Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
We just held our annual client holiday party. We don’t tout it as a holiday party per se but rather an end-of-year event to thank our clients. I always leave the event feeling as if we are missing something. Clients are happy and enjoy themselves, but should we be talking about our work or the news on the political front? I find myself wondering whether clients know that we are their financial advisors so naturally expect us to speak of financial concerns. What is your thought on this? Are we missing the boat or is what we are doing appropriate?
Karen R.
Dear Karen,
I do not recommend talking about the recent political news at your holiday event! I fear, given the contentious nature of politics, you may sour some people’s stomachs while they could have been enjoying your hors d’oeuvres without distress.
On a more serious note, I believe there are different ways to hold client events. Your expected outcome, along with how you bill the event to clients, should dictate the way you manage the event itself - what kind of information you share, how informal or formal it is, etc. So first ask yourself some of the following questions:
- What do we hope for as an outcome from this event? Is the goal to make clients feel good about us? Is it to have them think about other things we could be doing for them? Is it to gain referrals? What’s our main objective?
- What will clients expect when they come? How are we advertising or promoting this event in our invites and conversations? Do they expect to just have a good time? To learn something? To meet new people in our firm?
- Do we ask clients for input on our events? Do we know if what they expected, and what they received from us is the same? Do we know what they enjoy and what they would like us to do differently?
- What other events do we have? Are there other opportunities for clients to learn, or become more formally introduced to important information such as investment updates and possible political impact on the markets?
Client events are not uniform. There are some structured for learning, some just for fun and “thanks”, some for referrals, some to hear a well-known or interesting speaker, some for clients to be introduced to other aspects of your firm or people within your firm. There is not one right way to do it. If you and your team spend some time answering the questions I have outlined here for every event you host, you will have more clarity about the best way to engage with clients.
Dear Bev,
I have to make some changes going into 2017. I just never get done in any given day what I need to do. I have to be more time efficient. I’m not getting any younger and it seems some of the things I really want to do get put on the back burner over and over again. Do you have secrets on how to get more done and be more accomplished?
Jim R.
Dear Jim,
Do I have secrets? You bet – but they aren’t really secrets since I enjoy sharing my ideas with people who want to improve. I suggest you do three key things to improve your productivity in 2017:
- Get a handle on email. The amount of time wasted behind the screen responding, sending, etc. is mind boggling. In many advisory firms, even the smallest ones, emails are sent back and forth in place of conversation. I send you a sentence with a question, then you respond with an answer but maybe another piece of info so I respond for clarification etc. etc. etc. There are many times when having something in writing is important, but I urge you to start afresh as of January 1 and resolve not to send anything that doesn’t have to be in writing. Instead pick up the phone, walk down the hall and talk to the person instead. And if the topic includes more than 1 person, invest in conference capability on your line or gather them together in the hall!
- Be clear each day what success will look like to you at the end of the day. What 1, 2 or 3 (no more) things must you accomplish in order to feel successful? Do this each and every day. Being goal oriented, instead of task oriented makes a huge difference in output.
- Learn to say “not at this moment but this is what I can do for you.” Some people are very uncomfortable with having to say “no”. You can’t tell your $50 million family office client you can’t talk to them right now, but there are dozens of other things in a given day or week that you could say “no” or “not now” to. Protect your time and find those instances when you can politely and professionally turn to someone else to take care of a task or request.
I could write a book on this topic, but I don’t want to overwhelm you so will leave you with these three. If you can do any one – and ideally all three – you will see a marked improvement in your productivity next year. Good luck!
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. In 2016 her firm relaunched the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently a Lecturer at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
