By Kasey Dean, Simplicity Lone Beacon’s Senior Director of Accounts.
We live in a world where no matter what age, profession, or demographic you are, your day is riddled with constant emails, texts, phone calls, news alerts, social media posts, advertisements, and the list goes on. According to a recent 2023 study, the average American sees 4,000 to 10,000 ads daily.[1] This constant influx of information can cause us all to miss out on one of the most important things in life: connecting with others.
As financial advisors, building meaningful connections with your prospects and clients is the most important aspect to running a successful firm. Often, I hear advisors fall into the trap of thinking their lack of growth or success is driven by their lack of leads. While for some this may be the case, nearly all of the advisors I work with daily don’t prioritize building personal connections with their prospects and clients. I find myself wondering what could possibly be more important to an advisor than creating and fostering meaningful connections with the people who walk through their doors. The truth is that advisors get a new client when they help that person feel safe and comfortable sharing their financial dreams with them.
If you find yourself struggling with closing new business, start by adopting these central principles into your firm’s daily client and prospect relations practices.
Do Your Research on the Individual
When you meet with prospects for the first time, you are essentially having an informal interview with them. Let’s start with a simple analogy: Would you go into a job interview without looking up the person across the table from you? If you want the job, no! Your chances of making a good impression and landing the job drop immediately before you’ve even started talking about why you’d be the best for the job. It’s no different for when you’re sitting down with a prospect aiming to turn them to a client. That said, why wouldn’t every advisor make sure to spend time before every person walks through their door to do basic research on them? With information so readily available, all you have to do is spend 15 minutes looking into your CRM platform for notes, taking a look at their recent engagement with your brand, looking them up on Facebook and LinkedIn to create an initial baseline of who that person. This way, you can better tailor your questions and answers to focus on them, specifically, which helps them choose you over your competitors.
Know the Person Across from You
It’s important that before you start asking about a prospect’s financial situation, you start by asking about personal basics to understand who is sitting in front of you. You’re in the business of helping people. Furthermore, you’re asking to let them trust you in structuring and protecting their financial future. That’s one of the biggest decisions you can make in your lifetime! It’s not nearly the same buying decision as picking a cereal in the grocery aisle. So, the best way to start is by learning about what makes them unique so that you can provide more thoughtful recommendations that truly resonate with them and show your true authenticity. If they feel they are being uniquely helped you are positioning yourself above other firms in a meaningful way. Not only that, but you’ll glean invaluable information about where they may be in the process of financial planning, what they care about in terms of their financial plan and in terms of their everyday lives—something that can set you apart from the pack in their eyes, helping you close their business.
Invest in Your Connections
Building that personal connection doesn’t stop after the 1st meeting either. If we continue to use the job interview example, typically you would send a nice thank you note or personal message within 24 hours. Consider how you might apply this to your meetings, and even take it a step further by sending a handwritten note. This will continue to help keep your level of interest and care in this prospect as a person at the front of their mind even when you are not in front of them. Studies have shown that a handwritten piece of mail stays in people’s homes, on their desks, and on their counters for 17 days.[2] When was the last time you re-opened an email, let alone after weeks from when it was initially received? Talk about a message that keeps giving! This simple gesture shows your prospects that you truly care about them, and it only takes 10 minutes out of your day to write something for prospects you’ve really connected with.
At the end of the day, helping people plan for retirement is not just about the Xs and Os of retirement planning, it’s about creating a safe environment for people to be able to trust you with protecting their and their family’s dreams for the rest of their life. Think about all the times in your personal life when you’ve gone to a professional for help, whether it’s a doctor, mechanic, or general contractor. I bet you can remember when one of them went above and beyond for you and made you feel understood. I’d guess that the professionals who made you feel that way stood out, far and away, compared to the others you consulted and was one of the main reasons you stuck with them versus another option. Why wouldn’t you want to give that same experience to your prospects and clients? If you can focus on constructing stronger connections, you’ll continue to break through the “noise” of our daily lives and not only separate you from your competitors to grow your business but also make a meaningful difference in someone’s life.
Sources:
1:https://webtribunal.net/blog/how-many-ads-do-we-see-a-day/#gref
About the Author: Kasey joined Simplicity Lone Beacon from the sportswear industry where she was a marketing manager overseeing the strategy, content creation, execution and analysis for New Balance Athletics’ first-ever customer rewards program. She has also managed a million-dollar media budget, creating content and measuring performance for paid and organic marketing campaigns. Kasey graduated from Brandeis University with a double major in Business & American Studies, where she was also two-year captain of the Varsity Women’s Basketball team. In her free time, Kasey enjoys being active and traveling as much as possible.
