Within three years of her husband’s death, 70% of widows change financial advisors. And with 60 being the average age of widowhood for women, that leaves a long financial future up for grabs!
The best strategy for retaining these affluent women clients is to develop a relationship with them NOW. Even if husbands claim that their wives “aren’t interested” in attending financial planning meetings, don’t neglect to introduce yourself to the wife. Build a relationship with her outside your office, and you may find she will start attending planning meetings with her husband.
If She Won’t Come to You…
- Couples usually attend social events like galas or horse shows together, and you probably attend these events to seek out networking opportunities. If you would normally spend most of your time talking with the men, focus on striking up a conversation with women. Spend at least 20% of your time talking with the wives. If you can’t get her to the financial planning meeting, at least you will develop a social relationship with her.
- Host your own client appreciation events, built around a family theme. Although many affluent couples no longer have young children at home, you can still create an event that’s fun for all ages. If you are targeting families with young children or grandchildren, pony rides and face painting are always popular. Teenagers may be interested in meeting a local celebrity, like an Olympian or sports figure. Or, organize your event around a theme that interests your clients, like cyber-security and cyber-bullying. Show interest in the complete family, and the wife will appreciate your effort.
Start doing these things now! In the next two weeks:
- Set a goal for yourself that you’ll spend 20% of time with women at your next event.
- Analyze your client list and come up with event ideas that would appeal to wives and family members.
Once you get started marketing financial services to women, you will find it’s not so hard as you thought.