November 11, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
As a Financial Advisor, you share a common concern with the wholesalers who call on you. You don’t control your distribution and they don’t control theirs. You can’t force your clients to act any more than a wholesaler can force you to act. As well, neither you nor the wholesaler has control over the landscape. Most of what affects how and what you do is in some else’s hand, be it the stock market, the economy or interest rates. And most of what affects you is in a constant state of change.
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Tell a Story – Crafting a Great Story
December 5, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Geoffrey James writes a wonderful column for Inc.com. Recently he reviewed a book about business storytelling. In his article, James recapped the seven ingredients that make a story great. Just as one size does not fit all, the same story does not appeal to everyone. Therefore, you need to craft at least three stories and be proficient at telling them. Here’s how you do just that.
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There Are Only Three Objections You Will Ever Get
November 21, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
Generally speaking, there are only three objections you will ever hear: I don’t have any money, I already have an Advisor and a third catch-all category we’ll call “I’m not interested.” Obviously, there are many more objections, such as “I can get it cheaper elsewhere.” But those specific objections fall into the catch-all category. Telling you that a discount house is cheaper than you is a way of someone saying he or she is not interested.
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Two Things Never Change for Financial Advisors
November 11, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
As a Financial Advisor, you share a common concern with the wholesalers who call on you. You don’t control your distribution and they don’t control theirs. You can’t force your clients to act any more than a wholesaler can force you to act. As well, neither you nor the wholesaler has control over the landscape. Most of what affects how and what you do is in some else’s hand, be it the stock market, the economy or interest rates. And most of what affects you is in a constant state of change.
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You Are Not Paid to Be Right All the Time
October 10, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
As the markets become more and more complex, keep in mind that not everything you recommend will work out. It’s okay to feel badly when something doesn’t work. It’s not okay to feel guilty.
One problem with feeling guilty is that we tend to doubt ourselves. Your clients don’t deserve that. They desperately need you to have confidence in yourself. Have an opinion and be there for them. That’s hard to do when you feel guilty.
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A Message for All Financial Advisors Struggling to Make It
October 7, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 4 comments
We can debate this subject all day long, but it always comes down to one reason. The reason Advisors fail is that they don’t see enough people. Blame it on self-sabotage, blame it on a lack of initiative or blame it any of a hundred other reasons, but Advisors make their living knee-to-knee. If we’re not sitting in front of folks, we are unemployed.
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People Are Often Over-Diversified and Don’t Know It
September 26, 2013 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
Very rarely do I meet a client with a properly diversified portfolio. As much as we preach tactical asset allocation, you’d think people would be savvy about diversification.
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