Financial advisors who start their own firms, like so many other entrepreneurs, are driven by a vision of how clients should be served, and then build a business to deliver those services. If the vision is a good reflection of what people really do want, and is well executed, the business is rewarded with success and growth.
The caveat, however, is that even successful entrepreneurs aren’t always right in predicting what their clients want and need. Sometimes business owners misjudge what clients really value most in the business, or even lose perspective in how the business is perceived by the clients altogether. In some cases, it’s simply a matter of an idea that seemed great in the business owner’s head, but isn’t so appealing to the clients who would actually need to pay for it.
So how can financial advisors avoid these potentially costly missteps? By forming a client advisory board – a group of key clients and influencers who can provide feedback to the firm owner and management, before new initiatives are rolled out or changes are made, to get constructive criticism from the end client about whether it’s really a good idea or not.
And in today’s guest post, client advisory board facilitator Steve Wershing provides some best practices, based on his own years of experience, about how financial advisors should go about creating and implementing an effective client advisory board – from how to identify the right people and ask the right questions, to finding the right way to run the meeting, the right frame of mind to approach it, and the right follow-through to execute it.
So whether you’re an advisory firm that’s already running a client advisory board but wants ideas on how to run it better, or a firm that’s thinking about putting together a client advisory board for the first time, I hope that today’s guest post from Steve Wershing helps you to take the next step forward!
