IMAGE CONSULTANT
FASHION TIPS
TOO LITTLE When you’re Goldman Sachs’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein, you can get away with wearing a simple sports Swatch. (Indeed, you should be wearing a simple sports watch.) But for most advisors, that $66 watch won’t necessarily engender client confidence.
TOO MUCH
Watch your image Your image is everything in a business dependent on building client trust and what you wear, even on your wrist, can cement those relationships or weaken them. The temptation is always to go big or go home, to flaunt your own financial success as a way of showing how successful you’ve made your clients. But there is a fine line to walk when it comes to the watch you wear on your wrist. Cross it and you run the risk of alienating a client’s affections. Here is WP’s take on what’s too much, what’s too little and what’s just right in terms of wrist wear for a trustworthy advisor.
If bling is your thing like American business magnate Lynn Tilton, with her diamond-dusted timepiece by Jacob the Jeweler, forget it. Advisors need to keep that conspicuous wealth under wraps. Clients don’t like to think their money is going straight to your jeweler.
JUST RIGHT
Keep it classic like billionaire Warren Buffet, who is committed to his Rolex Day-Date. It says understated establishment.
THE EXCEPTION
Caring for Clients, Inc. financial advisor Rona Birenbaum swears she would never have bought this Breitling Galactic 36 Automatic Diamond Ladies Watch. This luxury item was a Christmas gift from Birenbaum’s late husband. “It’s a ridiculous amount of money,” says the Toronto advisor. “I preach frugality to my clients. The millionaire’s guide to building wealth is avoiding conspicuous consumption. But if somebody wants to give you a gift, I think you should accept it.”
64 | MAY 2014
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