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Does this situation sound familiar? The stock market has been behaving badly for some time. You have done research, consulted experts and prepared advice for different clients. Your strategy is to take advantage of opportunities others might be missing. You are taking a leadership role. Put another way, you are giving advice, which you feel is what advisors should do. But there is one problem: Your client isn’t as confident moving forward. Can you win them over?
At the end of the day, it’s their money. They make the decision to act or not. Regardless of the outcome, you have done the right thing. When they look back months later, they will remember you provided direct. They might have chosen to sit tight, but you took on the leadership role.
How can you win them over? This is where pride comes into the equation.
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Pride in your firm’s research department. It is huge. You have analysts on six continents. You follow stocks in 60 countries. Your firm’s analysts have won awards. You have studied their reports. You have even called up a couple and asked questions. Take pride in your firm’s research department.
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Pride in your experience. You have been in the business for 20 years. You are half of a mother and son team. Your mother has been in the business 40 years. We all know “past performance is no guarantee of future results” but we also know history tends to repeat itself. Talk about similar situations you (or your mother) have seen during the Crash of 1987 or the Dot.com Crash. What are the similarities today? What should an investor have done back then? Take pride in your experience.
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Pride in the longevity of your relationship. You and your client have been together for 25 years. You have been with them through the birth of their children and beside the through their children’s college educations. They are using sentences containing the words “this time it’s different.” You have gotten through difficult times together before. Take pride in that.
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Pride that spans generations. Your client is younger. They are new to investing. They became your client via a referral from their uncle, one of your longtime clients. Without violating confidentiality, they are aware their uncle has “done well in the stock market.” He has told the nephew he is following your advice. The pride element is a fusion between their respect for their uncle and the uncle’s faith in following your advice.
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Pride in your money managers. You might be new to the business. You have followed the financial planning and managed money route when establishing the client relationship. The client is uneasy about staying invested. Take pride in the managers you hired together. Talk about their best and worst quarters. Point out the managers have been buying while others are selling. What have they been buying.
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Pride in capitalism. This actually means taking pride in the economy. Company management knows how to pivot. There is a “corporate memory? Of how the firm gets through periods of rising interest rates and increasing inflation. Take pride in the economy’s ability to weather storms.
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Pride in your judgment. You are taking pride in your advice, specifically your smarts in buying quality stocks and diversifying. If your client owned one stock, that could be a serious problem. They own ten stock or five money managers. They have spread the risk by diversifying across industries. Take pride in your advice to diversify.
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Pride in your team. You are one of several advisors working together. The team’s name and group photo is reminiscent of a law firm. Your client might be uneasy because you are the youngest team member. Take pride in the combined experience and specialization skills of the team as a whole.
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Pride in your credentials. Their concern might not be directly related to the stock market. They have a financial problem and do not know where to turn. They became your client. They think their problem is like a rare disease. It’s more like the common cold. You have earned credentials that qualify you to help people in their situation. You have helped others. You should be able to help them too.
Everyone has a tendency not to want to brag. Taking pride is different, especially if you are sharing the pride with others.