3 Ways a Women’s Monthly Meetup Can Help Build Your Practice

The year 2016 marked the first time in history that women controlled more personal wealth than men in the U.S. As a result, meeting the needs of women investors is more important than ever.

While women are amassing more wealth, they often feel alienated by the financial services industry. Research by T. Rowe Price found that women want financial professionals to make a greater effort to listen to and understand them. Most women identified communication gaps with their financial professionals. As one survey respondent said, “My financial professional doesn’t understand where I’m coming from—I’m not totally heard.” They also had concerns about their financial plans but were reluctant to share those concerns.

Understanding the needs, concerns, and preferences of your clients and prospects is critical to growing your business. A monthly meetup made up of women investors can help you get the feedback and insight you need while deepening connections with this important market segment. Here’s why:

By establishing a monthly meetup for women investors, you’re sending a strong signal that your practice values women’s voices and wants to empower them through financial education. In addition to providing networking opportunities for and with women, regular meetups give clients and prospects a space to be heard, help you learn more about women’s unique financial needs, and allow you to deepen communication while offering educational content in a fun and social environment. 

In addition to being a valuable customer service tool, your women’s monthly meetup is an opportunity to interact with your high-priority prospects. You’ll learn what matters to them and they’ll get to “try on” your practice to see if it’s a good fit. Financial professionals are often able to convert prospects who have good experiences attending their events and interacting with the professional, other practice employees, and existing clients. 

People don’t want to sit through video conferences or meetings where someone talks at them. By engaging your clients and prospects in conversation, your women’s monthly meetup provides a dynamic forum for open and honest discussion. Additionally, offering seminars, speaking engagements, and other content that they find relevant and interesting motivates existing and future clients to attend your events.

For virtual meetings, participants can use video conference tools to discuss ideas that are shared during the event, making it easier to get real-time feedback from everyone. If members are reluctant to share their concerns or challenges around investing and finances—a reality revealed in T. Rowe Price’s research—you can always invite them to ask questions and share feedback anonymously. 

By creating a professional environment for women to learn and share their ideas, you can gain deeper insight into understanding and strengthening your outreach to this important and increasingly affluent market segment. Best of all, they will know you are committed to meeting their needs.