VouchedFor

At this time of peak uncertainty, it is more important than ever to make the most of every possible prospect. With markets experiencing huge volatility, many people are in desperate need of financial advice, but may not know where to turn.

If someone who has a genuine need for your services reaches out to you, you will want to be able to reassure them that you are the right person to help them. But how can you ensure that initial expressions of interest are converted into productive long-term relationships? Particularly at a time when building rapport in person is impossible?

Andrew Day, from Depledge Strategic Wealth Management in Manchester, says that it’s a case of building trust and being transparent from the very first communication. 

“It’s important to give people as much useful information as possible to inform their decision to work with you,” says Andrew. “We are then confident that when they become clients we will earn that trust through the years to come. So that down the line they will say ‘I’m glad I worked with them, and I’m in a better position net of fees than I would have been without them.”

Andrew’s firm has generated over £10m of business through the VouchedFor website and is one of just 16 firms in the country with Top Rated Firm status thanks to high levels of customer satisfaction. Here are his top tips for ensuring that you make the most of every contact and for convincing people that they should pay for quality advice.

1. GET CERTIFIED

Certifications help build trust, Day says. That means ensuring that external validation of your qualifications and expertise is available to everyone who searches for you online.

Depledge has a British Standard certification and is a member of the Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA). You can see these, along with their other certifications, clearly displayed on their website, which helps build trust with anyone doing their due diligence.

“People know what is involved in getting these accreditations and it does help,” he says.

2.  LEVERAGE YOUR HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Day knows that expressions of interest that come via personal recommendations are likely to turn into long-term clients. “When we get referrals from existing clients who are willing to recommend us to families and colleagues we get 100 per cent take up, compared to 40 per cent of prospects from other sources,” he says.

We went out of our way to get Top Rated Firm status on VouchedFor, which involved inviting reviews from all our advisers’ clients. Our clients gave us a 4.9 out of 5 rating, which was very gratifying as the only people who are really qualified to rate us are our clients. Their reviews are real validation and are very powerful in persuading interested prospects to make contact and ultimately become clients.”

3.  GO AT THE CLIENT’S PACE

Not everyone wants to sign on the dotted line immediately, Day says, so don’t pressurise customers and you’re more likely to win their trust. He uses a client journey document to show what the whole process entails and ensure they are entirely happy before asking them to commit.

“Often people are happy to commit in the first meeting but some want to have a second meeting and digest things first,” he says. “It is only through discussion and tapping into our experience that we get to the right conclusion for them. Everyone is looking for something different. All we are ever looking to do is put our best foot forward, saying this is how we do things, this is what we are about, this is what we can do for you, and then the decision is up to them.”

4.  USE DETAIL TO DEMONSTRATE VALUE

Persuading prospective clients that financial advice is worth paying for is a key part of winning them over. Particularly at times of economic uncertainty. Day suggests going through the details of the prospective client’s own situation, rather than focusing on the general value of advice.

“Getting into the detail is important as often you can demonstrate the need for advice by looking at what they have in place and things that may have been missed,” he says, citing the example of a recent prospective client who came to him with the details of several pensions.  “He was well over the Lifetime Allowance and didn’t even know about it,” Day says. “In that case it was particularly easy to demonstrate the value of advice.”

5.  VISIBLY COMPETE ON PRICE

Depledge chooses to be completely transparent about its fees, posting them on the VouchedFor website. Day says keeping costs low is a major draw for customers, and that advisers shouldn’t fear discussing their fees early.“

“We keep costs down, by running an efficient back office and because we are a cautious business. We work with the Sense Network, they have a very high compliance standard, and that means our indemnity insurance hasn’t gone through the roof, which allows us to be competitive.”

Sian MacInnes, from Philip James Financial Advisers, is passionate about making first impressions count.

Her commitment to building client relationships from the very first moment has ensured that 100 per cent of her 99 ‘first impression’ reviews on VouchedFor, the adviser ratings site, are positive. This means each of these 99 reviewers have rated their initial contact with Sian 4 stars or higher out of 5. Added to this, Sian’s ‘First Impression’ reviews have helped her amass an impressive 225 total reviews on VouchedFor.

Here, Sian shares her six top tips on how to connect with clients from the very first point of contact, building the strongest possible relationships and making a great first impression.

1. MEET EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS YOU

Sian says that many advisers don’t offer to meet every contact, often because they do not believe that the client will have the necessary level of assets to need help.

she says. “See everyone if you’ve got time.”

She says she often discovers, while talking, that potential clients have more valuable assets than they initially thought, and even if they don’t have need for a financial adviser now, they may do in the future.

“I think everybody in the country should see a financial adviser at least once.”

2.  GIVE, DON’T TAKE, AT THE FIRST MEETING

Almost all advisers offer a free first meeting to prospective clients, but Sian says that these meetings are too often ‘free’, in inverted commas.

“Sometimes advisers say it is a free meeting, but then sit there and take everything for themselves – the meeting is one long, linear fact find,” she says.

“My aim is that, when I’ve left, I’ve been able to give the client something.” Even if Sian discovers that the contact doesn’t need a financial adviser, she says there’s always something helpful she can do.

“Maybe I’ve given them the state pension forecasting address, or ensured they know about getting Attendance Allowance,” she says. “That way, free really means free.”

3.  KEEP IT SIMPLE BUT SHARP

“It’s easy to blind people with science,” Sian says, so she tries to keep her chats jargon free, so that customers relax and understand.

“I’ve done loads of exams but I don’t need to show my knowledge off to them. I can distil it into user-friendly language,” she says.

She always tries to remember that, in many cases, potential clients are scared about money, which makes it all the more important to keep it focused but simple.

4.  BE HOLISTIC

Focussing on people’s own goals instead of how much money they have helps create a good first impression, Sian says.

Your job is to make the goals drive the planning. I ask ‘what do you want?’ and think about ways we can do that. It’s about changing the emphasis and changing the question around. The difference is very slight but it relaxes people. They stop seeing the money as the point.”

5. FOLLOW UP

Ensuring that you follow up after initial meetings can help create a good first impression. “After the free meeting I always write an email, just saying very briefly – this is what I can do for you, and this is what you can do for yourself. Just four or five lines,” Sian says.

6.  LEARN FROM YOUR REVIEWS

While Sian is delighted by her high position on the VouchedFor site, and the large number of positive reviews that drive business, she says that studying the reviews also helps her to become better at meeting new clients and giving them what they want,

“VouchedFor is a bit like Tripadvisor and it creates a virtuous circle. If you get good reviews, you get more clients and even more reviews and you get busier and busier. And you can say to clients ‘look at what people are saying’,” she says. “But you can also look at them yourself and say ‘they like that’ and then ensure you carry on doing it!”

VouchedFor allows its users to filter reviews by the lifestage, wealth level and needs of reviewers. This helps with this learning process as well as helping consumers using the site read the most relevant reviews for them.

Read some of Sian’s ‘first impression’ reviews visit her profile, scroll down and filter reviewer type by ‘first impressions’

Wayne is the founder and managing director of One Financial Solutions, which provides mortgage, pension and investment advice to people in and around the south of England and Scotland. Inspired by a colleague who was using VouchedFor, Wayne joined the site in April 2018 and has since developed a 5/5 rating from 63 reviews. He was also included in VouchedFor’s Top Rated Financial Advisers Guide earlier this year.

Wayne has seen how VouchedFor works as a marketing tool both independently and alongside his firm’s other marketing activity. “It’s an essential component of the client’s due diligence process,” he says. “Given current uncertainty, people are doing more due diligence than ever.”

to see what other people thought and so looked me up.”

The power of client reviews on an independent site can even trump family recommendations he says. “When I received an enquiry through VouchedFor from someone with the same surname as an existing client, I was confused until I realised it was his brother. The enquirer said ‘My brother’s been telling me about you for years’ but he still went onto VouchedFor to check me out!”

After every first meeting, Wayne invites the client  to provide a VouchedFor review. He recently started using the ‘Review Invite Tool’ that VouchedFor provides, which has proved to be more effective than his own emails: “1 in 3 used to review us,” he says, “But now it’s more like 2.5/3.”

moment,” he says. “People who are having a sort out and reviewing things, emptying cupboards, looking at finances and reviewing them, or trying to get better value. It’s crucial for financial advisers at the moment to be able to reach people online who are looking for help.”

Wayne says that despite the growing number of online investment solutions in the market, it’s not a case of clients becoming more financially savvy – he says that clients are still as overwhelmed as ever. 

Instead he says that advisers are needed for the reassurance – not big promises – and that they can see through false claims and bravado. “Clients want an honest, good straight-talking adviser. They know when not to trust someone, they see the jargon and move on,” he says. “The reviews can help them to develop an opinion of you, they can get a sense of who you are and if you’re the type of person they can deal with.”

onto become clients, when it used to be 25%. Either I’ve become 3 times better at my job, it’s a fluke or those clients looked at it and thought ‘If I don’t deal with Wayne, I’m in the minority.”

VouchedFor’s tie-in with The Times, who distributed the 2020 Top Rated Adviser Guide, has also helped, says Wayne. “Whenever we meet anyone for the first time, we give them a copy of the guide. As a result, 75% of those people then go onto become clients, when it used to be 25%. Either I’ve become 3 times better at my job, it’s a fluke or those clients looked at it and thought ‘If I don’t deal with Wayne, I’m in the minority.’”

“If I never got another lead from VouchedFor I wouldn’t care – the 2020 guide has already done its bit!”

He adds that it’s the integrity of VouchedFor he also appreciates: “VouchedFor does more than any other review platform to check the authenticity of reviews. That means more people trust it.”