Is there a sweet spot for the cadence of client meetings?
From a numbers perspective, it may be necessary for an advisor to meet with a client only once a year to revise their plan based on any recent updates. But how about from a client’s perspective?
In past research, we have found a positive relationship between advisor-client interactions—whether that be a quick text message, email newsletter, or an in-person meeting—and advisor-client relationships. But does this finding hold for advisor-client meetings? And is there such a thing as too much?
How Often Do Most Clients Meet With Their Financial Advisors?
We asked 399 current advisor clients how often they met with their financial advisors and how long their meetings usually take. We also asked these clients how satisfied they were with their advisors. Before we dive into the relationship between these variables, let’s take a look at the participants’ answers.
Most clients in our sample met with their advisors on a quarterly basis, but those who didn’t were fairly split between meeting more or less often. In other words, there is a wide range regarding meeting cadence, again signaling that advice on how often to meet with clients is mixed.
How Often Do Clients Meet With Their Advisors?
When we asked participants how long their meetings usually were, we again got a wide range of responses. Some clients seemed to meet with their advisors for quick 10-minute conversations, while others met for longer than an hour. The average meeting duration overall was 39 minutes.
Distribution of Meeting Duration
Is Meeting Cadence and Duration Connected to Client Satisfaction?
When we looked at the relationship between satisfaction and cadence and satisfaction and duration, we found mixed results.
When it came to the relationship between satisfaction and duration, there really wasn’t much to write about. We found a correlation of just 0.19 between the two variables. These results suggest that how long an advisor meets with a client may not have too much of an impact on that client’s overall satisfaction regarding the relationship.
It also seems like meeting with clients every quarter may be enough for client satisfaction. Although we only found a modest correlation between cadence and satisfaction (r = 0.31), further regression analyses suggest that cadence may affect a person’s satisfaction nonlinearly. The following graph shows that satisfaction does increase the more often clients meet with their advisors, but average satisfaction plateaus after increasing to quarterly visits.
Average Satisfaction by Meeting Cadence
3 Key Takeaways for Advisors
Our results from this simple analysis suggest a few key takeaways for advisors:
In the absence of other preferences, consider trying out a quarterly meeting cadence. According to our data, in general, many clients may benefit from meeting with their advisors quarterly. This cadence may be especially useful for advisors who are just starting out or are struggling to engage with their clients. However, it’s important to note that every client is different, and advisors should consider their unique preferences when deciding on a meeting cadence.
Focus on the content of each meeting, not the length. Meetings don’t have to be two hours long to be effective in promoting client satisfaction. Our results suggest that it’s the quality of time with your client that matters not the amount of time. Having a set schedule of what will be covered during the meeting can help keep things on track.
Make sure to interact with your clients regularly outside of meetings. Regardless of how often you meet with clients, offer regular interactions with them through emails, newsletters, social media, or other forms. When it comes to maintaining a strong advisor-client relationship, staying top of mind is key.
Quarterly in-person catch ups are a good place to start, increasing as needed. It would not be advisable to dip below that unless it is agreed by both parties to be the best choice, and other means of communication are put in place in lieu. If you can manage it, meeting in person (for real) is always worth your time.
Consistency is key to building trust and rapport with your customers. You should contact them regularly, but not too frequently. A good rule of thumb is to contact them at least once a month, but no more than once a week.
These results suggest that how long an advisor meets with a client may not have too much of an impact on that client's overall satisfaction regarding the relationship. It also seems like meeting with clients every quarter may be enough for client satisfaction.
For your straightforward client, whether that's based on their personality or their financial plan, an annual meeting is typically sufficient. However, after time, if you notice your annual meeting is making the relationship or client's trajectory lose steam, it may be time to reevaluate your meeting frequency.
There's another important client communication rule to keep in mind: communicate frequently. Your clients shouldn't just hear from you at the start and end of a project — they should be kept updated throughout as you complete tasks and reach milestones.
If we follow the math above, we can assume that a full-time therapist sees 15 to 30 clients per week, with the average likely falling closer to the middle—20–25 clients per week.
Studies indicate that almost 80% of sales leads require at least 5 follow-ups after the initial sales meeting. But nearly 44% of salespeople give up after just 1 follow-up or forget to follow up altogether. On the other hand, there are sales reps who bombard their prospects with follow-up emails and calls.
Every relationship is different, and because financial planning is such a personal issue, there's no one-size-fits-all answer for how often you should talk to your adviser. But financial planner Don Grant says there should be a review at least semi-annually.
What is a good advisor-client ratio? It depends on who you ask but a typical answer is anywhere from 50 to 150 clients per advisor. Having 50 clients could be enough if you're focusing on high-net-worth individuals.
Advisors with larger client households do better than those managing less than $250,000. The average household with $100,000 in assets has an 87% retention rate, while the average retention rate for $500,000 households is 94%. In this case, size does matter. Pricing matters.
Whether it's emails, direct mail, phone calls or contacts through social media, you need to be keeping in regular contact with your customers. A question I get asked frequently is “how often?” The short, simple answer to this is “at least once a week”.
Project managers spend about 90 percent of their time dealing with communication-related issues. This makes strong leadership, communication skills, and certain tools and behaviors very important parts of a project's success.
With business relationships taking on a more networking or social nature, the common rule of thumb is to call between 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.; however, as with most business protocols, there are exceptions to the rule. These exceptions have the potential to make the phone call either a roaring success or very awkward.
If you are not currently engaging on a weekly basis, a personal check in at least once a month is appropriate. It is acceptable to send marketing emails 1-3 times a week. Though this may decrease to as little as once a fortnight, depending on your unique situation.
Honestly, the best answer is probably, "Way more than you think." According to Brevet, 80 percent of sales require five follow-ups after an initial meeting. There are two reasons for this. One, the average person receives 121 emails a day. So there's a good chance your first few sales emails get buried.
The second answer to the question of how often you should reach out to prospects is related to following up after that initial call. I refer to this as our 'Cadence'. We use a four-week cadence where we reach out to a prospect at least two times each week for four weeks.
Introduction: My name is Pres. Carey Rath, I am a faithful, funny, vast, joyous, lively, brave, glamorous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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