Brendan Barca, a coach, speaker, and consultant at Brendan Barca Solutions, returns to the podcast with tips on best practices for virtual meetings for financial professionals. He also explains what mistakes to avoid and shares top virtual meeting techniques. In this episode, Brendan also discusses the best way to set expectations with new and current clients regarding what's going to be virtual and what's going to be in person as we navigate a hybrid model going forward.
John Bryson:
Hello, and welcome to the Portfolio Intelligence podcast. I'm your host, John Bryson, head of investment consulting and education savings at John Hancock Investment Management. As always, the goal of this podcast is to help investment professionals deliver better outcomes for their clients in and their practice. Topics we typically address include advisor business-building ideas, capital market updates, the latest trend in portfolio construction, and investment insight from our veteran portfolio managers across our global network. Today, I'm joined by Brendan Barca, who is a coach, speaker, and consultant that specializes in helping financial advisors leverage technology to build their business. Brendan built his own business remotely by using tools such as Zoom, WebEx, Google, and LinkedIn effectively. He now teaches advisors how to seamlessly enter the digital age through live workshops, webinars, and online courses. He has worked with numerous advisors at financial institutions, such as an Ameriprise, LPL, UBS, and Edward Jones. Brendan, welcome to the podcast
Brendan Barca:
Thanks so much, John, for having me. It's great to be here again.
John:
Now the last few times we got together, we discussed LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator and how they can both help advisors grow their business. And folks, if you haven't listened to those podcasts and I would recommend you do, Brendan drops some great insight on us that you'll all benefit from. Today though, we want to go and discuss the dos and the don'ts of virtual meetings. So Brendan back in 2020 the world went virtual and financial advisors followed suit. Do you expect this virtual meeting trend to continue for advisors? And if so, how should they adapt, moving forward?
Brendan:
Yeah, thanks, John. This is a great question to start us off. So in terms of the first part of the question, do we expect virtual meetings to continue moving forward for financial advisors? I think the ultimate answer is, absolutely, yes. And the reason for that I think, one, is that everyone has discovered that doing things over Zoom call or WebEx is much easier for both the advisor and the client. Everyone, essentially, gets more time back in their day, as we reduce the commute of when people would be going to and from their meetings. So I think both you, as an advisor, and your clients have discovered the ease of leveraging virtual meetings. The other reason I think that virtual meetings are here to stay, is that as we start to serve future generations, whether it's Gen X or millennials, or eventually Gen Z, these are people that are more apt to using technology.
Brendan:
And many of them are going to be more comfortable using Zoom or WebEx or Microsoft teams as a means to be able to communicate with advisors. So whether you're thinking about your current clients who have probably discovered that virtual meetings are convenient, or you're thinking about the next generation, this is going to be something you absolutely have to adapt to and get better at, as you continue to grow your practice, in the years to come. Now in terms of the second question about how should advisors adapt, moving forward. I think one of the simplest things you can do, you probably got the basics under your belt last year, as you were forced into the social distancing, but going forward, I've seen many advisors, just start to add virtual meetings as part of the ongoing client process. So if you do quarterly meetings with your client and it used to be all in person, maybe in 2020, they were all virtual.
Brendan:
And right now, as we record this, the world is about half open, depending on where you live. So some in-person meetings may continue, but I think still, having a conversation with your clients and trying to have, maybe every other meeting be in-person if they want to do so. And then, the other ones happen over a virtual meeting. This is going to keep you fresh in terms of how you present over a meeting virtually, through the computer. And it's also going to be able to set expectations for your clients, moving forward, just explaining to them that you can still accomplish the same thing, still help them with their finances and make everyone's life easier. So simply keeping it part of your process, making sure that both you, your admin, all your team members are savvy on these virtual meetings, is going to be a great way to make sure that you are successful doing virtual meetings, not just now, but in the years to come.
John:
Now you mentioned we're all getting better at this because we're doing it more and more, but we all can make mistakes. What are some of the mistakes you've seen financial advisors make, specifically when running a virtual meeting for a client or a prospect?
Brendan:
So there's two big mistakes that I've seen advisors make. I've done a lot of different Zoom and WebEx trainings over the last year and a half. And I think many of them are getting better, but there's two things that I see still to this day that we can improve. Number one, it's a very simple one, but it's going to be bad camera angles. So when you're doing a virtual meeting, first of all, you want on to turn your camera on because it's going to help you get more face time with your prospect or client. It really mimics the in-person dialogue and the in-person attitude. So if you're able to turn your camera on, you want to make sure that you have a great angle for what the camera looks like, relative to your face. And what I mean by that is, you want the camera to be really at eye level rather than being too low.
Brendan:
Because we risk, if it's too low, it's going to be coming at an angle, maybe up your nose, just not really a good look for anyone. So instead, maybe what we can do is, we can make sure that we have a raised-up camera, depending on what setup you have. You can make sure it's more eye level. You can stack your computer in some books, you can even get a computer raiser that would help you to raise the computer level up through your meetings on Amazon. So there's a lot of different ideas of how to make sure you're at eye level. But the biggest thing is, we want to make sure that camera angle is going to replicate what we do in, in-person setting and how people want to see us, because that's going to be a great way for us to build rapport, but we only want to put our best foot forward.
Brendan:
Now the second thing is, people and advisors are making the mistake of not using screen sharing to their advantage. One of the best things about running virtual meetings is, you can share your PowerPoints. You can share your internet browser. And this is a huge advantage for an advisor, because you can share different things about the client’s portfolio. You can show them new ideas, new products, or services, but many advisors still aren't comfortable using screen sharing and doing it really well. So instead, what you want to do is, start integrating screen sharing into your repertoire as a financial advisor.
Brendan:
So whether it's a client conversation you want to show them, maybe your asset aggregation software on your website. Or whether it's a prospect, you want to share your PowerPoint, make sure to get some reps in, either with your team beforehand or with those prospects and clients. And that's going to help you be more savvy and that's only going to increase your chances to serve your clients better and bring on more prospects. So those are the two biggest things I've seen, bad camera angles, and also not using screen sharing enough, but I think those are, very much things that advisors can fix.
John:
Excellent. So those are some of the don'ts. Let's talk about some of the dos. What are some of the most effective virtual meeting techniques you've seen, some of the best advisors implement?
Brendan:
I'd say, the top virtual meeting technique that I've seen, top advisors use across the country. Specifically, I've seen this at a number of wirehouse offices is, leveraging what I call now, the virtual meeting agenda. And what I mean by this is, as an advisor, before you're using Zoom or WebEx or another tool, you might have had an agenda that was a paper form, and you would slide it across a desk in your meeting with a prospect or with a client and give it to them, in person. Well, many people lost that when they went to virtual, because they weren't sure how to use that with just screen sharing. So instead, what I've seen many top advisors do is, just use a word document or a PDF and create a virtual meeting agenda, which they would then, bring up on the call to help the prospecting client guide the meeting.
Brendan:
So what this agenda would look like, it would have the client's name at the top, it would have the advisor's name there. And it would have a three- or four-part agenda of what the meeting was going to be about. Maybe it's going to be about sharing their financial goals or it's going to be reviewing all the assets under care. Whatever those things are, we want to have the agenda up there. This is going to better organize the meeting for you, but also your professionalism within the meeting itself. So this can help you both on client meetings, but also with prospects, to really create a more white-glove service, that's going to help you attain or attract new business. So if you don't already use something like a word document or PDF to create your own virtual meeting agenda, I suggest you do so. I believe we also have some additional resources on the John Hancock Investment Management website. That's going to help you to create your own virtual meeting agenda, from there.
John:
Yeah. It's pretty straightforward, in an effective way. It not only helps you, it helps the clients stay engaged. So that's a great, simple tip that people can implement right away. So let's dig in a little bit deeper. How have you seen some of these best advisors, leverage seminars to get in front of clients and prospects, prospects specifically, because that's challenging to make a new relationship, virtually. So what are you seeing work for folks?
Brendan:
One of the biggest things that I've seen, especially since the onset of social distancing was, doing more group meetings or seminars to through tools like Zoom and WebEx and the others. And one of the top offices I talked to out of Philadelphia, what they were doing was, monthly family meetings for their top relationships. So they had their top 12 families in basically, every month they would design a new meeting specifically, for that family. So, for example, one of their clients was the matriarch of her family and they went to her and they said, "Hey, we want to design this seminar for you and your kids and your grandkids. What's a topic that we can help to educate them on?" And she had said, "Oh, I'd love you to educate them how to save for their first home." And so what the advisor and his team did was, they created a seminar, specifically for that client.
Brendan:
And in doing so, created a family-only meeting. And in this meeting, they enabled the matriarch of the family, the spouse, and also the kids and grandkids. And even some of the other family members, extended cousins and had everyone come on one call, the advisor provided value. But what this also did was, enable the advisor to get in front of the next generation of wealth, but also other family members who they never met, and they're not currently managing their business. So that's one top tip I've seen, of doing a virtual, family-only meeting of a topic of your client's choice. You can do that with your 10 or 12 clients, make sure you're giving them the top treatment.
Brendan:
Now for anyone who's outside of that top 10 or 12, consider doing more broad seminars, maybe again, once a month where you're inviting all of your book of business and encouraging them to invite friends or families. So that's going to help you get more referrals. So basically, select a topic that's top of mind for your clients, design a seminar that's more broad for everyone. Invite your clients, have them invite their family members. And that can be a great way for you to touch upon new prospect opportunities.
John:
I love both those ideas. The first one's fascinating, because we know advisors struggle to make connections to the next generation and the next generation may switch advisors. But now you find a way to get at the whole family together, regardless of where they live. And it's a lot easier to get together for a quick meeting, versus traveling to the advisor's office. And yet everybody engaged. That's a great tip. Thanks for that one. Now what about, as we transition back and we will hopefully have more in-person, face-to-face client conversations. How do you mix the virtual meetings with the in-person meetings? What do you see some of the best practices there?
Brendan:
So the biggest thing that we're going to deal with going forward, as I mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, is just a hybrid model of doing some in-person and doing some virtual. And a lot of that's going to depend on what your clients want and what they're comfortable with. So some of your clients may be rushing to get back to your office. Some may be saying, I'm good. I don't need to come in. If you're managing the assets and you're serving me from my home, I can do that too. I think the biggest thing for you to think about as a financial advisor is, how are you going to set expectations as you bring on new clients and how do you set expectations with your current, in terms of what's going to be virtual and what's going to be in-person. One of the offices I talked to about this dilemma or this new way of doing things is, they were doing one in-person meeting a year.
Brendan:
So essentially doing a yearly review where the client could come into the office, optional of course, if the client didn't want to come in, they could do it through Zoom and really making that the new structure. And then, for the other quarterly meetings, doing it all virtually. And essentially, how they're able to do that is, explaining the benefit of that to the clients and prospects. First of all, many of the clients they're taking on now, they've met through the virtual environment, so it is a little bit more normal. But just explaining to your clients in prospects that we typically meet once per year in person, three times a year over Zoom, we're able to accomplish the same thing, whether we're virtual or in-person. So really just setting expectations with whoever you're communicating with is going to be a big part of this, and then really curing it to whatever your individual clients need. So I think that's one easy way to do it is mix the both, but also make sure you're setting expectations at the beginning.
John:
Excellent. Now earlier you talked about having the camera eye level, being engaged with the client, you want to put your best foot forward. One of the things that I struggle with, and I think a lot of people do is, eye contact. You do want to have eye contact with the person when you're across the table from them, it's easier and you can also judge their body language. But how do you do that, and also screen share at the same time? Or if you want to look down at your notes, how do you manage that?
Brendan:
Yeah. So it's definitely been a challenge for anyone who's adapting to the virtual world, to come from the in-person world, where you're probably very used to reading body language. If someone crossed their arms or if they're looking down or they're smiling or frowning, it's pretty easy to tell what they're doing, and you've probably been working that way for 20-plus years in. When I say you, I mean the advisors, not necessarily you John, but probably everyone. So the question is really, how do we take the same things we learned from the in-person body language and eye contact and translate that into the virtual meetings. So a few things you can do, first of all, when you're trying to give eye contact, specifically to your prospect, you want to make sure you're looking in the camera. So it could be tempting, since your camera in the most cases, is going to be above your screen, to look at your screen.
Brendan:
Maybe you're looking at the bottom, to see something that someone's showing or you're looking in the middle, because you want to look at the person's face. But if you really want to give someone eye contact through the virtual meeting, you actually have to look directly in your camera and it may seem odd cause you not looking in their eyes, as you see it through the virtual meeting. S, it's going to be a two-part game where you, at some points need to be looking through the camera to show your eye contact. And I would be doing this when they're speaking to you, as they're explaining something, but when you're conversing and you're explaining a point or you're bringing up a new service or product, in those cases, you want to be looking at them and seeing if they're opening their mouth to talk, if they are crossing their arms, if they seem engaged or they're checking email.
Brendan:
So that's when you can read their body language just like you would in person and be able to see where you're going with the conversation. The other thing to be aware of within Zoom is, there is a slight time delay and also within WebEx, by the way, and all these tools, there is a slight time delay in terms of when you speak, when the person hears you and when they respond back. So you need to essentially, create little windows of pauses, so the person can interject their point. Because you're not always going to be able to see when they want to speak up. So instead, there has to be points in your presentations or in your conversations when you're pausing and seeing if they have things to add or questions about what you brought up. So those are two main things. And the other thing is, screen sharing has to be strategic.
Brendan:
We don't want to come on the call and instantly start screen sharing. Instead, we want to use the first few minutes to develop rapport and really mimic the in-person experience. So no screen sharing at the beginning; we're talking to them, doing some small talk. We're giving them eye contact, reading their body language. And then, we use screen sharing to show our agenda, articulate some points. And then, at the end of the meeting, we take the screen sharing away and we're back to that body-to-body experience. So I guess a few of the things that I mentioned is, first of all, eye contact through the camera, read body language through the screen when you're making a point, and then also, make sure that you are using screen sharing strategically, in the middle of your call to articulate a point. But if the screen share is longer serving you, take it off to go back to that body-to-body experience.
John:
Some great advice we can all implement right away. I love it. So last question I have, and it's around, how do you look your best? How do you put your best foot forward? Any other tips you want to give financial advisors when it comes to being on video?
Brendan:
Yeah. So on top of some of the things that we already mentioned, so definitely, the good camera angle and also the good audio is important. So make sure to test with your team, how your audio sounds, how your camera looks to them when you are on the call, because the more professional experience that you can portray to your clients and prospects, the more likely you're going to be able to close business. If you come on, you have a bad setup, you're in a dark room or the audio's not working, it's going to become that much harder to be able to further are the conversations. So your initial setup has to be good. This comes down to the lighting in your room. If you don't have good lighting, you can buy maybe a ring light on Amazon, they're not too much. And you can get one of those to be able to illuminate your face and make sure everything's bright enough.
Brendan:
Also make sure, as I said, the camera angle is really eye level. So whatever you have to do to raise the camera up so that you can speak into it and look directly at it. Those are going to be some great tips for making sure that you have a great video experience for your prospects and clients. On top of that, we also want to make sure we are presenting with a clean background. I think many advisors make the mistake of having a busy background. So maybe they have a bunch of books from a bookshelf or a bunch of posters pictures, and those can be good, but only if they're placed there strategically. We don't want to have something that's too busy, that's distracting our listeners or distracting our prospects, I should say. So instead, maybe even consider having a clean background, like a white wall so that your face is really the focal point of the conversation.
Brendan:
Or maybe if there's some put was sure there could be a conversation starter. I know one advisor had a picture of himself at the golf course with a famous pro, that always starts a good, small talk conversation for him. So think about strategically, what to put behind you, whether it's a blank wall or whether it's one or two pieces of things that can really create a memorable dialogue in the beginning or end of your conversations. So those are the main things. And I think the biggest thing to take away from this conversation too, is that idea of the virtual meeting agenda. I mentioned earlier, many top offices I spoke with a wirehouse in the New York City area last April. They took this idea and they've been using it with every client or prospect, moving forward.
Brendan:
So this should be a clean, three- or four-part agenda. Use this to take notes on, use this to be able to direct the call. That can just be a great way to create a more professional experience for your prospects and clients. So those are the main tips I have John, but I think the biggest thing, you have to practice, you have to make sure that you and your team all have an approach that is professional, and that's going to help you to not only be good for virtual meetings today, but really, for years to come.
John:
At the beginning we said, we went virtual in 2020, and I think it's here to stay and we all got better, but we have to continue to get better. Certainly, if we want to stand out in front of our clients and in front of prospects. Brendan, thanks for all these tips, really helpful. I got some stuff that I'm going to take away for my next video. Folks, if you want to hear more about what we have to offer, we've got a bunch of videos and downloadable resources on jhinvestments.com. That's in the categories of business-building ideas, like you heard today, or investment ideas on how to build better portfolios, overall. If you want to hear more on our podcast, please subscribe to Portfolio Intelligence on iTunes or again, at our website, jhinvestments.com. Where you're going to learn a lot of information on what we have to say about macro trends, portfolio construction, techniques, business-building ideas, and much, much more. As always, thanks for listening to the show.
Disclosure:
This podcast is being brought to you by John Hancock Investment Management Distributors LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker, are subject to change as market and other conditions warrant and do not constitute investment advice or a recommendation regarding any specific product or security. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy discussed will be successful or achieve any particular level of results. Any economic or market performance information is historical and is not indicative of future results, and no forecasts are guaranteed. Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal
John Hancock Investment Management and Brendan Barca Solutions are not affiliated