How to improve your communication skills with clients

Talking to clients will always differ as everyone has different personalities and characteristics. As financial advisors, we often face clients that tend to either overshare or are not forthcoming with information. Ee Kah Teik, a four-year MDRT member from Malaysia, shares three tips to help improve your conversation game with clients.  

Use good conversation starters  

A good introduction will always be the starting point for any fruitful conversation. By starting the conversation right, Ee says that it will lead to a productive meeting. He says when visiting a first-time client, he starts off the conversation by asking about their job and where do they work, or ask what their favorite cuisine is, and whether they like to eat out or cook at home instead, or what their plans are for the weekend. He has seen over the years that these questions have helped clients get comfortable before getting into the financial aspect of the discussion.  

“Keeping the client's attention and developing a connection would only be possible when the conversation starts off well.” Ee understands that not all conversations would be fruitful. However, he believes that with a good conversation starter, the client will have a good impression of you and enough for them to want to return to you.  

Additionally, he uses these questions on clients to help him understand how they are spending their money. “Answers to such questions will help us understand how our clients are choosing to spend their money, giving us more insight to their financial habits,”Ee explains. 

Ask plenty of closed-ended questions  

When dealing with clients who are less expressive, Ee says financial advisors can use closed-ended questions to help maneuver the conversation in the right way or to gain further information. Closed-ended questions are perfect for such clients as they can be answered with short, fixed replies. 

As an example, Ee shares a list of close-ended questions: 

• What social media platform do you use most often? 
• Are you happy with where you live? 
• Do you plan to send your children to study overseas? 
• How many times do you exercise a week? 
• At what age do you think you’ll retire? 

Ee adds that “closed-ended questions are useful in situations where you are looking for a quick and solid answer, but they are not conversation starters to reach a level of explanation behind their answers.”  

Adapt to your client’s communication style 

Every individual client has their own way to communicate. By understanding and adapting to your client's communication style, Ee says it will help improve your relationship with them. In the digital era, many are choosing to have video calls and communicate via WhatsApp when information is needed. “After the pandemic, many of my clients prefer to discuss matters over video calls after work hours,” he says.  

Ee explains when he started out, he would email clients with updates. He soon started to see the increase in his clients choosing to call him and text him when they had follow-up questions. This was when he decided to change his approach when liaising with clients. The change had made it more convenient for him to speak with the clients as they were more responsive.  

Aside from helping you better understand your clients, asking questions and receiving input from your clients build relationships and generates trust. Ee says, “That trust will allow you to guide them toward better solutions they have not considered even if it means shifting their finances. Soon enough, these conversations will play in your favour.” 

Contact: MDRTeditorial@teamlewis.com