The generational opportunity for emotionally intelligent advisers

I love working with advisers. Understanding what makes them tick is one of the most fascinating parts of my job. Having those deeper conversations often reveal the missing pieces in their practice.

Our CFS 10x program is largely driven by adviser demand for greater education in areas they need help. One of those areas is soft skills.

Beyond sales training

Soft skills (or people skills) are essential in every profession. In many ways they are personal attributes, such as our language skills and emotional intelligence.

Developing these attributes goes far beyond sales training and into the realm of psychology and personal development. For this reason, we decided to engage Kylie Denton, founder of Performance Advisory Group, to lead our upcoming educational workshops.

Why soft skills?

In previous articles, I’ve outlined the value of operational efficiency and technical capability. While these are essential to building a successful advice practice, soft skills can easily be overlooked as a powerful business tool.

Kylie Denton has made it her mission to help advisers have more meaningful conversations with their clients. A core part of her work involves helping wealth professionals develop their emotional intelligence so they can connect with clients on a deeper level.

Emotional intelligence, or emotional quotient (EQ), is the ultimate tool for building trust and credibility with your clients. Because it’s not just about what you know. It’s about how you make others feel that truly matters in the world of financial planning.

As a former financial adviser, Kylie knows what it takes to sit in front of clients and discuss intimate details of their financial lives, their hopes and their fears.

She also knows that traditional modes of training in our profession don’t always give advisers the tools they need to make the most of their client conversations.

After working with thousands of financial advisers, Kylie has seen firsthand how client expectations are evolving.

Different strokes

Generation X are often called the “sandwich generation” because they are squashed between two major life pressures: looking after their children and looking after their ageing parents. As a result, those aged 44 to 59 face significant financial stress. While there are expectations on them to begin planning for retirement, there are other factors in their life that may not come up in their conversations with an adviser.

Millennials, on the other hand, often exhibit a different attitude. They are generally more sceptical about the value of advice. Those aged 28 to 44 have a strong desire for financial independence but also face financial anxiety and stress. They don’t want the same things as the past generations and are in a vastly different place to Gen X and Baby Boomers.

The opportunity

Developing your emotional intelligence and soft skills will allow you to build strong relationships with clients from different generations. The real opportunity for advisers is to build deeper connections with their existing clients and then begin working with their other family members.

Asking the right questions is key. Any adviser can ask a client what their financial goals are. But how many ask deeper questions like, “What are your values when it comes to money?’, ‘Why are these important to you?’ and ‘What type of relationship do you want and need from a financial planner?”

Each client will have their own unique challenges or dysfunctions. Unearthing them will help you understand them on an emotional level and identify what is really driving the decisions they make about their finances.

Clients will have long-held beliefs that have shaped who they are. When we truly understand them through powerful emotional questions, we get to connect with them at a level that is far beyond anything you could imagine. This is where true trust and intimacy is created, and you have a client for life.

Making a difference

At the beginning of this article, I admitted how much I love working with advisers and finding out what makes them tick. In my experience, most advisers feel the same way about their clients.

The beautiful thing about developing your emotional intelligence and soft skills is that you can get more out of what you love doing – building connections with your clients.

Advisers have one of the best jobs in the world. They get to give money to people when they need it most. And they get to make an impact and leave a legacy that truly impacts those around them.

I challenge all of you to set aside some time after reading this and consider the last conversation you had with a client. How did it go? What could have been better? Do you really know them on a deeper level?

Jackie Clark, director of education, engagement and events, CFS