The challenge: This month, our theme is communicating in a time of crisis. The roller coaster market is a challenge, but it also provides an opportunity to retain your top clients and attract their family, friends and colleagues to your practice.
In truth, the difference between the markets and an actual roller coaster is that with the real thing, riders have a choice of buying a ticket. With today’s stock market, most of your clients already are on board, whether they want to be or not.
The phones have been ringing with clients demanding redemptions, shifting investment allocations, asking for meetings and basically feeling like diversification doesn’t matter. You and your team are worn thin. What should you do?
The solution: Last week, we covered a communications plan that works. For a real-life example of why it works, read Jim Pavia’s
When the shoemaker goes barefoot. It’s all about the feelings of a client when you don’t proactively reach out during a time of crisis. You should be reaching out to your top clients (the top 50) each week and e-mailing the rest. What do you say when you start reaching out?
That’s where your crisis communication team comes in.
What’s a crisis communication team? It’s a group you can call on for valuable input on what to say to clients. Obviously, no adviser needs an additional task — such as assembling a new advisory team — during these hectic days. So here’s what one adviser did to put together a crisis communication team in one afternoon (and hold a meeting the following night):
He quickly picked six top clients (three men and three women), called them to join him for a meeting the following night and added a trusted certified public accountant and attorney. He had been planning to put an advisory board together over the past year but never had the time. Now he realized he couldn’t afford
not to make the time.
The goal of his first meeting was to:
Hear their concerns on the market.
Identify what they feel would be important to hear as his clients.
See what is missing in communicating with his team.
Review his client communications plan and the sample communications he was planning to send (for ideas on letters, listen to the
InvestmentNews adviser webcast
What to Say to Clients Now.
The adviser’s team plans to meet biweekly for the next two months and then quarterly. The result has been a formalized communications plan that includes proactive calls made each morning by team members and stronger allegiance to the team among top clients. In short, top clients are now advising their adviser.
Tips for successful crisis team communications meetings
1. If you don’t have a conference room large enough to hold the meeting, hold it at a library, club or even a client’s office. Avoid a restaurant because the meeting will be perceived as a social event.
2. Schedule meetings for the same day every other week, such as the first and third Tuesday.
3. E-mail the agenda in advance with a reminder call that day.
4. Send a recap with the action steps and date for the next meeting.
5. Empower your board by asking them to assist with research or even suggest websites with effective stories on market volatility.
Results. You have built a team to help support you in these times of crisis. It is critical to have help, and often, when clients feel engaged, they feel empowered. Putting a proactive communications plan in place and talking with clients on a regular basis allows you to ask if they have any family or friends who would also benefit from a market update. You are positioned to retain top clients and gain new referrals — while riding the roller coaster with them.
Next Week: Holding biweekly updates for top clients
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 (connectedadvisor.com) for value-added programs, keynote presentations and effective practice-management systems for advisers. She has two decades of wealth management, marketing and sales experience with firms such as Nuveen Investments LLC of Chicago and can be reached at maureen@connectedadvisor.com.
Read our weekly online columns:
MONDAY:
IN Practice by Maureen Wilke
TUESDAY:
Tax INsight
WEDNESDAY:
OpINion Online by Evan Cooper
THURSDAY:
IN Retirement
FRIDAY:
Tech Bits by Davis. D. Janowski
