Times keep changing and so does the nature and requirement of every job. To keep up with the changing times, every professional needs to bring about a change in mindset from time to time and adapt to the evolved conditions.
This is true for MFDs and RIAs as well. And that is why we tried to throw light on the topic at the recently concluded Cafemutual Ideas Fest 2022.
Carl Richards, the author of popular book Behavior Gap spoke about the necessary mindset changes for MFDs and RIAs to excel in the present times.
In conversation with PL Natarajan Iyer, CEO, Happynessfactory, Carl shared with us five such lessons. Here they are:
'Your job is not to prescribe, your job is to diagnose'
As advisors and financial products distributors, your focus should be more on the requirements and problems of your clients rather than choosing out the right products for them, said Carl.
"No one cares about the financial product. They want to know if you can solve their problems. They don't care about your solutions, they care about their problems getting resolved," he said at CIF 2022.
'Focus on solving specific problems for a specific group of people'
Carl said that the present situation calls for identifying and serving a niche market. "There's a need to bring about a shift in the mindset. It can be done by answering these two questions — what is it that you do and who is for? It's time that you focus on solving a specific problem for a specific group of people," he said.
‘Become an investor manager, not investment manager’
Carl believes that the satisfaction and financial wellbeing of clients should be the priority of RIAs and MFDs. "There's a need to standardise the experience of clients," he said.
Carl also had a very important lesson to share with MFDs/RIAs on the importance of listening in sales. "The number one sales trick is - stop selling stuff and start listening. The more you listen, easier the sales become," he noted.
'Talk more like a human'
MFDs/RIAs need to get better at talking to humans, Carl suggested at the event. "Some weird thing happens to us when we start talking business. We start using words like standard deviation and volatility. Our conversations are filled with jargons. We forget that not everybody cares about these terms," he said.
'Start listening and ask the right questions'
MFDs/RIAs need to appear smart before clients, he said. "Clients want someone who can ask good questions; who listens to them instead of pitching products," he said.
