Growing your practice is accomplished one investor at a time. Sure, public presentations may get you in front of groups of investors, but it is by sitting down with individuals that you win clients—and retain them.

Six Tips for Improving Your Client Presentations

1. Go light on text-based bullet points and data. The human brain is most effective at consuming information visually and through storytelling.  Stories and metaphors allow a listener to experience a presentation rather than just process it. Experiencing information is far more engaging and impactful than processing it.
2. Encourage conversation. When you ask clients or prospects questions (e.g. “Do you see how this might generate more retirement income?”), or allow them to interrupt you to ask their own questions, the presentation becomes more interactive and memorable. Be an active listener; hear what they are saying and hone in on the emotion behind their question. Allowing the individual to ask questions also conveys the importance you place on his or her perspectives or concerns.
3. Make sure you understand your client’s/prospect’s goals. For prospects you might ask at the outset “What are your primary goals?” so that you can integrate their answer into the presentation that will follow. For clients, the question might be, “Since we last met, has anything changed?”
4. Keep it short. If you’ve ever gone house hunting, then you know the feeling of arriving back home exhausted and confused about which house had the pea green bathroom and which had the game room. You don’t want your client or prospect feeling that confusion after your presentation. (Notice the metaphor to make a point that you’ll remember!)
5. Consider mirroring and matching techniques. Mirroring is mimicking the speech patterns, body language, vocabulary and tempo of your client or prospect.  Mirroring is effective because people like those who are similar to them. It operates at a subconscious level and helps someone become more comfortable with you.
6. Look for common experiences. With social media, it is very easy to uncover commonalities. Perhaps you both have an affinity for photography or paragliding.  Conversation about common interests can build comfort and trust between you and your client or prospect.

The quantitative aspects and the level of expertise communicated through a presentation certainly matter, but if they were the only things that mattered, then the most successful advisors would be finance professors.

See referenced disclosure (2) at https://blog-dev.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/