I hear financial advisors say "I do three review meetings for my clients per year." What does the word review mean to you? Reviews sound like work or a form of criticism, like a movie review. A review according to Wikipedia is "an evaluation of a publication, service, or company.” Instead consider calling them client progress meetings. Progress on the other hand according to Wikipedia means “Progress (history), the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life." Now does that not sound better to come in for a progress update meeting? Tell your clients "you will enjoy our key progress update meetings that help our clients keep informed and update their progress towards thier plans and goals."
How valuable are your client progress meetings from your ideal clients perspective? How can you increase and demonstrate your value? Do you have a clearly documented client progress meeting process?
Did you know that your client progress meeting process is directly correlated to the value people are willing to pay for? Research around the world by Business Health Pty. Ltd revealed to me that when asked, what is the one area advisors do not provide sufficient value? Almost in every country around the world (Singapore, Australia, United States, Hong Kong, New Zealand) clients said the advisor is not demonstrating enough value and rank the advisor client progress meetings low when it comes to importance and value. The questions that were asked included how well your advisor keeps up to date with your changing financial needs and update you on progress towards your financial goals. What processes do you include in your client progress meeting to demonstrate value?
Everyone has a process. It is developed over time with software systems and experience. How do top advisors demonstrate value to their ideal client’s. While analyzing the numbers is important, it is not as important as measuring people’s lives. How are they doing for their retirement, do they have enough to live on? Are they going to be able to retire? Are their children going to go to university soon? In other words, are they achieving all the financial goals and dreams to which they aspire? This is a different approach from that of the salesman who has a new financial product to sell this year. Remember, people don’t care how much you know, but know how much you care! I also recommend you hole-punch the statements so your clients can add them to their client binders.
Idea number two, have binders for your clients
You can also package the client progress meeting documents in presentable folders, hole-punched so they can add these to their binders; and year by year they can look at their annual client progress documents and see their progress towards completing and reviewing their financial plans, goals, dreams and outcomes . Make it a system to which the clients become accustomed, and the experience will be an extremely positive one focused on the clients, their lives and not the news or other noise.
Advisor Practice Management and Bachrach & Associates, Inc. is presenting a new live webinar series made up of 5 live webinars personally conducted by Bill Bachrach. www.billbachrach.com/elevate-apm