What sets apart good financial advisors from exceptional ones? The way they serve their clients. Many of the best financial advisors maintain a strong focus on their clients and cultivate meaningful relationships with them. It’s more likely that additional clients will follow when clients are happy and you’re helping grow their portfolios.
That said, there are steps that financial advisors can take to ensure they are actively growing their client base while nurturing the relationships they currently have. Below are a few of these.
Cultivate Relationships Built on Trust
Maintaining a strong focus on your current clients can pay dividends for long-term success. For starters, satisfied clients are more likely to keep their investments with you and increase the amount of funds invested over time. They’re also more likely to recommend you to family members, friends and colleagues. By keeping a client-first approach, you can remain focused on what truly matters and as a result, your client base will continue to grow organically.
Trust is one of the most important factors when it comes to building long-lasting relationships with clients. Since advisors must help their clients navigate important and complex financial decisions, it is paramount that the relationship is built on trust. This involves solid communication, time spent together, accountability, transparency, unbiased advice, and more. This also involves putting clients’ needs first. This can be demonstrated by holding true to the small things, such as answering a client’s inquiry in a timely manner, to providing personalized attention and fully appreciating and considering their objectives, goals and risk tolerance as you create their financial roadmaps.
Specialize in a Niche
Understand what your strengths are as a financial advisor and communicate those strengths effectively to your client base and network of prospects. By specializing in a certain area, such as young professionals or high-net-worth individuals, you can hone your skills and more easily attract clients in similar life stages or financial situations. By positioning yourself as an expert within a specific area, you can leverage your past experiences and knowledge to grow your network. You can communicate your strengths and areas of specialty through word of mouth, a strong online presence, taking on thought leadership roles within your industry through building a media presence, authoring or sharing blogs, or taking on speaking engagements at important industry gatherings, to name a few. You can also demonstrate your proven track record of success through client testimonials.
Partner with Others in Your Network
To further grow your client base, you can partner with financial professionals such as accountants or small business owners for possible referrals. However, don’t focus solely on professional connections. Also engage your network of family, friends and peers. You can tap into your alumni network, local community, or even those who share similar interests with you to seek referrals.
Remember that it’s a two-way street. Make it a point to return favors by helping those in your network with referrals and connections that align with their individual interests and goals. When everyone is building their own professional networks and reaching their goals, opportunities are more likely to grow and multiply.
While there’s no one-size-fits -all approach to growing your client base, taking these steps can help build and foster the relationships necessary to take your financial advising career to the next level. With a strong moral compass and solid work ethic as your guide, along with a deep desire to put the client first and do what’s best by them, the benefits will surely follow.
