MILLENNIALSH O W F I N A N C I A L A D V I S O R S C A N C O N N E C T W I T H

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For any financial advisors looking for sustainable growth in their business, it is crucial that they make a concerted effort to attract a younger clientele. As millennials continue to earn more and expand their wealth, advisors can look to this generation as a source of valuable clients for decades to come.

Millennials have been the subject of speculation and stereotyping since they entered the workforce in the midst of an economic recession. They were called lazy, narcissistic, and entitled, but none of those generalizations are going to help financial advisors bring them on board as clients.

As a result of the impact technology has had on the American workplace, millennials are starting to hit their stride. In doing so, they are quickly growing their earning potential as professionals.

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PHONE CALLS

FAs should block out a portion of time every day to call clients and tell them to refer any curious millennial parties. Not only will this lead to new business, but it will also provide an opportunity to touch base with your clients.

SEND A LETTER

Handwritten letters are an amazing way to stand out to recipients, but emails work as well as long as they are personalized.

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CREATE A FLYWHEEL OF NEW BUSINESS

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At ReminderMedia, we encourage all of the service-based sales professionals we work with to build a flywheel of new business. In terms of finance, a flywheel should be a model whereby advisors leverage their current clients and word-of-mouth marketing to create a stream of new business. The other part of a working flywheel is the practice of constant small efforts instead of occasional large initiatives.

If financial advisors want to create a flywheel of their own, they should consider marketing to millennials through consistent, valuable outreach. Generation X and Baby Boomer clients are the number-one source of millennial prospects that financial advisors already have. These clients probably have millennial children and grandchildren. Here are two simple ways financial advisors can get the ball rolling by reaching out to some of the older clients they already have.

As FAs start to win new prospects, it is important that they understand some of the things that make millennials unique in comparison to past generations.

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MILLENNIAL PREFERENCES

One of the most important considerations to make when it comes to selling to millennials is the impact that the 2007 recession might have had on their outlook. For example, a study from Global X found that for 87 percent of millennials, their most important expectation of an advisor was protecting their investments during a market downturn. From this statistic, it is clear that the recession still casts a long shadow over the financial mind-set of millennials.

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A GR

EATE

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Millennials also want to invest in organizations with practices they approve of. They might not want their portfolio to contain stock from companies they deem unethical. A degree of social responsibility is important to this demographic. A CrowdTwist study found that nearly half of surveyed millennials wanted socially conscious benefits in exchange for their business. FAs can guide clients in a direction that helps them improve the world and grow their financial security.

Millennials don’t respond well to traditional marketing. In fact, according to a study conducted by the McCarthy Group, 84 percent of millennials don’t trust it. They value authenticity over clever sales and marketing tactics. 90 percent of millennials say that authenticity is important to them when they are deciding what businesses to support. It will be important for FAs to have some kind of social media presence to garner exposure and build authenticity. It’s also helpful if FAs can leverage their social media outreach to gather user reviews, since 37.3 percent of people ages 18 to 29 said they always looked at product reviews before making a purchase.

Millennials are also different from previous generations due to the amount of student loan debt that they have been burdened with at a young age. They are always going to want to know how that debt relates to their portfolio, and how the profits from said portfolio can be used to eliminate that debt in a way that will improve credit, and allow them to make larger purchases down the line, such as homes, cars, and educations for their own children. The average student debt in the United States is $32,731. The rising costs of tuition and total student loan debt is up 302 percent since 2004.

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DEBTAS A

FACTOR

“A RELATIONSHIP GOES A LONG WAY WITH MILLENNIALS.”

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CREATING AN

EXPERIENCEMillennials value experience, and financial advisors need to leverage this characteristic if they hope to compete with robo-advisors. A relationship goes a long way with millennials, and while there will undoubtedly be a large portion who wish to ‘set and forget’ their portfolios, there will also be clients who want rapport and guidance. Consider more frequent, shorter meetings with younger clients. Younger clients look to all service professionals as guides, not gatekeepers. They understand that FAs might not have a magic formula to make them instantly rich, but they will expect to be kept abreast of how their advisor is managing their portfolio.

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CONCLUSION

Millennials are only going to increase their earning potential. Financial advisors who take the steps today to win millennial business tomorrow will eventually

find success among this demographic. They’ll have to be willing to change certain aspects of their approach, though. Like nearly every industry, finance has

been impacted by the internet, and advisors always need to keep an eye on evolutionary strategies. Advisors who perfect their millennial outreach will tap into a huge reservoir of business that an amazing career can be built around.