Punch up your presentations

Compression - It's a vital part of producing clarity for the client or prospect. "There are about five or six primary pieces of a financial plan and within our financial plan, each of those has anywhere from two to 15 pages describing the (client's) goals, their resources, and whether they are going to reach their goal or what they need to do," says Mike Vitkauskas, chairman of Corvallis, Ore.-based Money Tree Software.

But those pages are the tip of the iceberg. "There might be as few as two pages and as many as 20 pages, depending on the subject – audit trail report, support pages – so that if the client says, ?? 1/2 Where did you get this number?' you just go to the bottom of the page [and you'll find] a little code that leads you to the additional pages that show you exactly how we came up with those numbers," explains Vitkauskas.

Clarity - Whether your audience is a veteran or novice, financial planning can be a tricky, complicated business. So make it simple and straightforward. This applies to the presentation's content as well as its graphics.

A financial plan presentation is complex, Vitkauskas says. "There is a lot that goes on in order to get to a number, but we've tried to make it very clear."

To give another example on the content side, ImagiSOFT Inc. uses simple cases to illustrate basic financial principles, citing Ben Franklin's investment of $4,000 in a trust that turned into millions for his beneficiaries. Then its program uses client data to show prospects/clients how their heirs could benefit from a similar arrangement – in this case a stretch IRA.

"What makes a successful presentation, first of all, is that it is customized for (prospects); they feel like you have done something extra. It is colorful and it's graphical and it has their name on it," Prestwich says.

Color - A picture is worth a thousand words. So, often, is a graph or chart. The clarity of a presentation is almost always enhanced by taking the raw numbers and text and turning them into an illustration.

Steven Blair Wilson, general counsel of Raleigh, N.C.-based Capital Investment Companies and principal of Capital Advisers Inc., uses Advisor Software's Client Acquisition Solution in part, he says, because it is "very visually compelling and very neat in summary."

As with all presentation software, a database hides behind the presentation's text and graphics. That's the case with ScenarioNow's programs, Lazenby says. "There is a database; if [clients] want to see it, they can, but usually after they've seen it a couple of times they come right back to the pictures. And when you can combine the words and pictures you get a very powerful communication."

Configurability and customization - Advisors must tailor their presentation so it makes its points. "Each planner has his own his or her own style for using our system," Money Tree's Vitkauskas says. "We have some planners who use our software as a starting point to gather information for the customer, and then they run a few numbers, and then have an open-ended discussion with them. Others will print out all of the reports and have a three-ring binder with all of the information. Everyone uses it a little bit differently and at their own pace."

All presentations must be highly customizable so that they reflect the client/prospect's numbers, and so that they may be clarified and simplified. Too much information can be a bad thing.

"With recent volatile markets there was a period in which, if somebody had been in one or two asset classes – which is obviously a very risky proposition for anyone – they could have outperformed our standard proposal," notes Wilson. "The Monte Carlo simulation was very misleading, so in those cases we would do one version showing it with the Monte Carlo simulation, and then before meeting with the (client) we would debate, ?? 1/2 Is it more compelling with or without it?'"

Collaboration has two meanings in this context. Bend, Ore.-based WealthCounsel Advisors Forum uses its Wealth Strategies Inventories presentation software to bring together collaborative advice from professionals including advisors, attorneys and CPAs. The outcome uses a Web-based tool to produce a printed document with "client-friendly" descriptions of the strategy recommendations plus an Excel spreadsheet that shows before-and-after planning scenarios. "It is intended really to be a memorialization of the recommendations of the planning team," says executive director Jonathan A. Mintz. "It could contain as few as one recommendation or more than 40 strategies."

Collaboration also can mean the process which takes place between the advisor and client. Lazenby's ScenarioNow takes this idea to its limit. It uses what the company calls "just-in-time" interactivity that permits both the advisor and prospect/client to play with planning scenarios. The overarching idea is to induce "accelerated trust" on the part of the client.

"Planning doesn't mean a piece of paper," Lazenby says. "Planning means the process."

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