85%

71%

50%

Less

Only 40.2% of the combined respondents strongly agreed with that statement.

You trust your own credibility. You know your own intentions. You know your own level of client care. In your mind, you are the logical choice. We have found that the vast majority of advisors are credible, well-intentioned people. Then why does that Report say otherwise?

The answer comes from the first day of training in psychology – different perceptions. Clients do not see your actual credibility; they only know what they perceive. Across the financial industry, when clients question advisor credibility, it's simply because those advisors have not yet learned how to marry their good intentions with what the clients see – their actions and behavior.

The Disconnect. From our own work in psychology and neuro-linguistics, we know that there is often a disconnect between intention and behavior. No two people share the same perception of anything. You have the best intentions for your client, but something in your behavior works against you and transmits a conflicting message to the client.

The "red flag" is typically triggered by something miniscule. Indeed, may of our clients could not even tell they were committing these mistakes, which could be as simple as a change in where your eyes look or when you move your eyebrows. Or, as simple as using a wrong word. Any of those things can cause doubt to pop into that client's mind. And, when it does, what gets damaged is the client's perception of your credibility – not your actual credibility. You remain the same credible person, but the client is gone.

1 The solution:

When you focus on the client's perceptions,

you will begin to solve that problem.

Learning how to do that requires you to learn a set of skills that are typically NOT taught in the financial industry. However, they are taught to psychological practitioners, professionals who need to gain rapport and trust very quickly. (Sounds like you, doesn't it?) They learn how to overcome the first perceptual bump – safety. Strangers do not open up to people they do not feel safe with.

Look at the graphic below. See that Safety is the very first box. Everything else comes later.

The Credibility Process

Safety = Trust:

Safety is the Trust Factor. An ill-timed eye movement, a shuffle of your feet, an innocent gesture – they can all quickly derail your relationship by giving the client an inadvertently negative perception that causes him to feel unsafe.

By "safe," we're not talking about some abstract, academic or intellectual trust. We're talking about physical attack or manipulation. Consider this – the people who wanted what you have to offer (but decided not to do business with you), most likely turned away because of some little incongruent thing you did. And, because of it, they decided to withhold trust from you. It's not that they feared being attacked by you. It's more likely they feared being manipulated by you.

Quick Story. A few years ago, one of my psychologist friends and I created an act that we performed at a big insurance expo. We billed ourselves as the Amazing Mental Brothers. Our act consisted of getting people from the audience to come up onto the stage.

Once on the stage, we simply asked our volunteers some simple questions, and when we learned something about them, we'd say, "Pause," then tell the audience what we'd learned and how we learned it. The entire act was based on this skill set I'm talking about in this article – reading people's nonverbal behavior. That's what your clients (and prospects) are doing to you. When you learn how to do it, your chances of establishing a safe haven for your new clients is greatly increased.

One of the first steps to establish a safe haven for a client, and develop a meaningful business relationship, is to find out what his values are. They are not to be used to "guide" the person into buying a product. That would sabotage your more important goals. In fact, using values to sell a product is tantamount to grabbing a quick win but sacrificing – well, sacrificing your credibility. Your job is to use those values to make sure the client feels safe and ultimately gets what he really wants.

The University of Missouri released a study called the "2006 Survey of the Elements of Communication That Affect Trust and Commitment in the Financial Planning Process." It suggests that planners and advisors who best understand the core values and interests of clients are more likely to lead them toward truly rewarding investments. Nearly 83% of clients and 84% of advisors agreed that they must understand a client's values and priorities before they can give effective financial advice.

It should be obvious from that University of Missouri research that you need to discover what the other person's values are. But how? Here are the two most effective ways I teach our clients to do it:

1. Behaviors. Behaviors show you how the person takes action on and brings his values to life. If a client claims a value but does not put it into action, then it's not really a value. I call these the "wanna be values." And, if it's not a real value, then you would not include it in your planning work. You would not be able to motivate the person by promising those values.
2. Listen. In the course of a conversation, when a person honestly expresses, he will express his values. Simply initiate a conversation about a specific topic, something of importance that the client wants to fund or save for. As he mentions values, just write them down. Then ask, "What do you mean?" Or, "I love that, tell me more." How do you know when he/she is honestly expressing? That's an area of "people reading" called "eye-accessing cues."

Why are values important to you? Values are actually power sources. They provide you with energy. Think of values as the things in your mind that motivate your decisions and give you highly focused energy so you can perform the specific activities necessary to bring your values to life.

Negative Values vs Positive Values. The research conducted by Rodger Bailey at IBM found that approximately half the population looks to accomplish goals and the other half looks to avoid problems. So, think of goals as positive values and problems to avoid as negative values.

If your client gives you an indication that something always bothers him, write that down. It means he has a value to avoid whatever that is. What if he's very serious about not running out of money? That's a negative value. What if he is determined to have enough retirement income to do what he wants for the remainder of his life? That's a positive value. In your mind, you might think they are the same thing, just worded differently. You would be wrong. Realize that the truth is not in your mind, it's in the client's mind. The way he phrases the value is exactly how you need to phrase it back to him.

Your Reward

Pam and I have been teaching financial professionals how to build their credibility for about ten years in our coaching and training. Most of the training has been sponsored by large firms and organizations. We have not done a public workshop in many years. Considering the information in the Rand Report, we see a more pressing need to reach out and help the industry recover from this black eye. So, let's see how we can use training and coaching to turn that perception around for you.

What next? If you could design a training event that would equip you with the exact knowledge and skills necessary to prove that you are a well-intentioned, credible professional, that you want to (and know how to) build meaningful, relevant relationships with your client – what would it include?

Here are a few examples:

• Improve client receptivity to your ideas.
• Make sure your message really connects with the client.
• Non-verbal behaviors that resonate with clients.
• How to determine a client's values.
• How to show that you are relevant to the client's needs.
• How to establish safety and trust with prospects.
• The answers to your specific credibility questions!

The training event is real. It will take place the week of May 19 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we will be joined by our good friend Paul Scaffidi. Tuition is $250. If you would like to attend and get a $50 discount, look back at that last item in the list. We want this program to be absolutely and personally relevant to you, so if you'll send me your credibility questions (michael @ aboutpeople.com), I'll take $50 off the tuition for this first Advisor Credibility Workshop.