/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Some advisors are natural communicators with inherent skills for demonstrating empathy, telling relatable stories, displaying a natural curiosity by asking open-ended questions, and translating complex ideas into terms clients can understand. Many advisors are not and must prioritize skill development if they are to have a chance at success.
Active listening is the most critical soft skill that must be developed and exercised because it’s where highly effective communication starts. If you don’t master your active listening skills, your communication efforts will likely miss their target. Without them, you’ll have trouble fully engaging your clients, providing insights that resonate with them, and fostering trust.
This post explores four specific scenarios where active listening proves invaluable, highlighting its transformative potential for advisor-client relationships. These examples demonstrate how active listening leads to better client understanding, stronger trust, and actionable insights that benefit both parties.
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Turning Global Economic Trends into Stories That Inspire Action and Build Confidence
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Did you know that by 2050, 70% of the global population will live in urban areas? What does this mean for your clients? Successful advisors go beyond reacting to short-term events such as market volatility and its impact on client portfolios. Instead, they proactively address long-term economic trends that shape their financial futures.
As a financial advisor, you are tasked with helping clients navigate complex and ever-changing economic landscapes. While data and charts are helpful tools, they can sometimes overwhelm or confuse your clients rather than provide clarity. As we have emphasized in past posts, the key to effective communication lies in storytelling, turning global economic trends into compelling narratives to engage, educate, and inspire action.
By framing your financial advice in a broader context of economic trends, you help your clients understand their significance. This allows them to make more informed decisions and reinforces confidence in their financial strategies.
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4 Scenarios Where Active Listening Transforms Financial Advisor-Client Relationships
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Some advisors are natural communicators with inherent skills for demonstrating empathy, telling relatable stories, displaying a natural curiosity by asking open-ended questions, and translating complex ideas into terms clients can understand. Many advisors are not and must prioritize skill development if they are to have a chance at success.
Active listening is the most critical soft skill that must be developed and exercised because it’s where highly effective communication starts. If you don’t master your active listening skills, your communication efforts will likely miss their target. Without them, you’ll have trouble fully engaging your clients, providing insights that resonate with them, and fostering trust.
This post explores four specific scenarios where active listening proves invaluable, highlighting its transformative potential for advisor-client relationships. These examples demonstrate how active listening leads to better client understanding, stronger trust, and actionable insights that benefit both parties.
Read more
The Shoplifting Story
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
You’ve probably heard me in the past talk about a book called ‘Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins’ by Annette Simmons. It was really designed for bosses to sell themselves to employees but anyone who is selling themselves should read this book. The author makes the point that we really need six stories. The most important one being the ‘Who I am’ story. because people don’t care what we know, they care about who we are. Can they trust us? The second most important story she mentions is the ‘Why am I here’ story. Why am I doing this?
Listen to this audio post or read the transcript below to learn why the ‘Why I am here’ story is so important when communicating with clients and to hear a very emotional story that an Advisor from Texas tells his prospective clients.
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8 Stories to Help You Build Trust and Open Accounts
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
As you might know already, I’m a big believer in telling a story.
As I write this, it’s presidential campaign season. The candidates are all about telling their stories. They want to get their preferred narratives out there, in front of voters. Successful candidates are very well rehearsed on these stories. They constantly make references to these stories, in the effort to brand themselves, differentiate themselves from other candidates, and inoculate themselves against attacks from competing candidates and their staffs.
Why?
Because it works!
It works in financial services, too.
In fact, it works so well that I don’t want you to have a single story defining you. I want you to have at least eight! And I want you to know them cold.
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Become What People Want
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Let’s talk about becoming what people want. Do you know what people want? People want a beacon of anti-stress.
Watch the video or read the transcript to learn how you can become that for your clients.
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Good Stories Don’t Need to Be Long to Be Effective
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Let me tell you a couple of cool things about stories. For one thing they don’t need to be very long to be effective.
The shortest inaugural address ever was George Washington’s. It was just a hundred and thirty-five words. Now compare that to William Henry Harrison. In 1841, in his inaugural address, Harrison talked for two hours, he said 9000 words, and it was freezing. A month later, he died of a cold and pneumonia.
Watch this video or read the transcript below to learn more about short stories effectiveness and to hear a couple of stories from Don.
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