Top wealth managers, advisors and financial planners spend a lot of their time developing investment strategies and portfolio recommendations that are customized for the needs and circumstances of their individual clients.
Unfortunately, this same level of customization is often not achieved in advisors’ communications efforts with their clients. Whether it’s because communication isn’t their strong suit, or they’re just too busy to devote the time required, the fact is, many advisors default to a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to client outreach.
By doing so, RIAs, advisors and wealth managers miss out on one of the most effective ways to differentiate themselves in the market and grow their practices.
Conversely, wealth managers who tailor messages and materials for their individual clients and prospects can generate dramatically improved results from their communication efforts. That effectiveness often translates into new and profitable business for advisors and their practices.
These points were echoed in a recent article in Advisor Perspectives by industry veteran, noted speaker, and best-selling author, Dan Richards. The article discusses the major benefits advisors can gain by tailoring their communications for individual clients.
In the article, Mr. Richards describes research he has conducted over the past couple of years on people’s experiences with their financial advisors, whether they would recommend their advisor to a friend, and which qualities or characteristics made advisors stand out.
Results from these efforts showed that communication is indeed a key differentiator for financial advisors. In addition to hearing from their advisors consistently and frequently, investors appreciate when advisors listen to them and address the investor’s specific situation, needs, and ‘hot buttons’ in the communication they send. For communications to drive higher client satisfaction, advisors need to customize messages and materials in the same way they would with portfolio recommendations.
How can busy advisors tailor their client and prospect communications effectively and efficiently? Leveraging technology is the only viable option. For example, customer relationship management solutions give advisors easy ways to capture the details they need to tailor communications for clients and prospects. And content automation systems can help advisors ensure that they’re providing the best and most relevant materials to the right clients and prospects at the right time.
Common sense tells us that tailored communications will do a lot more for advisors that a generalized, cookie-cutter approach. Technology gives them a way to achieve this customization efficiently. The sooner advisors adopt technology to support this part of their businesses, the sooner they’ll gain real competitive advantages.
