What Do Investors Want?
One imperative for advisors seeking to grow their practice is having an acute understanding of what their clients and prospects want. Acute is a keyword because it means going beyond the obvious to acquire a more penetrating and perceptive insight into what investors really want.
It’s Not What You Think
What do investors want? If your answer is “they want to make money”, you are correct. Earning a return on their investments is still at the top of every investor’s wish list and that’s never going to change. What has changed is earning a return on investments is not all that today’s investors – especially younger generations – want from their advisors.
One upon a time in wealth management, generating positive investment returns was all advisors had to do to earn and keep their clients’ trust and loyalty. Today, that’s just table stakes in the profession. Clients still want to make money, but they also want something else, something can be summed up with one simple word.
More.
Stay Relevant
More is a vague word with mixed messages, but that’s exactly what investors today want from their advisors. The concept of more from the investor perspective is easier to understand if you ponder the way you personally make certain buying decisions.
Take your big screen television for instance. Did you purchase it because your old TV was broken? Probably not. The real reason you replaced your perfectly fine older television with a newer, high-tech model was because you wanted to upgrade your viewing experience. You wanted more screen size, more definition, more bells and more whistles than your older TV could provide. You made the switch for one very important reason. You wanted more.
That’s exactly why many investors change advisors – because they want more than they are currently experiencing. The current client/advisor relationship may be firing on all six cylinders, but when another advisor comes along offering an eight-cylinder experience, it’s good-bye old advisor and hello to the new one.
Being Good Is Not Good Enough
If you wonder what the more is that you can give your clients, there’s plenty to consider. You can give them more confidence. It could mean getting additional training or another accreditation in an area that your top clients value. For another client, it might be having more personal conversations with them where you talk less and listen more.
You can show your clients more appreciation. A lot of advisors fall into the trap of taking clients for granted, especially those who are long term. Just because everything has gone well in the past does not mean it will continue in the future. To avoid being blindsided by the loss of valued clients, do something different the next time you meet. Ask your clients point blank how you can improve upon the ways you serve them. Tell them the reason for your inquiry is because you appreciate their trust in you and you want to do even more to serve them better. It’s another way of showing them you truly care.
Show your clients more empathy. With some clients, this might mean transitioning from talking about money to talking about everything else going on in their lives. The past couple of years have been uncertain times that upended the lives of so many people in so many ways. Find out how it touched them and what their concerns are today.
More means different things to different investors. If you can identify, acknowledge, and respond to the more that each of your clients want, you will stand out favorably in the two best possible places – their minds and hearts. As the saying goes, the more you give, the more you’ll get.
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