Clients are switching advisors at a pace not seen since COVID. They are scared because of what is happening with tariffs and the market. How can you make them your clients, so you can give them the best possible advice?
But wait. The flip side of the question is even more critical: How can you keep your skittish clients from leaving?
Here’s how: Take the pace at which you are communicating with your clients and multiply it by at least two to five times.
I often interview my advisor clients’ best clients. Yes, they sometimes say their reason for leaving their prior advisor was poor portfolio performance. But what they more often say is some variation of, “My old advisor only called me once a year.”
They simply felt like their old advisor didn’t care.
So, those yearly meetings you do? Do them every three to six months instead, and start getting them in the calendar now. If that doesn’t sound practical, 80/20 your clients, or segment them into A, B, C and D cohorts, and give more attention to the more important ones.
That quarterly newsletter you send? Make it monthly. If you happen to already be sending something out on a monthly basis, make it weekly for a while. Call it a special series or a temporary tariff edition.
And pick up the pace on the spontaneous emailing, texting, phoning and in-person coffees, lunches, drinks or dinners you do.
Your communications don’t have to be long or time-consuming. It is more the fact and frequency of your outreach that matters vs. the depth. Your clients are worried and they want to know that you are present, that you care, that you are listening and that you are on top of things.
Now back to the first question, about the people shopping around for a new advisor: How can you make them yours?
Here’s how: make your current clients proud to refer you. By ensuring that your verbal and visual brand comes across as high net worth. I say high net worth, because most advisors communicate in a low net worth fashion (cheap, generic). Given that like attracts like – and that I have never heard an advisor say they want clients who have no money – you need to be on a similar level as that which you seek.
By verbal brand, I mean everything you say or write. Your website, LinkedIn page and one-pager, for example, and the value proposition you verbally share with clients and prospects. The reality is this: it’s probably generic and does not communicate what makes you the perfect advisor for these turbulent times (if you haven’t worked with Coin, that is).
By visual brand, I mean the way everything looks – your website, photography and video, for example. Again, it is probably not differentiated.
Get your verbal and visual brand rocking, and your clients will be much more likely to refer you – because they will be PROUD to do so. Because they will be the hero when you deliver to their family and friends.
