Knowledge. Shared Blog

April 2020

Surprise, Sincerity and Creativity: Engaging Clients during Crisis

In our latest podcast episode, John L. Evans, Jr., Head Strategist of Knowledge Labs®, speaks with bestselling author Dr. Joseph Michelli about what financial professionals can do to engage meaningfully with clients during these difficult times. Anticipating and meeting clients’ unstated needs is key, as is finding creative and sincere ways to show support and solidarity.

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Surprise, Sincerity and Creativity: Engaging Clients during Crisis – John Evans Jr., Ed.D.

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John Evans: Hello, and welcome. You’re listening to Knowledge Labs podcast, brought to you by Janus Henderson Investors. I’m your host, John Evans. We are here to help right now for a plan to help you engage with your clients.

You know what, there is tremendous opportunity right now with the right mindset. So I have invited one of the world’s experts on client experience, a long-time partner and friend and mentor, Dr. Joseph Michelli, and we are going to get his thoughts about what you should be thinking about doing right now, especially with those 10% of the clients who drive 90% of the business.

We are in an unprecedented time … this is something else, isn’t it? I mean it is something else. So, what to do, what to do? Well, we have got a plan here for you. Starting off, I want to talk about, I want you to think about this theme. Steve Jobs, none other than Steve Jobs, said this: “It is incumbent on anticipating and satisfying clients’ unstated needs, if you really want to have impact.” You want to have enduring impact in the minds of clients, if you want to have stories being generated about what you do, this is the time to do it and the vehicle, the manufacturing center, is anticipating and satisfying clients’ unstated needs. Very simple, very powerful. It is just, we have to … as Steve Jobs would say, we have to think different. Actually, it should be “think differently,” but he is Steve Jobs, so we will leave it with that.

I was at Courtyard Marriott, I came back from my jog a few weeks ago, I am doubled over, I am exhausted, I am miserable. Clerk comes running out, hands me a bottle of water. I did not ask for that water. He just handed it to me. He satisfied an unstated need. And the consequence, I am now burnishing the reputation of Marriott on this podcast and I am doing it gladly. Because it was just awesome, very simple. That is the way we need to be thinking now, isn’t that right, Dr. Joseph Michelli? And thanks so much for joining us, I really appreciate it.

Dr. Joseph Michelli: It is great to be here, John, as always. And yeah, I mean Steve Jobs, there is a great clip on the Internet. Since we all have a little bit more time on our hands to troll videos, you can go on the Internet and look at Steve Jobs handling a question from a software developer that was basically saying, “I spent the last two years of my life working on a project for you and you canned it and you came up with what I think is inferior technology. Our technology has all these extra bells and whistles.” And it is wonderful how Steve Jobs just kind of looks at him and he goes, “I am sure you are right. I am sure you have more bells and whistles on your product than I even know about. But the fact of the matter is, it is not what the customer wants, it is way more than the customer wants and needs. And we are not going to be able to sell all that extra stuff. So if we don’t build it around what the customer wants, we are never going to be able to sell it at scale.”

So the bottom line, I think it is understanding what the customers wants and that is obvious based on what they tell us they want. But in times like this, there are so many unmet needs that have nothing to do with financial advice or guidance, just needs of, “Please, I don’t want to be alone, please listen to my story.” I mean, one of the things I am encouraging people to do in this time is, as you reach out to those high net worth investors and the clients you can’t possibly lose on the backside of this thing, as you reach out, just give them some space to see how they are. Just find out how they are, let them have the chance to tell you their story of survival or struggle. And to me that serves an incredibly important human need. First, if you reach out to me, you are saying, “you matter.” And that need trumps almost everything else on the planet, just the very act of reaching out to them says you matter. Goodness knows, I want to matter. I feel small against a tiny little microbe, I feel frightened by it. Please help me be seen, heard, known and matter. So, I am really just recommending starting there above and beyond all the practical needs that they might have associated with investment wisdom. But for me, that is a big starting point. And Jobs understood that a lot of the things we think they need, we can overdesign. And a lot of things they really need are extremely simple to access.

Evans: Wonderful, Joseph, love it. One thing is for certain, COVID-19 was in nobody’s business plan for 2020. I think that is fair to say, right? This is a black swan event. This came out of nowhere and now we all have to deal with it. This storm is upon us. But with storms come opportunities if we can respond correctly. And I think you are exactly right, listening to clients, gosh, just really hearing their story about what they are going through right now is incredibly impactful, incredibly impactful.

You and I created the Wow Audit a number of years ago, Joseph. I think that is as germane, as relevant a tool as it has ever been, and I think this is the time to go back and look at things like, what are the passions, interests and pain points of the client? What is the personality type that you are dealing with here? Are you dealing with a driver, a social or an analytic? Maybe for that analytic, you know, you are furnishing some really fresh data about updates on the virus. Maybe on the social, you are just getting together and six feet apart and you are having a good laugh and a gimlet. Maybe the driver, you are dropping by and leaving something on his doorstep, a book or a magazine that you would know he would really or she would really appreciate … driver, social, analytic.

And then those emotional dynamics, Joseph, we know how powerful that is. You understand. Can you appreciate how your clients appreciate being appreciated? Stay with me here. You appreciate how your client appreciates being appreciated. If she or he is the type that needs to spend time with you, you better get your fanny over there and spend time with her or him. Of course, be very respectful about space, be very mindful and intentional about that, but send a very strong, unmistakable message that you want to spend time.

Or then there is acts of service. Maybe it is time to do something, wash somebody’s car. You are only limited by your imagination here when it comes to delivering meaning-making or “Wow” or these story-generating opportunities. This all really important stuff. Go back to that Wow Audit. Lastly, and then I want to get Joseph to comment on the Wow Audit, is communication preference. How do they want to hear from you? I will say this, there is no better time for handwritten notes than right now. I don’t think anybody wants another email or a text, but a handwritten note that is very thoughtful, very conscientious, that is hitting on those passions and interests and pain points of your client, that is going to go a really, really long way, don’t you think so, Joseph?

Dr. Michelli: Yeah, I think the Audit is as relevant as it has ever been, so I would strongly encourage people to go back to that. And also, just put a slight caveat in that, is that sometimes people have a basic personality style, but in crisis they behave differently. So just understand that even if you think you have it dialed up, you want to use that as baseline information in a pretty strong hypothesis of how they might behave. But it is interesting how very analytical people, when they become emotionally overwhelmed, sometimes don’t even run to more analytics. They lose their bearings. And so I would say use this strong hypothesis baseline off of an Audit and then realize that people may behave differently when they feel extremely threatened. And really, I would be assessing how much in control do they feel and how much control do they need? Because people who have high degrees of control need right now, unless you can help them find ways to be in control, to find the things that they can control, you can actually, the whole thing is on tilt for them. So I would strongly encourage, use it and then pay an extra little bit of attention with your antennae up and your radar on, say at the Ritz Carlton, to see if there are some other things going on because of the crisis nature of the interaction today.

Evans: Yeah, thank you. And I also think of just the importance of creativity here, Joseph. You know, coming up with a … listen, we are in a mass commoditized situation in commerce, that is the elephant in the room. It is just the truth, that is the deal. And the way you de-commoditize is by making meaning with clients, by going beyond the business at hand, to connect with them.

A couple of thoughts here is surprise and sincerity. Sincerity for me … now I know for yourself, Joseph, it is this whole curriculum on the Art of Wow is just critical. I mean, without sincerity, this whole program turns into something we are not interested in. So just pay attention to what is going on in your heart and thinking about why you are doing what you are doing.

And then secondly, surprise. That is really critical. So my friend here and advisor in Winter Park, Florida, his client, she had just published her first book. He bought ten of them and he went out and handed them out on doorsteps to 10 different people around Winter Park into Orlando, with a handwritten note in each one of those books. And let me tell you, the response I got this morning hearing about that, that maneuver, that creativity, was truly priceless. Love that idea there.

It is really a race for the best ideas at this point going forward. And so that then defaults to, okay, how do we create great ideas to make meaning? Well, what we know is that the best ideas catalyze, they emerge from discussions. So maybe take some time with your spouse, maybe it is a child, somebody with high emotional intelligence, uncommon emotional intelligence, who really gets this notion of Wow, and spend some time. List out those top clients, 10, 20, 30. How can you really connect with them like no other, right here, right now. It is a powerful exercise. And what does it foster, what does it create? It fosters great stories and that is what Joseph Michelli and I want for you. We want to make sure your best clients are telling stories about you. They are not interested in PowerPoint presentations by the way, there is nothing more reliably disappointing than a PowerPoint presentation. What is not disappointing is storytelling and we want your best clients telling stories about how you handled them during this crisis. That is just fundamentally critical. And again, it starts with perhaps the dining room table where you are sitting down with a pen and paper and you are talking about clients and you are coming up with great ideas, just like that guy dropping off books. Wow, do you think that author, do you think she is going to forget that any time soon? I mean, how many people do you think she is going to tell about that? Right? Again, there is an opportunity right now, there is an opportunity where the relationship is solidified through this crisis. That wouldn’t have happened without this crisis. He wouldn’t have done that, he wouldn’t have taken the time, he would have been busy doing other stuff. So again, creativity. How important is creativity, Joseph Michelli?

Dr. Michelli: I think it is incredibly important. I think one of the most creative things you can do right now is not sell. You know, I think there are going to be people who are going to hard sell, there are going to be people who are going to use the virus as a selling opportunity, you will see it. We have got people trying to scam folks with the virus. One of the most creative things you can do right now is to nurture and to nurture in a way that fosters and sustains a relationship. If that is the primary differentiator, that you are the one who invested. Howard Schultz used to say, “We need to make deposits in the reservoir of trust. Because there is going to be a day when we are going to have to pull out of that reservoir.”

And so, for me now one of the most creative things you can do is start thinking about how do I build the relationships more than build my own economic best interest? And that is so hard, because a lot of people are really worried about what is in it for them. And I am a fundamental believer right now, no one really can know with certainty what is in it for us, but what we can know is when things come back with certainty, those of us who authentically care and demonstrated that caring with creativity in this time of uncertainty, we will be ahead of those who were selling and/or just trying to squeeze the last dimes out of people out of fear. So that is … I think that is where I want to invest my creativity, is in ways that nurture and foster relationship.

Evans: That is excellent. Peter Drucker used to say, “Focus on your contribution, not on your achievement … Focus on your contribution, not your achievement.” So again, we go back to that list of 10 or 20 or 30 clients, thinking about the mindset, the mission is, how can I contribute to the betterment of their lives with all sincerity and with some surprise?

And you bring up one of my favorite words in organizational leadership and that is “trust.” And always being mindful that, you know, showing a dash of vulnerability leads to about a gallon of trust, which leads to a barrelful of productivity. A dash of vulnerability leads to a gallon of trust, which leads to a big old barrel of productivity. So being appropriately vulnerable, as Brian A. Brown would talk about, being appropriately vulnerable with your clients I think is so important to adding to trust. Because the reality is, Joseph, this is an extraordinary time to build relationships, to build trust with our clients.

We work closely with the Navy SEALs, my good friend, John Choate, I remember him saying to me unequivocally … I would say, “How do you build trust?” He was like, “Oh, that is easy, you just need more vulnerability.” I said, “You want me to go around to these financial services firms in my suit and get up on stage and tell these people to be more vulnerable?” And the Navy SEAL looked me right in the eyes and he said, “Yep!” Because that is where it is, that is the human engagement. We are into investing in relationships. For that to happen, we need a dash, a dash of vulnerability.

And trust is really something else. It comes in town on foot and it leaves town on horseback, as Mark Twain said, it comes in town on foot, and leaves on horseback. But it certainly is gold, it certainly is gold. And I will tell you, and I am going to move a little bit to teamwork now, Joseph, talk about … we have a program called the Elements of Extraordinary Teamwork, where we really take a deep dive here. And it is so important to do that Wow Audit, to understand your teammates, and maybe this is the time to do it, during this crisis. Pay attention to what matters to them. How do they want to get paid beyond remuneration? How do your teammates want to get paid? What matters to them in business? We all have got to get paid, we get it. How do they want to get paid beyond remuneration? What matters to them? And I think that is a really, I think that is an important question, Joseph, and would love to get your thoughts on it.

Dr. Michelli: All right, it is crazy important. You know, I am consulting, for example, in the restaurant industry, which has been besieged with this virus. And literally, I am dealing with franchisees who are laying off a thousand employees. And it has been interesting to watch, I mean at the end of it all, a lot of times these layouts are better for them in the sense that they can get unemployment immediately as opposed to cutting hours, you know, counterintuitive truths come about. And it has been interesting watching so many of these people be able to say thank you at the time of being let go in uncertainty because they were treated with dignity, they were treated with respect, there was an understanding and explanation of the thoughtfulness that went into the decision and how it was balanced out, a painfully hard decision balanced out, because their best interest was still being factored into the equation.

It has been amazing to me to realize that so much of what humans want in addition to compensation is this sense of dignity, respect, that they matter. And I think that you have thought about them and you have anguished about them in some kind of way or another. So I completely agree with everything that you have said with regard to all of those other factors.

I would go one last little bit of qualification to the issue of vulnerability. You know, we have to be vulnerable with our teammates too, so I would want to add that as part of the team. And as we think about that dash of vulnerability, whether it is with our clients or our teammates, just remember, it is not about us. So we don’t want to dominate the conversation with, “Oh, let me tell you my horror stories and all that is going on with me.” I mean, this should really be a lot about, “Let me hear what is going on with you, let me relate to you that I am not perfect and I don’t have all the solutions and I have shortcomings,” and share that with you, so that we can be on a human level instead of me taking the authoritative voice and the one who knows everything and has an opinion about everything. Kind of the acknowledgement with some humility that we are all struggling through something we have never, ever seen before.

So my point there is, I think, add on that notion of vulnerability to the teammate thing and realize that yeah, money is great and people want to be compensated. But if you look at all the research that has been done and what really matters to people, once you take money off the table, they feel fairly compensated or justly compensated. Within that bandwidth, the differentiators are mastery, autonomy and purpose. And so, helping them master something, continue to feel like they are growing, even in difficult times, have some freedoms, obviously, lots of people are learning that and working from home now, and then purpose. Help them figure out what matters most in their life and how does what they are doing with you in partnership make lives better for lots of folks. Nobody wants to think that they are given just a little piece of ground on the earth and making a minor amount of difference. Allow them to see the purposefulness of working together as a team.

Evans: That is fantastic. And I will tell you, you know, there is nothing better than being on a great team. I want everybody that is listening right now just to think about the greatest team you were ever on. It might have been Little League, it might have been your sorority, hopefully it is right now. But what is going on in that team? There is a tremendous amount of trust, there is an acknowledgement for how we are all different, celebrating the differences, yet there is a common purpose of really delighting that client, electrifying, wowing that client. That is what we are after here.

And I think this is a great time right now to be talking to your team. I talked to a couple of team members this morning, just, “Hey, how are you doing, what is going on,” reaching out. But also, just keeping in mind that, you know, we are going to bounce back just like the super ball. This is like the egg being dropped … no, that ain’t it, the egg drops and that is it. This is the super ball, we are all super balls, you either are going to be a victor or a victim and we are going to be victors on this call right here and we are going to bounce back, and it is going to be stupendous.

Taking this time right now to really bond with team members, understand what they are all about. And this idea of interest versus positions, it is really a powerful concept, it came from the mentor mind Roger Fisher from the Harvard Negotiation Project … he wrote Getting to Yes, I encourage everybody to read that book, Getting to Yes. The late Roger Fisher would talk about the importance of understanding the difference between positions and interests. And I want you to be thinking about [that] as you engage with your clients. You are sifting, you are really looking for what is going on underneath. Because you are going to get words, right? You are going to get body language. Your job is discernment, wisdom, trying to get underneath and find out what is really animating that client.

I will just give you a quick example, quick little parable. Let’s say Joseph and I were negotiating for an orange, we went back and forth, you know, I say, “I get 75% of the orange. I set up the podcast, Joseph, I should get 75%.” Joseph says, “No, I was doing this, I should get 75%.” So positions are taken. That is where emotions and things can become fraught. If you take time to really sift and get creative and be perceptive of that, the counterparties’ underlying interest. Let’s say that Joseph needs the orange for the juice to sell to a supermarket and I need the peel of the orange to sell to a fertilizer manufacturer, what can happen? What can happen [is], we can each get 100% of our interest, because all too often, we split the orange in half, “Hey, Joseph, you take 50%, I take 50%,” and we both walk away saying, “I have been taken advantage of.” That is called a zero-sum gremlin. And it loses value, diminishes value. So if you take time to really look beneath what is going on with your clients, understand them like nobody else, there is where the gold is and there is where you can satisfy unstated needs. So take some time and really be paying attention to go beyond positions and look at interests. Your thoughts on that Joseph, and then we will wrap up.

Dr. Michelli: Yeah, absolutely. And my team is meeting every day as a COVID-19 cross-functional team and we are trying to look at the interests and vulnerabilities of some of our clients right now. We are tactically looking at our own strengths and who is best to serve which clients based on those perceived vulnerabilities. So with that said, I think it is important to connect the team and then put them on purpose, put them on purpose to help people get a win based on their needs, as opposed to only getting half the orange.

Evans: Listen folks, Janus Henderson Knowledge Labs … we are just delighted you listened in, we hope it is helpful. Be strong, carry on, think about those top clients, think about them hard. Think about them deeply and then act. Make a maneuver. We appreciate your business immensely and again, we are bouncing back from this you all, I want to be very clear on that. We are bouncing back like super balls. Talk to you soon.

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