(This is the preamble and background to a recently published article in my IFA blog. I've set the scene here and then included the link to the IFA article for the "implementation steps")
There's something about plane travel and hotel rooms that gets my mind whirring in a good way. It's not the jet lag that sets it off, or the preservatives in the airplane food, or the lack of sleep from missing my contoured latex pillow. Quite the contrary, for me I find everything about the experience a wonderful array of petri dishes where at worst I get to observe human beings engage in what sadly is becoming a lost art: human interaction, and at certain high points as those petri dishes bubble over with colonies of live clashes of culture, I find the collision of sales, marketing, social interaction, technology and human behaviour truly fascinating.
The simple act of boarding a plane provides an opportunity to assess people and the choices they've made on how to board (using an app, a text message, a frequent flyer card, a good ole fashioned boarding pass - from a kiosk or printed from home or work). How do those choices correlate to their other behaviours and decisions? From luggage (trying to sneak a third bag past the disapproving attendant, or nonchalantly with the utmost confidence), to other items they carry : kindle, iPad, hardcover book, style of headphones, facial expressions, volume and tone of voice : all of this creates a story from which assumptions and rather accurate conclusions can be made about how an individual and consequently how we collectively are dealing with the modernity of society and translating it into our daily interpersonal interactions and decisions.
Now perhaps clearly I have too much time on my hands and am somewhat voyeuristic ("what's that guy in 3C staring at?") but, for me this type of people watching in situations like this is incredibly important. They are a guide to the psychology of how people engage in a world that is changing at a dramatic pace. They give us insights into how we act and utilise technology for ourselves and with others and how we like to be engaged in a service environment.
Apple, do this brilliantly and are a great example to choose as what they are selling is more than the latest and coolest gadget. What Apple sells by means of its Apple Genius employees is empathy and leadership which allows customers to make the right decisions for them. Dr Sebastian Bailey wrote in Forbes magazine how detailed and deliberate Apple have become at grasping and using the psychology of selling. Apple, he points out, use the “feel, felt, found” approach to not only demonstrate empathy but to also enact evidence of social proof to lead a customer to solutions that others like them have made[1]. This embodies what we now refer to as Emotional Intelligence, defined as the ability to monitor your own and others feelings and emotions. Sebastian continues that what Apple do having set the stage thus, is the “Geniuses are not passive” they use “mantras like ‘we guide every interaction’, ‘we recommend solutions’ and ‘we help them discover’. Through the handy mnemonic ‘APPLE’ (Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, End), employees lead customers to a decision that they believe is all their own.”[2] Now this is where the neuroscience of Technoclientology kicks in because when it comes to choice, three is the magic number. As Sebastian reminds us, Researchers at the University of Minnesota used brain scans to show that it’s easier to make a choice between three products than it is to choose between two.
Going deeper here choice architecture is the process of encouraging people to make good choices through grouping and ordering the decisions in a way that maximizes successful choices and minimizes the number of people who become so overwhelmed by complexity that they abandon the attempt to choose. Generally, success is improved by presenting the smaller or simpler choices first, and by choosing and promoting sensible default options.[3]
Can we assess these choices using technology and in particular via social networks? Long have we heard that the future involves us arriving home, activating our giant touch screen wall, being notified that one friend has recorded Entourage for you and 3 others are watching it right now and that your groceries you ordered via an app are 5 minutes away from being delivered and a map indicates where the driver is right at that very minute, etc, etc, etc. The future may be coming fast but interaction with only a touch screen wall is maybe a pipe dream. In a study by the Australian Psychological Society, respondents were asked about their preference for online communication when compared to face-to-face interactions. The majority of respondents reported that they preferred to communicate with people in person rather than using online social networking sites (54%, with 25% neutral on this matter) suggesting that people are not necessarily moving away from face-to-face interactions but perhaps use online social networking to enhance their in person communications.[4] However disturbingly but perhaps not surprisingly if you’ve caught an elevator lately (a place where temporary hypnosis always takes effect) and seen every person staring into their phone, concerns about reduced face-to-face interactions and the loss of social skills have emerged.
Being “social” and using the technology platforms of social media means effective engagement to enhance interaction not to detract from it. Gossieaux and Moran, identify that in a web 2.0 world we are as human 1.0 beings engaging like we always have in that we are engaging in tribes, it’s just that now we can engage with tribes that span the globe and belong to multiple tribes at the same time, but what hasn’t changed is that these tribes have formed as they always have : there is a common connection and there is a transference of beliefs, knowledge and value that affects the way in which we make decisions and ultimately in how we live.[5]
In creating the term Technoclientology, my intent was to guide those in the business of professional services and all service industries for that matter to an umbrella discipline for engaging customers. Technoclientology then is the psychology of engaging clients in a modern world and encompasses the skills, techniques and concepts of sales, modernity, social (read Human) 1.0 and the insights from the field of neuroscience, that when combined allow us to observe, collate data, analyse and draw conclusions about how people will react and make decisions in a given situation faced with competing choices. A Technoclientologist uses these insights to enable people to become empowered and make decisions that are in their best interests. What is achieved here is the working towards a greater good.
So where to from here? Read the rest of this article and the steps you need to really connect with clients at:
http://www.ifa.com.au/blogs/13875-why-you-need-to-be-a-technoclientologist?utm_source=IFA&utm_campaign=IFA_Bulletin06_11_2014&utm_medium=email
[1] Bailey, Sebastian, 2012, The Psychological Tricks Behind Apple’s Service Secrets, Forbes, 2012
[2] Bailey, Sebastian, 2012, The Psychological Tricks Behind Apple’s Service Secrets, Forbes, 2012
[3] Iyengar, Sheena, 2010, The Art of Choosing: The Decisions We Make Everyday - What They Say About Us and How We Can Improve Them. Hachette UK
[4] The Australian Psychological Society, 2010, The Social and Psychological Impact of Online Social Networking
[5] Gossieaux and Moran, 2010, The Hyper-Social Organisation
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Saturday, 25 October 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Social, Big Data, Technology: run and hide or embrace?
Smart technology (wearable : clothes, watches, eye glasses) that records data on your life and has the ability to tell you what to do.
Voice personality profiling so that call centres can assign the right consultant to you but also provides them with information relating to your basic personality traits.
Companies using that data, big data, to generate value such as a retailer using big data to the full to increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent. Or ever-narrower segmentation of customers and therefore much more precisely tailored products or services.
The emergence of two social classes: the technologically connected and fabulously wealthy 15% and the rest of us relegated to a vast underclass.
"Vast troves of data on all of us and then using that data to provide us with a constant stream of advice on how to live our lives and make better decisions."
It is a policy makers dream. A corporations nirvana.
Will it really make our lives better?
Will this become our Gattaca? : The film of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic manipulation to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. Characters in Gattaca continually battle both with society and with themselves to find their place in the world and who they are destined to be according to their genes.
Will it become our Divergent?: a society that defines its citizens by their social and personality-related affiliation with five different factions.
Will we become the humans of Wall-e? : obese, infantile consumers who spend their days immobile in hovering lounge chairs, staring at ads on computers screens (or Google glass)
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor, Oxford Internet Institute, speaks of the power of big data as a tool that has the "potential to shape every part of our society from health care and education to urban planning and protecting the environment." He also notes that But "like every powerful tool, it has a dark side too: It threatens privacy protection and human volition."
As Mayer-Schonberger points out the potential and current positives are plentiful. Data correlations help Amazon and Netflix recommend products to us.
He writes of the medical benefits such as the monitoring of "vital signs from premature born babies discovered that whenever the vitals seem to stabilize, there is a high probability that a baby will suffer from a dangerous infection just a few hours later. Stable vitals are red flags, and recognizing them enables doctors to treat an infant before the full onset of the infection. They know what, not why—but that itself saves lives."
And what of how we catergorise people based on what an algorithm determines. Data can be used to make assessments on people, on communities and characterise them in ways that predicts their life expectancy, their suitability for certain occupations, their voting intentions, their criminality and their purchasing habits. Data could highlight threats to society. But a threat determined by whom? Big data?
All manner of crimes have been inflicted on peoples from a call to arms of national pride, soveriegn borders, or the protection of an ideology. This could be our "Captain America's Winters Soldier", futuristic perhaps, but this is already happening. As Mayer-Schonberger highlights certain city neighborhoods are policed more aggressively because Big Data predicts a high-level of criminal activity.
What of choice, free-will, societal liberty and moreover to what extent will we become slaves to the data itself? Will we give up choice? And to what extent is a choice that is made from options presented to us by an alogorithm?
For me I'm still pondering the benefits which are immense and the social consequences that if not considered may lead us to a dark place from which only the data will determine our fate.
Perhaps I will become Amish. They're allowed Netflix and Wi-Fi yeah?
References:
Manyika et al, 2011, Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, McKinsey Global Institute.
Reed, B, 2013, Prominent economist predicts smartphones will soon tell us how to run every aspect of our lives, BGR Media.
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, 2013, Big Data’s Bright and Dark Sides, Skoll World Forum.
Voice personality profiling so that call centres can assign the right consultant to you but also provides them with information relating to your basic personality traits.
Companies using that data, big data, to generate value such as a retailer using big data to the full to increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent. Or ever-narrower segmentation of customers and therefore much more precisely tailored products or services.
The emergence of two social classes: the technologically connected and fabulously wealthy 15% and the rest of us relegated to a vast underclass.
"Vast troves of data on all of us and then using that data to provide us with a constant stream of advice on how to live our lives and make better decisions."
It is a policy makers dream. A corporations nirvana.
Will it really make our lives better?
Will this become our Gattaca? : The film of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic manipulation to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. Characters in Gattaca continually battle both with society and with themselves to find their place in the world and who they are destined to be according to their genes.
Will it become our Divergent?: a society that defines its citizens by their social and personality-related affiliation with five different factions.
Will we become the humans of Wall-e? : obese, infantile consumers who spend their days immobile in hovering lounge chairs, staring at ads on computers screens (or Google glass)
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor, Oxford Internet Institute, speaks of the power of big data as a tool that has the "potential to shape every part of our society from health care and education to urban planning and protecting the environment." He also notes that But "like every powerful tool, it has a dark side too: It threatens privacy protection and human volition."
As Mayer-Schonberger points out the potential and current positives are plentiful. Data correlations help Amazon and Netflix recommend products to us.
He writes of the medical benefits such as the monitoring of "vital signs from premature born babies discovered that whenever the vitals seem to stabilize, there is a high probability that a baby will suffer from a dangerous infection just a few hours later. Stable vitals are red flags, and recognizing them enables doctors to treat an infant before the full onset of the infection. They know what, not why—but that itself saves lives."
And what of how we catergorise people based on what an algorithm determines. Data can be used to make assessments on people, on communities and characterise them in ways that predicts their life expectancy, their suitability for certain occupations, their voting intentions, their criminality and their purchasing habits. Data could highlight threats to society. But a threat determined by whom? Big data?
All manner of crimes have been inflicted on peoples from a call to arms of national pride, soveriegn borders, or the protection of an ideology. This could be our "Captain America's Winters Soldier", futuristic perhaps, but this is already happening. As Mayer-Schonberger highlights certain city neighborhoods are policed more aggressively because Big Data predicts a high-level of criminal activity.
What of choice, free-will, societal liberty and moreover to what extent will we become slaves to the data itself? Will we give up choice? And to what extent is a choice that is made from options presented to us by an alogorithm?
For me I'm still pondering the benefits which are immense and the social consequences that if not considered may lead us to a dark place from which only the data will determine our fate.
Perhaps I will become Amish. They're allowed Netflix and Wi-Fi yeah?
References:
Manyika et al, 2011, Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, McKinsey Global Institute.
Reed, B, 2013, Prominent economist predicts smartphones will soon tell us how to run every aspect of our lives, BGR Media.
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, 2013, Big Data’s Bright and Dark Sides, Skoll World Forum.
Wednesday, 20 August 2014
Social media and financial advice : empire state of mind
Alicia Keys song about New York includes the lyrics
"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can't do
Now you're in New York!
These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you".
The state of mind she sings about : belief, dreams, battling through the sameness to differentiate and make it big : is to me very close to what's going on in the quest to capture the social media space and engage with clients.
There is a sameness that is appearing in the manner in which people are implementing. We are all looking at the same big names in advice who have tapped into social media to engage with clients. Are we inspired? Is anyone really doing it well? If you build it ...will they come?
Broadly the answer sadly is no. Because there is something missing. If you do not have a state of mind that is social at its core then a social strategy is not one for you. If your client base does not suit a social strategy then maybe there are other ways to successful engage clients and monetize the engagement.
For me social, is the embodiment of that very word. It is the across the dinner table dialogue with a client where you get to share hopes and dreams (note there is reciprocation implied here). It is heavily reliant on you knowing your client base, your pitch or unique proposition to an ideal client, having the capabilities to deliver on that proposition and the right service model to truly enact that promise.
No amount of communication with a client be it via a social platform or not can be the solution to engagement if you don't have these components to start with.
Following that whether or not a social platform is the right way to communicate with clients depends on whether this is appropriate for the demographic and whether it suits your business model.
Don't get me wrong : I love social media and think it is a necessary mechanism to communicate with clients to truly tap into the psychology of what is core and innate in all of us : that is we are social beings. We are humans and we have always forged ahead by communication, sharing and bonding. We now have platforms which we can do this on in large scale.
As a student of psychology, the manner in which we as humans, as clients look bond with eachother, the way we look for reassurance and social proof before we act lends itself to a process of engaging with clients that taps into these hard wired drives. This client psychology and management of it embodies everything you do as advisers be it insurance advice, business insurance, Intergenerational advice or aged care. Building processes around the psychological processes that a client experiences in dealing with you and the satisfaction with life and well being outcomes they achieve as a result is critical in any communication with a client : including social media.
"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can't do
Now you're in New York!
These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you".
The state of mind she sings about : belief, dreams, battling through the sameness to differentiate and make it big : is to me very close to what's going on in the quest to capture the social media space and engage with clients.
There is a sameness that is appearing in the manner in which people are implementing. We are all looking at the same big names in advice who have tapped into social media to engage with clients. Are we inspired? Is anyone really doing it well? If you build it ...will they come?
Broadly the answer sadly is no. Because there is something missing. If you do not have a state of mind that is social at its core then a social strategy is not one for you. If your client base does not suit a social strategy then maybe there are other ways to successful engage clients and monetize the engagement.
For me social, is the embodiment of that very word. It is the across the dinner table dialogue with a client where you get to share hopes and dreams (note there is reciprocation implied here). It is heavily reliant on you knowing your client base, your pitch or unique proposition to an ideal client, having the capabilities to deliver on that proposition and the right service model to truly enact that promise.
No amount of communication with a client be it via a social platform or not can be the solution to engagement if you don't have these components to start with.
Following that whether or not a social platform is the right way to communicate with clients depends on whether this is appropriate for the demographic and whether it suits your business model.
Don't get me wrong : I love social media and think it is a necessary mechanism to communicate with clients to truly tap into the psychology of what is core and innate in all of us : that is we are social beings. We are humans and we have always forged ahead by communication, sharing and bonding. We now have platforms which we can do this on in large scale.
As a student of psychology, the manner in which we as humans, as clients look bond with eachother, the way we look for reassurance and social proof before we act lends itself to a process of engaging with clients that taps into these hard wired drives. This client psychology and management of it embodies everything you do as advisers be it insurance advice, business insurance, Intergenerational advice or aged care. Building processes around the psychological processes that a client experiences in dealing with you and the satisfaction with life and well being outcomes they achieve as a result is critical in any communication with a client : including social media.
Getting referrals from accountants
What's the recipe for success in the quest to get consistent, quality referrals from an accountant?
This challenge arises for even advice businesses that own or are owned by accountancy businesses. Even in these environments the manner in which the client experience is delivered for each businesses means that to align is like forcing two magnets of similar polarity together : they push apart often with repulsive force.
The classic solution : has often been the lunch time education/information session, where we talk to the accountants about TPD and expect them to spread this amazing news to clients. Of course I make light of the value and depth that many education sessions hold, but the expectation we have of the impact and the results of these sessions are often unrealistic. That is not to say they don't work, they can do over time, but often despite their regularity and range of topics the conversations we expect or hope the accountants to have just don't follow.
Also problematic is if the accountant does commence a conversation with a client and the conversation goes for more than 6 minutes ....do they charge them? And what if it goes for 20 minutes? What if they are asked a question they can't answer?
After years of observing, experimenting and some just plain dumb luck these are the techniques we've seen work and why:
1) Lunch works : it's about the one time in the day the 6 minute clock is not ticking and the accountants down tools. Rather than an education session, how about just having lunch with them, in the lunch room over a sandwich and not talking about anything to do with financial planning. It's a lot easier to get a referral from someone who likes you.
2) Training can help and is a must : but needs to be tailored so that life risks are not the forefront but rather risk to the accountancy base is. Highlighting that business expenses cover can protect the accountants fees (they are a valid business expense) is one way of the accountant feeling the need for a valid discussion with a client.
3) Getting exemption from the 6 minutes hence the conversation is "authorised" and the client and accountant are not held to the 6 minute charging regime.
4) Creating a process. A questionnaire that acts as a rating scale ie: scores points for having certain structures and strategies in place: provides a great rationale for a referral to an adviser. As the accountant works on the clients tax issues, the client is given the opportunity to fill in a short one page tick a box questionnaire. Each box attributes a score. The lower the score the more urgent the need to see an adviser. Areas covered include SMSF, Estate Planning, Insurances, Buy Sells. The only thing the accountant has to do is add up the score and say based on the score there are some issues that needs clarification : hence the referral to the planner.
5) Taking a portfolio approach with the client base. Looking at the best accountancy clients it is determined whether or not financial planning revenue is being received (works best with in house financial planning and accountancy services). If not it is an automatic referral where the accountant calls the client and explains that as one of their best clients they have not yet taken advantage (as all their other best clients do) of all the services and it's a concern as when assessing their clients financial health (as per the questionnaire in 4) they have found gaps in their clients affairs.
This challenge arises for even advice businesses that own or are owned by accountancy businesses. Even in these environments the manner in which the client experience is delivered for each businesses means that to align is like forcing two magnets of similar polarity together : they push apart often with repulsive force.
The classic solution : has often been the lunch time education/information session, where we talk to the accountants about TPD and expect them to spread this amazing news to clients. Of course I make light of the value and depth that many education sessions hold, but the expectation we have of the impact and the results of these sessions are often unrealistic. That is not to say they don't work, they can do over time, but often despite their regularity and range of topics the conversations we expect or hope the accountants to have just don't follow.
Also problematic is if the accountant does commence a conversation with a client and the conversation goes for more than 6 minutes ....do they charge them? And what if it goes for 20 minutes? What if they are asked a question they can't answer?
After years of observing, experimenting and some just plain dumb luck these are the techniques we've seen work and why:
1) Lunch works : it's about the one time in the day the 6 minute clock is not ticking and the accountants down tools. Rather than an education session, how about just having lunch with them, in the lunch room over a sandwich and not talking about anything to do with financial planning. It's a lot easier to get a referral from someone who likes you.
2) Training can help and is a must : but needs to be tailored so that life risks are not the forefront but rather risk to the accountancy base is. Highlighting that business expenses cover can protect the accountants fees (they are a valid business expense) is one way of the accountant feeling the need for a valid discussion with a client.
3) Getting exemption from the 6 minutes hence the conversation is "authorised" and the client and accountant are not held to the 6 minute charging regime.
4) Creating a process. A questionnaire that acts as a rating scale ie: scores points for having certain structures and strategies in place: provides a great rationale for a referral to an adviser. As the accountant works on the clients tax issues, the client is given the opportunity to fill in a short one page tick a box questionnaire. Each box attributes a score. The lower the score the more urgent the need to see an adviser. Areas covered include SMSF, Estate Planning, Insurances, Buy Sells. The only thing the accountant has to do is add up the score and say based on the score there are some issues that needs clarification : hence the referral to the planner.
5) Taking a portfolio approach with the client base. Looking at the best accountancy clients it is determined whether or not financial planning revenue is being received (works best with in house financial planning and accountancy services). If not it is an automatic referral where the accountant calls the client and explains that as one of their best clients they have not yet taken advantage (as all their other best clients do) of all the services and it's a concern as when assessing their clients financial health (as per the questionnaire in 4) they have found gaps in their clients affairs.
Why client surveys work
I'm constantly surprised by the low numbers of advisers who surveys their clients. Now before you groan, roll your eyes and move on, let me point a few things out to you:
- the average advice business enjoys a margin (I use the word "enjoys" with a degree of sarcasm) of around 20%
- leading advice businesses experience margins of 45%
- average advice businesses attain net promoter scores in the 50s
- leading advice businesses see their scores in the mid 90s
- average advice businesses obtain a level of referrals from the family unit / social circle that leads to them having intergenerational relationships with less than 10% of their clients
- leading advice businesses generate 68% plus of new clients each year from their existing clients family and social circles
Why the stark difference in results? Process and the client experience that is delivered consistently, repeatedly and sustainably is a massive contributor to the success of these leading advice businesses.
The way in which these businesses can design the client experience that they deliver : and the key word is design : these businesses are not successful by default : is that they simply know more about their clients and their clients walk away from every interaction with a feeling that the advice business "just knows me".
This level of understanding and the display of that understanding of what makes a client "tick" is no accident. It is delivered by meticulous and regular questioning of clients and engagement beyond a standard fact find.
These businesses use processes to find out more about their clients; mind maps, lifestyle questionnaires, psychological profiling. And to refine their process they survey clients. Not just satisfaction surveys : they look at motivators, values, propensity to refer and how well the client has understood and can articulate the advice businesses proposition.
When DoubleTree by Hilton surveyed their clients (using a # campaign on Twitter) to find out the "little things" that made a difference to the hotel stays of their clients : they enacted the feedback and delivered not only tailored experiences but demonstrated they really were listening.
When UBS private clients use the insights they have on their clientele to shape every aspect of the client experience they demonstrate that they truly do understand their clients and in doing so span advice across generations.
When Amazon recommends books for you to read based on your purchase and search history, they (or the algorithm) are listening (and watching!).
It's smart business. It's client centric business.
The first step is about asking yourself and your staff : "what do our clients really want?".
Then ask your clients.
- the average advice business enjoys a margin (I use the word "enjoys" with a degree of sarcasm) of around 20%
- leading advice businesses experience margins of 45%
- average advice businesses attain net promoter scores in the 50s
- leading advice businesses see their scores in the mid 90s
- average advice businesses obtain a level of referrals from the family unit / social circle that leads to them having intergenerational relationships with less than 10% of their clients
- leading advice businesses generate 68% plus of new clients each year from their existing clients family and social circles
Why the stark difference in results? Process and the client experience that is delivered consistently, repeatedly and sustainably is a massive contributor to the success of these leading advice businesses.
The way in which these businesses can design the client experience that they deliver : and the key word is design : these businesses are not successful by default : is that they simply know more about their clients and their clients walk away from every interaction with a feeling that the advice business "just knows me".
This level of understanding and the display of that understanding of what makes a client "tick" is no accident. It is delivered by meticulous and regular questioning of clients and engagement beyond a standard fact find.
These businesses use processes to find out more about their clients; mind maps, lifestyle questionnaires, psychological profiling. And to refine their process they survey clients. Not just satisfaction surveys : they look at motivators, values, propensity to refer and how well the client has understood and can articulate the advice businesses proposition.
When DoubleTree by Hilton surveyed their clients (using a # campaign on Twitter) to find out the "little things" that made a difference to the hotel stays of their clients : they enacted the feedback and delivered not only tailored experiences but demonstrated they really were listening.
When UBS private clients use the insights they have on their clientele to shape every aspect of the client experience they demonstrate that they truly do understand their clients and in doing so span advice across generations.
When Amazon recommends books for you to read based on your purchase and search history, they (or the algorithm) are listening (and watching!).
It's smart business. It's client centric business.
The first step is about asking yourself and your staff : "what do our clients really want?".
Then ask your clients.
Developing a family advice offer
I always have a slight chuckle whenever I see IG (intergenerational advice) on an education schedule for an adviser planning day. The reason is because of the data used to back up the "why", the method that is put forth as the solution and the marketing call to action that is described as the resource to use.
The reality is that providing family advice requires the development of capabilities, new systems and processes, different CVPs and all up is a 6 month plus journey.
The data that is usually pointed to contains a call to action to address the dire situation of grandparents being the sole carer of children aged below 15 and this creates a threat to retirement incomes and so is a necessary conversation to have with your boomer clients.
The reality here is that those numbers are 17,000 families. There are give or take 15,000 advisers in Australia : so you all have one each to target. That's some niche play.
The method that is put forth as the holy grail is the family tree and by utilising one you will capture the essence of a families total situation and position as the trusted family adviser.
The reality is that family trees do not work if positioned without context supported by capabilities that invite the positioning of a family tree into the conversation.
Finally no marketing flyer will encourage families to share with their loved ones your very kind "gift" of financial advice unless there is appropriate positioning and a defined, meaning and relevant "why".
IG advice works but it works by design. Businesses that have designed the process position as the central hub of a families financial world, but also as the intermediary between the inner workings of the "tribe" and it's external affairs.
The reality is that providing family advice requires the development of capabilities, new systems and processes, different CVPs and all up is a 6 month plus journey.
The data that is usually pointed to contains a call to action to address the dire situation of grandparents being the sole carer of children aged below 15 and this creates a threat to retirement incomes and so is a necessary conversation to have with your boomer clients.
The reality here is that those numbers are 17,000 families. There are give or take 15,000 advisers in Australia : so you all have one each to target. That's some niche play.
The method that is put forth as the holy grail is the family tree and by utilising one you will capture the essence of a families total situation and position as the trusted family adviser.
The reality is that family trees do not work if positioned without context supported by capabilities that invite the positioning of a family tree into the conversation.
Finally no marketing flyer will encourage families to share with their loved ones your very kind "gift" of financial advice unless there is appropriate positioning and a defined, meaning and relevant "why".
IG advice works but it works by design. Businesses that have designed the process position as the central hub of a families financial world, but also as the intermediary between the inner workings of the "tribe" and it's external affairs.
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