Into the Lumiverse Episode 4: Training for Experiences
As we enter a new year, we often take time to reflect on our business and what we need to do to achieve success over the next 12 months. A key component of any plan is training — how we uplift the skills of our teams and the capabilities we have available to drive further growth.
In our latest episode of Into the Lumiverse, Mark Akeroyd and Tom Frisby discuss training and what you need to consider as you transition from delivering services to staging experiences for clients.
Services vs. Experiences: A Quick Recap
A services business delivers financial services to clients. It states that it provides great, meaningful, connected services to help clients achieve their financial goals — saving clients time by offering "outsourced" financial expertise.
An experience business is one where clients pay for the experience of co-creating their best life alongside you. They see the time as well invested. Through the financial planning experience, clients are able to define and co-create their best life, with their advisor guiding their transformation to live healthier, wealthier, and wiser.
If you're looking to stage extraordinary experiences for clients, the skills you need to train your team on could be vastly different from before. A services business will focus training on improving efficiencies and saving time — using AI to speed up communications, gaining proficiency in financial modelling software, and staying up to date on the latest investment options. A business focused on experiences, on the other hand, will define training based on how it can impact how clients feel about engaging with the firm — things like coaching skills, facilitation techniques, and the latest wellbeing trends.
It's about working out the different roles each member of your team plays in shaping how a client feels as they move through your advice process — so that clients leave feeling their time with you was well invested.
In this episode, Mark and Tom share three tips to help you level up your experiences.
Tip 1: Define Your Business Theme
Before you think about training your team, you need to define what your business theme is. As Tom explains:
“"Experience delivery isn't just about the advisor, and it's not just about how you talk to or treat or greet clients. It has to do with how you make them feel. And people — the entire team — are involved in creating those feelings when a client interacts with your business. So if we're training people on experience delivery, we need to actually begin with their theme — their 'why,' a deeper purpose."”
Once you've defined your theme, you'll have a much clearer sense of where training is needed. For example, if your business themes are connection, trust, and possibility, then every member of your team needs to be trained to deliver that experience — so that every interaction a client has with your business leaves them feeling connected, confident that they're being looked after, and that everything is possible.
Tip 2: Train People to the "Role" They Need to Play
It's time to start thinking of "role" as more than a job description.
In the episode, Tom and Mark discuss how each member of your team has a specific part to play within your staged experience — a bit like actors in a film. Take the receptionist or front desk manager. If their role is to create connection, build trust, and convey possibility, you have to ask: what do they actually need to do differently?
They'll certainly need the required administrative, CRM, and interpersonal skills to manage the demands of their job. But the layered-on skills might look like this: How would you want them to behave to convey connection and trust? Would you want them to follow up more promptly, and in multiple ways? Would they need to use the CRM to quickly pull up a client's background and strike up a relevant conversation while that client waits in the lobby?
For advisors, the question is similar. Would your time be better spent getting more educated on asset allocations — which hasn't changed significantly in decades — or on a listening or coaching course that makes you a better trusted guide for your clients?
Everyone in your business has a specific role to play. It's your job to determine what those roles are, how they connect to your business theme, and what skills are needed to fulfill them.
Tip 3: Distinguish Between Required and Necessary Skills
When building an experience layer into your training, stop thinking in terms of "hard" and "soft" skills. Instead, think about required skills and necessary skills.
Required skills are the table stakes — what someone needs to do their job. This includes things like being able to use your CRM or engagement software to see and understand what matters to clients. These can typically be trained through process and hands-on practice with the tools of the role.
Necessary skills are the ones people need to develop in terms of how they impact the client experience. They often can't be taught through a step-by-step process. Take listening skills as an example. If connection is central to your business theme, listening is an absolutely necessary skill — it's integral to helping clients feel heard and genuinely connected to their advisor. It's not something you can learn from a checklist.
As you think about training, map out the required and necessary skills for each role within your advice process, and connect them back to your business themes. That's how you build a team capable of delivering truly extraordinary client experiences.
Want to learn more? Check out our Academy and our first course — the Lumiant Advice Experience. It covers both the required skills of using our platform and the necessary skills needed to deliver an engaging experience for clients.
Visit the Lumiant Academy to get started.