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Improving Client Engagement

Practice Management

 

A more personal approach is key to better engaging with individuals and building clientele and sales, argues the head of an organization that provides retirement education in a recent webcast.

In “Three Ways to Improve Client Engagement and Increase Sales,” Edward Dressel, President of  RetireReady Solutions, offered his insights on better connecting with individuals and thereby increasing their engagement — and boosting sales and revenue in the process.

“It starts with a meeting with people who don’t want to be there,” said Dressel. “The industry has a problem engaging with individuals,” he said, adding “We’re not engaging people.”

Dressel advocates a personal approach in order to build engagement. “Statistics are lost on the masses,” he said, noting that “stories have connection power that statistics don’t.” Facts inform, he said, but a story “makes music out of noise.”
During presentations and meetings, Dressel argued that it is important to take advantage of PowerPoint’s strength. He had some concrete suggestions:

  • don’t crowd the screen;
  • don’t read off the screen;
  • maximize the images;
  • don’t make icons too small;
  • reduce data and analysis on PowerPoint; and
  • allow the audience just the key points.

In presentations, said Dressler, “Concentrate on areas people relate to. Meet them where they are. They don’t connect to the passion of what someone says if it is too technical.” He continued, “Stay away from the abstract. Stay in the concrete.”

Application to Retirement

And these principles can be used regarding presentations concerning retirement, Dressler noted. “What does retirement look like? he asked, suggesting that it can help to show how to integrate the components of retirement readiness. “Show rates of return,” he suggested, adding that one also can show to fix take-home pay and what it means to wait” concerning setting funds aside and accessing those funds. “Help them understand their anxiety,” he said.

“It’s not static, it’s dynamic,” Dressler said of discussing retirement planning. It’s “much better to be dynamic if you can,” he said, adding that it “will be so much better to engage them,” which he said “can’t happen with static information.” It’s better to address their concerns interactively, argued Dressler.