The High Performance Coach: Building, and Restoring, Trust

Through observation, we believe that building trust begins at home. Advisors need not wait until the trust in the national institutions is restored to build or restore confidence among your clients both in you personally and in your practice. Here is a three-step process that can begin to strengthen your client relationships immediately:

Step One: Interview Your Clients and Listen With Empathy. We all want to be heard. Top-performing advisors know that if you are a good listener, clients will confide in you and relationships will deepen. Listening is a compliment and a commitment. It is a compliment because by listening you show how much you value the speaker. It is a commitment because you are displaying an ongoing trait to understand how other people feel, and how they see the world. Active listening means putting aside one's own prejudices, beliefs, anxieties, and self-interest. The key to real listening is wanting to do so. For top-performing advisors, listening is a secret weapon.

Step Two: Ask Good Questions. If listening is the secret weapon of the top-performing advisor, asking good questions is a close second. Questions should be of two general categories. The first uncovers the goals and core values of your clients, and compels your client to thoughtfully consider their response. An example of a compelling question might be, "As you look at your life, what brings you meaning? Would an improvement in your financial situation lead to an even more meaningful life?" Once knowing how your client feels in this regard, an interesting follow-up might be, "When you consider your entire financial picture today, where are the gaps?" or, "When you visualize your financial future, what concerns you?" The second type of question is part of what we call the ClientWise Conversation.

Step Three: If Needed, Re-Frame Yourself. First, decide what you stand for; understand what separates you from others in your field and be able to articulate that to clients and prospective clients; then re-engage every client relationship as if you were beginning over; do so by conducting your own research by asking the five questions that we call the Discovery Challenge.

Take the Challenge

As a coach who has worked with thousands of advisors, I'd like to share an observation with you. All of the advisors we have worked with who have asked the five questions below of their existing clients have been astonished at the responses they have received. One of our clients who has had that experience is Geri Pell, a Barron's Top 1000 Advisor, who leads a private wealth advisory practice for Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. We challenge you to ask these questions of at least five of your best clients:

o What is the one thing you value most about how my firm, and how I serve you?

o What is the one thing you would like us to change, or improve, about my firm and how I serve you?

o If you were to describe the services that my firm and I offer you to someone else, what would you say?

o How would you describe to someone else what we've achieved together?

o Among your other trusted advisors, whom do you trust the most, and why?

In asking these questions, Geri has observed that by voicing their thoughts out loud, her clients are reinforcing what's been in their heads but not publicly stated. She also notes that virtually all of her clients are proud of her accomplishments as an advisor, and are interested in her continued success. Her clients have seen how hard she has worked for them and, when given the opportunity to reciprocate and give something back, they willingly do so.

No Trust = No Clients

It is self-evident that trust is the glue that bonds advisors in strong relationships to their clients. No trust means no clients. Regaining the trust of American investors is job number 1 for our industry.

It is likely that, if you are an advisor who has been in the industry for any length of time, you have heard suggestions like this before. Listen to your clients (Right!) Ask good questions. (Sure!) Build trust. (You bet!)

The key is intention and execution. Top-performing advisors will not wait for the collective consciousness to turn. For these advisors the campaign to re-frame themselves in the eyes of a wary, disbelieving public has already begun.