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8 topics your clients want you to know about them

8 topics your clients want you to know

Clients want you to ask them questions, they want you to know more about them and we have found through our research over the years at Invesco Global Consulting, that there are a number of specific topics they want you to know.

In fact, when Invesco Global Consulting partnered with private wealth experts, R.A Prince & Associates[1] to survey high-net-worth investors on exactly what is it is they want their adviser to know, we discovered there were 8 core topics which if advisers knew, could not only increase their share of that client’s assets but also increase their chance of referrals as well.

Of the clients surveyed, our research found that if clients believed their adviser knew 6 out of 8 of these topics about them, the adviser would have on average 75% of their assets and were getting one unsolicited referral from that client per year.  If the client believed their adviser knew all 8 of these topics, that number increased to 100% of assets and up to four unsolicited referrals per year.

So, what are the topics that are so important to clients?

1.     How they made their money

This is the number one thing clients want their adviser to know.  They are proud to tell you about how they made their money. 

2.     Their best and worst experiences with financial advisers

This is a subject you may feel uncomfortable bringing up, but I can tell you that it is an important subject to know.  You want to make sure that you don’t repeat any of the bad experiences a client may have had with a previous financial adviser.  This topic may bring out some goldmines but also some landmines, but that is OK, it is important to know about these issues up front.

3.     Who they care about

When clients speak to you and want you to know about them, they want to talk to you about people, not just numbers.  They want to tell you about the people they care about as these are the people that form the basis on why they are investing

4.     Circumstances that could impact their financial future

This is an important topic to cover.  What is going on in your client’s life right now that could impact their financial future?  This is also the perfect topic to start with when you want to get to know more about an existing client and feel uncomfortable asking some questions you feel they might think you already know about them.

5.     Who do they rely on for financial advice?

Why do you want to know this?  Because this could be your competition.  You also want to know your client is not getting conflicting information somewhere else.

6.     How involved they like to be in their financial decisions

This is a critical topic because it really defines the type of relationship you are going to have.  It gives you all kinds of insights into how proactive you want to be.

7.     What they want their money to do for them

This is a great question and somewhat elegant in its simplicity – what do they want to achieve financially?  This is a great precursor into their financial goals discussion.

8.     How much money they need in order to stop worrying about their finances

This topic transcends very well.  It doesn’t matter how much money somebody has, everyone in their own mind has a number.  And this is something you should ask early on, because they want to tell you and it can form the basis of a good financial plan.

Out of those 8 topics, only one of them leads to a quantitative number – topic number 8.  That shows that of all the questions you ask your clients, of the topics they want to talk about, 87% of those have nothing to do with a number - they are all personal.

If you want to have greater connections with your clients, make sure the balance of your conversations with them is mostly around who they are and not just what they have.

Footnotes

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    R.A. Prince and associates, based in the US, is a leading researcher and expert on the private wealth industry and adviser-client relationship. 

Invesco Consulting is a unique resource that exists to help advisers in the three areas all advisers consistently focus on – winning new business, retaining existing clients and growing their wallet and market share. We focus solely on the importance of the client relationship, methodically researching the language of our industry and the emotions associated with it to create actionable and implementable practice management and business strategy programs, assisting advisers across Australia.

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