Client conversations: Words to use and words to lose

Conversations are the backbone of what financial professionals do with clients. So how do you make those conversations more compelling? By being mindful of substance and structure.

Barrett Kemp, vice president and market consultant at Invesco, discussed ways to craft messages that compel clients to action and build trust during a recent webinar by the National Association for Fixed Annuities.

Substance and structure are the basis for communication, she said, with substance being the words you use and structure is how you gear your message toward you clients. “It’s not what you say but what they hear that matters,” she said.

Top 10 words to 'use' and 'lose'

Kemp gave a list of the Top 10 “words to use and words to lose” in client conversations.

1. Use the word “costs” instead of “fees” when describing what a client likes paying the least.
2. Clients prefer to hear “comfortable retirement” over “maintaining current lifestyle” when discussing their top retirement priority.
3. Use the word “security” instead of “freedom” when discussing a client’s top financial goal in retirement.
4. Use “strategies” instead of “solutions” when giving clients investment advice.
5. “Personalized” is the word clients want to hear over “tailored” when their advisor discusses strategy with them.
6. “Straightforward” is the word to describe fee arrangements instead of “transparent.”
7. Clients are more interested in “maximizing gains” than they are in “minimizing losses.”
8. Clients want to hear more about “long-term strategy” than about “short-term strategy” or “recovery.”
9. A “diversified” investment strategy is more appealing to clients than a strategy that is “not correlated to the market.”
10. “Professionally managed” is the term preferred over “discretionary” when describing an account in which the financial professional is authorized to make investment decisions and transactions on the client’s behalf.

Conversations with DISC styles

In describing how to structure a conversation, Kemp referred to the DISC (dominance, influence, steadiness, compliance) theory of behavioral styles to match a message structure to the behavioral style of the client.

Those who are dominant are focused on solving problems. Influencers get their energy from other people. Those who are steady value maintaining a pace, while those who are compliant focus on procedures.

In structuring a message to a client, a dominant client wants to know whether the advisor is competent and can deliver what is promised. An influencer wants to know whether the advisor is flexible and easy to work with. A steady client is concerned about whether the advisor is authentic and able to be trusted. A compliant client asks whether the advisor is dependable and has done their homework.

“All of this is an effort to build more compelling conversations and communication between you and the client,” Kemp said.

 

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