Using graphics is a time-honoured way to help clients gain a better understanding of their overall financial picture.
“To tell stories, to communicate and to plan – I think that’s why graphics really work and why people can relate to bringing art back into business,” says Liisa Sorsa, who is the owner and graphic facilitator with ThinkLink Graphics, a Toronto-based firm that specializes in visual learning.
While your experience with using visuals might remind you of high school art projects gone awry, there are things that everyone can do to help make a bigger visual impression with clients – and that goes beyond another PowerPoint presentation. “It’s different but it works because so many people are visual learners,” Sorsa says. “Everybody is drawn to visuals, so when somebody makes that little bit of extra effort, it is really setting them apart.”
Sorsa suggests some different ways you can use visuals to supplement written and oral communication.
1. Use pictures with your notes
This can be effective technique if you are artistic and like to draw what you hear. Instead of only taking copious notes during your client meeting, think about drawing part of what you hear. This may help you focus your thoughts around the main themes your client is discussing. “It helps bring the words to life,” Sorsa says. “It will force you to pay close attention to see how themes link together and how you can solve problems,” she says. You can then share the pictures and related notes with the client. If you do this, consider recording the conversation so that you can review it later to add more visuals.
2. Story mapping
If you are a lateral-thinker, and your clients are looking to hone their longer-term strategic priorities, you could also consider story mapping. In this practice, documentary research, such as financial statements or older financial plans, is combined with consultation to produce a visual story. The key to story mapping, Sorsa says, is keeping things simple and boiling down complex details into simple explanations and solutions for your clients.
3. Develop informative info-graphics
These graphic elements can be a good way to simplify a certain product or financial instrument. You might try using a flow chart or other visual, for example, to show the flow of funds into and out of financial vehicles, or how they interact with other products. Used this way, info-graphics can be a helpful tool in boosting your client’s financial literacy by helping them see the bigger picture.
4. Try the PechaKucha style
Instead of bombarding clients with handouts or presentation slides crammed with information, using the PechaKucha method, which originated in Japan, focuses less on minutiae and puts more emphasis on the key issues. In this method, 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each. It helps keep clients engaged because of it is fast-moving and concise. “[PechaKucha] helps stimulate people’s minds with graphics and it really intrigues the client and drives your point home,” says Sorsa. “It also makes heavy information more digestible for clients.”
Even if you aren’t an artist, Sorsa says these are skills every advisor can employ in their client communications toolkit.
“Everybody can draw a stickman and use a computer,” she says. “Doing any of these things in your meeting will help keep your clients engaged, which is what matters most.”