I listened to a great call sponsored by Vanguard about how and why female clients quickly become your RAVING FAN . What I loved was that everything she said only validated the work I do with the financial advisors I coach.
Here are some of the statistics that I found of interest:
• Just over 50% of the women with wealth have earned it the rest have acquired
• The greatest motivator for women with wealth is Independence and Pride
• Their lack of knowledge is based on lack of interest – many women find stocks and bonds boring! Yet this also enhances their desire to work with a professional who will guide and lead them.
• Two of their most pressing concerns: Losing money and making a BAD decision with their money
• Philanthropy is a high interest for more than 50% of the wealthy women – don’t ignore this
• 70% of wealthy women depend on a referral from their lawyer or CPA to find and Advisor
What I found most interesting about this discussion (not that it was news to me):
Lack of chemistry was the number 1 deal breaker when choosing a financial advisor.
In order to land a wealthy female client you must have 3 prerequisites which can be demonstrated:
- Good interpersonal skills
- Financial expertise
- Strong communication skills.
When these prerequisites are met and demonstrated in most every case cost and performance was not an issue.
Another important point that I found fascinating was that :
REFERRALS: 74.6% of the women find advisors through referrals from others
SEMINARS: 57.4% found an advisor through a seminar
COI’s (Centers Of Influence): 37.6% found their advisor through their Center of Influence
COLD CALLING: Just 8.8% of women found their advisor through cold calling.
Why any advisor would NOT concentrate a large percentage of their efforts on affluent women is beyond me. They are more loyal, more appreciative of your value and give you more referrals.
So why when we hosted a national call focusing on targeting the affluent woman was it mostly female advisors that signed up? There not exactly the ones who need the added coaching…..