This is a guest post from AdvisorBlogger's Lawain McNeil, which originally appeared on March 11. It's an excellent reminder that it's important to treat clients as individuals.
In 2009, I made a resolution to re-visit the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Of course, everyone has heard of this book (it has sold over 15 million copies). Its influence has been far reaching and helpful for many. Thanks Dale Carnegie.
Why do I mention him today? I think some of the principles of How to Win Friends and Influence People can be helpful in dealing with clients in the current state of the market. Even though the market was up the last two days, clients are still concerned about their investments. This will be very present to them when they open their quarter-end statements and see negative numbers and lower account balances. Yes, you will have clients that will want to argue with you regarding their investments. You will have clients that will want to change their allocation to a different allocation or strategy due to the market (even though they signed an investment policy statement saying they were a long-term investor). You will have clients that are afraid and just need reassurance.
So, as you prepare to talk, write, visit and meet with clients, revisit the words of a timeless classic and see if the Carnegie Principles can help you communicate more effectively with your clients.
DALE CARNEGIE’S HOW TO WIN FRIENDS and INFLUENCE PEOPLE
Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
Six ways to make people like you
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
Win people to your way of thinking
1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.
Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment
A leader's job often includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
Here's how AdvisorBlogger describes its mission: "AdvisorBlogger is a website dedicated to providing valuable and timely resources for financial advisors through the use of blogging, podcasts, video and other rich media formats. Our goal is to become a leading online resource for the independent advisor community."
Add a new question to your checklist when you're interviewed by reporters--or risk an unpleasant surprise in the world of Web 2.0. Ask "Is this just for your personal use?" when a reporter asks to record your telephone interview. As publications add podcasts to their websites, this question increasingly makes sense. It'll prevent you from being surprised by your voice on a podcast. A good reporter won't spring a podcast on you by surprise. But it can't hurt to confirm the purpose of a recording.
So far I've only recorded interviews to help when I can't take notes fast enough. Sometimes I'll replay parts of the recording to check facts or quotes. However, I wouldn't be surprised if some day I record a podcast for one of my trade publication or corporate clients. I've already been interviewed for a podcast by Russ Thornton and Lawain McNeil of AdvisorBlogger. It felt funny being the person who answered questions, but I had fun.
... you can learn about the case for blogging and how to integrate it into your schedule. Just watch this YouTube interview with Denise Wakeman of The BlogSquad. The interview was conducted by Michael Stelzner of Writing White Papers.
One of Wakeman's points applies to all of your marketing communications. Think about the problems you solve for your clients. Write about those and you'll command their attention.It doesn't matter whether you're writing a blog post, quarterly client letter, newsletter article, or website.
"When Will Housing Recover?" This title reeled me in. I flipped directly to the article, bypassing two others. But what I found disappointed me. I'll use this article's mistakes to suggest rules you can follow in your article introductions.
The writing problem: Boring introduction
Then article's first paragraph stopped me cold. It held a long-winded description of a home price index's composition. It's information that I might exile to a footnote if I wrote a white paper on this topic.
Here's the first sentence of the article: "The S&P/Case–Shiller Home Price indices measure the growth in value of residential real estate in various regions of the United States." The first paragraph devotes 247 words to the details of the markets tracked by these 23 indices.
Three rules for an interesting introduction
1. Answer the key question. That's "What's in it for your readers, if they slog through your article?"The authors nailed this question perfectly with their title. But they forgot about it when they wrote their introduction.
2. Keep it short. Direct marketers have discovered that readers start to lose interest once a paragraph runs longer than 42 words. Sure, investment professionals have more patience than folks opening junk mail. Still, the authors' 247 words--almost six paragraphs of words according to direct marketers' standards--is way too long.
3. Don't save the good stuff for your conclusion. If you're like me, you learned in school that you should build your argument logically to a conclusion. Throw that habit away, if you want people to read what you write. At a minimum, hint at your conclusion in the introduction to your article.
My rewrite of the article's introduction
Everybody wants to know when housing will recover. But you can't make a meaningful estimate until you understand the data. It seems to us that the severity of the decline has been overstated because of problems with the S&P/Case–Shiller Home Price indices. Once we understand the data better, we can make a case for housing getting on the road to recovery by the second quarter of 2010.
The indices are dominated by states, such as California and Nevada, that have experienced a housing boom followed by a bust. In fact, price increases and declines vary greatly by state. The price of housing in roughly two-thirds of our 50 states have risen--or fallen by no more than 5%--during the two years since the fourth quarter of 2006.
My rewrite isn't perfect. Some of the sentences are awfully long. But I feel confident that it's more engaging than the original. What do you think?
Here's my elevator pitch for this blog: The Investment Writing blog helps investment and wealth management professionals to communicate more effectively with their clients and prospects. The blog provides helpful communications tips and timely articles about industry topics.
How did I do with my elevator pitch? Do you have suggestions on how to improve it?
Also, if you're a blogger, please share your blog's elevator pitch along with a link to your blog..
"The consumer decides in 3 seconds whether to trash your mail, or take 30 seconds to scan and prioritize your mail, and 3 minutes to actually sit and read it," according to a RR Donnelley Direct Marketing Tip of the Day provided by copywriter Pat Friesen.
That's why it's so important to create a compelling subject line for your emails and a strong opening paragraph for your letters.
Investment and wealth managers can deepen their relationships with clients, prospects, and referral sources by writing articles and white papers. Some firms do their writing in-house, while others farm it out.
Here are the top three signs you should hire a freelance financial writer for your articles and white papers 1. Articles and white papers don't get written--or take too long to finish--because the experts are too busy. 2. Your publications don't appeal to readers because they are a. Too focused on features, not benefits b. Poorly written in terms of style, grammar, and punctuation 3. Writing is a poor use of your employees' investment and wealth management skills
A savvy freelance financial writer can showcase your executives' knowledge without eating up their time and energy.
By some measures, commercial mortage-backed securities (CMBS) are in good shape, according to Mark Snyderman, portfolio manager and CMBS group leader, Fidelity Investments, who presented on "CMBS Challenges & Opportunity: Are CMBS Securities Mispriced?" to the Boston Security Analysts Society on May 5. Still, he answered "No" to the big question posed by his title.
Good news: New construction and cash flow growth Commercial property is not overbuilt, said Snyderman. In fact, in recent years, new construction has lagged the 2% growth rate needed to keep up with population growth and replacement of obsolete buildings. So, commercial property rents and occupancy should fare relatively well.
Commercial property growth has fallen from its peak. But even in 2009, Snyderman expects it will be flat or perhaps down by single digits. So, cash flow isn't much of a problem.
Problem: Lack of debt financing to squeeze mortgage borrowers CMBS delinquency rates could rise to roughly 20 times their current level, which is below 2%, said Snyderman. Commercial real estate is suffering as debt financing becomes less available for highly leveraged properties purchased at historically high valuations. The disappearance of cheap debt financing and concerns about cash flow growth suggest that CMBS delinquencies will increase dramatically.
Pessimism will create opportunities Investors must approach CMBS cautiously, said Snyderman. They can't rely on ratings because the ratings agencies haven't adequately reformed themselves. Instead, investors must do old-fashioned, bottom-up credit analysis on a property-by-property basis. It's also helpful to consider the "vintage" of a CMBS deal, even though there are deal-by-deal differences.
Right now, we're in a wave of market optimism, said Snyderman. But, he predicted, a wave of pessimism will bring attractive opportunities in CMBS.
His resources are divided into categories including * Starting a Blog * Writing Blog Content * Blog Promotion/Finding Readers * Making Money from Blogs * Further Resources and Reading
Writer-editor Susan Weiner, CFA, helps financial professionals increase the impact of their writing on clients and prospects. She writes and edits investment commentary, white papers, articles, web pages, and other communications for leading investment and wealth management firms.
