Let’s face it – if you make your living as an Investment Advisor you probably aren’t going to all the trouble and expense of hosting investment seminars just for the love of it. You are doing it in the hopes of attracting the right people in order to impress them with your financial knowledge so that you can eventually convert some to clients.
Fair enough – but if it’s high net worth women you are hoping to attract and impress – you need to rethink what you are doing because you won’t dazzle them with facts and stats.
For the most part, women aren’t attracted to investment seminars with titles like: “Outlook on China” or “Invest using ETFs for broad diversification” or even “Reducing volatility in your portfolio by investing in good quality companies.”
How, you wonder, is it possible when you find these topics so interesting? Is it that women don’t appreciate the importance of investing? That they find these topics too complicated or they just aren’t that smart?
Actually it’s none of the above. It’s all about benefits versus features. They want to know “What’s in it for me? How will this change or improve my life?”
Think of it this way: if you were trying to introduce a non-technical audience to a new mobile phone, calling your seminar “The latest in integrated email applications” is likely to garner far less interest than, “Now you can check your emails from anywhere.”
Women are especially responsive to benefits more than features, which incidentally makes them great clients.
Related: Heads up Financial Advisors: 3 Reasons Why Women Make Great Clients
So the next time you host a seminar and you want to attract women, choose a topic that relates to their lives and then deliver on that. Make your seminars less about investing and more about life, goals and people. One great way to do that is to tell stories.
For example:
RETIRE WITH MORE FUN AND LESS WORRY
Come hear one woman’s story … and create your own.
Instead of talking about the value of asset allocation through the prism of the efficient frontier, talk about one woman’s retirement resources including a company pension plan (invested around the world), a corporate stock matching program (invested in the company they work for) and a series of savings / investment programs (invested in other companies and government / corporate bonds).
Tell her authentic story with passion and compassion. Let the women in the audience engage with you as you talk about this client and ask their questions.
End with how you help people who want more fun and less worry! No credentials, just the practical ways you help people (like those in your audience) get to their goals. More on your pitch next time.
Take away
To make investing interesting to women, get out of the technical weeds. Bring life to investing by making it about life, goals and people by telling stories that are real, human and memorable.
To find out more visit www.strategymarketing.ca