Connecting with a Clients Values

We love this one inspired by an award winning financial adviser in Melbourne, Australia.

This is about connecting the strategy solutions to what is really important to a client.

If you can do this and demonstrate it in the SOA not only do you maximise the possibility of the prospect becoming a client, but you have also built a framework for choices the client makes that you can always revisit especially at review time to ensure that financial decisions are always in line with the identified values of the client.

Why is this important?

This is because money habits form very early on in our lives. It’s actually between the ages of 6-8 : s we have learnt most of our lessons from our parents and this shapes how we feel and act when it comes to financial affairs.
If you don’t question a client about these feelings you really can not truly know how a client will react to certain strategies, economic events, future financial decisions.

Some simple techniques are:

- Asking a client the three key words that come to mind when you mention a financial topic : superannuation, shares, investing
- Using lifestyle questionnaires that have a list of areas for the client to consider : they can be superannuation, investing but also : main residence, holidays, kids schooling, career, etc and asking them to rank how they feel about it now 1-5 and what they would like in the future
- The use of values cards

Irrespective of the technique : you need then to include a section in the SOA about what you’ve uncovered and connect your advice to these idenitified feelings and values.

Now values cards are used by recruitment agencies, training agencies eg: the “Training WA Career Centre) and it’s all about making better decisions on the premise that life and work decisions are always most satisfying when they fit with the values most important to you.

Mostly we act in accordance with our values to maintain a sense of well-being. But often our values are compromised by circumstances or events and we do things that don’t feel right. When we do things that are at odds with our values, we feel uncomfortable. Living in a situation where it is a constant struggle to act according to our values can cause stress, anxiety and depression.

Being able to align our lives with our values helps us make important decisions and feel grounded and focused. It inevitably leads to more happiness, achievement and contentment. At a team or organisational level, shared values keep the members focused on achieving their outcomes

The Values Cards can assist individuals, couples, teams and organisations to explore what is truly important in life, their relationships or work.

So what happens with this adviser is that you as a client (or each member of a couple) is given a deck of 250 values cards. The kind of words on them are things like : compassion, connection, creativity, achievement, adventure, challenge, health, family.

The client has to select 5.

This then leads to a discussion that is wide ranging and starts to encompass how the financial decisions the client needs to make fit with these values.

So imagine one of the cards is “family” (invariably that one does get selected).

Insurance has to become a key plank of a discussion or at least estate planning and hence then trust structures, business succession, continuity etc etc.

So it becomes the client that actually instigates the direction that the strategy conversation takes rather than the adviser initiating the discussion without being able to tie it into something the client has highlighted is important.

What needs to happen though is this conversation is reinforced and highlighted in the SOA and that each strategy recommendation is connected to a value or values.

What Award Winning Businesses Do Well

Last week the Association of Financial Advisors named its 2013 Advisor of the Year.

All the businesses and advisors that were nominated were put through a rigorous process that involved an assessment of client engagement as well as systems, processes, community involvement, leadership and the advice proposition.

What made the 6 finalists and ultimate winner stand out from the crowd?

It is apparent that clients value the financial planning process. Data from the Beddoes institute confirms that once clients start taking advice they get incredible value out of the process. They are happier, more likely to refer and maximise the possibility of living a financially secure life. Clients point to aspects such as the personal qualities of the advisor, understanding the process and feeling that the advisor understand them, as key components of client satisfaction.

What these businesses, these finalists, do goes beyond those client pre-requisites.

These award winning businesses :

- have defined in client terms what it is that they do so clients can easily articulate the value in their own words
- consequently have referral rates from existing clients well into the 90% levels
- have dynamic, client focussed communication methods that allow trust to be built before they have even met a protective client
- on meeting a new client, take the client through a process that defines what a clients values and motivators are with clarity and resonance
- they deliver advice that is connected to these values and the advice is delivered by a team
- have teams that understand what it is that they are providing and the impact on each individual client
- set benchmarks in the client journey and celebrate and acknowledge theses milestones with clients
- have multiple methods of communication with their clients
- are active in their community
- lead industry discussions
- share their experiences and successes with peers

But most of all these award winning businesses know who they are as a business as individuals and are true to label.

They celebrate themselves, their clients, their staff and their community each step of the way.


Congratulations.

"The Trusted Advisor". Process? Mindset?

With so much talk, data, conversation and method, post FOFA on becoming a "trusted advisor" PCE wanted to in this post unpack one of the components of being a "trusted advisor".

Now to start...some perspective. The concept of the "trusted advisor" has been around for a long time. From Bacarach to Beddoes...from books published in 2000 by Robert M. Galford, 2005 by Charles H. Green, and 1997 by David H. Maister. In fact so widely discussed has this concept been that anyone fooled into believing that this is a new concept is incredibly naive.

But recent study has packaged up this concept into something more accessible. For a start one does not necessarily have to pay thousands for the process or take significant time out of the business to learn the process. But in saying that there are vast advantages in doing that. The concept has become accessible indeed but correspondingly more difficult to enact.

Without the process implementation just simply does not occur.

Further the key ingredient in becoming a "trusted advisor" is emotional intelligence.

Simple huh?

What is required at this point to help an adviser become a "trusted advisor" is the development of their EI.

What must occur is 4 fourfold:

1) Ones way of thinking needs to be refined so that a consciousness develops that challenges familiar notions of ourselves and others, challenging the truth of assumptions.

2) That then in turn allows us to assess the opportunities and the constraints that characterise our lives and the lives of others. It makes us look for a better way. And reveals what we and others can accomplish to reach our goals more effectively.

3) Doing this enables us as the "trusted advisor" to shape not only our lives and that of our clients but that of society. This is about being aware enough to give back.

4) And finally once self aware, we can easily recognise human differences and we can lead the way in confronting the challenges of living in a very diverse and changing world.

Critically thinking about ours and others strengths and weaknesses and being able to articulate that effectively to ourselves and others is the core of EI.

A process that you can implement is then in fact a great idea.

So when next the concept of a "trusted advisor" is rasied, look for the process.

Or keep reading PCE!