Editor's Note: The following article is an excerpt from The Ultra High Net Worth Banker's Handbook, by Weber and Meier.
What do high-net-worth clients expect from a private banker?
We would recommend that you build trust, keep learning and be prepared. Most importantly, imagine walking in your client's shoes and figuring out what he expects from you as his private banker.
A short form of our recommendations would be: Build trust and become a partner.
Build trust through continuous contact to avoid surprises. Show up in difficult moments, explain the risks and-if something goes wrong-be open about it. Be credible, reliable and intimate, but not self-centered.
Become A Lifelong Learner
Lifelong
learning has to encompass your financial knowledge and political and
economic understanding of the world. But most importantly, you have to
work on skills such as empathy, communication and coaching by searching
for feedback. As a lifelong learner, you will deliver added value to
your clients and establish deeper relationships, which after all is the
essence of our craft.
Learn about your market and financial solutions, but most importantly, learn about yourself. Learn how to improve your energy level and performance. Learn how to control your emotions and your state of mind. Ultra-high-net-worth clients are generally educated and successful people. Look at your work as a privilege: You're exposed to people you can learn from.
Who can teach you more about your weaknesses as a private banker than the client who closes an account? Who can teach you more about your strengths than a client who substantially increases his assets with you? Learn from such circumstances by politely asking your client for a debriefing. Ask the client who closed the account for an honest appraisal of your performance. A heart-to-heart discussion with your departing client might open the door to contacting him later and, possibly, winning him back.
Use a professional communications or performance coach and, more importantly, set up a network of peer coaches, i.e., colleagues working in different, non-competing markets with whom you can discuss different issues.
Learn from executive courses and from experts during industry events.