Tanapan Sathiravanich’s gateway to breaking through with clients is financial education.

Too often, advisors use theories pulled from the classroom or a thick binder and overwhelm clients with too much information. Sathiravanich says the key to conveying that financial planning is important, not a burden, is communicating the advice that benefits clients the most.

What misconceptions do you encounter with clients and prospects?

Clients tend to think that buying life insurance is an expense. Through effective communication, we must make them see that paying life insurance premiums is a risk management plan that uses a small amount of money but protects their wealth at a very high level, almost 100%.

What are the main obstacles to good communication?

Managing my own team caused me to see two groups of people. The first group speaks fast, and the other group speaks too slowly. When we speak too fast, clients feel overwhelmed about making financial planning decisions with us. When I speak too slow, they can get frustrated with the pace of all the information we are trying to share. To solve this problem, before a meeting, I will write a full chapter of what to talk to clients about, and during the meeting, I try to speak in paragraphs according to what I want to say and leave spaces in between for questions.

How does communicating effectively make a difference?

A challenge for financial advisors is making an appointment with a client. How do we make the client feel like talking to us? In our calls to make an appointment with clients, we will use straightforward dialogue. For example, we will tell the client we are from a life insurance company, and we would like to introduce plans for high-sum life coverage for them and tuition fees for their children. We tell them we will use life insurance as the main product for their financial planning.

Do you have additional advice?

We can’t swim well from studying just in the classroom or from reading in the library. You can only swim well if you jump in the pool and swim every day until you master the moves you need to improve. Meet a lot of clients because when you get to work enough, your presentation and communication will become more effective.

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Q&A: Tanapan Sathiravanich