Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
I have been given the role of writing client communications for our firm. Candidly, it is not my strong suit, and I am struggling with best ways to organize my thoughts and prepare something our advisors will validate and be willing to send. Everything I put in front of them is “wrong,” but I don’t get a lot of specific feedback about how to change it.
I get comments like, “This could be concerning to clients,” or, “That’s been said and done before.” This criticism doesn’t give me the guidance I need to get better. They probably could not write these pieces either, so they might not know exactly what I need to do differently.
Do you have any best practices you can share to help me improve?
M.C.
Dear M.C.,
Your note contains two items I will take the time to opine on here – how to give good feedback and how to become excellent in your client communication.
The advisors are not great writers themselves, or maybe they don’t know exactly what good writing looks like. It could be they don’t have a way to share their insights so they are meaningful and actionable for you. Push back and ask open-ended, non-intrusive questions. Don’t debate the ideas or be unwilling to take input. Say you want to know what needs to be fixed and their ideas about how to fix it. When someone notes, “This could be concerning,” they are speaking of something specific. Ask, without hubris, “What do you believe they will find concerning about it and why?” Use these as learning opportunities. Even if you ultimately disagree with the comment, it can be helpful to get inside their minds and understand what they are thinking. If you approach this as a learning opportunity instead of just “random feedback,” you can learn more about the clients, the approach and your lead advisors.
Regarding communication, here are a few things to consider:
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- Here’s my pet peeve. Don’t say “We wanted to…” or “I wanted to….” when you are sharing information. If you want to, then do it! Say what you want to say, “We have interesting news to share,” or, “Clients have been asking a lot of questions about….” I cringe when I get the email that starts with “I wanted to….” If you wanted to, then want no longer, just do!
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- If something is upsetting or bothersome (based on your advisor’s comment), then acknowledge it. Say something like, “We hear from clients some are concerned about (whatever it is).” Acknowledging it shows clients you understand it is concerning or worrisome, and you aren’t pretending otherwise. Or, conversely, if you don’t think it is a big deal, then reframe the issue. “We hear from clients they are concerned about X but we have a different perspective, and here is why.” Just because clients are worried doesn’t always mean there is reason to worry!
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- Reach out to your clients directly (with permission from your senior advisors, of course). Ask them what they’d like to learn about. Ask them how they enjoy consuming their information. Ask them what concerns they have or what they’d most like to learn about. Stop trying to operate in a vacuum and reach out to the people who are most impacted by what you write!
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- Find a professional editor and/or proofreader. When I was writing my first book, I had no idea of the value of an editor and proofreader. I thought people just wrote what they wanted to! I learned quickly that having someone organize thoughts (an editor) and make sure the writing is free of grammatical and spelling errors (a proofreader) was valuable to producing something good. Have some extra help to make your ideas come to life.
Dear Bev,
What do we do when we spend time, money and energy on a great client event, people show up, but nothing comes of it? This seems like a colossal waste of time to me. But our senior advisors get excited because 20 people came and they were engaged. I’m in office management and I have to plan, coordinate, and manage these events. To me, it isn’t worth it. But I don’t know how to bring this up without sounding as if I’m negative. I’m pretty negative at this point, but I am a team player.
E.H.
Dear E.H.,
Consult with your senior advisors and understand how they define success. If they believe 20 engaged and involved clients coming to an event is a “win” for the firm, then you’ve done exactly what you needed to do! The advisors might be pleased and excited because they are able to leverage those 20 relationships into introductions, expanded share of wallet or a more content and pleased client. Don’t diminish your work because of sheer numbers or lack of enthusiasm; know what the measurements are to define a successful outcome.
Define this: Do you want X percent of clients attending these events? Do you send a survey to those who have attended to understand their decision-making lenses and/or satisfaction with what you are doing?
You would benefit from some measurement. You are doing what you’re doing without any confirmation that it is working and leading to the results your team needs. Don’t discount your efforts and assume what you’ve done is not good without learning more.
Reach out to those clients you would have been expected to come to learn why they did not. What else could you be doing, either in terms of content, awareness building or follow-up? The appetite for joining and learning on behalf of clients could be there, but you could inadvertently be missing how to harness this. With your advisor’s blessings, reaching out and speaking to clients directly to learn what they care about is always a good thing. Not that everyone will agree, of course, but you glean ideas and insights.
It's always stunning to me how much time advisors take trying to figure out what clients think and how they (the advisor) should respond. But the advisor never takes the step to engage the client, ask them and confirm.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022 and 2023. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 