The Emotionally Intelligent Advisor

Mitch Anthony

An engineer, doctor, or accountant can often get by without a high degree of emotional intelligence because of the quantitative or scientific nature of their work.  However, the financial advisor cannot afford such an oversight.  The financial advisor must be keenly aware at all times.  Awareness is the hinge that swings open the doors of access to clients as well as referrals.

To master emotional challenges, we must possess awareness at many levels.  Not only should our eyes be open, but they must also look in many directions.  The function of the cerebral mind is to criticize, decipher, judge, negotiate, and control.  Awareness, however, is a “big mind” function that helps us to know, sense, and accept ourselves and others.  This mindfulness function helps us to receive input from others and respond appropriately as well as merge and connect with others smoothly.

Much of what you define as emotional intelligence could be called basic common sense or “people sense”; however, some very intelligent advisors forget to use these basics––and it ends up costing them dearly.  No matter what product, service, or idea you sell, you are in the people business, and the following people rules apply.

1. You must constantly prove and reprove yourself.  People possess varying degrees of suspicion about financial advisors until they see enough evidence to remove that suspicion.  It takes time to prove yourself.
2. People expect you to figure them out.  Clients have specific emotional agendas that must be met.  They want to be understood, and they want to be approached on their terms.  If you don’t take the time to figure them out, they will go elsewhere. 
3. This is not about you.  The only reason anyone is talking to you is to meet their own needs, wants, and wish lists––to get their problems solved.  Don’t allow yourself, in your occasional lapses into self-concern, to forget this fact for a second.  If you think that this is about you, you won’t last long.

The Game is Wheel of Fortune--The Word on the Board is SE__ING

Our clue is that this word describes what a financial advisor must be looking to do every hour of every day with every client to achieve success.  Which letter(s) would you like?  A good majority of contestants in the financial services profession would ask for the letter L and spell selling.  However, the emotionally intelligent answer would be to ask for an R and a V and spell serving.  Within that dichotomy lies the foundation upon which emotional intelligence can be built.

Is it even possible to think of serving others before serving myself, when I so clearly have something to gain by selling?  The question I’d like to propose is, “Why would any financial advisor want to sell any product or service to a client who did not truly want or need that particular product or service?”  To make a quick buck?  The odds are that, sooner or later, your clients will discover this motive, and their anger will turn your short-term financial gain into a long-term loss when that client no longer does business with you.  Emotional intelligence is imperative in our relationships with clients.  Today’s client has developed a keen sense in sniffing our self-interest.

Adapted from Selling with Emotional Intelligence:  5 Skills for Building Stronger Client Relationships by Mitch Anthony.  (©2003 by Mitch Anthony)

Mitch Anthony is the founder and president of Advisor Insights Inc. and The Financial Life Planning Institute, training companies serving advisors and the financial services industry. He is a contributing editor for Research magazine and his column “Financial Life Planning” appears in Financial Advisor magazine. Anthony has been named one of the financial service industry’s top “2006 Movers & Shakers” by Financial Planning magazine. His radio feature, The Daily Dose , is heard every day on 200 radio stations nationwide. Anthony is the author of several books for advisors, including StorySelling for Financial Advisors , The New Retirementality, Your Clients for Life , Selling with Emotional Intelligence , Making the Client Connection , The Financial Professional’s StoryBook, and Your Client’s Story. Contact him at mitch@mitchanthony.com

© 2008 Mitch Anthony