Tuesday 29 November 2011

The Family Tree - and how to use it!

With intergenerational advice the new buzz (everything old is new again) multiple versions of family trees are being bandied around brightly logo'd and the magic of client engagement begins? Think again. Without a story around using a family tree with a client you look like an intrusive data gathering, ever prospective white shoe sales person.

Some advocate using the family tree as part of a beneficiary dicussion / estate planning discussion. Not a bad idea. And in the context of working for a financial services company that specialises in estate planning - this will work well.....it is what the client is expecting.

But spring this technique on the unsuspecting and you may get an immediate shut down of the conversation or a forced interrogation at best.

Taking a leaf out of the MDRT and in particular Bruce Etherington - may be the best approach I've seen (and I have used this myself). Bruce calls it building your showroom, I call it simply sharing my life with you - so you understand my values, with the hope that you'll reciprocate and share with me your values.

Method

• Use the family tree!
• But use it in this way “I’m going to ask you lots of questions about you and your family, so I can design the right strategy for you. It’s only fair that I share with you my families story and what plans I have for them”
• Share your family tree – who are the key players, who’d disaffected, who’s vulnerable, who’s the glue?
• The one page summary of what you have done to look after your family
• EG: for me $2mill in death cover for me, trust structures set up via will, $1mill on my wife, trauma and childrens trauma (the kids have $150k – to allow me to take time off work to look after them and be there), financial plan for my parents as they near their 80’s and wills and estate to make sure if aged care needed we have thought it through, some work to do with my wife's family as they have complicated trust structures and property in – so it needs sorting, a financial plan for my brother in law and adequate protection, and a relook at my sisters insurances after her brain tumour last year

• “So, tell me about your family, and what plans you have in place for them”


Try it and let me know how you fair.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Vision Coaching

How can you differentiate when essentially what financial advisers offer from a clients perception of reality is a complicated and confused range of products that they struggle to align with what they actually want.

The problem is exacerbated by clients who can not articulate what it is that they want and then draw the conclusion to define what it is as a consequence that they need.

A survey of clients completed as part of a CVP development programme run for on the surface a successful business uncovered that clients were not referring into the business because they did not understand the process they had been through. And whilst they felt their advisers had technical expertise they could not define in their terms how the strateqy employed was aligned to their end goals.

A slight miscommunication?

Assuming that people understand what it is we say ignores the fact that we as humans take into our understanding our own previous experiences and as such decode messages in line with our reality and perception.

Uncovering the basis of that reality and how clients process information requires questioning and in fact coaching on the patterns that make up a clients world view.

Vision coaching bridges the gap. Having clients in a first meeting define what success looks and feels like, what will be different in their ideal world, what will be the same and what skills and thoughts they can draw on to make a dream a reality provides the clues to enable advisers to define their solutions in a manner that resonates with how individual clients process information and in so doing provides clients with a feeing of certainty, which in our surveys of clients is often described in words like "we felt they understood what was important to us".

Sunday 20 November 2011

Success using well constructed questionnaires

So what are the tools and questions that can establish a process to replicate the kitchen table engagement of the past?

Formulating a questionnaire makes sense if it is to be adopted as part of a defined client process within your business and for use not only with clients but on your behalf with referral sources.

There are two type of questionnaires or techniques that work effectively: one can be adapted for use by a referral source whilst the other is primarily used as a engagement tool for you and your clients.

An index that offers clients three or more response options on a range of financial and financial structure questions immediately identifies the opportunities for referral or solution construction. By attributing a score to the responses a scale, an index for a clients situation can be recorded and it is the improvement of this score that becomes the driving force for the need for a referral and hence the engagement appointment with your business.

This taps into the motivation of either working towards a higher score or moving away from what a low score depicts as a problematic situation.

To determine what language to engage a client with thereafter depends entirely on what success is in the eyes of the clients.

A lifestyle and success questionnaire fills that next stage and it is this stage that becomes a differentiator in the engagement process. This "vision" coaching session allows you to assess the propensity of the client to follow you advice over a period of time including the critical component of them taking your advice at the outset and also provides you with the information required to enable you to engage them on a variety of levels so that they rightly encode the message that your business and the people in your business are solely focussed on positive outcomes for them. It is they who define what those positive outcomes are in their terms.

This level of respect and the understanding that you understand them and their core focus is what the kitchen table dialogue was always about and is what techniques applied with practice, with diligence and with process can deliver.

Friday 18 November 2011

Back to the kitchen?

Understanding what is the core focus of individuals when they first start to engage with your business is fundamental in assessing how to interact with them, but it is only one part of the equation.

Without understanding how an individual thinks about things, processes information, makes decisions and how they feel during this process, the standard engagement techniques "taught" in financial services fall well short of the mark in the attempt to deliver a compelling customer experience.

The solution? More information. More information about the customer in regard to their experiences and decision making capabilities and approach. More information about what's important to them. More information about how they see the world. More information about how they see themselves and how they want to see themselves.

20 years ago, when we sat across the kitchen table with a customer, immersed in the evenings goings on, all of this information came at a rush. Trainers call this "rapport". What it is, is being human, being real, being social, being genuinely interested it what is going on about you so you can draw conclusions and confidently make statements about what is really important to someone. It's about knowing people.

With the kitchen table dialogue long gone, technically adept individuals engage clients with theory, spreadsheets, modelling tools and strategy explanations. These are decoded by the people we are wanting to engage as a demonstration of how much we know about the text and how little we know about people, about them.

So do we return to the kitchen table? Maybe. Better still why not apply the kitchen table techniques in an easily replicable solution and process that at it's core identifies how an individual thinks about things, processes information, makes decisions and how they feel during this process.

Maybe that's a questionnaire, an engagement process that's defined and adhered to, a way of doing things, a stated discovery interview. Those tools and methods are actually easy to design. What's really needed is a focus on the person sitting across from you and who they are as a person. The most exciting part about that is you might just learn something about you and them.

More than profits: The need for a corporate conscience

Business as usual, in isolation, without reference to a social contract where doing the right thing means more than compliance with neo-liberalist norms, will not deliver the type of business success that a profit through principles approach (Haas, R, D. 2002) can deliver, for not only the business but for society at large.

Society at large, is indeed, increasingly demanding higher standards of social responsibility from corporations, that go beyond existing business practices (Florini, A. 2003). In her writings for the Brookings Institution, Senior Fellow, Ann Florini, wrote in 2003, drawing from her book “The Coming Democracy” that corporations had no choice to embed in their economic activities a social contract, otherwise face a public backlash. At that time human rights groups had forced pharmaceutical companies to drop a legal battle which was attempting to protect patent rights but by trying to protect these rights hundreds of thousands of South Africans died of untreated AIDS. Though they had dropped the case the companies found themselves labelled as profiteers that were complicit in the deaths of millions (Florini, A. 2003). Florini wrote that the lack of regulation to protect the rights of workers, communities and the environment, was seeing a powerful movement of consumers, pressure businesses to adopt codes of conduct and socially responsible policies. One
of these codes, the Social Accountability 8000 standards was the first global ethical standard and based on conventions of the International Labour Organisation and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and sought to promote the ethical sourcing and production of goods and services. The Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) was seen as a pioneer when in 2008, some 11 years after the setting of the SA8000 standards, they signed up to the code stating that not only was it a demonstration of their commitment to corporate social responsibility, but that it would allow
CBD to build and re-inforce customer and employee loyalty which had the potential for a greater impact on profitability (CPI Financial News, 2008).

There is no guarantee, however, that the adoption of standards or codes of conduct can avert behaviour that is contrary to not only the codes themselves, but of what is good for society and actually meets the ambition of business to make a profit. Focussing only on profit
as a measure of success and by remunerating business leaders on metrics tied to profit, relies on what Lynn Stout, a professor at UCLA, and others call a homo economicus model (Stout, L. A. 2010) that is based on extrinsic motivations such as bonuses that drives selfishness. Treating people to care only about their own material rewards is a fait d‟accompli that they do just that. Some of the biggest corporate scandals in history, (Enron, WorldCom) are associated with a failure of business ethics and financial services companies, especially banks and brokerage houses present
employees with the homo economicus model where they are conflicted between the pursuit of their own material goals and being honest (Ariely, D., Mazar, N. 2006 and Stout, L. A. 2010).

An analysis of the failures in the financial system that led to the global financial crisis highlighted three themes: a flawed method of remuneration, a failure of government, and a lessened focus on risk (Elliott, D. J. 2010). With regard to remuneration, it was the bonuses paid
to bankers tied to annual profits that saw financial incentives paid to investment professionals for generating short term profits regardless of the risk associated with the strategies adopted. More risk was taken with less capital and more debt and the distribution model that was utilised had at its core the intent to make risky financial instruments appear less risky and appear to perform well in the short run. For the sake of profitability, with that being the sole focus and measure of success, people delivered what was required of them and in so doing delivered on the homo economicus model where the higher the external rewards from being dishonest, the higher the degree to which an individual engaged in dishonest behaviour (Ariely, D., Mazar, N. 2006).

There must be more to business success than just profit. Responsible commercial success can be achieved and be built on trust and a social contract that not only delivers to society but to the legal beneficiaries of a corporation, the shareholders. Robert D. Haas of the Levi Strauss family advocated in 2002 after the tech-wreck and the shock of September 11, that corporations had to deliver more than growth in shareholder value and that doing the right thing was about business practices that, protected and supported workers, that cared for the environment and that supported the community through philanthropic activities. Having leaders in the business lead in community service endeavours could see the business win in the battle for attracting talent, improve morale
and generate community good will (Haas, R, D. 2002). Haas's profit through principles approach, and Florini‟s observations that corporations have no choice but to embed such approaches have seen a myriad of companies espouse their commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Businesses like the banks state that their objective is to do the right thing and many have built CSR statements and programmes that give generously to the community. However whilst the focus and measure of success remains solely profits (and the need to increase profits year on year) and whilst remuneration is linked to creating shareholder value, the CSR statements run the risk of being mere aspirations rather than values to be measured, implemented and ultimately true definition of success.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

A little perspective - Australia still lucky

Anyone wanting to talk about something positive with their clients might want to look very closely at the latest work from the Brookings Institution.

In a ten year study on poverty in the US, Brookings research showed that over a ten year span the US saw the poor population grow by 12.3 million people driving the total number of Americans in poverty to an historic high of 46.2 million.

A closer look at the underlying demographics of the poorest of the poor showed an alarming correlation with family break down.

In contrast the Economist Intelligence Unit showed in it's liveability report that 4 out of the 10 most liveable cities were in Australia.

In a new presentation Positive Client Engagement looks at these reports and identifies why it is that people today are feeling more insecure despite living in one of the luckiest countries in the world. Understanding what drives human beings and how we can nuture those in our immediate family and social circle and encourage and acknowledge them when they are at their best is a role that progressive financial advisers are educating clients about and playing out in their interactions with clients.

Monday 7 November 2011

Analogy: FOFA and Boxing?

I journeyed of for a boxing session last night and what had been trying to avoid eventuated. Mickey, the boxer, the Irish gym owner, who's thrown many a punch in his time, paired with me.

Half way through the session, I'm ready to throw in the towel, huddle in a corner and rock back and forth. This was tough. I'm ducking and weaving to no avail, getting a few good shots in myself but he'd counter.

To finish of, 20 straight punches, down for 40 burpees, then 40 punches, 40 burpees, 60 punches, 40 burpees and so on until 100 punches and 40 burpees were completed. As I started the last 100 punches, Mickey stops counting. I freak out. How many are left? Will he remember OR will I have to do more? And as I'm about to verbalise "how many?" he starts the countdown, 10, 9, 8....and I actually smile, because at that moment I reckon I have 20 more in me anyway.

Financial planners have taken lots of hits during the FOFA debate. Have they defended themselves well? Probably not. Do they need to get better at that? Probably yes, a lot better. Are they worrying about things that are coming without cause? For some yes. And are some giving up when actually they still have a lot to offer clients and society at large?

For the majority of advisers they are well prepared to take what FOFA dishes out - they already deliver services to clients that will see opt in as a non-event. But do they need to better equip themselves with techniques to defend themselves and counter punch? Absolutely.

Saturday 5 November 2011

Creating the tangible out of the intangible

Three recent Huthwaite papers : Winning trust - Selling to clients at a premium - What buyer value really means, identified that according to the Huthwaite research clients were willing to pay a premium when a trusted advisor had:
- identified a previously unrecognised problem
- helped realise and unforseen opportunity
- established an unanticipated solution
- served as a implementer of capabilities to contribute to the success of the client

All true. So what's the implementation piece that an advice business can enact?

It depends on the type of business and the type of capabilities the business is willing to build to serve the businesses way to play. That is the business needs to have a pitch for what it is that they do and how they create value and then be willing to develop 3 to 6 capabilities that deliver on that promise, that are best of breed.

In regard to that initial leap of faith a client must take, it is those businesses that are clear in articulating the value they have provided for other clients - story telling - and have a process for identifying the unrecognised needs of clients- that have maximised the possibility of success post FOFA.

Tools like the Wealth Management Index developed by Positive Client Engagement help to simply identify those unrecognised problems that Huthwaites study confirms maximises the clients propensity to pay premium for services.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Coming soon - Positive Client Engagement on YouTube

A series of videos showcasing financial advisers from across Australia as they speak about the positive differences they are making in their clients lives.

Why I Love Financial Advisers

Financial advisers in Australia provide the foundations in the lives of clients that enables these fortunate Australians to plan and embrace lifes possibilities.

Sadly with only 2 out of 10 Australians seeking financial advice the fulfillment of the dreams of many Australians is not within reach.

Labelling advisers negatively that has sadly occured on occassion during the evolution of FOFA does nothing to address the negative economic and social consequences that a lack of advice for Australians delivers.

Many Australians are fortunate in this country to be able to move through the hierarchy of Maslow's needs from providing the basics for our families through to achieving our dreams. Tony Robbins talks about these needs in modern terms as the need for certainty, for positive uncertainty, connection, significance, growth and contribution.

This is what financial advisers provide for clients - the foundation certainty of a financial plan (that hopefully includes insurance), the freedom then to embrace lifes variety, connection to family and significance in the family circle as a consequence and growth and contribution as these clients become advocates and spread the word about good financial advice.