“Coach’s Forum” is a place in which you can ask your questions, tell your stories or give your opinions on any aspect of practice management. For each column, George selects the most interesting and relevant comments from readers and offers his advice. Our objective is to build a community of people with a common interest in making their financial advisory practices as effective as possible.



> Return Of The Seminar

Advisor: I heard you speak at a conference recently at which you said seminars are making a comeback. I used to conduct seminars on a regular basis. In fact, that was really what got me started in the business. But, eventually, attracting new people became increasingly difficult and the attendance kept dropping, to the point that I didn’t feel they were worth the effort; so I stopped doing them. Should I reconsider now?

Coach says: Good question. There are several things that are leading more and more advisors to begin using seminars again. The first is from the client’s perspective. I doubt there has been a time in recent memory when the topic of personal finance has been more on the minds and lips of people than now. It is talked about at work, at social gatherings, online, over the backyard fence — everywhere.

People are hungry for insight and want to know they aren’t the only ones who have had misfortune in the markets or in their economic condition generally, and they are looking for new ideas. So, they are more open to invitations from someone they feel might have that insight or innovative thinking.

Your comment, that you used to do seminars but don’t anymore, is fairly common among advisors. In the heydays, when markets only went up, many advisors stopped doing the things that made them successful in the first place. There was a sense that they had paid their dues in that area. Seminars — like the strategy of approaching your “natural market” of friends and family and asking for referrals — falls into that category of early-career business-building strategies for advisors who have since grown their practices to the point at which most of their business comes from existing clients or unsolicited referrals from those clients.

Obviously, however, the world around us has changed, and I encourage every advisor with whom I work to think about the things they used to do to gain clients and determine whether they should start to do them again. There is an excellent chance that the time is right to reintroduce one or more of those activities.

In doing so in today’s environment, however, it might be necessary to tweak the way you approach these strategies.

Let’s stick with the seminar example. Most clients are not likely to appreciate a lavish, big-scale event or fancy dinner the way they might have a few years ago, when everyone was making money. In fact, they could be downright critical of the extravagance. Smaller, less costly gatherings that are designed to inform rather than impress seem to be working now for many advisors. Even then, be prepared for at least one guest to be somewhat critical of the expense.

Another increasingly popular idea is the use of town-hall meetings. These seem to be more accepted among American advi-sors with whom I work, perhaps because they were popularized by President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain during their presidential campaigns.

Less structured and more informal than a seminar and usually smaller in the number of attendees, these open-forum sessions seem to appeal to clients who simply want an opportunity to express themselves or hear how others in similar situations are feeling. They usually begin with a few comments from the advisor or an invited specialist, such as a portfolio manager, to set the initial course of the discussion. Then the floor is opened up to questions and comments.

No one has ever told me that they have to struggle to keep these types of conversations going. In fact, quite the opposite: it is often more difficult to shut down one of these town halls than start it up.

Again, you will have to be prepared for someone who just wants a stage from which to make their negative views heard. But the feedback I have received suggests it is frequently the other attendees who end up refuting the pessimists.

@page_break@If you are thinking about reintroducing seminars into your marketing plan, why not try a town-hall meeting first to test the waters? Invite 10 to 15 of your best clients and encourage them to bring a friend. You may well find them more willing than previously to invite someone else along, given the informal, non-sales emphasis of the event. Choose a location that is conducive to open dialogue. It could be your boardroom, or something more casual, such as a corner in the lounge at your golf club. Some advisors are even using their homes as the venue, to emphasize the informality.

However you elect to conduct seminars or town halls, they can provide a great opportunity for you to demonstrate your care for your clients and leadership in dealing with the current environment.



> Email Overload

Advisor: Any suggestions on how to deal with the 200 emails I receive every day? They’re driving me crazy!

Coach says: Ah, technology — it’s both a blessing and a curse! And email is definitely one of the most frustrating “can’t live with it, can’t live without it” bits of technology to which many of us have become enslaved. If you are getting 200 emails a day and spent only two minutes on average on each, that adds up to almost seven hours a day.

Other than the obvious advice — to decide that you are in charge of your email and not the other way around — here are a few suggestions:

> Check with your IT department to see if your email system can automatically direct some emails you receive regularly to specific folders, which you would create, with names such as “research” and “online news providers.” Establish a priority for looking at those folders and set aside specific times for reviewing their contents.

> Redefine what constitutes “junk” mail. If you can’t stop unwanted messages, label them as junk and have them automatically sent to your junk-mail folder, which you delete daily.

> Designate a couple of specific times in the day to answer important messages. Choose times that are generally less productive and unlikely to be interrupted by clients or staff.

> Turn your email system off between those designated times or, at least, turn off any pop-up or sound alerts that notify you when mail has arrived. We often respond to these signals like Pavlov’s dogs, conditioned to salivate at the sound of the bell. You should choose when it is time to look at your messages.

> Try to get out of the loop in multiple-person communications. If you are not the primary recipient of an email message, decide whether you need to stay informed of further exchanges. Where appropriate, add “No further copy required” or “No response required” to your initial acknowledgement.

> Finally, if all else fails, you can always declare “email bankruptcy.” Send everyone in your contacts list a message saying you give in and are deleting all unread or unanswered messages. If they have something important for you, they’ll get in touch again.



> Why Clients Avoid Meetings

Advisor: In reference to the advi-sor comment entitled “Client shuns contact” (March 2009), I too had trouble getting clients to come to meetings. The light bulb came on for me when I asked one client why he did not want to come to a meeting. “Well,” the client said, “I don’t have any money to invest with you right now.”

Some of my clients had gotten the idea that if they came to a meeting, they were expected to invest more money, or that I would ask for more money to invest. I had obviously given them the wrong impression about review meetings.

After that conversation, whenever I spoke with clients about a meeting, I made it clear that it was a review meeting and that they did not have to add to their investments at such a meeting. Some clients were quite relieved.

This caused me to review my new-client package, in which I explained in greater detail the services they are entitled to when they become a client — including review meetings.

I have had no problems arranging review meetings since then.

Coach says: I agree that too many clients have come to believe that every encounter with their advisor puts them in a “sales” situation. We need to do a better job of demonstrating overall value in the client/advisor relationship.

Another way I have found to be effective is to prepare an agenda for the meeting and send it to the client in advance. It doesn’t have to be extensive — just five or six bullet points identifying the major things you intend to talk about. If it suits your style, make the agenda’s terminology “friendly.” For example:

> Temperature check — how are you feeling about the world today and your personal situation?

> Current view of the world — what my favourite portfolio manager is saying.

> Information check — any changes in your life we should know about?

> Confirming our assumptions — making sure my records are up to date.

> What’s next — our course of action for the next six months.

> How I might be able to help someone you know.

Following that list opens up all sorts of talking points for service and, if appropriate, additional product or sales opportunities. It could easily lead to a complete review of the client’s financial plan, confirmation of risk tolerance, updated know-your-client information and a redefined investment policy statement.

And the final point positions you to seek introductions and referrals from people your client knows. IE



George Hartman is president and CEO of Market Logics Inc. and a senior coach and facilitator with the Covenant Group. Send questions, comments and opinions on any aspect of practice management to george@marketlogics.ca.