Read The Transcript Of The Episode:

Speaker 1:

This is the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful, and scalable practice. Each week we'll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets and create the advising practice that you've dreamed of. You'll be joined by your hosts, Bryan Sweet, who has more than half a billion dollars in assets under management. Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to hire, improve their operations and company culture. And Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let's jump into another amazing episode of the ultimate adviser podcast.

Brittany Anderson:

Welcome back to the ultimate advisor podcast. This is Brittany Anderson and once again, I've got with me Bryan Sweet and Draye Redfern. So we are in the midst of talking about exponential growth during times of adversity. So if you did not check out last week's episode, I highly recommend you go back and listen because it really started off on a good foot with mind over matter, with maximizing your mindset and maybe in some creative ways that you hadn't thought about before. And also if you did not catch last week's episode, you know that we are in the midst of our Ultimate Advisor Summit right now, kicking butt, taking names and having some really cool people speaking and sharing their wisdom and their insights. So I highly recommend, again, go back, check out last week's episode, and hopefully you are participating in the summit right now because we know you're going to get immense takeaways.

Brittany Anderson:

So today's topic is going to segue into how you can add some killer value to your clients and to prospects or future clients during times of adversity. So now is as good a time or is better a time than ever, to really maximize the value that you're bringing to your clientele. Now is not the time to put your head in the sand. Now is not the time to be scared to communicate or to hesitate or to show any sort of lack of confidence because you want to be that sounding board and that source for your clients. Now, I will tell you that nine times out of 10, if we have a prospect come on board who had a financial advisor previously, the reason that they have come to us is because they're like, "Hey, we don't get any communication from our advisor." That is not good. As an Ultimate Advisor and as somebody listening to this, I would be hard pressed to believe that any of you are like that

.

Brittany Anderson:

I would guess that you are strong in your communication because you've chosen to spend your time listening to a podcast that is helping you grow and become an even better version of yourself and an even better advisor. Now, the other thing to think about and that we've heard from some really successful advisors is that they're like, "We really don't need to do extra communication or anything because our clients get it. I mean they know they were here for the 08, 09 down turn. So it's not really a big deal. We'll come out of this." Okay, that is also not the right answer. So what we want to help you with today is how you can add value, how you can differentiate your message and your strategy to be able to appeal to what people need and are looking for right now.

Brittany Anderson:

So now is the time to show how you make a difference, like what truly, when you look at all the skillsets on your team or if you're a one man shop and you're a man or woman shop and you're a single advisor with maybe one support person, where do you really add exponential value? That is what you want to be communicating right now. And that's where you want to double down and really show your clients how you are providing to them and how you're serving them in a unique way. So something to think about is when you're looking at your communication pattern, right now would be a great time to start picking up the phone, right? Start picking up the phone and calling your clients, touching base with them and asking them questions like, "Hey, how is all that's going on, how are you feeling? How is this impacting you? What does this really make you feel, right?

Brittany Anderson:

Not the questions of well are you confident with your financial plan? Because I would guess the answer in the back of their head as well, probably not exactly because I don't really know what's going to happen in the economy. But rather shifting that conversation to showing again that you're human, that you're honoring the relationship that you have with them and you aren't just focused on the numbers, you're focused on them as an individual. Because I will tell you that as the world changes, as we kind of come out on the other side of this, things are going to look really different and people are going to be looking for, even more so than ever I believe, looking for true deep connection in relationships versus transactional services. So this is an opportunity for you if you have not been focusing on really going deep with your existing clients, now is the time to do it.

Brittany Anderson:

Now is the time again, to show how you're different and to show that you care about them as an individual. So something that I think has been really successful, or know that's been really successful within suite financial services, we have been doing weekly town hall meetings. So the way that we've set this up is to provide opportunities for Q&A, a chance for clients and prospects to really be able to show up and ask their most pining questions to be able to hear from some of the experts on our team or professionals on our team. So Bryan, I would love for you to share a little bit on that and how you've seen that really impact clients and how it's really impacted the way reviews have gone because you're addressing so much in these group town hall meetings.

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah, I love to share that because it absolutely has been a really, really positive thing and we've gotten amazingly positive feedback. Before I get into that though, I just wanted to give a statement from a friend of mine, Don Connolly, he said, "Don't do the disappearing act." And so you definitely want to be out there and over communicate during these times. And so one of the ways of communicating is this town hall meeting. And really what it is, it's a Zoom meeting that we've started and we've been doing them and you can pick any day of the week, but we've picked Wednesdays, 4:00 PM, and every Wednesday, and we've been doing these for literally a month or so, or since this COVID-19 episode has been taking over our lives, if you will. And it's a really great format. What we do is myself and Oliver on our team, who's our kind of a smart guy in the office, we collaborate on it.

Bryan Sweet:

We typically run 45 minutes and we give some perspective, mindset slides, and as you probably have heard from other things, we always start with a positive focus. So we make somebody or several people give something positive to get the right mindset. We show some slides, we do just so you're aware, we don't open it up so everybody's mic's are muted just so there's no background noise. And we do accept questions, but we use the chat button. And so as clients ask questions, we were able to selectively answer those. If there's too many, we can then get back to those individuals. And so we'll have a slide presentation, we'll talk a little bit about what's new in the market. So we always give updates and where are we at today relative to last week? Try to have a positive spin on it because, as we mentioned in last week's podcast, everybody's getting inundated with negative, so you want to be different by having the positive outlook.

Bryan Sweet:

You want to be realistic, but there are a lot of positive things and advances going on that they may or may not be aware of. And then at the end, spend some time talking about what you're doing as a team. What proactive things are you doing to help them get through this? What changes in the portfolio are you doing? What updates? What do you expect? What are some of the tax benefits? Roth conversions. Just let them know you're being a resource and being very proactive and you'd be amazed how many comments we get. "Oh, that makes me feel better. Oh, I'm glad you're being proactive." And we've had up to as many as 55 people on these various zoom meetings and we actually are thinking of continuing to do this as almost like a mini podcast every week and just change the topics as things change in the future and we're hopefully out of this COVID-.19 but if you've not done that, it's a great way to communicate.

Bryan Sweet:

If nothing else, I'm sure a lot of people have done this. If nothing else, simply get a short video out to your clients, letting them know what you're doing, what your team's doing changes you're making, that you care about them, you're here for them. If you've got any friends that aren't getting the support and information that you're here to help them too. We've been getting all sorts of crazy responses from that, just offering a second set of eyes or ears to make sure somebody doesn't make a situation that's bad, make it worse by letting fear and emotion take over their financial affairs and having a long term negative outcome from that.

Bryan Sweet:

And a couple other things I think is if you're doing a client advisory council a great time to meet right now because they can give you some great input on maybe what to do and what to say for your clients. And if you're not doing a client advisory council, I would highly, highly recommend starting one because this is, of any time when people need you the most, and you reaching out saying, "I'm trying to get a group of people together to gain some knowledge and information on how I can be helpful to others." Wow. A big impact for people. And then one other thing that we've done that I think is very interesting and people have found it very helpful as a resource is, on our website we've actually have a COVID-19 tab, so clients can go to our website, click on the tab and everything that we're talking about at the most recent town hall meeting is right there on the website.

Bryan Sweet:

So those are a couple of things that they don't take a lot of time but have a lot of impact for clients and definitely are a unique way of communicating.

Draye Redfern:

So I'll jump in there because I think there's a couple things that I think that there's, I guess, a variety of ways in order to add more value from the marketing side of things that may help some of the listeners as well. So one of the things that I talk a lot about, and I'm a huge proponent of our singular actions, like doing one thing, but having reoccurring benefits from that one thing. So even to use Bryan's town hall as an example, great benefit, great turnout, the client base is loving it, it's creating more engagement with the Sweet financial brand and is deepening the relationships. But the best part about that is, they basically made the slide deck once and from week to week, there's not a whole lot of massive changes. They're not doing a completely brand new fresh presentation every single week. Are they updating some slides? Yeah, absolutely. Like with new charts or new graphics, whatever else, but they're not reinventing the wheel. There's a singular action that was done once up front and they can keep having updated versions of that presentation week after week after week, continuing to deepen relationships.

Draye Redfern:

So even if someone were to come to multiple weeks, the presentation may have similar slides, but the conversation points may be different, but the thing that takes a lot of time and effort, that slide deck, was done a while back. So there's a lot of single actions that we can sort of just touch on, I think that's just one of them. The other thing I think is sort of at least worth touching on before we get too deep into that is responding versus reacting. I see so many individuals out there who react, like they see something that happens, they immediately react and they take fast action that's not necessarily in the best interest of themselves, the firm and their clients. They're just moving fast in order to try and make some sort of something happen. When responding is usually a better situation and this is good advice, whether it's a frustration with a employee, a team member, or maybe a client, always try to respond and not react. So what are you doing to actually respond in situations like Bryan said, how are you being proactive?

Draye Redfern:

And when you're doing this in your communication, I would encourage you to be positive but don't be ignorant, and people can see like that a mile away. Be positive, but don't be ignorant but respond instead of react. Now some of the things that you could do when you respond is that now is actually a great time, it's better than ever, to over communicate instead of under communicate. And so I sent an email out with a video to all of our Redfern Media clients two weeks ago or so. And in the video, talked about three strategies that are working really, really well with client based, especially the service based businesses. And the first one is email. So obviously you email your clients and that's great. But most financial advisors, they're like maybe send one email a month if that. And you know like, "Hey, we're on top of that. We're watching the markets stay tuned."

Draye Redfern:

That's usually some of the best case scenarios for a lot of advisors. Whereas now, it makes more sense to have more updated communication. Maybe you're letting them know about the town hall meetings. Maybe you're saying, at least putting them at ease of here's what we're seeing here are some positive news that maybe you're not necessarily considering it, or not necessarily seeing reported. All sorts of things on the email side of things, and when it comes to email, there's another business that I'm a part of and I'm in that business, there was basically a two and a half week email series that went out. And it went out, I didn't write the emails, I didn't even like even review them until I got the reports afterwards. And this email series was basically broken down with different little tidbits in each of the emails.

Draye Redfern:

Like one was about the paycheck protection program, the SBA loan. So then another email was about video conference companies that are offering some discounts if you needed to have more work from home sort of things like this. Another one was like positive news stories that you're not necessarily seeing, so on and so forth. It was a Monday, Wednesday, Friday email communication and they're usually, obviously there's some amount of unsubscribes and no matter anytime you send an email out, the unsubscribes weren't any more different than normal with this increased amount of communication. But the client base loved it. They absolutely loved it. It created engagement points. It got more replies to those emails than anything else. And it was a great way to open up additional conversation because it was sharing positive news, positive insights, positive actions they can take, in the midst of all of this, that they can actually use to benefit from.

Draye Redfern:

So that's just an idea there and it worked out really well. That's just something you could use as we continue to progress through this COVID, crisis because even if the economy opens back up, it's not going to be business as usual for quite some time, and I think we all know that. So I mean you could use things like that, even if it's a once a week email to keep deepening those relationships. The next one that I want to discuss, and Bryan mentioned this briefly also, is video. There's a lot of advisors have met with their clients maybe once in person ever, maybe it was the initial meeting and then they do like phone reviews or maybe there's an annual meeting if you're lucky.

Draye Redfern:

Well it would be a good time to actually be in front of your client base, a video format, so you're keeping to your social distancing, and that way they can see you, they can see the expression on your face, they can see that where you're concerned, they could see where you're excited about it, where the opportunities may lie that when you're just reading a text email that positivity or that frustration or whatever it may be, it could get lost in the text. Just like reading a text message from maybe one of your friends or your spouse or significant other that sometimes you read that text and be like, "Oh, well they woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Maybe their day is awful". But when they actually get home like, "What was the deal like, why did you send me this awful text message?" You're like, "I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't put an exclamation point to let you know that I'm happy." Like things get lost in text communication that you don't have the issues with video.

Draye Redfern:

So I think now maybe a great opportunity, if you haven't done video, to jump on that bandwagon because it's really, really, it's easy. You don't need to overcomplicate it. It could be a Zoom meeting where you literally record a video of yourself in your home office talking about opportunities, whatever else that may present themselves and you could add that to a page or link or whatever it may be. So just a couple of things there to keep in the back of your mind. The last thing is voicemail drops. There's a lot of technology out there that will allow you to call dozens or hundreds or tens of thousands of people at one time and not like a robo dialer, but actually drop a voicemail into their voicemail box. We talked a lot about this inside of the mastermind, like this specific strategies and how to do this. And so I don't want to go too deep into it because you got to be a mastermind member to access some of that content.

Draye Redfern:

But there's a lot of technology and a lot of options out there that you can use and take advantage of, to scale your communication without having to be on the phone 15 hours a day trying to reassure your clients during all of this craziness right now. So the next thing I think is worth mentioning is that like Bryan mentioned is the town halls. And even if you don't want to do a presentation or a webinar-style because that seems daunting, even though it isn't. At a bare minimum, maybe you just do some office hours where it could be a zoom meeting, it could be an open meeting or whatever it may be, where people can pop in and ask questions or just engage with you and some of your team in order to just like keep lines of communication open.

Draye Redfern:

Because as Brittany and Bryan have both said earlier, lot of advisors right now have a tendency of putting their head in the sand and they're just wanting to retreat and now is not the time to do that because if you are doing that, you are going to be easy prey for advisors who are communicating and over-communicating as this whole crisis comes to a close in which the advisors who have over-communicated, who did make a difference are going to be able to say like, "What does your advisor do during the COVID crisis? Did they step up or are they actively keeping you aware?" And you're going to fall prey to losing a lot of business because the advisors who are out there, they are over-communicating, they are staying in touch. It's going to be really, really easy.

Draye Redfern:

So a couple things in there as far as singular actions are concerned. But Brittany, I know there's a couple of things that you could also probably add to that when it comes to some of the client side of things that may be understanding their fears or what may, what they may be experiencing right now as well.

Brittany Anderson:

So all of that stuff is so good, right? And I love the whole singular action thing. It's something I think to be mindful of with all of the things that Draye talked about because he's always got such great insights and things that you can implement and technology ideas and really capitalizing and maximizing that. So something that I want to share is keeping in mind the whole 80% rule of just take action, right? And just get 80% the way there. Because the thing that people get hung up on when you're looking at adding value and taking advantage of some of the sources or resources that we have out there, people freeze because they feel like it has to be perfect. They freeze because they feel like, man, I got to have this whole thing figured out before I can even act.

Brittany Anderson:

And I will tell you if there's one thing we have learned in the past few years especially, is just take some stinking action because nobody on the receiving end knows what that looks like. They don't know what your perfection looks like. They don't know what your 80% looks like. So they're seeing it on their end going, "Wow my advisor is super innovative, they're so creative." And they don't know that you're like, "Yeah, well it's not perfect but it's there." So I just encourage you to take some form of action from what Draye has said and what we've shared on the episode today and in past episodes, just act.

Brittany Anderson:

So something that I want to circle on before we give the top takeaways, is that there is a danger in deciding what you were going to communicate. And that is that you cannot assume that what you think is important is what your client thinks is important. So what I mean by that, is don't fall in love with your own messaging, fall in love with what your clients want to hear. So one thing that I thought was interesting is that Sweet, we've been doing some sampling of clients just in conversation, keeping it very informal, but asking them, "What's on your mind right now? What are some of the fears you're facing? If you didn't have Sweet Financial, what would your concerns be?" And it's interesting because there is not much conversation going on about their performance and anything comparing their portfolio to any sort of proverbial index. Those are not the things we're hearing.

Brittany Anderson:

What we're hearing is, "Gosh, we just really want resources to be able to keep our head right. We want to make sure that we are focusing on positive, we want to make sure that we are understanding what is true and what is not." And that's what was really interesting is that, we actually had a client say to us that, "We don't even know what's true anymore. So we just want the right resources. We just want to know what's accurate and we want somebody that can just take that and provide that to us." So that's one thing that I can't encourage enough is sample your clients, take the time and if they're not due for review anytime soon, call them, right? Pick up the phone and call them, have the zoom meetings, like Draye said, "They're going to love seeing your face even if they don't have a camera at home."

Brittany Anderson:

Because that's something that you hear. They're like, "Oh I can't do Zoom because I don't have a camera." and you're like, "I don't care. Like I want you to be able to see me, right? Like I don't want that to hinder us. I'm still here for you." So that's something that I encourage you to do, get on the phone, ask those questions. What's keeping you up at night? What's in your brain? Those are the kinds of things that are going to help you then craft the right messaging. When you look at what Draye shared with that email sequence that went out over a couple of weeks for another business he's involved with, well they're playing into what people are having concerns with an awareness with and that's where you get your increased click rates. That's where you get people actually opening your communication instead of just sending something out because you think it's pretty. So really playing into what matters to them. So before I go into kind of our round out, Bryan, Dre, anything that you guys would like to add?

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah, I just really wanted to reemphasize a couple of things that you said. First of all, that 80% rule will make such an impact in your business. We've really kind of taken that to heart and it's so, so impactful. So just get it out there. It's kind of like be Nike, just do it. The other thing is, do anything you can to be a resource to your clients and it doesn't have to be financial, especially right now. As Brittany alluded to, the things that we're finding out, really most of them have nothing to do with their finances. It's all about fears and uncertainties and how we can be a resource. So those are really two important things. Draye, any other final comments?

Draye Redfern:

Yeah, I think that just the idea of 80% and having the imperfect action, the 80% is better than 100% and that usually means it's not 100% perfect, but the people who are struggling to get it to a hundred percent never really ended up getting there anyway. So be comfortable being uncomfortable with something we said a lot on this podcast before and that imperfect action, the 80% rule is something that I wholeheartedly believe and that's another reason why I like singular actions. It's like, we like to give you an abundance of resource and strategies you can use, but pick one, pick one singular action that resonates for you that you could easily do that feels comfortable, that really moves the needle for you and your practice. So I just want to second what both of you said.

Brittany Anderson:

Awesome. Well let's round out with some key takeaways from today's podcast episode on focusing on adding value to your clients. So number one, I think if we were to sum up a huge portion of what today was about, it's in communication. Just communicate. Whether it be via email, calls, videos, Draye had some great comments on how you can really be impactful with video and how it doesn't have to be some huge project. It can literally be you holding your iPhone and recording yourself or throwing a quick Zoom on and pushing the record button. And those are the things that are powerful, that are impactful and that your clients are like, "Wow, that just felt really real. That was just like my advisor calling me or being in front of them in a meeting." So communication is essential. It's not just an option right now. It's essential for the future of your business because again, when we get to the other side of this, your clients are going to remember how you acted during times of uncertainty. So it's important to show up with confidence.

Brittany Anderson:

The second takeaway that I would recommend that you could work on implementing is doing something different, like the town hall meetings that we shared. So just try something, test different things with your client base. It's being a resource and Bryan shared some great ideas on how those are structured at Sweet and then Draye added too, you could just do something as simple as get on, make yourself available and do it Q&A style. You don't have to prepare anything you don't have to make it hard, don't make it complicated. Again, just show up for your clients and for the people that are looking to you for guidance.

Brittany Anderson:

The third takeaway that I highly encourage you to act on, is to explore your options. And what I mean by this is really finding your who. So, we've talked about this before, but Dan Sullivan, the creator of Strategic Coach, has an amazing concept of who versus how and a lot of times when we procrastinate on things, when we are stuck or getting in that whole habit of, okay, I need this to be a hundred percent before I can launch or act on this or figure out this new technology. It's because we just don't have that unique skill set within ourselves. But I encourage you to find somebody who does. So we look at our Ultimate Advisor Mastermind, and that's really what we're focusing on is providing whos to the Ultimate Advisors, people who are already successful but are looking to scale and go up that next notch.

Brittany Anderson:

It's providing the tools and resources and being the whos to other people. We have had so many whos in our own lives and, and we've talked about this on previous episodes, we've had so many whos in our own lives to help us create the success that we want in our lives, that we want to be that resource to others. So whether it's through our mastermind, whether it's through another one that you've been exploring or teasing or testing or whatever, choose something that's going to help you expand your capabilities because you don't have to do it all. And if you try to do it all, that's where you're going to get stressed out, you're going to get frustrated, you're going to roadblock, and you're going to procrastinate. So that's something that we highly recommend is exploring your option and finding your who's.

Brittany Anderson:

And then finally, and this is a big one, it kind of sums up everything, is really understanding what your clients want and need right now and then delivering on it, being a resource to them being that person. And we've, we've shared some messaging through Sweet Financial and hey, if all you need it, you as our client, Mr. and Mrs. Client, if all you need is a smile on the other side of the phone, call our office because we're still here and that's how we're going to show up for you. So it's just paying attention to what people need, what they want. Don't fall in love with your own message, fall in love with what your clients need to hear and what they want and what they expect from their advisor.

Brittany Anderson:

So that rounds out today's episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We will see you right back here next week as we continue on our journey together. Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you're hearing on our Ultimate Adviser Podcast, don't keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is just simply send them to ultimateadvisorpodcast.com. And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com. As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the Ultimate Advisor Community and we look forward to a continued relationship.