As a financial planner, your professional credentials and expertise are valued by clients and essential to excelling in your position. However, beyond your degrees and skills, forging strong personal connections is vital to winning clients and maintaining strong relationships. And these types of professional relationships are impossible to create without a focus on effective communication.
Effective communication is one of the foundational strategies to winning clients and maintaining relationships. Also, a solid client relationship will open the doors to more referrals as pleased clients will want to share their positive experience with others. Referrals are a powerful form of marketing and one that does not involve any additional money to launch.
If you want to improve your relationships and connect with your clients, here are some tips on how to make your financial planning business better-rounded.
Get more personal
You should never cross the boundaries of professional relationships by getting too personal. But, if you stay too professional, you may unknowingly neglect your clients.
Think beyond the typical generic newsletters and annual holiday cards. Show your clients you applied some effort, and personalize their experience by sending out unexpected gifts. How about a bottle of wine for your high-end wine-enthusiast clients on their wedding anniversaries? These small gestures will be appreciated and will compel your clients to want to continue doing business with you—and also refer others.
How do you discover these personal details about your clients?
Show interest
You will inadvertently learn about your clients when reviewing their financials, but also ask questions, without prying, to learn more about their passions, interests, goals and more. If the client is more reserved, don’t force the communication. But your clients will want to know you care about their finances as much as they do—and one of the ways you can demonstrate this to them is by showing a genuine interest in their lives and their long-term goals.
Send important updates and notifications
Effective communication with clients also includes sending ongoing notifications and updates to increase engagement. This engagement will show your clients that you are updated on the latest financial news, and their account remains top of mind. The easiest and most cost-effective way to accomplish this is with SMS marketing via text messaging. When implementing SMS marketing, you can send text messages to all of your clients simultaneously and notify them of financial news that will affect their accounts. Also, send individual texts with portfolio updates, appointment reminders, and friendly account updates.
SMS marketing is a simple way to stay engaged with your clients so you can maintain the relationship and also acquire new referrals. CallFire’s SMS messaging services can help you implement this strategy and get started right away. As an industry leader, CallFire has worked with numerous financial services businesses to help them solidify communication and increase engagement. To learn more about how SMS messaging can boost your financial planning business, sign up for a free account here.