Does the industry set up advisers to engage more deeply? Canada Life expands on some of the themes from their recent presentation at the Adviser Summit.
We were delighted to join the Equity Release Council at their recent Adviser Summit, presenting a session on the relevance of psychology to advice.
We’ve listened to delegates’ feedback, highlighting the importance of understanding biases in client interactions and how these biases can impact decisions and behaviours and would like to provide you with additional resources to delve deeper into this complex and relevant subject.
Evolving the soft facts
Emotions play a huge role in how clients feel about financial products and how they make decisions long term. And sharing emotional empathy in conversations could be the key to building stronger client/adviser relationships. But are advisers given the tools to communicate with their clients on a deeper level?
Developing soft skills in a functional industry
In a heavily regulated industry, ongoing training is essential to stay up to date with changing economies, legislation and products. And now more than ever, there’s a heightened industry focus on client outcomes. But are advisers able to access training consistently, when it comes to building long-lasting relationships with their clients? One adviser explains, “There’s very little out there about client relationships. There is some training for building relationships to generate leads, but there is very little in terms of rapport building and building the soft facts with clients.”
Getting to know clients on a deeper level can aid your understanding of how they think, what their emotional barriers are and how they view the long term. However, in an industry that’s grounded in the functional exchange of information, advisers are learning soft skills through experience. This could create inconsistencies in advisers’ core communication skills. But advisers are ready to engage their clients on a deeper level and aren’t afraid of talking about emotionally charged issues.
Visit our website to read the rest of this article and find more articles from our ‘Connecting with your clients’ series here.
The importance of HumanSense
We’re delighted to announce the launch of HumanSense, a soft skills eLearning designed using our behavioural psychology research findings. Made up of modules, each module will explore an aspect of psychology behind client behaviour, so you can engage in more meaningful conversations, build trust and deepen emotional empathy. At the end of each assessment, you’ll be awarded 60 minutes of CPD and receive a certificate.
Find out more about HumanSense here
- The views of contributors are not necessarily shared by the Council.
