How to cultivate relationships with female advisory clients

The following is an edited transcript of a webcast, “Women and Investing: How to Build, Maintain and Grow Relationships,” held April 9 in New York. InvestmentNews editor Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. was the moderator.

InvestmentNews: Our first panelist is Cathy Curtis, founder of Curtis Financial Planning. Cathy’s practice targets female clients, and many of her clients are single women. Our next guest, Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network, does not specifically target female clients. That said, Sheryl brings a lot of insight into working with women and their spouses, and believes there are, in fact, definite differences in how women approach their finances and what they expect from their adviser.

Before we begin, a few statistics to keep in mind. One, $14 trillion in personal wealth assets are controlled by women. That figure is expected to grow to $22 trillion by 2020. You should also keep in mind that 95% of women will be their family’s primary financial decision maker at some point in their lives. And finally, while women themselves are not necessarily a niche, there are segments — executive women or divorced women, for example — that are true niches, and firms that focus on a particular niche tend to grow three times faster than the average firm.

Cathy, tell us about your practice and why you decided to focus specifically on female clients.

Ms. Curtis: My firm, Curtis Financial Planning, is actually a division of a larger firm, ClearRock Capital LLC. However, I was independent for 12 years before joining that firm. And in the past few years, since 2008, I made a shift and decided to focus exclusively on female clients.

Why did I do this? One, prior to that, I didn’t have a niche. I was marketing to everybody and anyone, and it just was not working. I read all the studies of how important it is to have a niche clientele and I really believe it. I chose women because I was an independent woman building my own financial life. I got married later in life. I had quite a few financial successes myself and I felt I could pass along some of my knowledge to my clients. I’ve been a personal-finance junkie since my teens.

And second, women communicate differently than men, and I feel like my communication style is very suitable to working with women. And I know we’re going to get into a little bit more about the communication differences later on, but since I decided to market to women in 2008, my business has been on a very strong growth trajectory. So I know I made the right decision.

InvestmentNews: Sheryl, tell us about your practice and then share your observations about what women expect from their advisers as opposed to your male clients.

Ms. Garrett: I didn’t specifically focus on women as my market niche but rather the theme of fee-only financial planning and advice for everyday life. So I tended to attract almost always heterosexual couples and we focused on everyday kinds of issues. So I was working with a lot of middle-income individuals, as well as do-it-yourselfers and validators, not so much delegator types.

So I found that a lot of women were attracted to these services, due to the way that we could spend as much energy as appropriate and necessary to work on whatever it was that they wanted to work on.

CONNECTION

I think what women are looking for or expecting from their advisers is clarity. A lot of it’s in the communication style. They want someone they can connect with. And when I say connection, it’s usually related to our communication, whether that’s orally or messages on our website and those types of things. We’re going to have a very intimate relationship as adviser and client, and women recognize that being open and getting to the heart of the matter — the more emotional versus mental kind of issues — will help us to develop our relationship and get to their objectives more readily and quickly.

What women expect from their advisers is education and empowerment. And that is not necessarily just women, but to quote the old adage, women ask for directions. And I found that to be very common with my women clients, even if they’re part of a couple.

InvestmentNews: Cathy, you’ve designed your website around your female clients. Do empowerment and education play a theme there?

Ms. Curtis: Yes. When I decided to market specifically to women, the first thing I did was rebuild my website. In fact, I re-branded myself totally in the name, my tagline, the colors I chose on my website, the language on my website, the message. And now when a woman finds me doing an Internet search, which is quite common, or is referred to me, the first thing they do is go to the website. Then they’ll pick up the phone and call me, and the first sentence is, “I found you and I love your website.” So I think it’s really important for advisers to realize that the language that you use in communicating on your website, your blog and your marketing materials — the look and feel of your website — is critical if you want to have success in attracting female clients.

And I wanted to comment on something that Sheryl said about what she does: Her practice didn’t attract delegators. What’s interesting about who I’m attracting is, I’m attracting women who are most definitely delegators. They’re looking for a partner, sort of a financial spouse. These are single women, and they want somebody to take over the financial planning and investing for them because they are very busy doing the rest of the things in their life. Part of my message is that I can offer that to them.

InvestmentNews: Cathy, how specifically did you change the language in your communications to attract women?

Ms. Curtis: Well, for example, on my home page, instead of just jumping in and talking about my services and what I do, I have “The Simple Truths About Money” that I wrote and that are just kind of fun to read. They speak to my investment philosophy and how I think about financial planning. And that’s even before somebody can dig in and find out what my services are and my fees are and all those kind of things. The other thing is, I put my fees on my website. I think women really appreciate transparency because that starts the trust-building process right from the beginning.

TALKING TO A COUPLE

InvestmentNews: Sheryl, you’re very conscious of the language you use when you have a male client and his spouse, a woman, sitting right next to each other.

Ms. Garrett: Yes. We have to recognize that we’re dealing with two distinct human beings, and women and men receive information differently or absorb and process information differently. Terms that might motivate a man, such as, “I want to beat the market,” have more of a competitive edge. If looking back three years from now to evaluate whether we had a successful relationship, the responses from the men and the women likely will be quite different. The man very typically might say something along the lines of, “You helped us,” or, “Our plan enabled us to get to where we wanted to be,” or, “We were able to beat the market with less risk” — something very metric-oriented or math-oriented in the way they communicate or define things. And a woman might respond, “I feel really confident that we know where we’re going.” So it’s more about security and less about math, measurements and metrics.

But when I’m talking with individuals, I’m getting information from both of them. We all have been coached to engage each party that we’re talking to, make sure that we’re making good eye contact with both parties. Often one party of the couple is more of the instigator. But when we’re going through those types of questions and I hear something from one party of the couple, I need to reframe that and mirror it back in a way that I’m getting feedback from the other party. For instance, the man says, “I feel that we have enough money to accomplish our objectives,” and the woman says, “Well, I’m not so sure of that.” So I might respond something about it being a very important question to make certain that you have the money necessary to accomplish your objectives.

So I’m talking more of trying to reframe or possibly paraphrase a message that I’ve heard from the male party of the couple or the female, depending on if there are different messages. Then I put them together and see if I’m getting agreement from both parties.

InvestmentNews: You’re really listening and watching with two sets of eyes and ears in this dialogue.

Ms. Garrett: Precisely. It’s not at all uncommon for one party of the couple to do 90% of the talking at a meeting, and I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, the couple may prefer that. Sometimes it can be the woman doing the talking, and I need to make sure that I’m checking in with him. I don’t want one party of the couple to railroad the plan; it needs to be a plan that is designed for the two individuals.

InvestmentNews: Cathy, in terms of establishing a solid connection with fe-male clients and prospects, you mentioned openness and transparency. How does that play out in practice?

Ms. Curtis: First off, what I find with women is that the last 10 years have created a tremendous amount of distrust in the market and advisers, and they don’t believe they can make money in the market. They’ve been through these two bad markets and they were investing their money themselves, so perhaps they made the typical individual-investor mistake of getting out at the wrong time.

So I try very, very hard in the first meeting to explain exactly how I do business. It’s one of the reasons I like to combine financial planning with investment management, because with financial planning, you get to know everything about them. It’s not just about their money or their portfolio; it’s about their families, and what their dreams and goals are.

In my questionnaire package, I have a money personality questionnaire and a financial satisfaction questionnaire. And the reason I do that is so that I can get to know them beyond their portfolio. I want to know what they value, what they feel about money, what their experiences were growing up — things like that. You build trust by showing that you care about them as a whole person, and I find that that really resonates with women.

SHOULD AN ADVISER SHARE?

InvestmentNews: Sheryl, do you see that your female clients want more openness back from you rather than them just telling you everything about their lives? I mean, do you share stuff with them, as well?

Ms. Garrett: Yes, maybe more than they had intended, but it seems to work for me. And I think a lot of men are also growing more comfortable, and I noticed definitely a dramatic shift after 9/11 — where things that matter to us in life are experiences and relationships with people that we love and care about more than getting the biggest pile of money. Talking about our values and our goals, and our attitude and our fears, may be more natural for a woman because we’re wired that way.

Women and girls tend to share and focus on things. One of these comparison surveys that I’ve read about differences between men and women as it relates to money talked about how men compare and women share. And I think to really resonate and connect well with our women clients, it’s important for us to also be sharing. We need to phrase the questionnaires in a way that focuses on the people in our lives, who we are doing all this planning for.

Someone once said, related to the term “personal financial planning,” there’s two P’s versus one F. It’s not about the finances; it’s about the personal and the people. If we focus on that twice as hard as we focus on the finance aspect of financial planning, we’ll do much better. But I would also take the openness and transparency to things like how you dress, your office attire, your office environment. Cathy mentioned about the website — I really think it’s appropriate to have a website that mirrors the way that you work and operate, and that represents you. I strongly advocate for video on websites and we’re definitely going to be adding more to the Garrett Planning Network website.

Also, I decided to embrace the notion of going casual. I’ve found that almost every one of my clients came to me in casual attire unless they happen to be coming straight from work or it was during their workday and they had on business dress clothes. So I mirror my clients in their dress, as well — I dress more casually. And I put it to folks that the bottom line is, we’re going to get intimate really quickly with our financial planning work. The quicker we do that, the quicker we get to what matters most to you, so I want to strip away all barriers, such as me in a business suit with a table between us or a desk between us.

One of my former employers was very strong on making sure that we don’t overdo the look of our office. He didn’t want to have clients come away feeling that the money they spend on us goes straight to paying for our fancy office environment. And I think that’s a very healthy thought, and I would continue that thought further and say when you’re dealing with me, you’ve got the real me. Clients can ask me questions just like I ask them, and I tell them, “I’m going to ask you a whole lot of questions.” I dive right in and I’ve never had anyone hold up their hand saying, “Why do you need to know about the longevity of my parents?” or, “Why do you need to know about my adult children?”

HOW TO GET STARTED

InvestmentNews: I’d also like to talk to you for a few minutes about how an adviser can start building this kind of a practice — a female-oriented practice, or maybe they just want to make it a little segment. Should they just go out and say, “I’m going to target all women,” or are they better served focusing on a specific group of women? Cathy, what do you think about that?

Ms. Curtis: The language I use is “savvy women and their families,” and it’s so interesting because a good percentage of the time, the exact type of client that I want walks through my door. So something in what I’m doing with my marketing and my website and my blog is appealing to this assertive single or partnered women — usually, if she’s in a partnership, married or not, she’s the one that takes the lead in the finances but wants to delegate. I think you choose to market yourself in a way to bring in the type of clients you want.

InvestmentNews: We’re getting a lot of questions around how you prospect for women, besides just getting referrals from existing clients.

Ms. Curtis: Well, one thing I do is, I’m a public speaker. I’ve developed a few topics that I speak about to women’s groups. “The Simple Truths About Money” is one. I also wrote an e-book called “The Happiness Spreadsheet.” It’s about combining your values with how you spend your money. I have a speaker’s kit that I put up on my website and on my LinkedIn profile. In fact, a young women’s sciences group just asked me to speak about basic financial planning topics at their next meeting.

I find that is a really, really good way to prospect.

I also have done women-centric events. I always try and tie in a serious topic with something fun that appeals to women, whether it be fashion or food. I find it’s very difficult to get busy women to show up to a seminar when all you’re going to talk about is portfolio building or taxes or whatever. And it’s more fun for everybody, and women really appreciate a networking opportunity. If you invite a quality group of women, you know some will connect in some way.

Ms. Garrett: I truly believe that the skills involved in attracting women as clients will benefit all of our engagements with all of our clients. I’ve got two women colleagues who went into business together and put on their website that they’re focusing on working with women professionals, and women and their families.

And in visiting with them, they said the funny thing is, they went all out thinking that as two former Wall Streeters and women, they naturally will attract professional women. What they’re finding is, even though they put that on their website, “Hey, all professional women, come here, we’d love to serve you,” they’re finding that they’re getting a lot of men and couples — in fact, some single men. And so I think what it boils down to is dealing with the real-life things that matter to us — will I have what I need, can I take care of my kids, can I take care of myself and my family, what about health care, what about later in life and stuff like that.

InvestmentNews: A question has come up on the message board from our audience: How do you build relationships with your female clients when they’re not in your office? In other words, what do they respond to in terms of e-mails, cards, birthday greetings, etc.? How do you maintain contact with your female clients? What do they prefer?

Ms. Curtis: That always depends on the client. Some clients want a lot of contact, others don’t. You have to assess that with each individual. But generally speaking, I do see my clients one-on-one where we’re not talking about business at all — like lunch or coffee or dinner. I take the relationship a little bit further, not quite good friends but leaning towards that direction. I’m not afraid of doing that. I know some advisers may not want to be that intimate with their clients, but it seems to work for me and it makes the relationship stickier.

I also use e-mail. I have my newsletter which I put out quarterly and I get a lot of great responses from current clients who really enjoyed an article that I wrote or from prospects who may have forgotten about me but they get my newsletter. So I love the newsletter. I didn’t do one for years and I’m so glad that I’m doing that now. It’s a way to keep in touch with people four times a year. I maintain my list. I add people to it whenever I’m out networking or at these speaking engagements and I think that’s a really great way to prospect. I also have a blog called Of Independent Means and I write blog posts specifically to my target clients.

InvestmentNews: I’m going to assume your newsletter isn’t just a bunch of numbers about your performance in that quarter.

Ms. Curtis: No, there’s nothing about performance or portfolios in the newsletter. First off, it’s a compilation of my latest two or three blog posts, because I find that it’s not necessarily true that people that read my blog are reading the newsletter and vice versa. And then I’ll go on the Internet and find articles that I think are really pertinent to today’s economy, and add some educational articles there about Roth IRAs or something. I really try and think hard about what would my client want to read, what are they most likely to click on? I really get a big thrill when I see that there are lots of clicks going on.

InvestmentNews: Is there a different way of asking for referrals from male clients versus female clients?

Ms. Garrett: Well, I have to offer up a slightly different suggestion. I had the opportunity to read Steve Wershing’s new book, “Stop Asking for Referrals” (McGraw-Hill, 2012), and I strongly encourage it. His argument is that the way we ask for referrals is inherently wrong. It makes people feel awkward.

When I was working with individual clients, I didn’t have minimums and I found that that one difference affected the number of referrals dramatically. Not having minimums made getting referrals from anyone a lot easier. And so when people ask someone, “What do you think?” they say, “Oh, well, Sheryl takes care of that for me. Give her a call.”

WHAT DRIVES REFERRALS

So I think that was the bigger driver of the referrals is the lack of minimums, but I would have to go back to: It’s about the messaging. What causes people to talk about us is the messaging and sending personal messages.

As Cathy mentioned, if there’s something in your blog or an article that you read, you hand-select the nugget that you think will be really important to a group of clients or one client, and you push that out to that individual with a personal note. I think that makes so much difference and it doesn’t take a lot.

InvestmentNews: Do you think female clients appreciate that personal message more than your male clients, or do you think it doesn’t make a difference — everyone appreciates a very personal message?

Ms. Garrett: I have heard back from the women that they appreciated it. I presume that some of the men appreciate it, but I also would think that for some people, it may be a waste of energy. I receive a lot of newsletters that go directly into the virtual recycling bin, but others I read cover-to-cover.

InvestmentNews: Cathy, how do your female clients respond to social media? Is there a way to tailor a message in social media for women only?

Ms. Curtis: I know there’s a lot of controversy about whether social media does any good for your business or not. I use it to draw people to my hub, which is my website and my blog, because that’s where they’re going to learn more about me and what I do. So when I’m using Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, I have that in the back of my mind. So I try and keep my messages to a few key topics — one is, of course, personal finance. I rarely tweet about specific investments, but I will talk about broader personal finance topics that I think would appeal to a woman prospect. I also try and show my personality and interest by talking about things that I do. I’m into food and restaurants and things like that. People really respond to those, so they’re looking at me as a whole person.

INCREASED VISIBILITY

Getting a client directly from social media — for example someone tweets, “I want to hire you” — is not very common. I don’t believe that happens a lot for anybody. However, it increases your visibility on the Internet to a dramatic degree where it’s easier to find you on a simple web search. And all kinds of other great things happen from social media that aren’t related to specifically prospecting for clients, like media opportunities. Here I am on this webcast, and things like that happen a lot. So I can’t say enough about how valuable social media has been to me, and I think it should be in every adviser’s tool kit in some way or another.

InvestmentNews: If you could give one piece of advice to advisers today about how to bring more female clients into their firms and build a relationship with these women — and, more importantly, to serve them well as advisers — what would it be?

Ms. Garrett: I want my communication style to be consistent with me, the authentic me, and I want to get to know the authentic client or prospective client as quickly as possible for efficiency’s sake and the cost of the work. Focusing on what matters most in life tends to resonate with women in general — it also resonates with an awful lot of men — and the daily money manager in most households is the woman.

Ms. Curtis: I’m going to cheat and quote Maya Angelou. “People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.” You have to remember feelings and emotions — not first, but definitely right up there with the numbers and details of financial planning and investing.

Related Topics: Practice Management