What’s that sneaking suspicion…. Are you leaving an opportunity on the table somewhere? You’re pounding the pavement, meeting prospects and closing, delivering on your promises. Check, Check, and Check. Does it feel a little like rinse and repeat? Is this what you’ll do, forever? Transactions can feel empty on their own. Here’s another sneaky worry: is your team running hard too, and feeling depleted, especially after this challenging year? You need a new strategy.
You see the opportunity right there –it’s your existing clients! They know you, the trust is built in. You need to get in front of them again. How do you keep what you already started warm and bubbling? You probably think the fix is “getting a phoner…” but guess what?
Phoners are retired.
Was that a shock? Let me explain. When was the last time you met a stewardess? At your office, is there a secretary getting your coffee? Right. Things have changed. Flight Attendants and Executive Assistants offer more professional capabilities than their predecessors did.
What you need is a Client Relationship Expert, a person with masterful skills in communication, and tech savvy for the complex follow-ups needed to engage busy professionals like your clients.
I’ve created an online course, with personal coaching options included: 8 Weeks to Client Relationship Mastery. Your staffer will be empowered when they're equipped with the warm-hearted, efficient system I teach. The side benefit shared by my mentees: while they used to dread communication tasks ("Christy, it felt like jumping without a parachute!"), now they’re confident. I call this aspect of my mentoring the Empowerment Engine.
Invest in your team the way Corporate invests in you
There are cheaper ways to try this, with A.I. assistants (artificial intelligence) and automated schedulers. The fact is, a good ‘phoner’ used to smile and dial, and simply fill up your calendar. But things have changed. There are so many ways to connect now (multiple phone lines, video chat, email, instant messaging), people have packed schedules and unpredictable lifestyles. They’re choosey about speaking with anyone at all—lots of folks won’t answer their own phones, ever! (So, how will that phoner get the job done?)
The old approach is over. I can equip a Client Relations Expert for your team. Your staffer becomes an efficient, confident communicator in Today’s Environment. I infuse them with a particular Moxie...call it my secret sauce!
The New Normal is here. There’s a reason I’ve been called the Unicorn for years now, but I don't want to be the only one. My mission is to make a herd of unicorns! This is the New Way to relate to your clients, make them feel seen and understood, and bind them to your practice.
You will uncover your stable client base, such raving fans of you and your team, you’ll be gaining dozens of quality introductions to your practice.
We know the world will never be the same. Work relationships are forever changed. People expect more service while craving REAL connection. Now is the time to level up your way of engaging people. This is a Relationship model, offering so much more to the people you're helping. You’ll minimize the rinse and repeat cycle of ‘Selling,” and approach financial planning in a big-hearted way. You and your team will offer personal service when and how it's needed. Your Client Relationship Expert will be gathering and sorting data daily, and your practice becomes a smooth-running machine.
Feedback on my course
“I wish I got an email from Christy every day!”
from a happy client of a Top performing financial advisor
Saved me time, the First WEEK!
“Christy trained my newest team member, who has been helping me with existing and new clients for about 6 months now. I must say, he saved me time the first WEEK I brought him into my practice. He keeps my calendar full, allowing me to focus on what I do best—being with my clients. I’m able to make a larger impact on my community because I’m in front of people, instead of calling them. I would recommend Christy to anyone looking to take their practice to the next level!"
Practice Asset, Time Saver
"(With Christy’s system in operation,) my clients use my full spectrum services more, so risk clients are becoming investment clients. In 2017, my investment income was up +45%. 2018 & 2019 were great years, and for 2020, I've increased my new assets by 67%.
She helps me create work/life balance. Christy’s methods give clients the amount of attention they want, and I have time to build lasting relationships in a more measured way."
The Gold Standard
"Simply put, I have observed Christy to be the most effective Communications Manager in my 30+ years with Northwestern Mutual. She is the Gold Standard in my eyes. Advisors who work with Christy have calendars filled with appointments."
A Great Investment
"Christy has made an immediate impact with our new marketing hire. We saw right away her excitement for her role and daily activities. After a couple of weeks working with Mary, we are already coming in every Monday with full calendars. Hiring Christy was the best money we spent this year!"
Christy's Course is the Secret Weapon
“I am blown away by the online course 8 Weeks to Relationship Mastery! Each module meticulously breaks down the elements to navigate the professional relationship between a Client Relations Expert, Financial Advisor and Client. This excellent course is designed to inform those interested in becoming a Client Relations Expert, as well as those already working in the profession. You gain so much insight from Christy's experience. She’s dedicated to grooming you for work in the corporate arena with financial service professionals. You learn proper etiquette, honing the communication skills required for this job. Christy provides valuable information needed to know exactly how to approach situations you will be challenged with. Besides taking you through each module, there are great resources from her website to give you a quick start, and use as a reference for future questions. The course is the secret weapon for helping to build a successful business with your Boss and the team you work with.”
Get in touch for a Free 20 Minute consultation with me.
Learn more about services on my site.
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How Are You Addressing Your Clients’ Realistic Fears, One Year into the Pandemic?
Mar 08, 2021
I’m humbled by the positive feedback I’ve received on my recent blog series. One question on everyone’s mind is: what is the best way to grow our firm’s business when there is so much financial uncertainty?
How do we assuage our clients’ concerns, considering how many businesses are struggling during this pandemic? Even though the economy is rebounding, it’s slow going. You can make your own list of businesses hit hard in recent months. Here’s a start—hospitality (restaurants, hotels, resorts); the gathering industry (conferences, trade shows, weddings); live music (small clubs & concert venues); live theatre, with the many professionals working behind the scenes; face to face helping professions; plus suppliers adjacent to all of the previous in this list.
Outperform the competition by cultivating TRUST
Because of this environment, the time to improve client engagement skills is now. They are key to maintaining and growing your existing business, and serve as a competitive advantage in the larger financial services industry.
There is no substitute for relationship. You can’t fake it. The small steps taken by the week, the season, and year build on themselves, creating the trust your clients crave and need. You are a fiduciary. And you prove that by showing them you’re dedicated to their well-being.
While advisors like you are doing well, the staff you employ feel the same worries your clients do—that they may not be equipped for what’s to come. Are you confident your team feels secure? Are they evolving to meet the new climate we’re facing?
How are you serving your team, and cultivating their job satisfaction?
Financial planning is a process, not a collection of products—the relationship is paramount. To offer ongoing guidance, you need to stay connected to your clients. How do you build the trust, first, and then maintain it? How does it grow, and who tends to that process? How do you create loyal, raving fans out of lukewarm clients?
You need a crackerjack team to succeed. You want the good people you’ve brought on board to stay for the long term. My coaching, alongside the unique online course I created, 8 Weeks to Client Relationship Mastery, will give your team the essential soft skills necessary to engage your clients, with a foolproof tech solution to make it efficient. I will walk with you while you build a system for offering top level service to your clients.
Pleasant Persistence is not just my BRAND. It’s my mission. My skills aren’t mythological; they are a methodical system of actions paired with a conscious use of warm-hearted connection. I show you how to build on the trust your clients placed in you, empowering your team to partner with you in service to your clients.
Like you, I’m passionate about this industry and want to do what I can to support your success. Let me know what your client relationship needs are, and what questions I can answer for you.
Contact me for a FREE 20 Minute Consultation about Your Practice.
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Work Anywhere, Learn Anywhere, Connect Anywhere (but, something’s still snagging your sweater….)
Feb 03, 2021 2020 hid some gifts inside that big helping of “No, thank you.” I don’t know if you were as productive as Sir Isaac Newton was during the plague of 1666 …. When he left college to shelter at home, he discovered integral calculus, and gravity, and studied optics. But I know for sure that you rose to the challenge!
The biggest gain I’ve noticed: we are not limited by geography anymore. Work Anywhere. Learn Anywhere. Connect Anywhere. Everyone, young and old, learned how to “Zoom.” All of us miss real across-the-table time, so honestly connecting is more important than ever before. It’s crucial to gain and maintain the trust of your clients. The soft skill of listening and relating personally is essential.
Are you confident your team is as comfortable in this area as you are?
This can be a sticky wicket for many financial practices. You ask so much of your staff. Their days are super busy. While you’ve built a foundation with each client, a comfort level with each person, for your team, every call could become an obstacle course (what to say if she asks me about…?), and emailing feels like an endless back and forth (how do I stay on top of scheduling all these people??). Your staffers don’t need extra stress…your practice needs a simple system to get this important aspect of your business under control.
I teach warm-hearted communication with tech savvy solutions, to bind clients to you for the long term.
I created my online course, 8 Weeks to Client Relationship Mastery, to stop the sweater-snagging frustration your team grumbles about. With short, digestible learning modules, downloadable scripts and templates, plus tailored support from me, you’ll be on the way to having a Client Relations Expert in your office.
Don’t be lured into the old ways, when a “phoner” just smiled and dialed. Are you still summoning the stewardess when you fly? Things are evolving, in the best of ways!
Your clients need attention. They want to feel valued. When your staff has a foolproof method for interacting with every contact, you have a Happy Team, and clients become raving fans of your practice.
The skills I teach are transferable, and repeatable. Added bonus: happy, equipped staffers stay with you. Satisfied clients build holistic financial plans and can’t help but introduce their friends and colleagues to your big-hearted practice.
Contact me to set up a Free 20 Minute consultation.
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I Don't Have to Be a Unicorn
Jan 18, 2021
“This is such a big job—it’s so many steps—ACK.” The furrowed brow, “I have so much to do already…” Resigned face, “I don’t know what to say on the phone, and those emails take FOREVER.”
Sound familiar? I know how it feels, facing a daunting, multi-element task, not sure I can fit it in around all the other work on my desk. Next comes procrastination. Fear of failure, of being less than perfect… I procrastinated all day before I wrote this!
The single, most common challenge shared with me by Everyone Ever is client engagement. The first contact, the follow up, the next attempt, finally scheduling an appointment, the last minute cancellation, the rebooking queries… it feels so impossible.
You, the advisor, have honed your communication skills, and you know the client. You built rapport with them in the beginning. Your staff, however, doesn’t have that foundation. And you need to delegate this cycle of activity, so you can concentrate on the people in front of you.
What to do?
The crucial soft skills, and the attitude adjustment, need to be nourished. You’re accustomed to investing in your professional development. You owe it to your staff to support their growth. Your team deserves to feel empowered in their language and tech skills, so the contacting cycle is efficient and effective. And, happy staff will go the extra mile for you.
Ogilvie Consulting creates Client Relations Experts. With humor, charm and a sense of fun, I coach excellent phone language, and super-effective email communication. Add in scripts, templates and my online course, 8 Weeks to Client Relationship Mastery. I break down every aspect of connecting and tracking into digestible, transferable systems.
No one balks at a job they feel equipped to do. Big-hearted, tech savvy skills push a tough job into a fruitful space where calendars fill up with interested clients. And, clients transform into raving fans of your entire team.
People I work with call me the Unicorn, because what I do, and how I do it, is rare enough to seem mythical. I propose we create a Herd of Unicorns. The professional skill of engaging and maintaining a client base is something I can teach you, and your team.
Get in touch, to learn how I can help. I'll give you a free 20 minute consultation on how to grow better, and be happier doing it.
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Master Class for the New Year
Dec 30, 2020 The popular series, Master Class, offers courses in just about anything you’re interested in, from fiction writing to fashion, cookery to psychology. Whatever sparks your curiosity, you can sign on for a series hosted by your favorite expert. You've noticed corporate offices and small businesses choose online education for employees at every level, too.
Ogilvie Consulting helps financial services professionals outperform the competition by turning their lukewarm clients into raving fans. How?
When the pandemic put an end to my in-person coaching, I realized quickly that reaching people wherever they were was my first challenge. Offices were empty. While nothing replaces the warmth of face to face meetings, it was possible to migrate most of my material to… an online course (jazz hands, big smile)
What could go wrong?
You and I have been subjected to run-of-the-mill power point presentations with dreary commentary. We know this is not a great way to deliver content! I sketched out a plan for sharp graphics and photography, with my own recorded voice over. The 8 Weeks to Mastery manual was transformed into the brand new 8 Weeks to Client Relationship Mastery online course.
I’ve honed warm-hearted communication skills and paired them with tech savvy CRM solutions. Financial practices who bring me in to create a foolproof system to engage clients see real results. And, because my methods are efficient, staffers are less stressed (read: HAPPY)!
What's the secret sauce?
I’ve spent decades in front of audiences as a singer, where sparkle is combined with well-rehearsed musical skill. And, in my teaching studio, I’ve observed what motivates students, and what turns them off. The natural solution was to pour my understandings into this new vehicle. And now you can access all of this. There is an independent study option, or sign on for graduated levels of guidance. I’ll take you and your staff by the hand, and soon you’ll see what happens when your clients become loyal, raving fans of your practice.
Please take a look at my site, and set up a Free 20 minute chat to learn more about how I can help.
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Online Course 8 Weeks to Client Relationship Mastery is here!
Dec 06, 2020
I'm happy to share today, the online course is complete. This unique 8 Week program teaches the skills required to transform your lukewarm clients into loyal raving fans. Explore my site for details, then set up a free 20 minute consultation with me.
I look forward to helping you and your team become Client Relationship Masters!
Jul 18, 2019 Recently, I held clinics for two Northwestern Mutual Greater Chicago offices, sharing my methods for client contacting and follow-up. The conference room was filled with financial representatives and staff, looking for new ideas to engage clients.
My secret is warm-hearted communication paired with technology.
When I reach people, I’m human—interested in their lives, focused on their needs. More importantly, I’m sensitive to their timelines. In other words, I treat each person as if their lives matter.
Follow-up can be infuriating. People have so much on their plates, they don't always respond to calls and emails. I simplify this painful issue, creating new habits to make sure no one falls through the cracks. Clients receive service. We learn more about each relationship.
Result: the practice evaluates this information regularly—sorting who is a customer, and who is a long-term client.
At the end of the presentation, an advisor came over to shake my hand, wearing a big grin. He said, “I know you’re probably busy with the practices you work with, but would you consider adding to your roster and working with me? I’m ready to bring in another employee.”
It doesn’t become tiresome, hearing this question. In fact, nearly every week, someone asks me to join their team, or find them someone just like me for them!
Here’s some feedback I received in my email inbox a few days later:
“I get re-energized when I see you, and always leave with some great advice. Thank you for sharing and being so wonderful at what you do!”
“Just yesterday, I was telling our team about your session, and how valuable I thought it was. Your positive attitude is contagious! And you definitely had some great tips to share. Thanks, Christy.”
~Becky, Director of Marketing + Client Relations, in Skokie, Illinois
“I have to say, this was the single best training I have been to with Northwestern Mutual. I really enjoyed it!
My boss asked me to inquire about having you come in and work with our team. Now is the perfect time for us to get better at what you have already perfected. Thank you!”
~Christie, Assistant to a Wealth Management Advisor, Vernon Hills, Illinois
This is what excites me about Ogilvie Consulting
People need financial planning service. Advisors and staff need to be efficient and effective. No one should be neglected or fall through the cracks of a busy practice's day-to-day. My methods keep everyone energized and growing, while serving the ones they’ve promised to help.
How does Ogilvie Consulting help Advisors and their teams?
1. 8 Weeks to Mastery, the Signature Course (Soon to be available as an Online Course!)
Full immersion in Financial Services language, communication methods, follow-up tips, CRM efficiency; plus 4 coaching sessions by video conference/phone, for a polished communication practice.
2. "Quick & Dirty Communications Crash Course"
A short communications and efficiency course, plus optional follow-up coaching session by video conference/phone. For experienced staff.
3. Communications Clinic
90 minute clinic covering the best methods for client communication & follow-up, phoning & email language. Soon to be available in Online Course format!
4. The Manual
My complete communications and technology efficiency handbook, includes scripts and email templates for all financial planning needs. Copyrighted 2018.
Want to know more?Contact me for a 20 minute consultation
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IRL or Virtual: Why do you need a Client Relations Expert?
Feb 22, 2019 How we share information has evolved. Much of our life is conducted online, especially now. We research products. We follow sports, read the news and play games. We laugh at cat videos. Streaming services bring entertainment to us everywhere. The virtual is a tool and a companion.
So, what happens IRL?IRL = In Real Life, in text and social media posts.
What, exactly, requires face-to-face time? Friendship. Family. Romance. The ones we trust are those we see, in person, a lot.
Building Trust, Putting in the Time
In financial planning, how do you balance the personal and the virtual? Your clients work with you when they trust you. Your connection to them offers something crafted to their needs. You build that trust in person. And maintain it In Person.
You may disagree with this: social media, websites, and online services enhance, but they do not build. A human voice, a handshake, sitting across a table sharing ideas… these things build connections.
You Don't Have to Do it All by Yourself
There are only so many hours in a day. You need a Client Relations Expert. Your clients need to hear another voice say your name. They respond when they see your name written by someone else.
We crave connection.
Calling clients, I feel it when I hear a voice on the phone: is he distracted or busy—I can be brief and disconnect politely; I feel it when she wants to engage. They have questions, or they want to crack a joke, or they’re grieving and need to know they aren’t alone.
Email is personal as well. Clients reveal their communication style, tidbits about themselves, and make requests. All of these are gold when building relationships.
The more you engage with people on their timeline, and stay aware of what they value, the more strongly bonded they are to your practice.
Social Media is not a Relationship
A LinkedIn post or an article on Facebook play a role in your visibility. But, a person in your practice dedicated to staying in contact with your clients has impact. Clients feel their value when your practice shows it, personally.
Your business is in a higher category when you include a human touch.
Want to Learn More?Contact me for a short consultation about your practice.
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So Many Names, So Much To Do
Sep 24, 2018 See that long list of one-time clients in your files? Those people trusted you once already. You know them fairly well. These relationships have potential to grow.
Don't Leave Opportunity on the Table
Nearly everyone has more planning to do – financial plans aren’t a one-and-done event. And, goals evolve. You know that.
How often do you remind your clients of this important fact? Did you tell them last time you chatted, that you intend to have on-going conversations to help them stay on track, to re-calibrate the plan when necessary?
You invested time to create trust
You met each prospect, you listened carefully and engaged them, uncovered a few needs, answered their questions. Your potential client believed you, felt safe enough to share personal information and moved ahead with a plan of action. Terrific!
You walked them through the process of qualifying for insurance, guided them as they set up a plan for retirement savings and their children’s education. You know each other pretty well.
They trusted you because you listened, and responded in ways that met their needs. You showed up when you said you would. You told the truth.
It's Time to Touch Base
A year has gone by. Two years, five years. Have you been in touch? Or, are you always moving on to the next prospect? If you’re growing, this is likely to be true. But…
How can you show up consistently for each of these people who trusted you to help them already? You are only one person. How can you prove their trust in you was worthwhile? You don't have to do it all alone.
You have underwriters, staff who track down details, take medical histories. You can automate monthly or quarterly goals. You have support from the home office and your managing partner.
Who is in touch with your clients?
Who checks in about the new job, the baby on the way, the approaching wedding or graduation?
How many hours are there in a day, in a month? You can’t do it all.
You need a Client Relations Manager—a person dedicated to your clients, with organization and warmth—a person who knows your calendar, and your goals.
I'm here, offering my experience, to show your team member the most efficient methods to stay connected to your client base, to help you identify who is a customer and who is a client.
I can help you bind your clients to your practice for a lifetime of service.
Want to Learn More?Contact me for a short consultation about your practice.
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What Does a Client Relations Manager Do for You?
Jul 11, 2018 What is more powerful? You telling someone about how terrific you are at your work? Or someone with no agenda, telling a friend or colleague your practice has changed their life for the better? Even more, it’s made them enjoy creating security and wealth?
There is power in it, when a person --who is not you-- says your name. There is power in your name when it appears in a message from someone else.
Your Client Relations Manager is a consistent voice, dropping your name into clients’ and prospects’ daily awareness.
The appointment is the big goal: put a meeting on the calendar. The secondary goal builds energy—it answers the questions: Who helps me stay on track with my budget? Who gives me trustworthy advice? Who raises topics I hadn’t considered, and guides me through complex financial events?
Get the Magic Formula
Your name, said by another, in a friendly, timely manner… That is the magic. You become the Go-To for your clients. They reach out between scheduled appointments to connect. They send you referrals before you ask.
Imagine a client. When you first spoke, she was beginning her law career, burdened with debt, nervous about high interest and how to budget. You developed a ‘buckets’ saving system tailored to her needs.
She met a wonderful man, and they wanted a wedding weekend with close friends and family—you sat down with them, and sketched a custom plan to do that, without getting saddled with debt.
A few weeks ago, she called to say a baby is on the way… You offered to meet them in the next month to educate them about children’s polices and education savings. This client will be with you for a lifetime.
A friend of your client is a career changer in mid-life, walking away from lucrative but unfulfilling employment. He’s concerned about funding his new business, wondering how to manage the budget, and moving accounts away from the old firm.
The client says, call you, you’ve never steered them wrong. They trust you to help him make informed choices in this transitional time. You get the call.
You Don't Have to Do it All
Imagine you have 300 families like this. You need help. While you work one on one with terrific people, you need someone staying in touch with everyone, between meetings.
Your Client Relations Manager is calling, sending notes, taking mini-factfinders in the friendliest way—saving you time, making clients feel important, and filling your calendar. All while keeping your name in their minds.
Want help in making this a reality? Contact me for a 20 minute chat.
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Cold Calling Orphan Clients
May 11, 2018 I bring reluctant and orphan clients back into an active planning relationship. All of the advisors I work with can tell stories about how I charmed someone into a conversation.
My favorite one involves a business owner who happened to live in my hometown. I called him to say his accounts, which had been reassigned to a financial planner I work with, could use an update. As he objected that he did not need to speak to an advisor, and he was very busy, I investigated his file in the CRM system.
His home address was around the block from my childhood home.
When he finished his initial objection, rather than asking him to please schedule a short phone introduction with his new advisor, I asked him, ‘Jim, I just noticed your address. Do Nancy and Bob still live next door to you on Elm Street?’ He said, ‘Do you know them?’ …
‘Why yes, I played with their kids--we spent a lot of time running around each other’s back yards.’ ‘Oh my,’ he said, ‘Their son bought the house a few years ago.’ ‘Wow!’ I said, ‘That’s terrific.’
Then, my reluctant cold call said to me, ‘Now, what would this appointment be about, if I set it up?’ I put a meeting on the calendar for the following week, not a short phone call, but a face to face near his office.
He is one of that advisor’s A+ clients now, in and out of our office at least four times per year.
Using technology—in this case, a simple search within an online file— to find information that provides a personal connection with a client is a secret advantage when you practice warm-heartedness. That contact had been called and emailed multiple times over the past few years, in an effort to re-engage him.
He began his relationship with a financial planner believing there was value in setting up insurance and investment accounts. But, then he fell away.
Did his original planner leave the business, or forget to follow up? Did the client move and forget to update his address for so long, he ended up in a ‘dead file’? I don’t know that.
I do know that my guess that I might connect with him over our mutual love for a charming neighborhood paid off. He is in an active, evolving relationship with a dedicated financial advisor now. And we have a wonderful client who refers other successful people like himself to the practice.
For Additional Support
Contact me for a free 20 minute chat about your business.
