In today’s environment, financial professionals can’t really maximize their businesses’ potential without using virtual technologies. National Sales Manager Andy McFetridge joins John Bryson to talk about making the most of these technologies and techniques—including online meeting platforms, strategies for personalizing the client experience, and other best practices for communicating through virtual meetings. Learn how using today’s technologies well can enhance your connections with clients while unlocking new value for your business. Financial professionals: Check out our resources on virtual meeting essentials.
John Bryson:
Hello, and welcome to the Portfolio Intelligence podcast. I'm your host, John Bryson, head of investment consulting at John Hancock Investment Management. As always, the goal of this podcast is to help investment professionals deliver better outcomes for their clients and their practice. Today's discussion is really going to be around your practice. We've known for a long time that this business is a relationship business, but it's more and more difficult for advisors to get in front of their clients, and we want to help out with that. So, today, I'm joined by Andy McFetridge, national sales manager for John Hancock Investment Management. Andy started his career in 1994 with John Hancock, and over the last 26 years, he's held various sales roles, gradually increasing responsibilities within the firm, including internal wholesaler, external wholesaler, divisional sales manager, and now national sales manager. So he has a lot of experience working with advisors and helping them grow their business. So, Andy, like I mentioned, virtual technology is critically important. Let's talk about why now it's so important.
Andy McFetridge:
Hi, John, and thanks for having me on. I certainly appreciate this opportunity, and it's a good question you ask. First and foremost, I believe client expectations are changing right now. As a matter of fact, a study from Broadridge just two years ago suggested that advisors really must ensure that they can communicate through various technologies like smartphones, telepresence, webinars, and even online chats. And at that time, Broadridge said all of these technologies are set to grow substantially over the subsequent five years. Now, if you think about it, COVID just sped this process up. Studies have shown also that video conferencing is more effective than just audio. Participants can see, they can be seen, and any sense of distance is almost entirely removed because of the fact that there's a camera involved, and you can see each other. And then, moreover, virtual technology allows you, as an advisor, to get so much more done in less time.
Andy McFetridge:
And by the way, it also allows your clients to do the same. So just think about this scenario for a minute, John. My wife and I live in a suburb of Boston, as you know. If we wanted to see our advisor pre-COVID, we'd have to get in our car, we'd have to fight traffic headed into Boston, which, as you know, could easily take an hour one way. Once we're in Boston, we have to find parking, then we'd have to head up to security in the building, get on an elevator, and then we'd have our one-hour meeting with our advisor. And then, of course, once that meeting is finished, we'd have to do the same thing over again, in reverse, if you will. And this could easily take a four-hour proposition. Today, things are entirely different. We can jump on a Zoom or a WebEx meeting with our advisor in the convenience and—I'll highlight—safety of our own home and have the same kind of experience but without the hassle.
John Bryson:
That totally makes sense from the client standpoint in terms of saving time and energy and effort. But what if I'm an advisor and I'm a little bit unsure because I want my clients to have a positive first experience because first impressions go a long way. Any tips and tricks that you think the advisors should be thinking about?
Andy McFetridge:
Yeah, there are actually only a number of very powerful tools that an advisor can use with virtual technology to ensure their clients and prospects have a positive experience. So the first one is the use of customized virtual waiting rooms. Now, it's actually quite simple and easy to set up within the variety of these types of platforms, and it's really smart to do from both a customization and a privacy standpoint. If you think about it, nobody wants to be Zoom bombed right in the middle of the meeting, and the virtual waiting room can certainly help eliminate that risk. Then the whiteboard is another tool that your listeners will want to take advantage of. This tool is available on most platforms as well. It allows you to take notes and share ideas real time as you're virtually meeting with your clients, and your clients get to see everything as if you're writing on a traditional whiteboard in your office.
Andy McFetridge:
And then also making sure you know how to use the screen-share functionality with clients is really important. We'll talk about that in just a second. And then, finally, we have also found that the best advisors are using, consistently, agendas in virtual meetings. Now, of these items, I'd say the two most important are going to be the screen-share functionality and also using an agenda with clients. And I say that because, in my opinion, they both elevate the client experience tremendously, and I'll just give you some thoughts on both. Let's just say you're conducting a virtual meeting with a couple, a client, and your firm has some advanced online wealth management tools that you really want to make sure that you convey to your clients, and you want to make sure that they take advantage of these tools. Rather than just telling them about it over the phone, you now have the ability to actually share your screen, walk your clients through the process of getting online, into the platform, and then actually using that online tool.
Andy McFetridge:
And if your listeners haven't traditionally used agendas with clients in meetings, now might be a really good time to start thinking about that. A few great topics to consider that we've heard from other advisors that are successfully using agendas include , like what's top of mind for you and your family, which, to me, is a fantastic question to ask all clients. Another obvious agenda topic could be just financial goals and making sure the client updates the advisor and vice versa on just financial goals and where are they financially. Online resources available to the client would be another good one. And then having a topic around the next steps. What are those next steps after the meeting? And then also making sure that you schedule that next , just so everyone's on the same page. What's great about using an agenda is some advisors are literally including the agenda in the virtual waiting room that I mentioned earlier for clients to see when they first enter the meeting. It really personalizes that experience for the client.
John Bryson:
Yeah, it really sounds like it's getting back to basics on one level and taking it to a new level with the technology, and there really are topics that we know clients want to talk about. They might not say it, but they definitely want to be engaged. That makes a lot of sense for an advisor engaging with their existing clients. So, there's more to the business than that. We're looking at ways—we need to find ways to grow wallet share in this environment, to acquire net new assets. How are you seeing advisors use this technology to not only remain relevant, but to bring in prospects?
Andy McFetridge:
The first thing I'd say, John is in our experience, there are really two types of advisors out there today with virtual technology. We'll call the first group the reluctant adopters. Maybe they've done one or two Zoom meetings with clients and perhaps even hosted a happy hour, a virtual happy hour, but most of their communication with clients is still by telephone, and these conversations have been more casual in nature, and they really haven't led to new business and new clients. The second group of advisors are really embracing the technology and they're engaging with clients and prospects all across the country on a virtual basis. You see, they see this as the single best opportunity—ever—in their careers to build deeper relationships with existing clients. But also, they're finally finding a way to connect and engage with prospects, as well, and they're growing net new assets with both groups.
Andy McFetridge:
So, I'll give you two ideas here. There's one advisor that I know that works for a firm with an advanced online asset aggregation tool. He knows many of his best clients have accounts with other advisors at other firms. His goal with every top client is to virtually introduce this asset aggregation tool and then share with them the following—and I think this is critical. He says, “Mr. and Mrs. Client, it's okay if you have other accounts elsewhere, we just need to know about them so we don't duplicate efforts and investment strategies.” Now this has really allowed him to get a better overall financial picture of his best clients, and it's also allowed him to ultimately unlock many opportunities to grow wallet-share with these same folks. And then another idea is hosting virtual family meetings.
Andy McFetridge:
, John, as you know, there's tremendous risk for advisors today if they're not connecting with their clients’ children. In fact, here's a scary statistic from Cerulean Associates: 47% of high net worth practices cite beneficiaries choosing to depart after inheriting as the top reason that investors leave their practice. So with virtual technology, if you think about it, you have the opportunity to touch a broad population of clients consistently and efficiently and at virtually no cost. And, moreover, it's never been easier to get family members who live across the country all in one location, in one virtual meeting. So, I'm in Boston, as I mentioned earlier, and let's just say I'm the advisor. My best clients happen to be in the Boston area as well. But my client's children live in Chicago, Dallas, and San Diego. The idea of potentially getting all parties together in a family meeting can be daunting, almost impossible. Now all we have to do is click a button, and you can finally connect with the entire family all at once and begin cementing relationships with the next generation.
John Bryson:
That really highlights the fact that even if your current client base isn't as attuned to connecting virtually, the next generation is, so all the more reason to be strong on it right now. We talked about existing clients and bringing on new clients in the next generation. What about an advisor that wants to have a seminar with a number of clients going on at the same time? Any tricks or anything that you'd give advisors to take that to have it really run successfully?
Andy McFetridge:
Believe it or not, there are many advisors right now in this COVID era that are successfully running seminars,and we hear about it all the time. The first thing I'd say is today, now more than ever, it's critical to choose the right topic because a lot of clients are facing webinar fatigue. They're probably working from home, like all of us, they're on Zoom or WebEx type of meetings all day. The last thing they want to do when they're wrapping up their day is to get on another meeting that's sort of the same old topic. So it's especially important to choose one that really stands out and is different. So a few ideas I've seen and heard recently include maybe doing a virtual cooking class, virtual wine tasting. You could do the basics of meditation. That's been done successfully by a number of advisors. And then you could even do something maybe around women's or men's wellness as well. These are topics that are new and they're fresh. And they're sort of fun, too, if you think about it.
Andy McFetridge:
Secondly, I'd say choosing the best time for the event is really critical. Our studies have shown that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at specific times—those times are 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. local—those are the optimal times for live events, and your listeners should definitely avoid Mondays and Fridays. And then thirdly, your listeners should plan to promote the event through various means, like email, social media, and potentially even like a local organization, like maybe a library or something. But it's important to know that emails still will get 57% of all webinar attendees. And then, finally, your listeners are going to want to be consistent with their approach. We would suggest doing a monthly event as this will give your events traction and it'll keep your clients and prospects sort of in a sales cycle.
John Bryson:
Andy, those are some great unique ideas. If you have any webinars that help parents teach eighth grade math, sign me up for that one because I can certainly use it at home here. The last thing I wanted to ask you, Andy: If our listeners really wanted to take virtual technology to the next level, what advice would you give them?
Andy McFetridge:
Well, the first thing I'd say, John, is there's a quote that my father used to tell me about preparation when I was younger. And it goes something like this. When the time for performance has come, the time for preparation has passed. In other words, while getting your arms around virtual technology is really important, it's going to take some practice, and you want to practice before you give this a try with clients. I say this because not only is it important that you understand the ins and the outs of the technology, but you really should know it well enough to assist your clients through the process to ensure that they actually have a good experience.
Andy McFetridge:
Now, I've mentioned tools like screen share and whiteboard. It'll take a few practice attempts with these tools in order to feel comfortable and confident. So before your listeners go live with a client or a prospect, in my opinion, I think they should probably watch a few training videos, perhaps attend a live training as well, but also maybe get some one-on-one support to do a test run. The good news is, we can help on all of these areas. I would point your listeners to our website, jhinvestments.com. We have three virtual meeting webinars available on our website that will literally walk your listeners through exactly how to set up their virtual technology account, and more importantly, how to help your clients get comfortable with the technology as well. You can search for these webinars by typing the word “Virtual” into the search engine up at the top of our website, and then something will come up that says, “Pursue net new assets by conducting premium virtual meetings.” Click on that and you're in, and you'll have access to these webinars.
Andy McFetridge:
Finally, our external and our internal sales teams have been really trained up—quite extensively as a matter of fact—on all virtual platforms, and they can really help your listeners by doing trial runs with the technology.
John Bryson:
Andy, it's funny you say that because, obviously, working at John Hancock, I've taken a look at some of these videos, and I do a lot of Zoom broadcasts myself with portfolio managers, and you're right, the practice part, and actually having somebody watch you through the screen and then give you that feedback was really beneficial for me. So I would encourage the advisors on the phone, if you do want to take this to the next level, take advantage of those resources. There's a big difference that comes across between someone who's really good at it and someone whose kind of just stumbling their way through.
John Bryson:
So, Andy, thanks for sharing all your insight. That was super helpful. Folks, if you want to hear more, please subscribe to the Portfolio Intelligence podcast on iTunes or visit our website, jhinvestments.com, to read our viewpoints on macro trends, portfolio construction techniques, business building ideas like you've heard today, and much, much more. 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.