The Word That Scares Away Your Clients

To find out precisely what prospects wish to hear in a boardroom presentation, Invesco Van Kampen Consulting surveyed 180 middle-size plan sponsors about how they want advisors to open the conversation, how they want the content communicated and how they want the conversation closed. The results are telling.

For starters, how you position yourself physically is critical. Most people today mix it up when they sit down for a presentation but the reality, according to West, is that it is an “us versus them” dynamic. So sit “intentionally,” he says, so that both parties can present in the most clear and organized fashion. “Sitting in a mishmash clouds who is who in terms of power positions and, from a practical standpoint, it kills sight lines,” he adds. West himself favors the Japanese construct with the most powerful person sitting in the center, fanning out to either side in decreasing levels of importance.

  After testing a series of conversation openers, West’s consulting group settled on the “transitional opener” as the most effective. In that scenario, the team leader announces he or she will cover three specific points but first invites the prospects to identify what they are looking for from the presentation. In a “consultative close,” the lead advisor reviews the high points, then asks the prospects: “What do you believe are the next steps?”

“I’m finding more business is won or lost by your skill in the boardroom,” says West. “Long before you are in the room, you have to go through roles and make sure your relays are seamless. There’s also respect. When you are in a board meeting, you are evaluated as a team. The weakest link can kill an entire presentation.”

West admittedly has an unconventional perspective on just what it is that advisors do, starting with the maxim he lives by: “If you stick to the facts, the facts don’t stick.” The advisory business isn’t about conveying facts, according to West, it’s about persuasion.

“Successful persuasion is the transfer of confidence. If you can transfer confidence you have about a subject to somebody else, you’ll have a great run in this business,” says West. “This is also a business that is inextricably linked with emotion. It will never not be emotional. As an advisor, you have to tug at those emotions and acknowledge that people have an emotional attachment to money. Then you judicially, authentically and responsibly link your client’s emotions to the facts.”

Including emotion in the equation has had a positive impact on the advisors West counsels.

“As soon as you get in front of advisors, and tell them this, you can see the relief come across their faces. It’s like they have been liberated to allow themselves to think about emotion,” he adds.

 “At the end of the day, advisors are in the transportation business. They’re in the business of transporting people from lives of insecurity and fear to lives of freedom and peace of mind. It’s not just about moving people mathematically from A to B, it’s helping them emotionally to enjoy the ride. It’s creating the experience of transportation. We really have to grasp this—or we’re missing the experience.”