Five Focus Areas for 2013…and Beyond.

What are people’s financial concerns and worries right now?  Several trade articles have suggested the following:

1.  Trust – it’s virtually gone.  Cynicism and hopelessness have begun to overwhelm people.  Many authors suggest that trust remains the most important factor in maintaining and building your practice.  This means you must continue the transition that has been reiterated many times:  Stop “selling”.  Facilitate the sale.  That’s not a play on words.  It means

• active listening,
• discovering the problem(s),
• helping the client define the problem as precisely as possible,
• assessing and evaluating the problem,
• realistically discussiing how much disposable income, or a realignment of assets, might be available and prudently used for the problem,
• reducing solutions to a reasonable number for consideration and budget allowances,
• assisting the client decision on the best solution and making sure that they have ownership of that decision, and finally
• applying the solution with competence and dispatch.

2.  Professionalism – people are looking for those individuals, regardless of age, that demonstrate that they are going to place client interests first.  That may mean forgoing the higher-commission product, or foregoing any kind of sale at all…at least initially.  It may also mean teaming up with an expert in a particular area of expertise and sharing compensation.  Or, it may mean referring the business altogether to another advising professional.  In other words, placing the client first.  (By the way, you can’t fake this, so don’t even try.)

3.  Regular follow up – a major complaint among a majority of people that indicate a desire for help with financial concerns is that advisers and agents do not provide meaningful follow up.  They may get a birthday card, a routine, scripted message or call from your office assistant, or an occasional form letter that even has their name on it (hopefully spelled correctly).  But, if they do not perceive the contact to be meaningful, it might as well have not been made.  Advisers and agents need to get feedback from each client on what meaningful contact they would like to receive.

4.  Attention to detail – this is a hotly debated issue among advisers, agents, and consumers, as well as government oversight agencies.  The obvious reason is time:  Which details are critically (and legally) important to know and disclose, and what is the least time-consuming  way to appropriately (and legally) communicate those details?  Each advisor or agent must take the time to decide how to comply with disclosure and suitability rules, but the overriding objective is to make sure that the client has had sufficient time and effort provided to them to understand what they are buying and why.

5.  Life-long planning perspective – consumers are really worried about their future.  They may not be able to afford to do much about it, but they can at least be educated to the point that they come to feel that you have done all you can to assist them given their particular circumstances.  “Security”, “safety”, “guarantees”, and “being a burden” on loved ones (or even society, for that matter) are common words that flow from virtually every survey being taken on consumer confidence and attitudes about the future.  Advisers and agents have all the tools to be able to provide solutions to those problems and concerns.  But, some of us may have to re-educate ourselves and broaden our base of core business – not only to survive, but to be more effective in keeping accounts and maintaining client satisfaction.