3 steps to building a multicultural business

Non-gay advisors also need to determine their comfort level in working with LGBT clients, Waltzer cautions. Before launching a marketing effort, he suggests getting to know gay people as friends. “Talk to them about their lifestyles, about their views on life, politics and religion and stuff like that and also their views on money,” he says. “You know, get to know gay people in that way and make a decision, Is this the market I really want to go after? Am I going to feel completely comfortable, not only working with gay people but talking to them about things that may be very foreign to me?”

2. Adapt your communications

Tom Paz, right, associate vice-president, investments with Raymond James and Associates in Coral Gables, Fla., is as likely to meet with a Hispanic client as he is with a transplanted New Yorker. Paz was born in the U.S. to Cuban parents who immigrated to the country in the early 1960s. His clients include a mix of ethnicities and races: Hispanic, Indian, Asian, African American and non-Hispanic whites.

There are several challenges to working with such a broad range of clients. For example, New Yorkers often like to focus immediately on main points and results. It takes more time to develop trusting relationships with Cuban clients who tend to be more emotional. And although they all speak Spanish, a Cuban’s accent and jargon can differ significantly from a Peruvian’s or a Spaniard’s. Groups also vary in their communications preferences, says Paz.

While language can be a barrier, Paz believes that advisors who attempt to learn their clients’ native language have an advantage. “They (clients) love the fact that someone is actually trying to make the effort to communicate to them in their language,” he says. “The advice I’d give to anyone, whether they’re Hispanic or not, is just make the effort if you’re going to try to crack that market. You know, be yourself, be very genuine and they’re going to see your honesty over time.”

3. Talk to the heart

Marcus Henderson, right, president and CEO of Henderson Financial Group and Million Dollar Round Table member in Nashville, Tenn., has roughly 360 clients. During his first 10 years in business, Henderson, who is African American, worked primarily with African-American physicians, dentists and clergy. He still works mostly with minorities but the mix has changed, he says. “We have clients that are Korean, that are from South Africa, (and) we have a very large contingency from India,” he says. “I’m starting to realize that now as our practice grows, we kind of look like the United Nations.”

Research has shown that ethnic and racial groups often differ in their investment risk tolerance, their trust of financial advisors, and other important attitudes. Henderson acknowledges those differences but believes they’re surmountable. “If they have chosen to come to the United States of America, they end up having to adapt to the way the United States of America works and what happens at the end of the day, money is the answer,” he says. “I’m not saying it’s end-all, be-all but in order to take care of your family and in order to educate your children, in order to do all the things that you want to do, the needs become the same.”

Henderson identifies those needs by what he calls talking to the heart, an approach that he’s found cuts across interpersonal differences. “If you talk to the heart, the heart knows the heart,” he maintains. “I don’t care what background you have, where you’re from, if you talk to someone’s heart, they read that. And, on the other side, if you don’t talk to their heart and you talk to their ethnicity, you talk to their color, you talk to where they’re from, that doesn’t resonate.”

See also:

• The multicultural consumer
• 5 things to know about the African American market
• 5 things to know about the Hispanic market