4 Tasks You Should Not Delegate if You Want to Grow Your Business
In a previous post we looked at how delegating routine or specialized business tasks can help clear the way for you to focus on the important aspects of your business. In this post we’ll look at tasks that unfailingly require your personal input – here are four things that should never be taken for granted.
#1. Prospecting
Prospecting is the number one task you must perform personally if you are to succeed. If people don’t know who you are and what you can do for them, you have no chance of winning their business.
Be honest and ask yourself if you spend too much time ‘preparing to prospect’ rather than prospecting. Are you procrastinating and allowing lesser important tasks take over your life? Overcome procrastination by deciding to become accountable. Stop making excuses and take action. Set yourself concrete goals along with strict deadlines e.g. to find one or two new prospects each week – then book in adequate time every day to ensure you achieve these goals.
Many advisors put off prospecting because of a fear of rejection. A good way to overcome this fear is to spend a day introducing yourself to strangers – from the person you share an elevator with, to someone you’re standing in a queue with. This simple activity can help boost your confidence when it comes to approaching strangers. When you begin to discover that initial discomfort doesn’t have to bar you from acting, prospecting will become more of a habit.
In addition, it could pay you to find a mentor who can help you become so good at prospecting so that it no longer fills you with fear.
#2. The first meeting
How you come across personality-wise dictates whether prospects will hire you or leave the first meeting unimpressed. People will only hire you if they like you and feel that you are enthusiastic about their ideals and goals. In order to make a great first impression focus your efforts on developing your soft, communication skills.
Let people get to know the real you. When prospects arrive in your office they aren’t focused on knowledge and information; they’ll walk away if they don’t understand who you are and what you can do for them. Don’t set an in-depth agenda before this meeting. All prospects care about is whether they can trust you. And they can’t trust you until they know you so use your ‘who I am’ story to let them into your life. Demonstrate what it is about you that should cause them to like you and trust you.
#3. Asking for referrals
Never forget to ask for referrals and do it in person. “If you don’t ask, you won’t get”, as the saying goes. In fact, if you’ve provided a great service to someone, they may very well be more than happy to recommend you. And when a client does recommend you don’t forget to show your appreciation – a handwritten thank-you note can go a long way.
#4. Regular communication
Clients will leave you and find another advisor if they don’t think your service is up to scratch. If they think they’ll get a better, more personalized experience elsewhere, they’ll move on. The strength of your relationship rests entirely on you and on your reliability and effort to maintain good communication with clients.
You need to keep in touch, so they know you’re 100% onboard with them and their situation. Call clients for a catch up just to see how they’re doing. And if the markets are turbulent make sure you call them first – don’t wait for them to call you. Over time your aim is to become a friend – not just their advisor – and when this happens you won’t have to worry about being fired because who fires their friends?
These days most of your routine tasks can be performed by technology while more specialized aspects can be delegated. This means you can focus on those tasks that absolutely shouldn’t be delegated – like client-facing activities – because your clients demand a personalized service from you.
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