Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 438th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Nikki Savage. Nikki is a senior director in the Tampa, Florida, office of the RIA Sequoia Financial Group, where she manages approximately $150 million in assets under management for 100 client households.
What’s unique about Nikki, though, is how she has been able to boost client retention and satisfaction by asking key questions that help her reach a deeper level of understanding with prospects and clients and ultimately provide them with a higher level of service.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Nikki uses a series of questions to dig deep into a client’s background to ensure they feel heard, understood, and cared for, how Nikki views the importance of having a good match between an advisor’s strengths and personality and their clients’ needs (and why this suggests that not every advisor-client relationship is a good fit), and how Nikki adds a personal touch to client gifts in order to ensure they stand out and cement lasting relationships (improving client retention in the process).
We also talk about how Nikki tends to avoid small talk when starting client meetings, preferring to instead follow up directly on a previously discussed event in their personal lives (demonstrating her ability to see them as unique individuals), Nikki’s tactics for addressing mistaken assumptions prospects and clients sometimes bring to the table to calm their nerves during market volatility and keep them focused on their goals, and how Nikki prepares a customized meeting summary and follow-on task list (and has the client acknowledge that it reflects their experience in the meeting as well before it is finalized) to further ensure clients feel heard and understood.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Nikki shares how she creates meaningful in-person events that bring together clients and prospects who fit her ideal client persona to discuss their challenges in a comfortable environment, how Nikki learned how to filter out worthwhile feedback from the constant barrage of (often unsolicited) opinions on how she should operate her practice, and how Nikki’s career path has led her to a firm that allows her to build and run her practice in a way that’s aligned with her values so she can be her authentic self when meeting with prospects and clients.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to dig deep into a client’s background to build stronger relationships and promote client retention, creating meaningful in-person events that can generate interest from new prospects, or how to build a practice that’s aligned with one’s values, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Nikki Savage.
