3 Keys to Getting High Net Worth Clients
Being a business coach for Financial Advisors affords us an advantage of seeing the commonalities of businesses at various levels. One of the greatest distinctions between a $300,000 practice and a Million dollar practice is the difference in the relationships the advisor has with their clients.Million dollar producers have more high net worth clients. You may say, ‘well it doesn’t take an genius to figure that out’, but it is the HOW that gets in the way or most people accomplishing the goal of higher net worth clients. High net worth clients most likely will only do business with someone they know and feel comfortable with. You don’t accomplish that by sitting in your office. Challenge #1: Getting out of your office. High net worth clients do business with those they have formed a solid relationship first. The keys to building a personal relationship is to forget about your business agenda first. If you smell desperate for their business, you’ve lost the battle. Focus on the relationship as if you were courting a new best friend.
The Keys to cultivating relationships:
- Shared Interests
- Proximity
- Frequency of ContactMost financial advisors make the mistake of having a misdirected agenda = Get High Net Worth Person to give me their money. Instead, the focus should be on wanting to connect with another human being who likely is interesting and ‘up to stuff’ first, build a relationship with that person by sharing interests and being in ‘frequent contact’.
How do you do that while in the office five days a week – YOU DON’T
The more you get out of your office – the more high net worth clients you will cultivate.
Here are a few keys to developing a long term relationship with a high net worth client:
- Do your Research: not just on the financial products you intend to recommend, but on the client or prospect themselves. The internet has made this easier than ever! You can find out what company they work for, who they are married to and even the activities they enjoy. This is a great way to find areas of commonality. Use these areas to give reason to connect with them (i.e. hunting, cross fit, sailing, cars, cooking, wine, sports, etc.)
- Listen and Plant: I know you’ve been told how important it is to listen to your clients, but this goes a bit further. I want you to listen to and write down points of interest to your client/prospect. Make note of special dates or activities coming up, then write them down in your calendar to acknowledge later. This is the skill of the masters!
- Create Opportunities: not just in furthering business interests, but also to further personal interests (see bullet point #1). If you find out that your top client loves professional bull riding, take him to a PBR event. Let him know that you have never been and would love to experience it. Don’t just buy him tickets to the event to take someone else, be the one to go with him. Sharing in unique experiences is a great way to deepen a relationship.
These are just three examples of how to develop the type of relationship that is critical for high net worth clients. Cultivating relationships takes time and attention. Don’t expect trust and value to be implicit – you need to cultivate it to deserve it. Many of you will need to create the space in your business in order to have the ability to take the time required to cultivate these new relationships. Eliminating the ‘zombies’ from your book of business will help provide the space necessary to focus your attention on high value relationships.
For more secrets of Million Dollar Producers, get the 5 Secrets of Million Dollar Producers for free! Remember, the top assets to invest in your clients are your time and attention. Your best clients deserve to ride in your first class cabin. Are you making them fly coach with the lower paying fares?
