Growth Strategies for your Financial Practice in a Pandemic

By Louis Koay, CFP®

2020 is an eventful year where the global pandemic, COVID – 19, has caused the entire world to come to a standstill. Not a single industry is being spared from this disruption.

Although financial advisory service is categorised under essential service, face-to-face meetings were not allowed as a social distancing precautionary measure. During this unprecedented period, my first thought was to take a break. But soon, I realised that this may be the new normalcy. I have since learned to embrace the situation, adapt to the changes, re-strategise my work and move with the flow. With the help of digital solutions, here are the five things that I have done to grow my financial advisory business:

1) Beyond face-to-face

Barely a few months back, in the beginning of the year, faceto-face meetings with clients were part of my daily routine. Physical meet-ups were the norm in our industry. When I learned that face-to-face meetings were prohibited during the circuit breaker period, I made use of digital solutions to bridge the gap. I used Zoom to meet my clients. The places where I used to meet my clients is now confined to a 14 inch screen. My study room is the virtual café. When I first started, I was apprehensive and worried about catching the attention of my clients in the digital world. To enhance my presentation, I prepared PowerPoint slides with animations in an attempt to sustain my engagement with them. My worries were unfounded. My delivery was precise and I overcame the lack of physical touch with digital technology.

We must learn to embrace to move forward. I used to spend a lot of time commuting. Now, I tele-commute. Time saved is translated into more virtual meetings. Hence, I increased my productivity. There were days when I was able to schedule 5 to 6 meetings with back-to-back hourly schedule. The novelty of virtual meeting is also well received by my clients. The meet-up rate is a lot better than face-to-face meeting as we are now meeting in the comfort of our own homes.

2) From Seminar to Webinar

In the past, I used to conduct seminars on a monthly basis to provide market updates to my clients. Until then, when the Ministry of Health raised the DORSCON level to Orange, my seminars were changed to webinars. My concerns were similar with the lack of face-to-face meetings. How do I capture the attention of my audience in the virtual arena? How do I maintain interaction with my audience? Amid all these anxieties, I have to overcome my own fear too, including the awkwardness from talking to myself for two hours straight. As a presenter, I need to bring up my energy level so that the audience will not just click me off the screen. After a few rounds of practice, the feedback I

received from my audience was encouraging. In reality, they actually preferred webinars over seminars. They saved time from travelling and could watch the webinar recordings at their own pace. The polls and chatbox functions in webinars proved useful to my presentations. The obvious advantage of webinars is the attendance. For seminars, I am limited by the capacity of the venue. 100 pax is the maximum audience per seminar. With webinars, my audience increased by 7-fold. It is an incredibly significant increase in terms of productivity. I am on target to reach an audience of more than 1000 attendees for an upcoming webinar! The sky is the limit when you integrate digital solutions into your business.

3) Digital Marketing

We are living in a digital world. Nowadays, people spend more time on smartphones, social media platforms such as Facebook, telegram etc. Gone are the days of traditional newspaper reading. During this circuit breaker period, I created my own Facebook business page. I launched several marketing campaigns through my Facebook page to increase my reach. This has been a more effective way to reach out to my new audience at a lower cost; I spent less than $50 for each campaign that yield a reach of more than 5000.

I also have more time to write on my own blog, “drwealth. com” where I posted my articles that people can relate to during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharing personal stories and recording educational videos on my blog also helps to build my personal branding. The key idea is to add value and not to sell your services. Once you have your personal branding, the numbers will stream in!

4) Mass Communication

2020 has been a volatile year for investment. As financial adviser representatives, we must constantly provide investment updates for our clients. Before a flight, a pilot needs to conduct all the necessary ground checks, go through the flight path and weather forecast, preempt any deviations for the safety of the passengers and deliver a safe journey. Any turbulence during the flight should be an expected event. What is unexpected is an air pocket. Passengers should not panic whenever the plane flies through a patch of turbulent weather. Instead, they should buckle up, sit tight, and wait for the seatbelt sign to be turned off. Similarly, all forms of investments come with volatility. Instead of panic-selling at the first sign of market turmoil, investors should ignore the short-term volatility, follow the plan, and stay invested. The role of a financial adviser representative to investors is akin to a pilot’s responsibility to his passengers. We should provide constant updates to help investors ride through the volatility in their investments. To provide constant updates, I have also added broadcasting tools such as Telegram and Mailchimp. These are one-to-many mass communication tools. If any of my clients needs more help, I will schedule a Zoom meeting to assist them.

5) Working From Home

#WFH has taken over the traditional work arrangement since early this year. As a financial adviser representative, I adhere to the standard practice and have been working from home for the past few months. I appreciate my company’s initiatives on adopting non-face-to-face advisory processes to facilitate client serving. Physical training was replaced by online sessions. With this arrangement, I managed to attend more training with time saved from travelling. In fact, I prefer to work from home where I tend to be more focused. For greater work efficiency, I have converted one of my bedrooms into my home office and added new equipment such as a better microphone, a drawing pad, and upgraded my WIFI connection.

Sum it up

I believe this pandemic will reshape the entire world, not just the financial industry. This is the new normalcy. Every financial adviser representative should embrace and adapt to the new norm. I am pleased to see that my business has grown at a faster pace during this pandemic due to my adaptability. In our line of service, there will always be ups and downs. The only certainty in this business is uncertainty. We must learn to adapt and overcome the challenges ahead.

Stay safe and manage well. The sooner you adapt, the stronger you emerge.

About the Author Louis Koay, CFA, CFP

Louis Koay is a dual-licensed (Trading and Financial Adviser) representative at Phillip Securities (a member of PhillipCapital group). He graduated from the National University of Singapore with First Class Honours and he is a CFA charterholder as well as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). He is currently managing a team of six financial adviser representatives and servicing more than 1,000 clients with asset under advisory of more than $20 million. As a trainer at Dr Wealth, Louis developed the Personal Finance Mastery Course and he is a key trainer in the Intelligent Investors Immersive Program. He has trained more than 10,000 retail investors in analysing stocks and personal financial planning.