I was just listening to the Neil Diamond song, “Forever in Blue Jeans”. Money talks. It talks in volumes when it comes to allowing you a life of choice. However for many people (not everyone), it’s not the money itself that really matters. It’s the psychological and emotional freedom it provides to enable people live life the way they choose, that makes them happy. However, the amount of money people feel they need to reach this state is vastly different. Knowing the relationship and attitude your clients have towards money, and the underlying reasons what they want it for is the ‘gold you need to mine’. This is what drives peoples need for financial advice.
I was recently interviewing my dad, Malcolm Payne, who enjoyed much success in his day as a risk adviser and a coach to the business elite. During the interview I asked him what the best advisers, who are at the top of their game, do differently from the rest.
In answering this question, he shared his own experience. For decades he had many advisers, solicitors, accountants, bankers etc. on his team giving him personal, financial and business advice. Regardless of their specialty, he commented that in all his years working with these professionals, never did anyone ask him what makes him happy or what he wanted from life. They did a splendid job of advising and guiding him, however they never took the conversations any deeper or explored the real reasons why he wanted greater wealth or financial security.
He was smart enough to work out that money is merely an enabler to provide him the freedom to choose to live the way he wanted, and to do the things that mattered to him. It was never about the money itself. It is a conversation around this that should have been driving the relationship with his advisers, and it should have continued through to the very end.
That’s what he said the best advisers do differently. They get that advice is not about the money. It’s about what the money can do for their clients’ lives, their sanity and their overall happiness. The money is just the means to the end.
Regardless of your specialty (risk, investment, finance, strategy, accounting, law etc.) the best in their field are those that dig deep, get personal and find out the real reasons why clients want advice. No one really wants a mortgage, insurance or investments. What they want is what these things allow them to do.
You are in a ‘relationship’ business. You just so happen to provide financial advice. The strength and depth of your relationships with your clients is the biggest competitive advantage you have. You need to build them like diamonds and treat them like gold if you want to keep them forever.
If you need any help or want to know more, please get in touch at kim@9rok.com.au, visit me at www.9rok.com.au or join the conversation on twitter @_9rok.
