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You work so hard to get new clients but how do you ensure that you keep them?
Recent research by PriceMetrix Inc. found that clients rarely leave their financial advisor in the first year. However, between one and four years, the client retention rate falls to 74%.
It is especially important to boost your service efforts during this critical time-frame as well as to demonstrate to the client that you are a trustworthy and caring professional whose knowledge and expertise will guide them to successfully reach their goals.
But what causes a client to leave an advisor? Research conducted by Financial Advisor magazine found the #1 reason that clients leave advisors is failure to communicate on a timely basis. The #2 reason was listed as failure to understand a client’s goals and objectives. Those clients who are not emotionally engaged with you turn to someone else when life transitions take place.
93.6% of the financial planning process is the behavioral management of the client.
So much of what you need to know about the client’s behavior and values is hidden well beneath the surface and takes more than a year to uncover. Yet starting in year 2 is when your relationship is the most vulnerable.
Knowing these facts, the number one action you can take is to incorporate a behavioral discovery system in your new client on-boarding process. Then build the key behavioral insights into your technology systems (such as CRM) so that they are at your fingertips for every client interaction.
For example, let’s take one simple aspect of your personality and see how that might be perceived by different client communication styles.
You are an outgoing advisor, high in energy and enthusiasm. You like to share stories of other people experiences because you feel potential clients can relate to the other people you have helped.
Your energy and fast paced talking could exhaust a client who is more informational in nature. It could sound “edgy” to someone who is more stability oriented. And to a goal oriented individual you may seem to go on talking forever without ever reaching a point.
And that is just one aspect of your personality. Are you still wondering why clients rate “failure to communicate” as the #1 reason they leave an advisor?
Now imagine incorporating a behavioral approach in your practice. Prior to your first meeting, a new client takes 15 minutes to complete a discovery process. Your CRM now contains the specific behavioral data points so you know how to adapt your style to conduct the perfect meeting, how to continually service them, and how to create a unique experience for every person in your office who interacts with that client.
You can create the level of service and communication that actively engages your clients at the very start of your relationship. Don’t risk losing your clients after the “honeymoon stage”.