really notice you!

By Rachel Staggs, Marketing Director

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There are several ways to get the feedback about the value you add.

What you say about your business isn’t nearly as important as what others say about you. Would you agree?

I’ll assume you agreed!

So, knowing that what others say about you is far more important than what you say can I ask why you don’t have more client testimonials and reviews? Perhaps it’s an issue of time or remembering to ask?

The good news is, there are several ways to get the feedback about the value you add, below are four proven ways.

1. Client surveys – a perfect way to engage with your clients is through a survey and an ideal question to ask them is what value they have gained from your advice. At the same time, gain their approval to use their feedback in your marketing and voila, you have some evidence-based proof about your value.

2. Google reviews – whatever you do don’t shy away or ignore these. As a nation, we are used to reading [and giving ] reviews online, so make sure those that are looking can find great reviews about the value you add. The best way I have found to gain Google reviews is to make it part of your client engagement process; share the Google link with your client once they agree to complete it for you.

3. Facebook reviews – similar to above, if you have a Facebook page, make sure you have some reviews. You can actually shift the menu items on your page so that reviews are at the top.

4. LinkedIn recommendations – once again, very important and an excellent place for people to share the value you have provided to them. You can then share your LinkedIn profile URL, and people can see the recommendations.

Four great ways to get feedback about your value.

Once you have the feedback, make sure you use it on your website and any marketing material. The golden opportunity though is when you are talking to people about your business and value because you can share your thoughts, but then you can back it up with evidence by quoting what your clients say about you.

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How to maximise your leads in the digital marketplace.

What works in the digital landscape is different to the traditional marketing landscape. I’m going to explain what to do when you have a list of potential clients and how to maximise them in the digital marketplace.

So, let’s assume that you created a landing page to support your specific campaign; for example, the campaign might be targeted at expats returning home to Australia. They saw your ad or similar, requested a copy of your video, report or information in exchange for their email details. Now you have their email details what will you do?

Unfortunately, research shows that not everyone calls you directly and becomes a fee-paying client just because they opted in for your value offering. It takes people time. They want to move at their own pace – I talked about that in my last post.

However, we also know that they probably haven’t solved their problem – the one they went looking to answer on the Internet, so we need to remain relevant and in contact and help them through their decision-making process, and we can do that through an email sequence.

Depending on what your value offer is and what their problem is, the ‘formula’ below is what others are using. You will need to test it though for your campaign.

In summary, you send around seven emails. Seven emails which will educate the person in the value of your advice, the fact that their problem will remain a problem and likely get bigger if no action is taken and that you are the person to help them.

When someone downloads your value offer remember they don’t know you; so it’s essential to send them information which will help them get to know, like and trust you for them to ‘buy’ from you.

One of the ‘formulas’ that works for email marketers is below. This formula works, but it will depend on what your value offer is and the fee for your advice. You may have success with putting a strong call to action on your landing page, for example, ‘click here and book a 15 minute time to chat with me’ if not, try this sequence.

Email 1 & 2 = explain who you are, what you do, your capabilities, your point of difference – focusing on building trust.

Email 3 & 4 = talk about the problem. Remembering that your digital marketing campaign focused on that one problem. Support it with case study’s, research, statistics, client stories that will demonstrate that it is a serious problem.

Email 5 = talk about the ‘promise’ that they can get the help from you and make sure your promise is evident and easy for them to understand; that’s about managing expectations.

Email 6 = talk about the solution is to contact you via your online diary to book a 15-minute chat.

Email 7 = remind them of how they can solve their problem by contacting you.

These can be a blend of written emails and video.

Wherever you can, add client testimonials throughout this sequence because what others have to say about you has a great deal of weight; far more than you saying how good you are!

As I said, test it and tweak depending on when a client converts. If nothing happens after the 7th email, you can add them onto your regular email distribution list and keep inviting them to contact you. By adding them to your newsletter list, it means you get the opportunity to continue to educate them about the value of advice and demonstrate your expertise.

I know having done these types of campaigns that it can take people weeks, months if not years to make contact eventually. The point is, never give up because others do, and that’s the mistake they make. Remain relevant and demonstrate the value of your advice.

Two other tips; be authentic and come from a place of wisdom.

By Rachel Staggs

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If you don’t know why your clients remain with you how do you know what’s important for the future of your business?

In one of my previous articles, I talked about what clients value about a financial adviser. It was evidence-based meaning it was taken from the research I have conducted for many years with clients of financial advisers. In this article, I’d like to share why clients maintain an ongoing relationship with a financial adviser, again, evidence-based.

The statements below are a good indication of the feedback that I receive from actual clients of financial advisers. I believe it’s important to regularly talk to your clients to find out what they value about your advice, what benefits you’ve provided them in terms of your advice and why they remain a client. Your business is built on your clients so why not get their feedback about your business?

1. Good service. Friendly and speak in a language that is easy to understand – no jargon. They include myself and my wife in the meetings so that both of us understand the advice and what our financial situation is.
2. Because of their caring attitude and overall effective management of our portfolio. We have no reason to leave.
3. Because they know us, they know what we want to achieve and they know our financial situation. They’ve helped us plan for our retirement, without them I doubt we’d know when we could retire.
4. We need them because we don’t know how to look after our finances ourselves.
5. I trust them with my finances. They haven’t let me down. I’m comfortable that they have my best interest at heart because they haven’t done anything wrong so I have no reason to doubt them.
6. I only have to speak to one person which I can do face to face, via email or over the phone whichever suits me far quicker than I could find the answer out on the internet.
7. They are the ones that have organised our finances and know how to manage them. We don’t so without them in our lives we would be a complete mess.
8. They have provided very useful advice which has ultimately helped us so we trust them. We don’t have to get involved in the details. They tell us what we need to know at a high level which is all we want.
9. Don’t have time to know what changes are being made in government that might impact is or what’s happening in the financial markets that could also impact us. We pay them to monitor all that for us.
10. They are proactive and contact us way before we’ve even thought we should contact them about something so it demonstrates that they have our best interest at heart and really do understand us.
11. We know that we can contact them at any time we have a question and they will respond. Even if they don’t know the answer they’ll find out and tell us. That gives us peace of mind.
12. Because we now have a better understanding of our finances which means we can make better decisions today about things that we want and know how those decisions will impact our future.

Of course, it goes without saying, your clients might have other reasons why they remain a client of yours, the above are general themes that I have put together based on the years of research I have conducted. It is important to note, however, that if you don’t know why your clients remain with you how do you know what’s important for the future of your business?

By Rachel Staggs

The post 12 Reasons clients maintain an ongoing relationship with Financial Advisers appeared first on AdviserVoice.

What do your clients value? Ask them!

Do you truly know what your clients value about your business? If you’ve never asked them, how can you possibly know the truth?

Through the work that I do, I get the privilege of talking directly to clients of financial advisers all across Australia to find out what they value, why they remain a client plus much more.

The question of value is everywhere at the moment so I thought that in this short article I would share the top findings from years of research into what clients value about their financial adviser.

For you, it might be different but collectively the below statements are an excellent sample of what clients say they value:

1. My adviser’s experience.
2. They were recommended to me.
3. The personal service I receive.
4.  Their knowledge; they are always attending training and completing further study.
5. Value their advice; their opinions about my personal circumstances.
6. Access to my adviser; they always call me back.
7. Maximising my portfolio.
8. Their honesty and integrity.
9. The relationship I have with my adviser; we’ve known each other for years. so they know about me, my family, what we like and what we don’t.
10. They speak to me in a way in which I can understand; plain English.
11. They give me peace of mind that my financial future is being looked after.

Much of the above are what we call intangibles; you can’t see them necessarily only experience them.

The question is, how do you communicate intangibles to a client who hasn’t experienced your advice yet? There are many ways. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one size fits all approach or even a magic bullet! Sorry! What it comes down to is developing a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy that enables you and your business to demonstrate all of the above in a way that will resonate with your ideal client. Times have changed; there are so many ways to reach people these days which means you need to consider a multi-channel approach. People need to hear and see you [your marketing that is!] at least seven times before they really notice you!

What do your clients value? Ask them!

By Rachel Staggs

The post This is what clients value about a financial advice business appeared first on AdviserVoice.

If you want quality leads put your energy into introductions.

We all know that the ideal client is likely to be introduced to your business through someone else whether that is a family member, friend, co-worker or a trusted professional source. However, I can tell you through the research that I do; you aren’t getting all the client referrals they say they will send you.

Everyone has good intentions, but everyone is busy.

Below are some of the reasons why you are being forgotten and not receiving the referrals they said they would send:

1. No referral plan

Sitting opposite your client they mention they have a friend who they think could benefit from your advice. You say great thanks. 80% of the time there is no conversation about how you and their friend are going to get in contact with each other. Connect the dots there and then and agree with your client about the best way forward. Don’t feel awkward about it; its business.

2. No information

Sitting opposite your client they say that yes they have a friend who could also benefit from your advice and they’ll make sure they mention your name when they see them next. They forget to mention your name because that’s life BUT if you’d given them your latest brochure, e-book, report or something that can be passed on they have less chance of forgetting to mention you. Even better, you email your client with the marketing collateral for them to email on – or you do it if you have their details. This positions you as an expert, thought leader, whatever you want to call it, the important piece is to have something of value for them to pass on to their friend. You might even scribble your direct contact line on the front – yes it’s probably in the material that’s not the point! The point is you make an effort to make it easy for them to call you!

3. Lousy website

80% of the people who meet you for the first time will Google your name, even if a trusted person has referred you. Why? Because that’s what we all do now because we can! Your website fails to impress. It fails to inform what you do, who you do it for and why they should choose you. They know they need to seek advice, but they’re not impressed and merely forget at it.

I know lots of Advisers who are being contacted by supposed Facebook experts at the moment who promise to deliver 15-20 client leads per week – it’s a scam. If you want quality leads, clients who will take your advice and pay your professional fees, please put your energy into introductions [referrals] and once you’ve completely nailed that then look at Facebook campaigns, if you’ve got something to offer that is.

By Rachel Staggs

The post 3 reasons why you aren’t receiving more client referrals appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Introductions from others are one of the main reasons potential clients trust you.

The word trust, according to the dictionary means ‘reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.’ Which I believe we would all agree on.

But why is it that people trust some financial advisers and perhaps not others? Is it qualifications? Is it because they are part of a particular association? Is it because they have been in the profession for over 20 years?

None of the above.

Over the years I have personally interviewed clients of financial advisers. Not through an online survey but actually one on one. One of the standard questions I ask is, ‘When you first met Bob, why did you decide you could trust him?’

The answers?

• Top answer – Because he was referred to me by my Accountant and I trust my Accountant.
• Next answer – We just really liked him, he comes across as very personable.
• Next answer – He took the time to listen to us.

Interesting answers but I’m never surprised. Not once has a client said because my adviser has XYZ qualifications or belongs to a particular association. It’s all those intangible things that people use to judge you and decide whether or not they can trust you.

I don’t discount qualifications by any stretch of the imagination and nor would clients I’m sure if they knew more about them. I assume clients expect their adviser to have a certain level of qualification. Perhaps next time I’ll ask them!

My point is, from a marketing perspective never underestimate the power of introductions from others. Focus your marketing efforts on developing healthy, sustainable professional relationships and receive more of the right type of client.

Remember introductions can come from a variety of channels, other professionals, your existing networks, alumni, your online community, the list is endless.

Never let your finger off the pulse because introductions from others are one of the main reasons potential clients trust you to start with.

By Rachel Staggs

The post Why do people trust a financial adviser? appeared first on AdviserVoice.

What is trust? How can it be measured? Trust is very much in the eye of the beholder [is that a line from a song?] so it can be challenging to ensure that trust is written into your strategy and implemented accordingly. However, in this quick post, I’d like to share some simple actions you can take that will help bring trust into the forefront of your business.

How many people do you know that have been scammed? Perhaps you have been yourself; they are very sophisticated these days. Protection of data and privacy of information are two key things people worry about in today’s age. So, what systems do you have in place to protect your client’s information? How often do you invest in them? Who is responsible for these systems and processes you have in place? Now, tell your clients.

Another key area which is growing rapidly is the area of social and ethical responsibility. I’ve written about this before and still subscribe to the notion that as business owners you [we] have a responsibility to give back to others and helping those less fortunate than ourselves. What does your business do and how do you communicate that message. I’ve met advice businesses that do tremendous work in this area but fail to communicate it to clients because they felt uncomfortable about communicating it. Don’t feel uncomfortable. By promoting your social and ethical responsibility you are raising awareness and we need more of that.

When I survey clients of financial advisers I ask them about expectations and similar questions to ascertain what is important to them and 90% of the time it’s about having their best interest at heart. I know you know that but how do you communicate that? Where is your social proof that what you say you can do, you actually have done for others?

Displaying your ability to be trusted can’t be achieved through one piece of communication or through a campaign. It will take a layered approach; a multi-channel approach over time. Think of the hare and the tortoise!

One of the key documents that can help display your trust is your FSG and your privacy statement but when we asked a group of people to find it on a selection of websites, guess what? They couldn’t find it because it’s placed at the bottom of your website in the smallest font compliance will allow! I think we need to change this.

Governance is another keyword that clients are looking for evidence of. How is the business structured? What are the capabilities of the team? What are rules that the business goes by? What processes and systems are in place? How does the business make sure that its clients, employees, stakeholders and community are protected and looked after? Communicate it.

I remember giving a presentation to a group of advisers a couple of years ago and one of them said that they were part of a cottage industry; perhaps a paradigm shift is required by those that still believe that to be true!

Ethics. I know you are honest and transparent but how are you demonstrating that? Do you ever talk about the audits that you have to go through and how successful your business is or has been? Why not? Clients would have no idea about the number of audits that are conducted on your business – talk about a key way to demonstrate trust!

Trust is one the fundamentals of any business and while the above tips will definitely help you [plus there are more ideas] the ultimate way to focus on trust is through your client-centric culture. Not your compliance culture or systems culture but through being a true blue client-centric focused business.

A client centric culture will drive trust.

By Rachel Staggs

The post An article about trust – marketing for financial advisers appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Rachel Staggs

Many Advisers have recently asked me about the topic of client surveys, “How do we?” “Should we?” and so forth. As a passionate believer in client surveys, I was more than keen to put some proven tips on paper (so to speak!).

Mistakes I find many Advisers using are not planning beforehand and then, afterwards not actually doing anything with the findings – massive opportunity!

Below are eight tips to help you when you conduct your client surveys:

1. Plan

Decide on what you want to get out of the survey.  Don’t waste this golden opportunity. If there is something your business is considering introducing, for example, social media or a new service, this is the perfect opportunity to engage with your clients and get their feedback.

2. Who

At some stage every client should be asked their views about your business but perhaps not at every survey. This could be a good time to segment your database and target your client surveys. Remember people are buying you, a service not a product so views can be quite different.

3. What

Don’t go overboard with the number of questions you ask. The aim to get useful information from these surveys not interesting. Perhaps aim for 5 questions but 5 brilliant questions that will give you feedback about your business that you can act on rather than praise yourself for.

4. Simple

Write your questions in simple plain English – nothing too tricky – remembering that time is precious!

5. How

Your next decision is how to conduct these surveys. Typical chooses are 1) Adviser does it – no-one likes confrontation so responses might not be ‘true’ 2) Email survey – can be impersonal so ensure you have the correct client details and the email is addressed to the person 3) outsourced to a third party – best option for ‘true’ views

6. Next

Thank everyone who participated in the surveys. No gifts required just a nice sincere thank you. Feel free to share the common responses (without naming names) to those that took part.

7. Action

If you’ve asked useful questions you’ll receive useful comments that you can use to either grow your business or to make changes to. Make sure this gets done. If clients have participated in a survey and see no change – where’s the value?

8. Finally

Use any data you get back from the surveys in your marketing; your website, social media and so forth – extremely powerful.

Talking to your clients through client surveys, when done properly, can be one of the most effective actions you can take in your business. Surveys for survey sake are a waste of everyone’s time but surveys to engage and find out useful information are GOLD!

 By Rachel Staggs SRS Consulting

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SRS Consulting are hosting  a free webinar to learn more about how you can use client surveys in your Advise business effectively. Click here to register.

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