How to Connect With Generation X So They’ll Stay Connected to You

Finding the Comfort Zone

Once your clients have made meaningful introductions, or if you're targeting Gen X clients directly, how do you actually make connections with them? To effectively connect with anyone is to meet that individual in his or her comfort zone. While you figure out where that is for each person, keep a few things in mind:

• Gen Xers are well-educated, value their individuality and independence, adapt well to change, and are comfortable with technology.
• They value hard work, but they "work to live" (as opposed to their parents, who "live to work").
• They do not want to be told what to do; instead, they want concierge guidance, clear goals, and the ability to manage their own time. Ultimately, they want to feel as if they have solved their own problems.
• They appreciate relevance in your communications. Examples might include showing them how much to put away for their children's college fund or identifying which schools in their district have the best standardized test scores. Sending generic or irrelevant information will weaken your relationship with them.
• E-mail is their preferred method of communication.
• They use social media. According to a recent study, 81 percent of Gen Xers have a Facebook account, 48 percent have a Twitter account, and 57 percent use Google+.

So, what's the bottom line? Assumptions about marketing to the generations—for instance, that only digital works for younger generations and only print for older consumers—are often incorrect. What's most important is to stay on top of trends, test different methods, and trust your observations regarding what works best.

Create a Scalable Service Model

One of the primary goals of effectively servicing your Gen X clients is to capture the eventual wealth transfer from their parents (i.e., your older clients). But you need to profitably serve your Gen X clients' needs in the meantime.

Fortunately, as your clients' children likely have fewer assets than do your current clients, they often have simpler needs. They typically prefer ad hoc services over regular interaction. As such, your current service model and expectations may not be the right fit. It may be worthwhile to create a more scalable service offering for these Gen X clients. This may include hiring a junior planner, offering fewer services (with hourly fees for additional work), and automating client touch points.

Automated contact options can include:

• A blast newsletter that lets everyone in your "tax-efficient growth model" know that you're always watching over their investments and that you've decided to remove ABC Fund and replace it with DEF Fund for X reasons
• A blast e-mail in early December that reminds everyone to make their charitable contributions for the year
• An e-mail, targeted to your younger investors, highlighting a new smartphone app that they can use to track their budget

Your Gen X Investment Opportunity

Relationship expectations are shifting, as are the ways you can connect with younger investors.

Gen X is a business opportunity you shouldn't ignore. Finding ways to maintain a meaningful connection to or relationship with these younger investors, while not spending too much valuable time on each interaction, is a doable proposition that is worth your investment in new approaches.

(This post originally appeared on Commonwealth Independent Advisor, a blog authored by subject-matter experts at Commonwealth Financial Network^®, the nation's largest privately held independent broker/dealer–RIA.)