The challenge:
One of the biggest opportunities during a market downturn like the one we’re experiencing now is having a crisis communication plan in place and executing it.
This involves leveraging several of the practice management strategies we’ve built over the past few months and putting them to work for your best clients.
These communications are not the typical friendly phone calls you might normally conduct; they involve providing information on the market, reassuring clients and having a printed piece ready or website information available that explains market volatility in the context of past trends.
But where do you find the time to do all this and still answer phone calls from jittery clients?
The solution: Developing a proactive, easy-to-implement crisis communication plan. For the value of having such a plan, I invite you to listen to a recent InvestmentNews adviser webcast
”What to Say to Clients Now”.
This month we’re going to lay out a crisis communications plan by using several important pieces of the practice management program you have already developed over the past few months. Here are the four weekly steps:
Week 1: Outlining a proactive plan – putting top clients first
Week 2: Assembling a crisis communication team
Week 3: Holding biweekly updates for top clients
Week 4: Scheduling crisis portfolio reviews
This week: Let’s begin with a communication plan you can start today. Before you start, though, send an e-mail to all your key wholesalers and internal resources asking them to send you approved market volatility pieces or white papers. You’ll use these later.
Step 1: Start with your top clients. In a practice of 250 to 300 clients, there will be about 50 to 60 top clients that represent most of your assets under management. From this group, identify the most important clients and start calling the top 10. Make 15 to 20 short telephone calls (about three to 10 minutes each) a day. How do you keep the calls short? Let clients know that you are reaching out to your best clients with an update and remind them that you will be meeting with them personally in a few weeks to complete their yearend review. Schedule the review while you are on the phone. Avoid long social discussions; you will have time for that during quarterly reviews.
The goal of your short call is to listen to their concerns about the market, provide a portfolio update, and reassure them that staying the course is the best investment strategy, especially for longer-term investors.
Start the call by asking how their families are doing. After they respond, let them know you are calling with an update on the market and their portfolios. Ask them about their market concerns, which will lead to an update on their investment strategy. Let them know you will be e-mailing a market update (from your firm or another qualified source) by the end of the day.
Step 2: E-mail remaining clients. Have your assistant e-mail the remaining clients immediately with an approved firm communication from your home office and include a few key bullets on investment goals and objectives. Also, attach a firm-approved market update or a link to an approved website for market commentary. Don’t commit to calling unless you have a partner or assistant who can help. If time permits, call your next 50 or 60 clients. Depending on the structure of your practice and number of partners, the initial calls could be completed within three days and follow-up calls within a week.
Step 3: Call one week later with an update. A week after your initial calls, call your top 50 or 60 clients again with an update. Just follow the call structure above and reassure them. Your top clients represent the majority of your assets. Don't lose them in this challenging market. Create a referral opportunity by asking them if they have any family members and friends who would benefit from a market update like you have been providing.
Step 4: Start client reviews by mid-October.Focus the review on an update, uncover new assets (especially retirement assets, as most investors have been paying close attention these past few days to their statements and plans), and remind clients how your practice serves them during good times and bad. At the end of the review, ask them if they have family or friends who would benefit from a thorough yearend review.
Results. By late October, you will be well on your way toward locking in top clients, uncovering new assets and gaining many new referrals — all amid the most challenging market environment we have ever seen.
Next week: Assembling a crisis communication team
Maureen Wilke has helped thousands of advisers increase the value of their business. Her firm offers The CONNECTED Advisor: 8 Steps to Building an Extraordinary Practice (www.connectedadvisor.com) for value-added programs, keynote presentations, and effective practice management systems for advisors. She has two decades of wealth management, marketing, and sales experience with firms including Nuveen Investments, and can be reached at Maureen@connectedadvisor.com.
