August, 2002 Article Submission Journal Archives ABOUT FSO Financial Services Online (FSO) is the first and largest financial services publisher and portal on the Internet. Our publications include Financial E-News, Financial Services Journal Online and Messages From The Masters, which are available at no cost on our Portal http://www.fsonline.com ADDENDUM: This Newsletter is published by Financial Services Online, Inc. and distributed on a complimentary basis to members of NAIFA, subscribers of the Virtual Sales Assistant(TM) and selected other recipients. It is designed to provide financial service professionals an overview of the events and happenings that may affect their business. If you would like additional information on any items or the sources used, please e-mail us at e-news-list-admin@ e-news.fsonline.com Contact: Carolyn Hersman chersman@comcast.net Copyright © 2002 Financial Services Online. Reprints and/or permission to reproduce Financial Services Journal must be obtained in writing from the publisher, Financial Services Online. LEGAL NOTICE Please read these important legal notices concerning this publication About NAIFA Founded in 1890 as the National Association of Life Underwriters, NAIFA is comprised of 900 state and local associations and represents the interests of 90,000 life and health insurance agents and financial advisors nationwide. Many of NAIFA's members are NASD-licensed registered representatives or registered investment advisors. Benefits of membership include legislative and regulatory representation, education and training, and networking opportunities. The NAIFA umbrella includes the Division of Financial Advisors and three specialty organizations: the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), the Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA) and GAMA International.		Building Your Business In The 21st Century - For Financial Advisors by Kirk Lowe I recently launched my eBook, "Building Your Business In The 21st Century - For Financial Advisors". It helps financial advisors like you build your business by making your marketing and communications strategies more efficient and effective. This is done through integrating technology with traditional marketing and communications strategies. I will be contributing a series of articles to this newsletter regularly that present the concepts, insight and tips as discussed in my eBook. These articles will help you better understand client expectations in the 21st century as well as how and when to integrate technology with traditional marketing and communications strategies in your practice. Technology is used here as a means to an end, to provide efficient and effective marketing and communications strategies which will ultimately lead to stronger, more profitable relationships with your clients. To better understand how to market and communicate with your clients, first we need to know what their expectations are and how using technology, namely the Internet and software, will help meet these new expectations. I'm not going to tell you that using the internet and software will strengthen relationships with your clients and prospects all by itself, that email will replace one-on-one contact (phone calls, meetings and seminars) between you and your clients and that your web site be your sole marketing strategy. What I will do is help you understand that clients have new, higher expectations and that there are new ways to meet these expectations. If you try and meet their new expectations solely with traditional methods you will have less time to focus on doing what you do best, working and communicating with your clients directly. You'll have less time to devote to revenue-generating activities. Clients judge the quality of their relationship with their advisor by the quality of the communication between them and their advisor. "I cannot stress the importance of communication strongly enough", says Louis Harvey, President of Dalbar and Associates. "The No. 1 reason an investor will leave a broker is that the client's expectations were not met and/or communicated clearly. Failing to meet your clients' expectations will most definitely lead to losing that client. You must classify, define and understand your clients' expectations first; to better focus on meeting your clients' expectations. I classify client's expectations in this manner: they have business, personal and social needs and consequently expectations based on these needs. Meeting someone's expectations isn't merely meeting their needs, it involves fulfilling their needs as they wish and this could be entirely different. This is why it's important to not only discuss their needs but to fully understand what their expectations are and how to meet them. Business Needs - this includes your professionalism, credentials and quality of advice (completeness, appropriateness and presentation), your reporting and analysis and your performance record (ROI, preservation and volatility). Personal Needs - this includes trust, rapport, how much they think you care about them and their financial success, that your philosophy is in line with theirs, that you provide exceptional service and timely advice and that you bring exceptional value to the relationship by keeping your clients well informed about all issues that might concerns them. Social Needs - this includes showing appreciation for their business, that your clients place value in having a more personal relationship with you and in social interaction, appreciation and gratification, providing opportunities to meet their social expectations and do they feel comfortable enough with you to refer you in social settings. In order to understand what your clients' expectations are you need to discuss each of these categorized needs. Only then will you be able to begin to fulfill their needs and exceed their expectations. The more you fulfill their various needs, the more comfortable they'll be in referring people to you and staying a loyal client for years to come. It's also good to know which needs are most important to them. Fulfilling these needs first, makes you referable and promotes long-lasting relationships. No matter what value clients place on each of these needs, one thing remains constant; communication is at the forefront of creating strong, long-lasting relationships. And guess what? We're in the communication age. If you don't embrace your communication skills and strategy; you will effectively lower your chances of success and level of success. What happens if you communicate clearly with clients and exceed their expectations? You effectively increase your chances of success and the level of success you will achieve. Better communication isn't the end product; it's the means to an end, which is stronger relationships, which is what clients want. Clients want relationships that add value to what's otherwise an arm's length business transaction they can get at a bank or brokerage. Do you read me? But it's not just YOU that matters; it's the US that matters most! As mentioned above, communication is at the forefront of building strong relationships with your clients. This series of articles is aimed at helping you understand and formulate an efficient and effective, leading edge communication strategy. Communication comes in many forms: How often do you contact or communicate with your clients? How well do you communicate? How consistently do you communicate your message? How appropriately do you communicate? How do you speak to clients, do you communicate effectively? How well is what you are trying to communicate understood? How well do you listen to what your clients are saying? Do you truly understand what your clients are trying to communicate, their want, needs and concerns? Do you know how to get your clients to discuss their wants, needs and concerns? How well do you understand what they aren't saying? What are their expectations? How do you ask, clarify, and define their expectations so that you both have a good understanding of what to expect from each other? And which medium do you use to communicate? The relationship between you and your client stems from your ability to communicate effectively with them including listening, discussing and understanding their wants, needs and concerns. With some advisors this comes naturally, but for most it means being aware and having a process. Software helps organize the how, when and where you communicate. The Internet provides an efficient and effective means to communicate or distribute your messages. Using the Internet includes having a web site, sending an eNewsletter, eCards and getting referrals through our eReferral Program, which costs significantly less than traditional mediums and is more effective in most cases. There are three levels of communication you can have with clients: hits, touches and moments. These will dictate how and what you will be communicating with both clients and prospects. You can communicate 'hits' and 'touches' via the Internet, your web site and email but you cannot use the Internet for 'moments'; it requires more intimate communication. You can however use the Internet to help organize 'moments' such as organizing a client appreciation event or dinner. A hit is a less meaningful contact aimed at either building top of mind awareness, i.e. advertising, or communicating a required administrative inquiry or task. This may include helping a client read their statement or sending a duplicate statement. A touch is more meaningful than a hit. It provides more value in contributing to the building of relationships. The value of a touch is dependent on your clients' particular needs and expectations. What do they value and how much? A touch means going beyond basic client services with things such as newsletters, simple gestures of appreciation, seminars, greetings and so on. A moment has more significant meaning and is generally face-to-face. It's a sign to your client that you truly understand them and care about them. You appreciate their business and have made the effort to take your relationship to the next level. This could simply be sending flowers and a get-well soon note, taking clients to dinner, remembering their anniversary, making a donation to their favorite charity and most importantly showing you care by listening to them and understanding them. Basically clients want to be communicated with more frequently, more appropriately. They want more value in what you will be communicating as well. But how are you going to do this when you are already too busy. This is where using technology can help you tremendously. Next months article will look at the Art of Communication, understanding the communication process and how technology can be applied. Kirk Lowe runs a marketing consulting business, Freedomarketing. They work specifically with financial advisors helping them build their businesses through integrating technology with traditional marketing and communications. Kirk recently wrote an eBook, "Building Your Business In The 21st Century - For Financial Advisors" which is available for FREE on the web site. "Our services are more than a "Turnkey Solution", they're Chauffeur Driven Solutions'" says Kirk, "We not only help develop and design, we actually implement your marketing strategies and campaigns for you". Their services include web design, eMarketing (eNewsletters, eCards and eReferral Campaigns) and marketing consulting. To learn more about these services go to www.fawebprofiler.ca or sign up for the monthly eMarketing Newsletter "faFreedom". Kirk Lowe Freedomarketing 416.828.5475 kirk@freedomarketing.ca www.fawebprofiler.ca