The classic mistake that many financial professionals make is to assume that every client (or potential client) will automatically plug in to their style of communication. They won’t. If you expect clients to accommodate you, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Instead of enjoying a fruitful relationship, you’ll experience a communication breakdown and disintegration of trust. And [...]
Being emotionally intelligent means being both smart and sentient. To think otherwise is, frankly, just not very smart. The door of awareness stands between your emotional and rational selves. When this door is closed, you make poor decisions––regardless of how smart you are. When the door of awareness is opened, however, the emotional and rational [...]
As an advisor, there are three traps you––and by extension, your clients––can get caught in: 1. Predicting the future 2. Executing perfect timing 3. Focusing on outperforming last year’s returns You could argue that these are simply goals and a reflection of confidence in yourself as an advisor. That may be true, but you’re also [...]
When clients (or potential clients) think about working with a financial advisor, it’s a monumental decision—unlike most other decisions they’ll face. What other product or service carries this level of emotional impact? Certainly buying a car or a house is an emotional event but doesn’t compare to turning over the trust regarding the fruits of [...]
It’s no secret that the biggest focus on retirement planning has been on how much your clients have, and how much they’ll need. It’s a critical issue—if your clients don’t have enough money once they retire (even if they choose to continue working on a part-time basis), they’ll end up facing unnecessary challenges just [...]
As many advisors know, I’m a big proponent of getting to know your clients before you even start to talk about investing their money. Part of the process includes understanding their goals and transitions (and how those are different from each other). But even before you do that, you need to understand the mindset behind [...]
Richard Beckel was recently quoted in an article in Financial Advisor: “…as business owners, financial advisors need to connect with their clients on an even deeper emotional level than they have ever had to before.” Beckel advises emphasizing client goals, not the advisor’s performance. In other words, focus on your clients by making them front [...]
A brand-new edition of Your Client’s Story: Know Your Clients and the Rest Will Follow is now available! As financial planning continues to evolve, the book is just as relevant now as it was when it was first published in 2005. Financial Planning recently reported that one of the top trends for financial advisors [...]
According to reporting in Financial Planning, consumers still don’t trust the financial services industry: just over one in three (36%) of 4,400 US adults polled said they “tend to trust” investment and wealth managers—the same percentage that said they “tend not to trust” them and that their “trust has to be earned.” The remaining 28% [...]
If your most important clients could grade you on the following listening skills report, how well would you score? My advisor gives his/her undivided attention when I am talking. A B C D E My advisor is tuned into me rather than thinking of his/her own response. A B C D E My advisor answers [...]