If you are a top producer, you’re probably feeling pretty good about your rapport with clients. You know what your retirement planning clients want and you are successful because you provide it to them.
But what if you were wrong?
What if you assumed your retirement planning clients wanted income when what they really wanted was an effective way to pass their nest egg to their heirs?
Couldn’t happen to you? Well hold on, because a new study suggests many advisors are unaware of their clients’ true motivation.
Here are the eye-opening statistics from a recent article in Financial Planning magazine (link below): 80% of affluent clients surveyed reported that their primary concern was ensuring their heirs are taken care of. However, only 40% of advisors believed this was their client’s primary concern. To me, that’s a sobering disconnect–a huge gap between what an advisor believes and reality.
This knowledge gap could be costing advisors larger cases and referrals, and may even be costing them clients who feel dissatisfied and take their business elsewhere.
So what can advisors do so they don’t fall into this info-gap trap?
My top advisors use education as their focal point when meeting with new clients and reconnecting with old clients. It’s a powerful approach that puts them in a neutral, non-sales position and relaxes all those clients who “don’t want to be sold to.”
And what’s the million-dollar question they ask their clients? It’s so simple it will surprise you: “What are your goals and objectives?” Why go in with an income play when wealth transfer is their greatest concern? Or vice versa.
If you ask this question early in your relationship with your client, and then periodically throughout their lifetime, you show your commitment to finding solutions for their needs and you open the door to new business.
Let’s hope that none of you fall into that 40% of misguided advisors. Knowing that this potential trap is out there, hopefully now you can avoid it.
The most successful advisors in the world understand and know their clients. Are their goals and objetives income? Wealth transfer? Accumulation? Only your clients know the answer. Don’t let shiny marketing methods lead you down the path.
Think of yourself as a doctor when talking with your clients. Interview them to gather all their “symptoms” before you write your prescription. They will thank you for it. And, ideally through referrals, their friends and family will, too.
