Improving the advisor-client connection is the best way to drive growth during challenging economic times. This was the message of a webinar called “Is Your Advisory Business Recession-Proof?” from Practifi, a Chicago-based practice-management outfit, in partnership with Quik!, a forms-automation software service provider, and Bento Engine, a fintech solutions company.

“Anxiety levels are pretty high right now, and that can have a big impact on how the advisor is working with their client,” said Paige Johnson, Practifi’s director of strategic partnerships and alliances, referring to the impending recession. “There is a dynamic that is certainly impacted by that tension.”

It’s hard to talk to clients, she said, when “things don’t look so great.”

But the right tools can make those potentially uncomfortable conversation easier. Advisor-client communication is key, she stressed, calling it “the hub of your wealth management business … your control center.”

Advisors who have a Practifi account already have a significant customer relationship management (CRM) tool, she said, but adding Bento Engine and Quik! can take the client information that’s already in the Practifi account and channel it into more meaningful engagement. These additional solutions help “enable the flow of financial information,” she said.

Johnson then introduced some statistics.

Going back nearly a century, she said, the average bear market lasted just 289 days while the average bull market lasted 991 days. The average decline during those bear markets was 36%, and the average gain during the bull markets was 114%. In all, there have been 22 bear markets and 24 bull markets over the past 92 years, she said. To put it another way, she said, less than 21% of those years were down markets; 70% of the time the market was actually up (it was flat 9% of the time).

“So markets are generally positive most of the time,” she noted.

Johnson said that’s clients need to hear that message. Bear markets are rough and may seem like they go on forever, but history does not bear that out.

Another disconnect in the advisor-client relationship, she said, was revealed in a recent Cerulli survey: 25% of clients surveyed had more than one advisor, but 73% of advisors surveyed believed they were their clients’ main advisor. They were wrong. Only 34% of the clients with multiple advisors considered one advisor to be their primary advisor.

“So how can communication between advisors and clients be better?” she asked.

One solution cited was to improve efficiency.

Richard Walker, CEO and co-founder of Quik!, explained that he started the company in 2002 to help make advisors more efficient—specifically, to help them spend less time on paperwork.

He gave an example. Before Quik!, he worked for an advisory firm that doubled its assets under management in a single year during a bear market. It did this by pointing out to clients how many different accounts they had within the same household. One by one, he said, clients asked if they could consolidate. “This meant more of their business went to our advisory practice,” said Walker.

The lesson of this anecdote, he added, is that better client engagement is the way to succeed during a down market. “If you can do more to engage with clients, it will lead to more action,” he said.

And to become more efficient in your client engagements, he added, you have to have the right digital tools.

Philipp Hecker, CEO of Bento Engine, spoke next. His company provides technology integration, with specific compliance-ready advisor-client content for CRM platforms. At 15 different points in the life of every client, he said, there are important financial decisions to be made—from getting a first job at age 14 to taking required minimum distributions at age 72.

But outside of annual portfolio reviews, advisors often lose touch with their clients. So Bento takes client information that’s already in an advisor’s database and suggests life event points when the advisor might reach out to each client. It then suggests specific vetted content that can be tailored to each client.

“Particularly in down markets, engaging with clients proactively can provide opportunities for you to deliver value that’s beneficial for everybody,” he said.