Four Communication Best Practices to Make you Win: Best Practice #2 – The client is more focused on his problems than your powers

This is the second of four “Communication Best Practices” that can help you convert the general needs of your clients into a specific “I-want-your-product” commitment. Followed carefully and consistently, these four communication fundamentals get to the heart of the decision-making matter in real-world applications. They can help you tailor the narrative around your product into…

Details

Four Communication Best Practices to Make you Win: Best Practice #1 – It’s all about emotion

There are 4 000 investment managers in Europe. They all visit the same clients and prospects as you do and they compete against you. It gets worse though – not only do the European managers visit your clients, the US and Asian ones do too. There are 54 000 funds in Europe1. Meaning even if…

Details

Four Communication Best Practices to Make you Win : Best Practice #3 – Communication takes place in the ear of the listener not the mouth of the speaker

This is the third of four “Communication Best Practices” that can help you convert the general needs of your clients into a specific “I-want-your-product” commitment. Followed carefully and consistently, these four communication fundamentals get to the heart of the decision-making matter in real-world applications. They can help you tailor the narrative around your product into…

Details

Finding the Holy Grail in asset management: lessons from Beethoven

The challenge was monumental. Others might have simply given up. Not Beethoven. Instead he clenched the rod between his teeth so that when he pressed down hard on the piano keys he could feel a faint vibration. Guided by these vibrations and a vision of what he alone could offer his audience, Beethoven persevered. His…

Details

Don’t think of a pink elephant.

I recently attended a presentation by an asset manager who was launching a fund, well after many of his competitors had launched a similar offering. Given this context, one of the main arguments of the presentation was “It’s not too late.” But did the manager realise that, despite his best efforts, his audience had heard…

Details

Create a genuine, differentiated value system. Top-10 tips

Lessons learned from analysing value systems of 500 asset managers worldwide. Would you be impressed by a doctor telling you that he is professional, focused on you, that he will cure you with integrity and that you should trust him? Probably not. These are what we call ‘hygiene’ factors. Differentiation works on an entirely separate…

Details