What Not to Say at the Holiday Party

“I am the founder and CEO of Black Spruce/White Pine/Gray Hill Advisors. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and my company is a fee-only investment advisory firm specializing in ETF investment strategies.”

Wow, that is exactly what I’m looking for at this exact moment of my life! Maybe we should get together! By the way, what’s an ETF?

“I’m a financial advisor who works with women and through a combination of financial planning, investment and estate planning issues, I help them be financially independent.”

Really? What a coincidence – I’m a woman! And quite coincidentally, I've always been fascinated by net unrealized appreciation. Tell me more about what I need to do with my 401(k) right here and now before the family Scrabble game starts.

I know that every marketing consultant in the world tries to ingrain an elevator pitch into your mind. Forget about it. It’s way too stiff and one-sided for a social setting.

Who cares? I mean really, what does any of this say about how you can help the person standing across from you? I’d rather chew on a champagne cork than listen to these awful lines. Here’s how to convert them into a mouth-watering apple crumble with caramel sauce.

Talk like a normal person

Instead of grabbing the microphone and pretending to transform yourself into the Sheena Easton of finance, talk to the person like the normal human being who began the conversation.

“For me, there’s nothing worse than lacking direction. So a few years ago I set out to establish a company that, just like Google maps, tells people how to get from one place to another in their financial lives.”

“When I was a kid, I loved puzzles. And that’s probably the best way to describe what I do. People come to me when they have a goal they want to reach with their finances and I piece together the parts of their life into a cohesive plan that allows them to do that.”

Now here’s how to customize your pitch – just like how all of you say on your websites you customize everything!

“Forgive me if I’m wrong, but from our conversation it seems like you’re the kind of person who is very organized. Am I off base with that? [of course they say “no”] So just like you prefer to go about things in a logical way, I find that so many people want to keep a neat and tidy financial house, but very few of them actually have the time to find the way to do so. In a nutshell, that’s what I do; I help people bring order to their finances and the specific group that has responded best to the way I do this happens to be mechanical engineers in their 50s.”

“Clarence, you mentioned a few minutes ago that in your work as a psychologist you help a lot of people in transition. What was your motivation for getting into this field? [listen to response] Well, quite similarly I work with women who are looking forward to taking the next step in their financial lives, either through divorce or because they have suffered the loss of their spouse.”

“Have you ever seen someone all of a sudden get a bunch of money and not know the first thing to do with it? It’s something many people our age, Generation X, are struggling with as they start to make real money at this juncture in their lives, and finding sensible ways to handle it is one of the major ways I help them.”

Ditch the “advisor business card lunge”

Now, let’s say that they express interest in discussing more. Do you execute the “advisor business card lunge” and thrust your business card at them?

Here’s what you say instead.

“Great! Let’s connect on LinkedIn (or Facebook, Instagram, whatever) while I have my phone out. You’ll love my emojis. What’s your last name, Ellen?

Why is this better than the “advisor business card lunge”?

• It puts you in control because once you are connected with them on social media you have access to them without having to wait for them to email you.

• If they get shy after the meeting and chicken out, they’ll still see your updates and hopefully over time they come back around.

• If the person truly has no intention of getting together with you and was just trying to get you out of their face, you’ll find out right then and there because they’ll fiddle faddle and make excuses about how they never use the internet.

• It avoids you looking like a walking, talking advertisement, but rather a cool person who is digitally savvy and hip.
• It causes them to take immediate action and in doing so you’ve already advanced the sales process past the first step, which is often the most difficult to execute.

Sara’s upshot

You can fill your pipeline for January by gaining new connections within your social circles in December. You will need to act the dead opposite of how advisors are taught and trained to act in social situations like holiday parties.

If you like what I’ve said, this is just the tip of the Yule log. I’m having a webinar on how to meet new clients during the holiday season later this month and will go over many more ideas. You can sign up here.

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in quantitative finance.

Read more articles by Sara Grillo