A mentor of mine, Joe Harding from John Hancock, always recommended Marriott Hotels. Joe consistently raved about the service he received at Marriott properties. This week I stayed at the Marriott – Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, NC while in town to speak to a large group of investment executives with BB&T. This afternoon Bob drove me to the airport on the Marriott Shuttle.

Bob Jorgenson is 78, and has worked at the Marriott for 14 years, after “retiring” from a career in electronics manufacturing. His grandparents were immigrants from Germany, and he spent most of his life on Long Island, NY. Talk about service! When Bob met me in the lobby, he greeted me enthusiastically. We walked to the shuttle, and I commented that it looked like I was the only passenger. Bob said, “You wouldn’t be more important if there were 100 of you!” I sensed I was in for a treat, so I asked if I could ride up front.

Bob mentioned that Marriott was all about service. “Marriott empowers their people,” he proudly stated, “to take care of the customers’ needs. If something is wrong, we are allowed to find a way to make it right.” He continued to extol “The Marriott Way” and their core values of service.  I asked him how he came to be driving a shuttle. Bob told me he just couldn’t sit still after he retired, and when Marriott interviewed him, they stressed their culture.  He told the General Manager of the hotel that they needed him, and he has been there ever since.

Customer service is simply an attitude – an attitude of service. The attitude of you and your team is the foundation of any business success you have or will enjoy in the future. Treat every client like they “wouldn’t be more important if there were 100” of them. That’s what Bob would do!

Good selling!

Check out my latest article on Bank Advisor. Click here to read.

The last half of 2008 provided the banking industry with a host of unprecedented problems.  Many banks offer investments and financial planning services to their customers through internal broker-dealers or third party providers.  Regardless of you distribution model, your investment department faces challenges as well.  Shrinking account values, inappropriate investments, and delayed or damaged retirement plans damage customer relations.  Emotions run high when customers feel (rightly or wrongly) they have been poorly advised or misled.  Deteriorating client relationships in your investment department carry over to customers’ banking decisions.  Follow these five simple steps to make certain your investment department provides the highest level of professional service to you customers.

Manage your Investment Advisors – Too often banks neglect to provide the same degree of oversight to their investment departments as they do to their banking operations.  Manage your investment department the same as you would any other part of the bank.  This requires a basic understanding of the culture, benchmarks, and processes of the investment industry, as well as management processes designed to grow business and insure exceptional service. If you have a program manager, your increased interest and knowledge will help them in their role.  If you have a third-part program, assign a member of the bank’s management team to provide assistance and oversight of the operation.

Departmental Communication – Include your investment advisors in regular bank meetings and events whenever appropriate.  When your investment advisors understand the bank’s focus, they are better equipped to cross-refer business.  In addition, they experience the bank’s culture and expectations on a first hand basis.  Insist upon a basic level of reporting that allows you to exercise proper due diligence.

Investment and Service Offerings – Know what your investment advisors sell to your customers.  Be cautious about allowing your investment department to position its services as “investment management.”  In most cases, bank advisors sell packaged investment products utilizing portfolio managers, such as mutual funds, variable annuities, and separately managed accounts.  Most bank advisors do not pick stocks, for the most part, or exercise discretionary authority to trade securities for clients.  Product and service offerings should not be so broad as to hinder the advisors’ ability to have a complete understanding of what they offer to clients.

Examine Service Standards – Know exactly what a client can expect from an advisor in the way of service.  Most advisors establish and follow a service schedule that answers questions such as:

• How often will the client’s account be reviewed?
• How does the advisor segment clients for service purposes?
• What additional services are offered, and how does the client qualify for additional services?
• How is the service program administered, and who manages the service program?

Investment Policy Statements – An Investment policy statement (IPS) is a simple document, usually based upon a template, which spells out an investor’s investment goals, risk tolerance, and expected results. It also lays out a plan for how the investor will monitor his or her portfolio, as well as the advisor’s roles and responsibilities. An IPS allows the client to be clear about expectations, as well as providing the advisor with rules of engagement, in addition to acting as a compliance tool.

Consider using these strategies to enhance to value of and quality of service rendered by your investment department.  A minimal amount of oversight provides customers with the best possible level of service and protects the bank’s valuable customer relationships.  An investment department provides addition fee income and a more complete financial product offering, which improves bank customer retention.  Make certain this star pupil continues to make its bank parent shine.

Your choice of a financial advisor ranks high upon the list of critical life decisions.  Selection of educational institutions, career, where to live, and family create lifelong consequences.  Choosing a financial advisor often determines what happens to the financial results of those consequences, all the way from financial independence to financial ruin.  Developing a relationship with a financial advisor requires due diligence and review; the advisor that is right for you today may not be the advisor you need in the future.  Consider the following keys to selecting and continuing a relationship with a financial advisor.

Choose An Advisor Whose Practice Is Client-Focused

Advisors who build a business – and it is important to remember that it is their business -  focus on their clients needs; your dreams, goals and objectives.  First, they need to focus on you.  Almost any advisor will spend some time early in an initial interview discussing his or her credentials, (as well they should) but the main focus of every meeting should be the advisor discussing your objectives, your resources, and your outcomes.  Eighty to ninety percent of an initial interview should be devoted to the advisor getting to know your goals and current situation. In addition, any meeting should lead off with a discussion of your objectives, and whether those objectives have changed in any way.

Everyone needs an advisor that is a general practitioner that is willing to use outside resources to help you realize your goals.  However, look deeply at an advisor that attempts to manage client relationships and manage money.  Money management demands an amazing amount of time, education, and expertise.  Rare is the advisor that can do both.  Most advisors are not trained in portfolio management, so look for advisors that know their limitations.  If an advisor states that they are an “investment manager” or “wealth manager” ask for their long term results – in writing.

Look for advisors that use a variety of financial instruments and devices to help clients reach their objectives.  Advisors that focus on one product as a solution to all problems should be avoided, as should advisors that sell primarily proprietary products.  If an advisor with The ABC group offers ABC insurance, ABC mutual funds or separately managed accounts, and ABC annuities – you get the idea – beware.  Does this advisor represent you or ABC?  Also seek advisors who discuss fees without your having to ask.

Choose An Advisor Who Focuses on Your Goals Instead of Products

Any time an advisor makes a recommendation for change, the conversation should begin with a paraphrase of your objectives.  Only after you reaffirm your goals should the advisor discuss the details of changes they propose. If an advisor’s first words focus on a new financial product or service, bring it to their attention, make the advisor tell you why the old solution is broken, and why they changed their opinion of their prior recommendation.

Earlier it was suggested you look for advisors that have broad product offerings.  On the other hand, look for advisors that can tell you specifically what they provide in the way of service.  Avoid advisors that state they specialize in a large list of services.  A brochure that says, “We offer stocks and bonds, mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, long term care, investment advisory services, tax planning, options, retirement planning…” often reveals an advisor who only wants to sell something – anything – to anyone who will buy it from them.

Choose An Advisor Who Offers Exceptional Service

Ask your prospective advisor, “What can I expect from you in the way of service?”  Every client deserves exceptional service.  You should always expect the following at at absolute minimum, regardless of the size of your account:

• Advice based on a comprehensive discussion of your objectives
• Prompt execution of all trades, orders, documents, returns, and applications
• Prompt return (twelve to twenty-four hours; same day for urgent situations) of phone calls and written correspondence
• An annual review face to face review

Instead of telling the advisor what you expect, ask for his/her service proposition, and see if it matches up with your expectations. You want an advisor that regularly communicates with you, as opposed to someone who only calls when they want you to make a buying decision. You should have reasonable service expectations, but if you don’t feel the advisor is as interested in you after you become a client as they were before you became a client, express your feelings and if necessary, change advisors.

Select an advisor that you genuinely like and respect.  While liking an advisor is not a good reason to entrust them with your financial affairs, you want to enjoy the meetings you have with this person who helps guide your financial future.

Beginning or continuing a client-advisor relationship requires homework in the way of research and referral, and an approach based on trust and teamwork.  Do not take this lightly; your future could depend on your decision.

Monday marks the beginning of the end – of the last week of the year.  Financial advisors often complain that nobody wants to do business during the Holiday Season.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  A host of opportunities exist with our clients, including:

• Year-end Portfolio Reviews
• Gift Purchases of Investments and Insurance Products (Hint: Investments are on sale right now!)
• Tax Loss Selling – and Repositioning of Those Assets
• Qualified Plan Sales and Transfers

In addition, make some investments of your own during the next month.  Invest in your best relationships.  Spend time with those individuals and businesses clients that are your best clients and prospects.  Get to know them better.  Make certain you care about them, and just not their business.  In addition, take some time to invest in yourself; hone your sales skills.  Tighten up and refocus your marketing plan for the coming year.  Look for opportunities within your business for client development and improvement of your profitability.  Don’t forget to take time with yourself and your family – the most important investment you make.

Sometimes we earn our money – and sometimes we get paid.  During the next thirty days, earn it.  Consider these ideas to help make next year your best ever.

Good selling!

Yesterday I traveled to Sioux City, IA for a meeting at Security National Bank.  The heart of a bank is service, and SNB states that “Since being founded in 1884…the strength of the bank was in their courteous, service oriented employees.” It is one thing to say – and an entirely different proposition to practice.

I arrived to meet with the Bank’s Trust Officers for a three hour meeting. Parking was in short supply and it was raining, so I parked across the street from SNB.  When I was greeted by Kerry, the receptionist on the sixth floor, I asked her about the best place to park.  What happened next was incredible.  She told me she would take of the parking – by running out and plugging the meter for me!  I protested, as I was a little early for the meeting and would be happy to move the car, but she cheerfully and professionally insisted she would be happy take care of my car.

Many financial institutions have become commoditized, but not SNB.  Do you and your team go to this level to provide exceptional service?  Choose to provide exceptional service, and your business will flourish.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: Sioux City, service oriented, Trust Officer

Yesterday millions of American investors panicked.  Unfortunately, so did many of their advisors.

Whenever the financial markets become volatile, investors have mood swings that exceed the magnitude of the movement in the market. (This goes for upward as well downward volatility.) Most of our clients grew up with depression-era parents.  These people grew up hearing things like “turn out the lights; don’t waste electricity,” and “money doesn’t grow on trees.”  They heard stories about people who “lost everything” although those people really didn’t have much to lose and what they lost was not lost in the market.

In addition, our clients watch the evening news and read the morning paper, and bad news sells.  Headlines included “Depressionary Tales”, “A Year of Losses” and “Stock Market Plunges.”  While it would be ostrich-like to ignore the current market environment, getting caught up in the hysteria of traders is never the right perspective for the astute financial advisor. The question becomes “Where should we direct our focus?”

When advisors conduct client reviews the vast majority of the time spent in the interview is focused on the investments and other financial products. Unfortunately, advisors dedicate very little time to review and adjustment of the client’s goals.  If the strategies utilized fit the client’s goals in the recent past, then what has really changed?  Instead of maintaining focus on the client’s goals, we allow the conversation to focus on prices that are set by traders!  If the client’s goals haven’t changed, then the strategies should not change either.  For example, if a client’s goal is income at a certain point in the future, and you have a solid asset allocation with good money managers, and you employ risk reduction strategies, the short term gyrations in financial markets exacerbated by junior reporters generating unrealistic scare headlines have no bearing on long term outcomes.

I recommend that the first third of a formal client review be dedicated to review of the client’s goals.  Don’t just talk about the numbers; paint the mental picture of what the long term outcome will look like to your client.  Keep them focused on what is really important to them about money, and then discuss the strategies you feel will get them there and why.  Be passionate, and do everything in your power to keep the client from buying high and selling low.  And ask for referrals, even in the face of a bull market.  Your clients know a lot of people just like themselves that want a financial advisor just like you who stays focused on client goals.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: investors panicked

Yesterday I was in New York at the National Speakers Association Convention.  While I was in town, I called the office of a sales coaching client who is a retail financial advisor for a large bank.  This bank has about fifty offices spread over seven states from coast to coast.  I provide sales coaching for their advisors, and thought I would stop by and say hello to this particular person.  I called the advisor’s office and asked “Do you know which branch [advisor] is covering today?”  The answer was short and to the point.

“No,” was the reply, followed by silence.  No offer to find out the answer or find someone who could assist me; just a simple no.

First impressions make or break sales.  If I had wanted to discuss opening a new account, I would have chosen not to dig any deeper.  Were I an existing client, I may have considered moving my account.  Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is one of America’s top customer service experts.  In an article titled “First Impressions”, Shep states that “Most of the statistics range between eight to twelve good things to make up for a Moment of Misery.” 

Solution: Make certain your staff and colleagues are trained on proper telephone technique.  Script them, and leave nothing to chance.  In today’s world, tolerance is preached on every corner, but never be tolerant of poor or rude telephone technique.  Believe this; your clients won’t be tolerant if they are treated poorly.  Conversely, if people are trained and expected to deliver exceptional client service in every way, people will want to do business with you, and refer you to others.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: sales coaching, financial advisor, refer

Last week I went to one of my favorite places in the world – a fishing camp in Canada with my boys. While I love my role as a professional speaker and business strategist, it is good to have seven straight free days with no calls and no email. It was bliss.

This camp provides customer service beyond the exceptional. Every detail is focused on the guest. But no business is perfect – mine included. One morning I noticed my boat battery charger was unplugged, so I assumed the on-duty dock attendant (average age for this role is about 19) had forgotten to plug it in the night before. A different attendant was on duty than the night before, so I commented that there might have been an oversight. His comment was, “I wasn’t working last night. My co-worker was on the dock. ” The implication was clear – he was suggesting it wasn’t his fault.

The proper response would have been something like “I’m sorry if your boat wasn’t charged. I’ll ask my coworker about it. Would you have a few minutes for me to charge it now?

I can easily forgive a teenager for this response, but this incident reminded me that too often we don’t take responsibility in our business. If a colleague or the service department fails to deliver, you are the company to the customer – it is your responsibility to see that the problem is fixed. So when a customer encounters a problem, step up, say you are sorry, and do your best to fix it or accommodate the customer – even if it isn’t your fault. Even if the customer isn’t appreciative, you will know you did the right thing, and that always pays off in the long run.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: professional speaker, business strategist, customer service

When we speak of being “over-served” normally we are referring to something that has to do with adult beverages. Not always, however. Tony Pappas represents the best of professional salespeople, and has been a consistent sales leader over a career that spans four decades. Tony wholesales insured investment products for John Hancock, calling upon independent financial advisors. Recently he spoke with one of his best clients, an advisor in Michigan, and Tony asked his client for the secret to his success. The advisor said that one factor in his success was that he consistently over-served his clients. This advisor’s clients received such a high level of service that these clients consistently told their family, friends, business associates, and neighbors about the advisor’s exceptional service.

Tony gave me another example of exceptional service. He took his wife, Judy, to the Capital Grill in Troy, MI for dinner. Capital Grill is a high-end chain restaurant known for exceptional food and premier service. When Tony and Judy arrived for dinner, the server asked if this was a special occasion. Tony responded by telling the server they were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary. The server returned with complementary champagne. In short order a photographer arrived to take a photograph of the Pappas’. The head waiter and general manager soon arrived with greetings and congratulations. When they left the restaurant, the maître d’ presented them with the photograph – framed! Two days later they received a congratulatory card from the restaurant.

Do you think they will go back? Might they recommend Capital Grill to others? I suggest they are enthusiastic customers – for life.

How do you make your clients feel special? What client service touches demonstrate your appreciation for their business and relationship? Would they say you are their only advisor – their advisor of choice? Over-serve your clients, and you will increase your business through repeat sales and non-stop referrals.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: professional salespeople, sales leader, client service