What makes a client event successful?

The advisory business has adopted remote meetings with huge success. Many Canadian advisors no longer need to work in the same neighbourhoods, cities, or even the same provinces as their clients. Successful relationships have been built online, making some of the old handshake aspects of this business feel dated. Despite the success she has found on Zoom, Tina Tehranchian C.M., Senior Wealth Advisor at CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd., says that there is still value to be found in client events.

Tehranchian explains that client events, if well organized, well timed, and focused on the right theme, can generate a fantastic degree of connection between an advisor and their clients and between clients themselves. Her approach is quite disciplined, with a focus on delivering meaningful educational experiences alongside a convivial social environment. She outlined what works for her and how other advisors can ensure they’re running events for the right reasons.

“We recently had an event with a portfolio manager from CI talking about artificial intelligence and the portfolios of tomorrow,” Tehranchian says. “And we had one client who attended who has had some health struggles recently, he needed assistance just to get to his table, but after the event he told us, ‘the topic was so interesting for me, I didn’t want to miss it!’ and that’s one of the best outcomes of these events.”

What Tehranchian does, and doesn’t, include in her events

For Tehranchian, client events are a chance to leave her clients with valuable information. When she hosts larger group functions she ensures that there is a speaker or presenter who can teach her clients something interesting or relevant related to their wealth management experience. That might be a portfolio manager talking about AI, a lawyer explaining powers of attorney, or a physician talking about longevity and health. Of course she works to make sure that there’s good food and drinks for all her clients, keeping the events light-hearted and social, but at their core she wants clients to come away having learned something of substance.

Events designed purely around ‘fun’ like golf days or axe throwing are something Tehranchian prefers to avoid. Instead, she’ll organize more intimate dinner events with one or two client families at a time, bringing her family as well to connect more deeply as people. When the event is larger, she wants there to be substantive information, and when the event is meant to be fun she wants it to be more intimate.

Can a third-party organizer add value?

Tehranchian now has her events down to a science, with tried and true venues and formats. She says she hasn’t needed to use some of the third-party event planning services currently marketed to advisors. Matt Haze, however, believes there is room for an external event organizer to help advisors stand out.

Haze is a Chicago-based creative consultant, who has specialized in events for financial advisors on both sides of the border. Like Tehranchian he believes in the value of in-person events and has found a host of advisors who agree with them. His view, however, is that a third-party event planner can help ensure an advisor has time and capacity at the event to actually connect with their clients. He believes that advisor events that follow a rote ‘wine and cheese’ formula can bore and even alienate clients. He believes that advisory events can borrow from engagement strategies that have been successful in other fields.

“One thing I've been starting to talk to some advisors about creating a speaker series of their own for their community of entrepreneurs within their town,” Haze says. “There is a speaker series… called the CFO Series, where every couple of months across the US, CFOs get together and do this very intimate private speaker series. It's like what happens at CFO Series stays at CFO Series. And I've been talking to some advisors about doing something similar.”

Haze says the value of a third party planner, even one based in the United States, is in allowing the advisor to operate within the event rather than spending all their time operating it.

Tehranchian’s rules for events

While Tehranchian runs her events herself, she acknowledges that setting them up can be challenging for some advisors. She says that they can easily make mistakes by ignoring important details like the invitation, which has to be enticing, and the venue, which can’t feel impersonal. She says, for example, that she wouldn’t host an event at a hotel as it feels too much like a conference. Location matters, too, especially in a city like Toronto which is so often choked by traffic.

Tehranchian also says that advisors need to be careful with their choice of speaker for informational events. She notes that just because someone is an expert, it doesn’t mean they’re automatically an engaging presenter. Vetting speakers and topics is important to ensure that clients actually want to learn what’s being presented to them.

Seasonality matters, too. Tehranchian says that she will never host events during the holiday season, simply because people are too busy with social events and family obligations. She prefers autumn and springtime as periods when people are likely close to home and ready to engage with their advisor. Because events are so varied in their style and experience, she says the most important thing advisors can do is ask themselves why they’re hosting an event in the first place.

“Like anything that you do, you have to determine what is your main goal for holding this event. It may be prospecting, it may be client appreciation, it may be providing extra value to your clients. These are all good goals, but they require a different type of event depending on what your goal is,” Tehranchian says. “You have to be very clear on what you want to achieve and what would a successful event look like for you.”