Monday Morning Jumpstart with Dan Richards

10 minutes to drive your week

Topic for July 26, 2010: Identifying client hot buttons

Listen to the interview

1. Every advisor recognizes the importance of knowing the hot buttons that motivate key clients – the things that are really important to them and in some cases keep them up at night.

2. The question is how to identify those hot buttons.

   The obvious answer is to ask – and that's a good starting point. The difficulty is that the way we ask may not always give us clear answers.

   The problem is that the answers you get may be the obvious ones that are on the surface like losing money or not having enough money in retirement.

3. The challenge is to identify other hot buttons that are just beneath the surface that we won't know about unless we ask in a different way.

   So in addition to asking "What are the most important issues for you when it comes to your money?," Advisors should also ask some closed end questions that are easier for clients to answer.

4. One option is to ask clients to go through a list of 10 to 15 areas which they'd like to talk about at some point, on which they'd like to receive information or on which they'd be interested in attending a lunch or evening session.

5. You could ask clients to complete this survey when they meet – this might work better for older clients.

6. Alternatively, you could send clients an email with a link to one of online survey tools such as Survey Monkey, Zoomerang or Survey Gizmo.

   As part of a pilot test of a new initiative Clientinsights launched this spring, 20 advisors sent clients an email asking them respond to a short online survey.

7. The survey asked five questions, the last of which listed 12 topics on which clients were asked whether they'd be interested in receiving articles and video interviews with experts.

   Of these twelve topics, the percent of clients who expressed interest in receiving information varied from a low of 11% to a high of 60%.

   The top topic was retirement income strategies at 60% – a case can be made that this reflects the aging client base that most adviss on.

   Then came predictions for the economy and the outlook for the stock market, both with over 50% of clients expressing interest.

   Next were four topics with 30% to 40% of clients expressing interest in receiving information:

   • interest rate forecasts
   • information on wills and powers of attorney
   • tax saving strategies for business owners
   • interviews with money managers.

   We had 20% to 30% of clients expressing interest in three additional topics:

   • family communication on financial issues
   • alternative investments and hedge funds
   • elder care

   And at the bottom of the list with 10% to 20% of clients:

   • information on cottage succession
   • charitable giving strategies.

8. There's limited value to gathering this information unless you act on it.

   You can use this survey to help shape the areas on which you offer clients broad information.

   And you can also use it as a catalyst for conversations with key clients in a meeting or over the phone, in the process digging deeper about what specific information clients are looking for in each category they've ticked off as a priority.

   As a result of first identifying and then responding to their hot buttons, you end up serving key clients better and locking in relationships in the process.