The pros and cons of client networking in a digital world

Reflecting on when he first started his financial advice career in 1992, Stallman IQ principal adviser John Stallman remembers hosting lunches for Qantas pilots as means of connecting and building relationships with a possible long-term client base.

While these types of meetings were key to establishing a client base early on in his career, Stallman told ifa that face-to-face sessions “would be very limiting these days given the technology we’ve got”.

As such, Stallman said he is embracing the advances in technology as he prepares to launch a new digital advice business, and he has had to embrace digital forms of connection to reach his audience.

“I’m really looking at that digital footprint, because the reach of that can get you. To create that digital footprint you’ve got to create a brand. That brand is created through consistency, word of mouth and other sorts of personal referral,” Stallman said.

Seeing as the new business will deliver automated, single-factor advice at an affordable price point, Stallman said the bulk of his target audience will be the “self-directing younger generation, probably 45 and younger, who are digitally minded”.

As such, he will have to utilise digital forms of communication to reach the target demographic, reaching them where they already are – on social media.

Although he is not discounting the value of face-to-face interactions, particularly in the early days of a business, technology and social media will be at the heart of his communication and outreach strategy.

“Once we do launch, I do plan on holding lots of probably corporate lunchtime sessions to get that footprint started so that we can direct people to the website. Ask them, you know, if you appreciate the time I’ve helped you with, would you please go on the website and get some viral going for me?” Stallman said.

“So, as well as that, it’s got to be TikTok, Instagram, whatever, but what I’ve found is in evolving this new process that we’ve got just wonderful AI technology, where you can do your 45-second TikTok grab.

“And it’s obviously got to be structured properly, with the hook, the problem, the solution and then some other information. But you don’t, then spend all day posting that on Instagram, whatever, there’s now an AI software that will spread that.”

As new technologies come onto market and revolutionise how we get information, Stallman suggested that the value of the traditional face-to-face seminar or workshop sessions and even webinars will become tools of the past as more people embrace the power of digital social engagement.

However, an important factor to keep in mind, he explained, is the age and general digital capabilities of those you are trying to reach because, for example, attempting to reach a 65-year-old via social media may not be the most effective approach.

As the population of digital natives grows, Stallman said it will become the way for future connections.