Money is a sensitive topic for some people to talk about, but when you’re a financial advisor, you need to be able to communicate clearly and openly about finances — even when your client is a little bit nervous or uncomfortable. In today’s blog post, the team at Alpha Droid is going to cover a few tips to help you communicate better with your clients about their money. From helping them get more comfortable with the topic to explaining more challenging aspects of finance (like stocks and bonds), we have got you covered. Let’s get started.

Discuss Their Goals

While some of your clients may get a bit uneasy when talking about finances, you need to remind yourself that there’s a reason they are in your practice. They came to you because they need your assistance. With that being said, there is some sort of goal that your client has, and it’s crucial that they share it with you for you to do your job. Aside from that, talking about financial goals is a great way to break the ice with the topic. In doing so, you and your client have the ability to brainstorm and converse about finances with one goal in mind. 

Discussing goals is also a great time to gain some perspective on the scenario that you’ll be working with. If their goal is something that you can’t guarantee, aren’t able to help with, or is entirely unattainable, it’s good to know up front so that you can better serve them. 

Encourage Transparency

As their financial advisor, the last thing that you want is to have to interpret everything that they’re saying to you. As if keeping up with the market trends wasn’t challenging enough, some clients will give you vague responses that leave you unsure of where you stand. From the get-go, it’s good to encourage transparency with your client. They are expecting the same from you, and if you’re going to provide them with quality results, you need to know everything — the good and the bad. No matter how difficult it is to share, explain to them that transparency is a must when it comes to providing sound advice with finances. The sooner that you put this out there, the better.

Lamens Terms

Nothing is more infuriating or frustrating than not being able to understand what is happening with your money. Unfortunately, the financial advisory world is not an easy one to wrap your head around. For most of us in the industry, it’s jargon that we live and breathe every day, but if you’re not dealing with financial scenarios directly, it can be a lot to handle. With that being said, you want to make sure that when you talk to your clients about investments or financial choices, you aren’t talking to them like they’re one of your coworkers.

As we mentioned earlier, finances can be a challenging thing for people to talk about, but it becomes all the more difficult when they feel overwhelmed or like they don’t understand what’s happening. So, if there is something important with their finances that they need to comprehend, you’re going to need to figure out how to break it down into a way they’ll understand. Whether that means creating images, printing out charts, or finding the right words to explain it, speaking at their level of understanding is a must for quality client relationships. 

Read Body Language

Body language is one of the best ways to really get an idea of how your client is feeling. We can’t say it enough, finances are a sensitive topic! Read the body language of your client to get an idea of how they’re feeling, whether or not they’re understanding what you’re saying, if they’re uncomfortable with the idea you’re presenting, and the like. Once you’ve grasped their current emotion for the topic at hand, you can better navigate the rest of the conversation. 

While this isn’t necessarily a way to help you talk about money, it is a significant factor in how a conversation goes. Being able to read their body language is one thing, but you also want to make sure that when you talk about a client’s finances, you’re maintaining a good posture, have your chest up-right and open towards them, and are in a comfortable position. They will pick up on your body language too, so it’s crucial you understand what your body is conveying.

Incorporate Alpha Droid

Figuring out how to explain finances to your clients can be quite the challenge. It is, however, necessary to provide your clients with the services that they’ve come to you for. Aside from this particular challenge, there are a million and one things that a financial advisor needs to complete in their workday. That is why incorporating algorithmic trading strategies like the one by Alpha Droid can be a game changer. 

Alpha Droid has worked tirelessly to provide financial advisors with the information that they need to keep up with current market trends. Our software is something that we take pride in and love being able to offer to advisors across the nation. Learn more about the point of our finance software, and start your 30-day free trial today. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or inquiries that you need additional assistance with. We’d be more than happy to get you taken care of.