The Behavioralist’s Toolset

One of the Behavioralist’s key tools is a new class of client diagnostics based on behavioral economics.  Behavioralists use these tools — which have clients play decision games instead of answering questionnaires — to understand their clients’ actual or likely behaviors with a level of precision and insight that clients would have no way to self-report.  To boot, these methods are free of the survey biases that plague risk tolerance questionnaires, and represent the highest scientific standard in client diagnostics.

As an example, the Risk Essentials tool from TrueProfile (full disclosure: Capital Preferences is the creator of TrueProfile) takes clients through a 3-minute decision simulation exercise. 

Behavioralists use the TrueProfile decision reports to engage clients in “Say-Do” discovery and education conversations, helping clients gain insight about themselves in ways that simply weren’t possible before. 

If you’re a Behavioralist, this is where client behavior change begins—by detecting client biases and misperceptions they hold about their own preferences, and as a result, uncovering insights about clients that couldn’t be learned any other way.  No wonder Behavioralists are providing greater value and winning deeper loyalty from their clients.