We had our monthly Ron Carson training call last week and as usually a burned through a page taking notes. One thing in particular jumped out at me. Ron said that the average Carson Wealth Management client receives a minimum of 100 touches per year and it’s not all statement notifications either. As I listened to him describe what the touches consist of, it reminded me of the great tool – Mackay66, which you should take a look at.
This lead me to think about a question that I’ll now ask you – what is the relationship you have with your clients based on?
We could list a gaggle full right here, ranging from relationship to investment tangibles, finding it difficult to distill the answer down to one thing. So, let me ask you a different question that will move us closer to why I asked the question – think about the correspondences you send and the conversations you have with your clients, what is the dominant topic?
Sadly, most advisors, if they’re honest, would say investments. One could argue, ‘why shouldn’t it be investments, that’s what they hired me to do!’ That’s true, you were ‘hired’ to manage their money, but is that what the relationship should be based on?
Let’s look at this a different way. Think back to when you first came into the business. Picture in your mind the person that hired you. Did they hire you because you had your MBA in finance; or that you had just finished a 2-year intern program under a top money manager; or that you were working for a Wall Street firm as an analyst and you were tired of working in the city?
None of those reasons, huh? That’s right, you were hired because of two attributes. First, you had the potential to be a competent salesperson. Second, you had the aptitude to pass the securities exam and able to understand different financial instruments. You weren’t hired because of your investment/economic prowess. If you had that talent, you would be on Wall Street working for Goldman Sachs.
Ah, now the rub. If the average advisor wasn’t hired for their investment/economic talent, than why do they, when attempting to land a prospect or interact with a client, spend a bulk of their time trying to impress them with how smart they are about the markets, etc.? The thing is, those advisors who built their career convincing people about how smart they were, actually got away with it…until…2008…when the worm turned.
The reality is investors want you to be competent with their investments. You’ve heard it a zillion times – people work with people they like and trust. The trust part is the combination of your investment competence and personal honor. The like part is about relationship stuff. The stuff that Ron Carson’s staff spends most of their time on. No doubt Carson Wealth Management has tremendous money management horsepower. You don’t manage over $2.5 billion in client assets without it. You also don’t grow that big without a lot of tight relationships that send an avalanche of referrals.
The good news is that if you’re one of those who now realizes that you haven’t invested enough on the relationship side with your clients, you can start today. Unfortunately, this current worm turn may not be re-turning in the near future…
