There are a lot of marketing tips and advice floating around - some are more useful than others! Guest blogger, Adam Kornegay, shares his thoughts on client "touches."
Perhaps the one piece of marketing advice that annoys us the most is that you must “touch” your clients X many times in a year.
We have yet to meet someone who said, “Oh, you should work with my advisor, he ‘touches base’ with me every month!”
Similarly, we’ve never heard of the magical “12th touch” that pushes a client into the category of “extremely satisfied” and leads to an avalanche of referrals.
Keep in mind that your advice is the product, and your service is the wrapper. Your clients want and value your advice and guidance. For busy clients, a “touch-base” call without a real purpose could be perceived as more annoying than helpful.
How then should you approach your client communication? Start by focusing on communication that provides real value and enhances your relationship.
Here are four reasons to reach out to your clients:
- To review/update their financial plan or investment strategy: This is your core value, the primary reason your clients hired you. They want you to be proactive in helping them maximize their opportunity to achieve financial success.
- To discuss an existing follow-up item: A financial advisor is also a project manager, the person your clients lean on to move things forward. Therefore, they expect that you will actively manage all follow-up items that come from meetings and phone calls.
- To share an important piece of information: “Important” is the key word here; it must be something that is (or should be) important to your client. For example, a general market update may not that important to your clients (after all, that’s why they hired you!). But a market update that necessitates adjusting or rebalancing your portfolio is.
- To deepen the emotional connection: This is your opportunity to reach out to your client with a genuine, heartfelt communication, such as a birthday wish or the celebration of a special anniversary or event. For a client who is battling health or family issues, a simple phrase like, “I was thinking of you today and wanted to see how your day was going” goes a long way.
About Adam Kornegay
Adam Kornegay, RCC™, is a partner at Pathfinder - a firm providing coaching and consulting services to financial advisors. With a background in marketing and business analytics, together with his experience as a financial adviser, Adam coaches a broad array of clients, from relatively new advisers to experienced planners, focusing on marketing, business development, and professional accountability.