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Dan’s new book for millennials, Wealthier: The Investing Field Guide for Millennials, is now available on Amazon.
Your success depends on more than just your financial acumen. It’s also about building and maintaining solid relationships with your clients. At the heart of these relationships lies one of the most powerful yet often overlooked skills: effective listening.
The benefits of effective listening
Effective listening can help convert more prospects into clients. Your ability to listen effectively can be the deciding factor in whether they choose to work with you.
In one study, researchers measured how listening quality impacted social attraction and trust between the participants. They used a controlled experimental setting with 50 student pairs and analyzed the data using a “structural equation” model.
The study found that perceived listening quality strongly correlated with social attraction and trust. When participants felt they were being listened to attentively, the speaker felt more understood and respected, and they were more likely to trust the listener.
Why did listening have such a profound effect?
The researchers believe the positive impact of listening was mainly due to the increased social attraction due to effective listening. In lay terms, good listening made people more socially attractive or likable, and this increased likability was the mechanism through which the positive effect was achieved.
Useful takeaways
The findings that good listening increases social attraction, fosters trust, and produces positive outcomes should significantly impact how you conduct meetings with prospects.
Here are some practical ways these insights can be applied:
Wealthier:
The Investing Field Guide for Millennials.
Why have so many financial advisors agreed to review an advance copy of Wealthier: The Investing Field Guide for Millennials. It empowers millennials to be responsible DIY investors and financial planners. You can see some of their reviews here.
Dan’s new book for millennials, Wealthier: The Investing Field Guide for Millennials, is now available on Amazon.
Here’s what one advisor said: "Saplings grow into trees. We need to help the next generation of investors get to where they need our services."
For more information, visit the website for Wealthier:
To review Wealthier send an e-mail to: [email protected]
Prioritize active listening: Focus on actively listening to your prospects, showing genuine interest in their needs, goals, and concerns. This means hearing their words and understanding their emotions and motivations.
Ask open-ended questions: Ask open-ended questions that encourage prospects to share more about their financial goals and personal circumstances.
Reflect and summarize: Periodically summarize what the prospect has shared to confirm understanding and show that you are listening attentively.
Build trust through empathy: Understanding and acknowledging a prospect’s concerns or anxieties about their financial future can help build trust. You should be empathetic and supportive, positioning yourself as partners in the prospect’s financial journey rather than just service providers.
Avoid interrupting: Resist the urge to interrupt or immediately jump to solutions before fully understanding the prospect’s perspective. Allowing the prospect to fully express themselves before offering advice fosters a more respectful and trusting relationship.
Personalize communication: Tailoring advice and communication based on the prospect’s preferences and concerns reinforces the idea that you have listened to and understood their situation. Personalized advice is more likely to resonate and build a lasting relationship.
You probably aren’t listening
We believe we are much better listeners than we are.
In one survey (discussed here), 96% of respondents said they were “always or sometimes good listeners.”
Yet a study (referenced here) by a professor at the University of Minnesota asked adults who sat through a ten-minute oral presentation what they could recall about it. Half couldn’t describe the content they had just heard, even moments after the talk. A staggering 75% of listeners couldn’t remember the subject matter when quizzed eight hours later.
In another study, Christa L. Arnold, Associate Professor at the University of North Florida, noted that we mistakenly believe we are good listeners simply because we can hear. This assumption leads to the misconception that hearing equates to effective listening, which is not so.
Good listeners consistently demonstrate certain behaviors, like maintaining eye contact, avoiding distractions, and giving appropriate feedback during conversations. If you find yourself mentally wandering during conversations or focusing on how you will respond rather than understanding the speaker, these are signs of poor listening.
Dan coaches evidence-based financial advisors on how to convert more prospects into clients. His digital marketing firm is a leading provider of SEO, website design, branding, content marketing, and video production services to financial advisors worldwide.
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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Here’s what one advisor said: "Saplings grow into trees. We need to help the next generation of investors get to where they need our services."