Effectively Communicating with Clients
By J. David Strother, CFP®, AIFA®, financial advisor at DSF Wealth Management, LLC

Of all the elements a CPA or financial advisor needs to consider in order to operate a successful wealth management practice, an effective client communication strategy ranks at the top of the list. Regular communication is critical to the long-term success of your firm, but it has to be done right. The fact is that the vast majority of advisors want to sell, but very few know how to effectively communicate with their clients to successfully conclude the process. In order to strengthen your relationships with current clients and continue to bring in new ones, communication needs to be a priority of your firm’s day-to-day operations. It is very difficult to execute effective communication over longer periods of time unless it's part of your business model, part of the DNA of your firm. In my experience, advisors who establish effective communication principles within their practices will see immediate results, while those who do not come off as erratic and anecdotal. Communication is not an event, it is a process that is lived day by day. Why Effective Communication is Important Communication has the potential to become the ultimate differentiator in prospecting efforts and then in client retention. In our industry, there is a lot of competition for affluent clients and the frequency and quality of your communication can make all of the difference when it comes to winning their business. At DSF Wealth Management, we are confident that we will have a much better chance at establishing a relationship with a potential client than our competitors because we know that our communication strategy is much more effective (this is even truer once the relationship is established in terms of earning daily the right to retain the relationship). Once we have