Managing the Relationship Archives - Page 7 of 16

In this category you will find blog posts about clients relationship management – including but not limited to establishing trust, building a relationship, ending an advisor-client relationship, and more.

What Not to Do in Building Lasting Client Relationships

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

For financial advisors, building lasting client relationships is as essential as it is challenging. There’s really no more important aspect of an advisor’s practice to ensure sustainable growth. While many advisors try to focus on facets in their practice to bring more value to the relationship, they tend to gloss over what not to do, which can have an even more significant impact on their relationships – and not in a good way.

Here are four key “what not to do’s” all advisors need to proactively convert into a priority to-do list.

How to Convince Prospects and Clients That You Understand What They’re Going through

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

It’s long been said that people might forget what you say. But they will never forget how you made them feel.

There’s a lot of truth to that. And one of the first things your clients and prospects should feel is that you understand what they’re going through. Before some of you were born, there was a great, great sales trainer and educator named Zig Ziglar. Look him up! He learned to sell by selling brushes. Door-to-door.

He went on more sales calls before breakfast than some of you go on in a month. And he used to say “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care… about them.”

There’s two steps to that equation: First, you need to genuinely understand what they are going through. Second, you need to communicate that to them.

3 Issues Financial Advisors Should Address to Overcome the Trust Deficit in Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Financial Advisors face a huge trust deficit. That’s significant because who holds a more important position of trust than an advisor who can impact when people retire, how they live in retirement, and what’s their financial security late in life when they need it the most? For advisors whose livelihood depends on attracting new clients and retaining them, that’s a major obstacle to overcome every day.

Six Ways Financial Advisors Can Establish Trust in Today’s Virtual World

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

You can have all the technical and market skill in the world. But if people don’t trust you, you’re not going to open new accounts.

It’s just a fact of life in sales: If people don’t trust you, their defensive mechanisms are going to be up during the entire sales process. If you’re lucky, they’ll tell you. At least that way, you get to face the trust issue head on. That might give you a fighting chance.

But more often than not, you’ll be met with polite silence, and the dreaded “we’ll give you a call if we decide to do anything.”

If you hear that, chances are you whiffed on the trust issue.

After all, if you had their trust, they’d be looking for ways to talk themselves into doing business with you!

How Financial Advisors Should Manage Emotional Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

People aren’t rational. We’re all creatures of emotion. Good salespeople bear that in mind. Whatever your training and education, as financial advisors, we’re not engineers. We’re not technicians. Not in the sales interview.

We deal with people first.

Not numbers. Not machines.

Advisors who understand this are going to do better than advisors who don’t.

5 Signs a Prospective Client Will Avoid Digital Engagement

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 2 comments

For years, the financial industry has lagged in its adaption of digital tools to market to, communicate with, and manage the relationships of clients. While Financial Advisors have gradually, sometimes begrudgingly, come to embrace new technologies, the covid19 pandemic this year has accelerated their digital transformation.

For growth-focused advisors, the crisis has been a catalyst for creating more digitally-oriented business development strategies. For example, according to Fidelity, the use of video conferencing for client interactions has doubled since the pandemic hit. In a survey by Ernst & Young, 55% of advisors say they plan to use virtual meetings more in the future.

As with most trends shaping the financial services industry, clients are leading the change. With 64% of high-net-worth clients and 75% of mass-affluent clients counting on their advisor relationship to be digital, it’s not just millennial clients who prefer a virtual relationship. For the most part, advisors are adjusting well to the change, finding it more productive and more effective at building their business. It also opens up more opportunities to find and work with clients who live in other parts of the country.

Communication in a Post-Pandemic World: How to Connect with Prospective and Current Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

All of us are affected by the coronavirus and the shutdowns. The virus is slowly running its course but social distancing will be with us for a very long time to come.

That means most of us are going to have to change the way we market and sell our services. “Meet and greet” networking events will be out of the picture for a while. When they do come back, they’ll be different. They may look more like ‘show and tells’ with slide shows than mingling sessions.

Even walking into businesses and asking for the owner is going to be fraught. The small ‘handshake’ ritual that has been with us since antiquity will be changed as we figure out our new forms of etiquette and social conventions.

So, what’s the best path forward?

Coronavirus: An Opportunity for Financial Advisors to Strengthen Client Relationships

/ by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom, Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

As I write this after the market close on March 9th, 2020, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1,800 points on the day, for a loss of 7.8%. The S&P 500 is down by 7.6% – the worst single day on for U.S. equities since the 2008 crisis.

This Monday loss follows some significant volatility late last week that already had a lot of investors on edge.

No doubt, most of you advisors out there are receiving some nervous calls and emails from your clients, wondering what’s going on.

This is where great advisors can earn their money. As a matter of fact, you as financial advisors may well not have as great an opportunity to add value for your clients for a very long time as you do today.

The 4 Pillars of Great Client Service

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Great client service should be a given. But according to a recent study from Cerulli Associates, less than a third of advisors strongly agreed that their practices go above and beyond to serve their clients, or that their clients offer repeatable and consistent client experiences.

At the same time, 72% of advisory firm principals say client service is a key differentiator.

Folks, if 72% say great service is a differentiator, it’s no longer a differentiator. It’s now the industry standard.

That said, some firms are clearly doing a better job than others. And those are the firms that are attracting bigger clients, with more assets to manage.

Let’s have a look at what they do differently and what are some key components to delivering great client service.

Can Trust Be Established Early?

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

I got a really interesting question from a subscriber named Jeffrey, who said he is a new advisor and he’s having a problem gaining trust with people during the initial visit. He asked if establishing trust up front is possible and if it is, how he can do that. Furthermore, he asked if it is possible to open an account without the establishment of trust.

Listen to this audio episode or read the transcript below to learn Don’s 4 suggestions on establishing trust early on in the relationship.

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