Client Attraction Action

Building Trust While Generating Leads

June 7th, 2007

There’s a lot of skepticism about financial advice. Some of it stems from our incredulous, disbelieving age. Some of it is justly earned.

Your prospects, or someone they know, may have been bamboozled by a poorly trained person who called herself an “advisor.” It turns out she’s been trained to push the investment options favored by the company where she works. What about what’s best for you? It has low priority, or no priority at all.

That’s why many prospects are wary of an advisor’s possible “conflict of interest.” What to do about this suspicion?

Simply, earning your prospects’ trust is more necessary than ever. In this article you’ll discover three vital things you can do. One is emphasized in a study by the Wharton School and State Street Global Advisors. The other two are solid marketing tools financial advisors can easily call on when generating leads.

To read more . . .

In direct marketing we counter mistrust with a “preponderance of proof.” Topping the list are testimonials and case studies. Compliance nixes the traditional marketing testimonial and often case studies as well.

Here are three effective trust-building tools that will give you an advantage (and Compliance will love):

1. Be Open And Honest About Your Fees

If you do only this, you’ll be way ahead.

This tool is underscored in an article called “A Matter or Trust” by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and State Street Global Advisors. Although the article focuses on improving client relationships, its advice is equally vital when you engage prospects and move them through your sales process.

You can see the article in knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/download/ssga_advisor_trust_Report.pdf

The advice in “A Matter of Trust” makes the connection between coming across as trustworthy and being direct in your discussion of fees.

Talk about fees early in the relationship.

Present a simple, single fee structure.

Put fees in writing so that prospects don’t have to rely on memory.

This is important because what they remember may not be accurate, which can lead to questions about your honesty.

How can you damage trust? By not talking about your fees. Or by making them seem murky and complicated.

Your prospects want straight talk.

They want to know what services they are actually getting. And how much the fees are for those services. And the sooner you provide this information the sooner you allay their concerns and start building trust.

This is really easy to do.

Trust can come from answering your prospect’s question: How do I know you’re any good?

You may fall back on the alphabet swamp of training such as AAMS, CFA, CFP, CHFC, CIM, CLU, CPA, CRFA, MBA, RIA, or the others.

What most financial advisors don’t realize, though, is how critical it is to pull out benefits from the alphabet. Suppose you explained what it took to get your CFP. That you had to take a two-year course and pass an examination on 100 integrated financial planning topics. And your knowledge and experience were tested — not on theory, but on how well you handled real-life situations. And while you’re at it, you could explain that a CFP abides by a code of ethics.

Some of you also bring to your practice an MBA. A financial advisor, for example, leaned on his MBA from the University of Liverpool. Why from Liverpool in the UK versus the University of Michigan, or another university in the US?

It’s your guess. The conclusion he wanted us to figure out was his serious level of training in international investing.

Don’t take your credentials for granted. Your prospects won’t stop to figure out what you can do for them.

3. Mine Your Life Story For Unique Advantages.

You may be too close to see its potential.

Take your outside activities, for example. They may offer rich material for building trust. They can, for instance, prove a commitment. Let me explain with this idea we developed for a financial advisor who has coached his daughters’ softball teams for 11 years.

Now he is building his practice around women clients, and his commitment to athletics for his two daughters demonstrates this commitment. Through his Advisory Groups his women clients tell him how important it is to teach daughters to be self-reliant – to break the “Myth of Cinderella,” that Prince Charming will take care of them.

This ties in to coaching, and we created a “Lessons from Coaching” section in his brochure to provide additional proof of his commitment to help women become financially independent. As a softball coach, he develops in girls the lasting quality of being self-sufficient.

No doubt about it. Trust is the key element in a financial advisor’s relationships with prospect and clients. The three tools you find here will help you navigate through the sea of mistrust.

What has worked for you in gaining trust?

Entry Filed under: Financial Lead Generation, Direct Marketing