Sharon Moller | Coach | Financial Planning | Old Mutual Wealth | mail me |
Skillfully applied, profiling tools can sharpen a financial planner’s ability to support their clients. Brands that provide personalised experiences are 80% more likely to yield a purchase from customers, according to a 2021 study by customer journey optimisation platform Yieldify.
The same study also found that 63% of consumers will stop buying from brands that use poor personalisation tactics.
With this in mind, it is now more essential than ever to engage clients in authentic, personalised and meaningful ways. One way to do this is to fully understand your client’s personality, their unique traits and quirks, and – most importantly – how these affect their decision-making processes.
Personality profiling tools can help financial planners to achieve this, however, these tools should be used with caution.
We must remember that each client is unique. For your clients to feel valued and to value you as a planner, you will have to spend face-to-face time with them to uncover the best ways to support them on their financial planning journey.
How to choose the right personality profiling tool
There are various personality profiling tools available, namely the Myers & Briggs Personality Types, the Big 5 Personality Traits, and the Enneagram Technique. There are also a few financially-focused profiling tools such as Financial DNA or the Proscan PDP.
Many profiling tools offer guidance on how to engage or communicate with your client depending on their personality profile.
For example, some personality types need lots of detail, while others only want you to outline the bigger picture. We must remember that when clients are under stress, they may behave very differently and need a very different communication style. Make sure that the tool you use takes this into account.
When choosing a profiling tool, it is also important to ensure that it not only analyses behavioural traits, but the underlying motivation for them.
When we talk to these core motivations, we are able to create awareness of possible issues that may act as barriers to effective financial planning. There is no point in spending time or money on tools that either disempower you as a planner or bring no real opportunity for growth for your clients.
How to use personality profiling tools
While personality profiling has tremendous value in financial planning both for the client and the planner, it must be used for the right reasons and at the appropriate time in the client engagement.
I feel that it is best to bring in a profiling tool after a relationship with the client has already been formed, and there is clarity from both client and planner on the outcome the client is hoping to achieve.
My opinion, based on my nine years of working with financial planners and their clients, is that tools should help you to ‘cut through the noise’, and should enhance your client engagement by making sure that you as a planner get as much insight into the client as they do and vice versa.
Remember that personality profiling tools should not be used to box individuals into a profile, but should rather map out a path for personal growth and development.
