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You’ve read all the reasons why targeting women as clients is lucrative. They control a lot of money, make the family financial decisions, are more loyal, and refer you more business. You know what the potential is for your practice.
But what is the one thing that women really want from YOU, the financial advisor?
The same thing as men…TRUST. Easier said than done.
A recent MetLife study at the nonprofit Womens Institute for a Secure Retirement found that 61% of women executives (earnings of at least $75,000 annually) cite trust and respect as the most important factor in choosing and keeping a financial advisor.
As a financial advisor, you envision yourself as a relationship expert, being able to easily identify personality traits with the well-crafted questions asked in your initial consultation. While you may be highly intuitive, you will only be guessing about your conclusions by using this random “hit or miss” strategy. Research shows you only naturally connect with roughly 40% of your clients.
Building trust is most effortless when your communication style is matched with a similar style of a potential client. If you are the opposite style, you can still build trust but it will take a lot of modification and you will find yourself being drained by the relationship.
So how do you build trust with women? 84% of wealthy women interviewed by Schwab said that in-person meetings are key for establishing trust. The research also adds that, “women want to be understood for their unique circumstances. You can’t just walk in with the same package for male clients and change the font to pink and think the women are going to be fooled.”
Building trust starts with knowing YOU first.
Your behavior is the foundation for you to tailor your strategies with women. How trusting are you? Do you need to be in control at all times? Are you a natural listener or can you hardly wait to complete someone else’s sentence?
Next, you need to understand the behavior of each individual woman. They (like men) are not all the same. Some women will want to be in total control, get to the bottom line quickly and will want to engage in minimal personal small talk. Others will want to build a deep relationship, talk a lot, and care very little for the details of your business.
When you are equipped with behavioral information you can then create the marketing approach that best attracts the type of woman you want as a client. So take our industry’s advice about marketing to women by educating, moving to a relationship based model and getting personal through stories. But be sure to create unique experiences based on who these women are. Customization is the new normal.
Dare to go one step further to build the level of trust that will keep women as clients for life.