Making it personal

(April 2005) If there is a secret to success in the high-net-worth (HNW) market, it is this: you must connect with your clients. The advisor who connects with clients best will have the best clients—and by extension, will enjoy the highest level of professional satisfaction.

By “connecting” with clients, I don’t mean getting on the phone or typing up an e-mail. I mean forging a deep, lasting emotional link with clients. I mean going beyond being a portfolio advisor or wealth manager. I mean being a partner, a friend, a confidant with each and every client in your practice. This is the point at which clients place absolute, unquestioning trust in your approach, your strategies, and your recommendations. At this point, you will have built a practice that can withstand almost any competitive challenge.

To do this effectively, you must develop what I call high-empathy client relationships. You must understand what your clients are going through, not only financially, but emotionally as well. Here are some ideas on how you can do that.

Build soft skills Advisors aren’t typically trained to be counsellors. That’s a shame. Building, protecting, and managing wealth can be a very emotional process, particularly when the dollars involved are large. As an advisor to the wealthy, you must be as comfortable speaking about the emotional side of wealth management as you are speaking about the rational, logical side.

Prepare yourself (and your team) to be empathetic when clients express emotions about their financial affairs. Instead of explaining how emotions shouldn’t be a part of the process, acknowledge how emotional the process can be—you’ll communicate authenticity to clients, and validate their personal experiences. Be proactive, and ask clients how they “feel” before you execute a given strategy. If necessary, build your listening skills by taking courses. These soft skills may not be something you can put on your resumé, but rest assured, they will be crucial to your ability to build a thriving practice.

Get to know the family The HNW practice is a familyoriented business. Providing for family is an important goal for many HNW individuals (particularly business owners), which makes it critical for you to know your clients’ families on a personal as well as professional level. Make it clear to clients that when they join your team, they are not joining as individuals, but as families. Ask questions about children and grandchildren. Make education planning a priority.

In our practice, we make a direct pledge to each client: we will care for your family as much as you do. This kind of commitment lets clients know we value them in a way that goes beyond net worth.

Get in sync with your clients’ values Clients judge you on three basic levels: performance, service and you—who you are and what you believe in. It’s this last one that many advisors forget and it costs them, because HNW individuals like to work with professionals who see eye-to-eye with them on a variety of personal and professional issues.

So go out of your way to demonstrate affinity with the client’s mindset. Is your client a business owner? Share some of your experiences of building a business, hiring and motivating staff, managing growth, etc. Does your client care deeply about leaving a legacy? Discuss your own involvement in charitable causes, and what that involvement means to you. These snippets of conversation may not mean much by themselves, but over time, they will build a deeper connection between you and your client.

Anticipate challenges Contrary to popular belief, being wealthy isn’t easy. It can sometimes bring with it enormous life changes—changes that some HNW individuals have difficulty adjusting to. By preparing your clients for some of the personal challenges, you position yourself as a wise, trusted leader who cares about your clients’ well-being as well as their money.

The first step in this process is to create a list of “wealth challenges” your client is likely to face. Start with the challenges most every wealthy individual faces: reduction of privacy, friends and family who ask for handouts, raising kids in the midst of wealth, etc. Move on to challenges that relate to that specific client. Every time you meet with the client, bring up one or two of these issues. If you’re wealthy yourself, you may want to share personal stories, and demonstrate how you understand what the client is going through. This kind of authentic, “straightup” talk will establish rapport with clients, and help clients see you as someone like themselves.

Limit your client base High quality, high-empathy client relationships require an investment of “face time” with clients. Practically, that means establishing an upper limit on the number of client families you serve. Far from a limitation, this self-imposed maximum can become an important selling feature that strengthens the sense of exclusivity and distinction that clients should feel when working with your team. It’s tough for me to imagine a high-empathy practice with more than a few dozen client families. Anything beyond that means you don’t have the time to connect with clients in a meaningful way throughout the year.

Make no mistake: you have a professional as well as a personal relationship with your clients. Neglect either side of the relationship, and the other will suffer, to the detriment of your practice.

Thane Stenner is a first vice-president and investment advisor with the T. Stenner Group of CIBC Wood Gundy. The views of the author do not necessarily reflect those of CIBC World Markets Inc. This article is for information only. CIBC Wood Gundy is a division of CIBC World Markets Inc., a subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Member CIPF.

thane.stenner@cibc.ca