Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
My advisors need to do a better job of presenting their ideas to clients. As the head of marketing, I am frustrated when I watch them get mired in details and lose focus on the client’s reactions. I’m enrolling a couple of them in Toastmasters because I believe having a third-party, objective assessment would be helpful. What can I do from a coaching perspective? I’d like to be able to give better feedback than “watch the client’s reaction” from time to time. Any ideas?
K.J.
Dear K.J.,
I’m curious as to whether the advisors are listening to you. Do they acknowledge they have work to do? Are they clear about what changes you suggest they make?
For anyone to make a shift in behavior, they have to first acknowledge there is a shift needed. If they think you are just looking at this from a marketing lens, they may resist the importance of what you are saying. Be sure you are looking at this from their perspective when you give the feedback. Help them see that the client might be struggling to understand something, or they (as advisor) might not get the “credit” they deserve if the client cannot connect the dots and recognize the importance to their situation.
I have a trademarked process called The Six Keys to Confident Presenting. I will outline these here and you can use any that you think will be helpful to your advisors as you coach them:
- Know why. This is the setting of expectations. Tell the audience where you are headed and what you hope they will gain as a result of listening to you. This goes beyond, “a review of your portfolio” and into more emotions and reactions – “I hope by the end of this communication you are even more confident in our ability to help you meet your long term goal of early retirement.”
- Know who. This is about knowing the audience and recognizing their level of understanding and knowledge of the topic. It also allows the presenter to ask at the outset, after setting their expectation for an outcome, what the listener would like to receive. “What would make this a successful outcome for you?”
- Create flow. The advisory industry is filled with numbers, data, graphs, and jargon. Many times advisors think more is more when it comes to presenting so they will throw everything into one sitting and expect their listener to sift through and understand it all. Creating flow means separating the topics so you can be clear about exactly what you will cover, and when, during the communication.
- Provide context. This is about connecting the dots for the listener. Just because, as deliverers of information, we think it is clear and understandable, doesn’t mean it is so for the listener. With prospects and clients, you have to add in some personal points – tell a story, or finish making a point with a “so what does this mean for you?” type of statement. The more you can make the information relevant, the more meaningful it will be to the receiver.
- Match behavioral styles. We all have different ways of communicating – some are fast talkers, while others need time to digest and consider what they have heard. Some people are demonstrative in their approach waving their hands to make a point, while others are more non-emotional and stoic. Sometimes it isn’t what we say, as much as it is how we say it. Make sure you gauge the style of your listener (or listeners) and modify where needed to give them a better opportunity to hear them.
- Bring closure. This is your wrap-up, your agreement on next steps and most importantly the place where you gain commitment from your prospect or client that you met the expectations set at the beginning of the communication. This is in the form of a verbal commitment – “we stated at the outset we wanted to reach X and Y expectations, have we met them for you in what we have discussed?” Then, establish the specific things to happen next, and each person’s role in them and gain commitment on that.
Hopefully these tips will help your advisors take your great marketing work and present it more effectively!
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
