Framing: Re-frame the Presentation of Ideas and Suitable Solutions

This post is part 2 of our 10 part series on Financial Behavioral Insights from our Financial Performance in the New Behavioral Economy White Paper. The financial behavior insights will help you gain greater self-awareness for recognizing some of your own behavioral tendencies and also those of investors.

Behavioral Insight 2:? Framing

Chris, a financial advisor, has invited 20 clients with similar levels of wealth and age to his office for a lunch and learn presentation by Paul Southwick on a new investment strategy. The new strategy is to provide a mix of dividends and capital growth with some downside protection. Chris has vetted the investment and believes it will fit his clients well. Paul uses a PowerPoint presentation with great content in it about the bottom line of the investment and is an articulate presenter. As he goes through the presentation there are clearly some who get it and want to sign up, there are others who are totally confused by the details and switched off, others who want to do more research and some who need to understand how it meets their security needs. After the lunch Chris is very concerned about the mixed reaction and losing client trust. He knows the product is sound and he will invest personally.

Behavioral Insight
The difference between what the advisor said and what the client heard will be attributable to the behavioral lens of each. The communication of products and solutions must be adapted.

Have you ever attended a presentation like the one Chris arranged and been de-energized, bamboozled and confused by the investment proposal and not responded? Understanding investors learning styles and propensities for receiving information, new ideas, strategies, products and solutions is critical to successfully presenting to them. This will increase the chance that they understand the proposal for what it is and how it is relevant to them.? The mistake many advisors and fund managers make is that they naturally present to investors through their own lens. Instead, they should be re-framing how they present to be much more on the investors unique terms.

Advisors need to appreciate that with 20 people in the room there could be 20 different reactions, because each person is unique. The best way to get around this is to re-structure the proposal being presented into 4 quadrants so that each broad category of behavioral needs is addressed: 1. The big picture and how it relates to achieving goals and bottom-line returns, 2. Indicate how their lifestyle needs are met along with telling them the names of the people involved in managing the product or solution, 3. Address financial security and provide feelings, 4. Make the solution tangible and provide the history and research details.

Learning Point:
Advisors need to use behavioral insights to customize their communication with clients and to re-frame the presentation of ideas and suitable solutions so the client interprets the information as intended.

What are your thoughts? For additional information on discovery through behavioral profiles, click here.

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