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Dave Pickett Senior Vice PresidentPractice Management

October 2010

Today's Conversation with your Clients

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Performance Is An Issue

• Risk

• Transparency

• Appropriate returns – Absolute versus Relative

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Client Research

• We measured the image of F.S. brands by identifying and prioritizing consumer needs and relating those to brand preferences.

• How important is each consumer need?

• How do consumers discriminate between providers (ie, which needs drive brand preference)?

• 1,700 interviews

• 8/4 hour labs = 6 investors each

• One on one interviews

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Client Research

STATED IMPORTANCE

• Proactively contacts and advises you

• Translates your goals into a financial roadmap

DRIVES BRAND PREFERENCE

• Gives you peace of mind

• Dependable and Knowledgeable

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Client Research

STATED IMPORTANCE

• Proactively contacts and advises you

• Translates your goals into a financial roadmap

DRIVES BRAND PREFERENCE

• Gives you peace of mind, was #1 combination of both

• Dependable and Knowledgeable

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Deep Planning Builds Relationships

Clients “Very Satisfied” with Their Primary AdvisorPercentage of HNW Baby Boomers, By Level of Planning-Related Activity with Advisor

Clients Increasing Savings Over Past 18 MonthsPercentage of HNW Baby Boomers, By Level of Planning-Related Activity with Advisor

Source: VIP FORUM

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… But Deep Planning Is Not Prevalent

Source: VIP FORUM

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Deep Planning Demonstrates Trust & Empathy

Source: VIP FORUM

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Deep Planning Demonstrates Trust & Empathy

Source: VIP FORUM

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Deep Planning Demonstrates Trust & Empathy

Source: VIP FORUM

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Peace Of Mind

Treats you with respect

Makes you feel they have your best interests at heart

Has employees who work together to make your experience better

Gives you a solid return on your investments

Comes highly recommended by people you know

20102003

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External Validity: Never more important

• People are going to look more than ever to third party endorsement as a a method to choose an advisor

• 84.3% stated that a referral ranks #1 in the importance of finding a Financial Advisor

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The Impact

• They need to know what you do

• You need to know the true value that you bring to them

• You need to understand if they are / could be an advocate of yours

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A technique to confirm value: Relationship Review Discussion

A conversation that:

1. Reviews where you have been

re-affirms the value of the relationship, what’s been going on most recently with the client and their relationship.

2. Confirms how they are feeling now

determine current client satisfaction

3. Where you are going

sets up the opportunity for further discussions, and/or to introduce other partners, and/or ask for an introduction

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The Call

“ Mr. Jones, you may recall that when we first met, I mentioned that we would review your financial situation on a regular basis. Given everything that has been going on, I wanted to set aside some time to meet with you to review what we have been doing but more importantly, to make certain that we are doing everything you need us to do. I never want to take your satisfaction for granted, your relationship is far too important. ”

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The Call (Continued)

“I would like to start by looking back over the past year to get a sense of just how you are feeling ”

OR

“I would like to start by looking back to the last time we chatted. As you may recall, we discussed XX and I just wanted to get a sense of how you are feeling about XX today”

OR

“Mrs. Johnson, lets turn our attention to how you feel things have been going overall. I want us to look at this from an experience stand point. That is, consider the services you are getting from ______. How would you describe your level of

satisfaction with the services we provide?”

OR

“Mrs. Johnson, lets turn our attention to how you feel things have been going overall. I want us to look at this from an experience stand point. If you were to rank your

level of satisfaction with the services that we provide out of 10 with ten being completely satisfied, what score would you give us?

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The Call (Continued)

CLIENT

“I love you guys / 10 out of 10”

YOU

“That is great to hear. Tell me, what are the 1 or 2 things that we do for you that you value the most?”

THEN Reframe it as necessary

“I am glad that you said that, we always want to make sure that we are responsive and available for our best clients”

THEN

“May I ask you one other thing. If a friend or colleague mentioned that they were not happy with their current advisor, would you be comfortable in providing them with my name?”

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The Call (Continued)

CLIENT

“Things are good / 7 out of 10”

YOU

“It sounds like there may be some work to do. Ensuring that our clients are comfortable and satisfied is very important. May I ask, what is one thing that we do for you that you value the most and what is one thing that perhaps we could be doing for you that maybe we are not?”

“Thank you for sharing that with me. I want to make certain that we are doing everything to meet your needs. Just to recap, our responsiveness is extremely important to you and in fact you value that the most, but you wish that we were able to provide you with some additional guidance as it relates to some of your other financial needs. Do I have that correct?”

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The Call (Continued)

CLIENT

“Things could be better / 4 out of 10”

YOU

“It sounds like there may be some work to do. Is there any one specific situation that you are thinking of where we have clearly not lived up to your expectations? “

OR

If you had the ability to redesign the way things work here, what would you want to see?

“Thank you for sharing that with me. Clearly we have some work to do. We want to make certain that we are doing everything to meet your needs. So just to summarize, you clearly expected more contact than what we provided to you during the market downturn and some better guidance on how to capitalize on the subsequent recovery. And you did not appreciate the fact that you always had to contact us”

THEN

Here is my commitment to you… when we meet next December. I want you to be able to say… I really enjoy our relationship because you are always there for me… this is how we are going to accomplish that.

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Imprint

YOU

“The last time we met you mentioned that you were uncertain as to your retirement dreams being met because your portfolio had taken a hit and wasn’t recovering as quickly as you’d hoped. I’d like a sense of how you’re feeling about that today.”

CLIENT

“We chatted about that and I remember you saying something about the prices of my investments hadn’t fully recovered but the income we were getting was exactly the same. You told me some story about the price of my house… can’t remember but I know I felt better.”

YOU

“I remember that conversation like it was yesterday… you told me you were having trouble sleeping at night, worrying about your retirement and would you have enough money to enjoy yourself.”

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Imprint

• “We did, indeed, point out that your income hadn’t dropped a penny. The portfolio was designed to withstand some buffeting and still pay you consistently. I love that you remembered the house… and I clearly remember when I called you back the week after our meeting that you were sleeping much better again. I remember telling (my assistant) Sue, “that’s what we do Sue”, our number one job is to help our clients sleep better .

• or he was always there when I needed him

• or I’m glad you said that, we always want to make sure that we are responsive and available for our best clients

• or he’s always reviewing our plan and letting us know where we stand

• or he always seems to have experts at his fingertips when we need an answer, no matter what we ask.”

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The Outcome

• A true understanding of the value you bring / or what you need to do for the client to become an advocate

• Imprint your Brand

• The opportunity to ask for introductions or at least to have an understanding if the client would refer you

• The opportunity to determine how you can add more value to your client

• Create opportunities to narrow your focus on prospects that truly value what you do

• Create the opportunity for client endorsements for marketing materials

• Assess the possibility for client Testimonials