If you’re an advisor under the age of 30, don’t be surprised if some of your clients question your ability to weather the current economic downturn. After all, if you were born in 1979, you were 11 when Canada entered the 1990 recession and you would have been a preschooler during the recession of the early 1980s.

But just because you’re young doesn’t mean you’re not equipped to guide your clients through this economic storm, say those who coach and train advisors. What you need to do is communicate to clients your professionalism and demonstrate that you have access to other experts.

So, if a client questions your credibility, here are steps you can take to instill confidence:

> Be Honest. If a client says something such as, “What do you know? You haven’t lived through this before,” admit it, advises Phil Ackers, senior manager of practice management and part of the advisor-training program at TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. in Toronto. There is no reason, he adds, for young advisors to feel as if they have to compensate for their age.

Joanne Ferguson, president of Toronto-based Advisor Pathways Inc. agrees. “If you don’t have experience dealing with a situation,” she says, “don’t pretend that you have.”

Instead, remind clients that no one has seen a downturn of this magnitude before. “Clients need to know that we are all in the same boat,” says Ferguson. “As long as you are clear and confident in the way you present the situation to clients, age shouldn’t be an issue.”

And there’s no need to overwhelm clients with lists of credentials and designations, either, says Ferguson. That can make you look as if you are trying too hard to impress them.

> Position Yourself As A “Broker Of Capabilities,” Not The Expert. Tell the client that you have access to all of your firm’s experts, says Ackers, including those who have stomached two or three recessions.

“You are essentially brokering the relationship,” Ackers adds, “between the client, his or her needs and the actual experts in the field who will help the client find ways to meet his or her goals.”

Ackers uses a medical analogy. A general practitioner, like a financial advisor, doesn’t need to be an expert in all fields. He or she assesses the patient’s condition and may then refer him or her to the appropriate specialist.

For an advisor, that could mean matching up clients with specialists such as accountants, portfolio managers or mortgage brokers, depending on the clients’ individual needs.

That’s why it is important for advisors to develop a network of experts, which is often easier to do in a large firm, says Ackers: “You have access to all the experts you need at your fingertips.”

> Borrow Your Firm’s Credibility. Brian Medd, a 29-year-old financial planner with Royal Bank of Canada in London, Ont., says the bank’s reputation boosts his credibility with clients.

“There is a pretty good understanding that I’m bringing a corporate wealth of knowledge to the table as a planner with Royal Bank,” says Medd. “Drawing from the firm’s experience and brand recognition is important.”

> Be A Good Listener. Both Ferguson and Ackers emphasize listening as an important step in building credibility. An “ear” upon which a client can depend — and to which the client can sound off — is much more valuable than product pitches laced with financial jargon.

“The bottom line is understanding who these people are, listening to them and finding out their needs,” says Ferguson. “It doesn’t matter if you are young or old; you need to know how to connect with your clients.”

Age should not be an issue if you forge deep client relationships, Ackers adds. “Whether you are 22, 35 or 55 years old, developing a great understanding of clients should be your first priority,” he says. “You lose credibility when you don’t understand a client’s situation and then start making recommendations.”

Instead of starting a conversation with a client or prospect by listing products your firm offers, Ackers suggests, say something like: “Mr. Smith, my role here is to understand you and your current situation better than anyone else.”

This tells the client that you are there to help him or her, and it may encourage the client to open up to you about his or her goals and anxieties.

@page_break@Medd learned a valuable lesson recently about the power of listening and understanding clients when meeting with a prospective client who was dealing with another firm. That firm had assessed the client as “risk tolerant.”

“We spent the bulk of the meeting,” Medd says, “discussing what type of investor he was. We realized he was a ‘balanced’ investor.”

At the end of the meeting, the client said to Medd: “Thank you for listening to me. I felt as if I had always been pushed into products that are too aggressive for me.” IE