How to Turn a Down Market into Client Loyalty

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Dur­ing the last month stock mar­ket have dropped and gyrated; some days by a whop­ping 5%, and in the case of many clients, wiped out this years gains. While this is bad for port­fo­lios, it doesn’t have to be bad for your client rela­tion­ships.

Will the mar­ket bounce right back, or con­tinue going down? Is this the begin­ning of the next bear? Who knows.  In terms of the growth of your prac­tice, it may not mat­ter. You do not have to be slowed down by the direc­tion of the mar­ket. The fact is the best and most suc­cess­ful advi­sors add clients in down markets.

I don’t mean to sug­gest that it will be pleas­ant. Is going through a down mar­ket easy? No. Can it be reward­ing? Absolutely.  Every­one looks like a genius in an up mar­ket. The pro­fes­sion­als stand­out when things are rocky. How do you build and strengthen client rela­tion­ships when the mar­kets are bad? Here are some suggestions.

1. Review your client port­fo­lios and make sure you are pre­pared for a mar­ket down­turn. Con­firm that posi­tions and allo­ca­tions have not got­ten out of whack because of mar­ket gains over the past cou­ple years. Eval­u­at­ing how those port­fo­lios might respond if mar­kets or inter­est rates changed sud­denly or sig­nif­i­cantly, and make any adjust­ments you think appropriate.
2. Be ready to describe to your clients how you have pre­pared for the pos­si­bil­ity of a mar­ket change. If the mar­kets begin mov­ing against you, have a com­mu­ni­ca­tions plan that includes mass e-mails or let­ters and the con­ver­sa­tions you will have indi­vid­u­ally in client appointments.
3. If the mar­kets con­tinue their slide, send out a com­mu­ni­ca­tion to all clients. Let them know you are watch­ing what’s going on, and are pre­pared to make any changes that are appro­pri­ate when the time comes. One of the more inter­est­ing things I have learned from work­ing with client groups is that they have lit­tle under­stand­ing of all the work you do on their behalf when they are not in front of you. Let them know. You don’t nec­es­sar­ily have to see them more fre­quently when times are bad but they need to under­stand that you are always dili­gently look­ing out for their best interests.
4. Bring your clients together. If you have put off or neglected an advi­sory board, or have been con­sid­er­ing start­ing one, now is the time to get it on the sched­ule. Engage your clients to tell you what they worry about. It may not be what you think. Get there guid­ance on the best ways of keep­ing in touch with the mar­kets turned bad again. What­ever their con­cerns, get them to tell you what kind of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with most effec­tively addresses their wor­ries. Would it be let­ters, indi­vid­ual reviews, or group meet­ings? Should you be dis­cussing their port­fo­lios, or show­ing them the impact of a down­turn on their finan­cial plans?
5. Act on their advice. When you imple­ment your com­mu­ni­ca­tion strat­egy, refer to your advi­sory board. Let all clients know that there is a group of clients you are actively engaged with to help you under­stand what kind of response would most effec­tively address what’s on their minds.

Many of the advi­sors I worked with in 2001 and 2008 were drained and exhausted by those dif­fi­cult mar­kets. The ones who kept in touch with their clients most effec­tively were rewarded for all that addi­tional work with larger prac­tices. Engag­ing your clients when things are bad will make your exist­ing client rela­tion­ships stronger and attract new ones.

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Tags: Allocations, Bad Relationships, Bounce, Client Appointments, Client Groups, Client Loyalty, Client Portfolios, Client Relationships, Communication, Communications Plan, Conversations, Direction, Genius, Interest Rates, Interesting Things, Little Understanding, Market Downturn, Market Stock, Standout, Stock Market, Whack
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On The Financial Advisor Blog & Financial Advisor Speaker Road Again

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

It’s 11:30am PT on Sun­day, March 1^st and I’m over Leth­bridge on a flight to Lon­don, ON and I’ve just fin­ished rough­ing out a new pow­er­point pre­sen­ta­tion called  Reces­sion Is A Choice, What’s Yours?

I am tak­ing a break because this has got to be one of the most tur­bu­lent flights that I have ever been on and detailed power points are a lit­tle tricky so I’m using the time to blog. So tur­bu­lent that there is no in-flight ser­vice and I am think­ing like a camel to avoid get­ting up to the bath­room.

I’m on my way to to a Mon­day meet­ing with an Advo­cis Pro­gram Chair and a MGA firm to dis­cuss speak­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and then speak­ing on behalf of Pro-Seminars in Kitch­ener on Tues­day and Toronto on Wednes­day and I’ll be home late Wednes­day night.

This trip is two of seven speak­ing pre­sen­ta­tions in March and the first of four March trips to make it possible.

What is easy about this week is it is a coach­ing off week mean­ing I don’t have client appoint­ments in between my speak­ing pre­sen­ta­tions and trav­el­ing which is the norm.

Reces­sion is a choice and I’m just get­ting into a rant about what I have observed over the week­end.

They say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

It shocks me to see how many finan­cial advi­sors fail to write out a vision, busi­ness plan and 90 day goals at the begin­ning of their year.

When did their year begin? Jan­u­ary 1, 2009 or will it begin March 1, 2009 right after RRSP season?

March 1, 2009 was the first day of the rest of their busi­ness and per­sonal lives.

March is a time for an early spring clean­ing and get­ting rid of your unmet needs met, which will elim­i­nate your neg­a­tive beliefs and neg­a­tive emotions.

Plato said, “The begin­ning is the most impor­tant part of the work.” Ralph Waldo Emer­son said, “What we call results are begin­nings.” And Woody Allen said, “Eighty per cent of suc­cess is show­ing up.”

For us at Lead­ing Advi­sor, we are seiz­ing March like a lion, being more extro­spec­tive and a com­mit­ting to some sig­nif­i­cant goals that you will find as you read along.

I say extro­spec­tive in March because Feb­ru­ary was a very intro­spec­tive month for us because Laura and I invested eighty hours in attend­ing two per­sonal devel­op­ment work­shops and the per­sonal and busi­ness results are enor­mous.  We also went to Tofino for a week­end break.

In hind sight it is odd to say that Feb­ru­ary was intro­spec­tive because we also cre­ated the fol­low­ing results;

• We improved our office organization
• Our account­ing is com­plete and filed for last year
• We fine tuned our bud­get cash flow for the year — it is amaz­ing what hap­pens when one takes the time to account for and appre­ci­ate money
• Our speak­ing mar­ket­ing action plan is in place and we booked five asso­ci­a­tion / cor­po­rate speak­ing pre­sen­ta­tions and we have dou­ble that in con­ver­sa­tions about upcom­ing dates
• We invested in a video cam­era to film clips for showreels and vlogs to improve our speak­ing mar­ket­ing action plan
• Our busi­ness is prof­itable in a recession

Our per­sonal devel­op­ment work allowed us to reaf­firm our two year vision which we stay focused on through; affir­ma­tions, goals, giv­ing thanks, jour­nal­ing and time blocking

Our vision is to assist finan­cial advi­sors to cre­ate sus­tain­able inspi­ra­tion and a prof­itable busi­ness through the real­iza­tion and expe­ri­ence of their val­ues, pos­i­tive feel­ings and pos­i­tive beliefs through;

• Inter­ac­tive software
• Live work­shops
• Books
• Speak­ing presentations
• Coach­ing
• Web site, blogs, vlogs and e-newsletter

Laura and I will travel through­out Canada, the UK and the USA five to six months a year with the sup­port of a gen­eral man­ager and mar­ket­ing associate.

Our March goals are;

A’s

• Com­plete “Reces­sion Is A Choice, What’s Yours?” powerpoint
• Book three speak­ing presentations
• Attract four new clients
• Cre­ate a live two day workshop
• Out­line and cre­ate some video vlog clips about;
• 1. Cur­ing The Unmet Needs Disease
• 2. Prac­tice man­age­ment tips
• 3. Speak­ing clips for speak­ing marketing
• Hire an assistant
• Ask for client testimonials

B’s

• Research speak­ing con­tacts in the IDA and MFDA
• Update the user defined fields in our CRM software
• Write more indus­try related blogs
• Update our coach­ing sec­tion of our web site and risk free agreement

Go to Source

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Tags: Client Appointments, Early Spring, Financial Advisors, Flight Service, Kitchener, Lethbridge, March 1, March Comes In Like A Lion, Negative Beliefs, Negative Emotions, Personal Lives, Plato, Powerpoint Presentation, Pro Seminars, Program Chair, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Recession, Unmet Needs, Vision Business, Woody Allen
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