Confidence in communications can drive new sales and retention

Confidence in communications
drives new sales and retention.

Confidence. Most portfolio managers and analysts have it, espeicially when selecting stocks. But when it comes to being in the spotlight such as appearing in an interview on CNBC or presenting to consultants in the finals, some aren't as confident as they could be.

Spokesmen with low levels of confidence could be causing problems in your business:

• Sleeping suspects. When communications skills don't match stock picking skills, the audience can lose interest in what the manager is saying. And if they aren't listening, they might not be investors for long. 
• Too many turn downs. Investment professionals are busy managing money and working with clients. But when they don't have confidence to be in high-profile situations, they more often turn down speaking opportunities or don't give the opportunities the importance they deserve. That means face time and air time for your competitor instead.
• Selling solo. When the portfolio manager doesn't have confidence in meetings, it can make the wholesaler look bad. As a result, they start conducting client and prospect meetings alone.

Helping your experts get more confident with communications opportunities is one of the most critical problems we solve. We know that stronger presentations, interviews, and meetings will result into new business and better client retention for our clients.

For example, we recently worked with a larger investment firm's ten analysts over two days.

All of the participants felt more confident following the workshop.

Confidence before:

• Not confident at all 40%
• Somewhat confident 40%
• Unsure 20%

Confidence after:

• Very confident 20%
• Confident 60%
• Somewhat confident 20%

Anecdotally, we are seeing more analysts be part of the media program as well as declining fewer interview opportunities.

The firm has also commit to refresher or advanced training session twice a year to continue to develop confidence in their experts due to stronger communications skills.

We will keep you posted on the firm's progress.