I don’t remember who it was now, but I recently saw a social media post from a fitness coach with a caption saying something along the lines of, “There is nothing I can do that will overcome what a client will not do.” This really resonated with me because it’s the exact same thing in financial planning.
A fitness coach could give you the perfect diet and exercise routine, but if you don’t follow either of them (or you lie and say that you do when you actually don’t) then you’re probably not going to make any progress.
I believe that most people who are in a coaching or teaching role (fitness coach, teacher, financial planner, etc.) hold that position because they want to help others realize their potential. It’s extremely frustrating to put your time and effort into trying to help someone who asked you for help and then you feel like they don’t take it as seriously as you do or don’t care as much as you do. I get it, people’s lives are busy and life gets triaged, but why pay someone money to tell you to do something and then disregard what they told you to do?
Outcome Not Output
I also saw another short quote recently that I related to this idea: “The value is not the financial planning output. It’s the financial planning outcomes.” As a financial planner I could give a client loads of data and analysis as an “output”, but that wouldn’t mean much to them and would likely confuse them more and make them feel overwhelmed. That’s obviously never the goal.
I’m lucky to work at a company that allows me autonomy to experiment and make changes that I believe will be better for our clients. One change that we’ve made recently is attempting to make our financial planning output more relatable to clients so that the financial planning outcome that the client is looking for is easier for them and actually happens.
Sometimes it’s our fault that clients don’t accomplish their tasks and sometimes it’s theirs, but I believe we should do whatever we can to help them be successful considering that’s what they’re paying us for. Achieving the outcome is what’s really going to make a difference in someone’s life.
If your output is too confusing or overwhelming and leads to clients not taking action, then it needs to be changed. I believe that clearly stated recommendations and action items are much more important for a client to understand than every detail as to why they should take those actions. Too much information can lead to paralysis by analysis which leads to no progress at all. Some progress is always better than none.
With that being said, even the best output possible cannot lead to the desired outcome without a client being willing to follow through on their responsibilities.
