Don Connelly, Author at Don Connelly & Associates

Don A. Connelly is a speaker, motivator and educator for financial advisors. During a career of more than 40 years on Wall Street, he worked for nearly 19 years as company spokesperson, senior vice president and senior marketing officer for Putnam Investments, in addition to holding positions as a stock broker, financial planner, branch manager, wholesaler and national sales manager. As founder and CEO of Don Connelly 24/7, he provides timely and provocative sales ideas to thousands of financial professionals, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

‘Why Should I Do Business with You’: Crafting a Compelling Response to a Prospect’s Critical Question

April 22, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

For every financial advisor, the question, “Why should I do business with you?” hangs heavy in the air during initial consultations, whether spoken or not. It’s a pivotal moment, a crossroads where trust and value must intersect to convince the potential client to take the next step. While tempting to launch into a self-promotional monologue, a nuanced, client-centric approach is critical to unlocking that coveted “yes.”

It’s crucial to understand that a prepared, cookie-cutter approach, such as reciting your value proposition, won’t work. Every prospect is unique, so it’s essential to adapt your approach based on their specific circumstances and needs using the following framework:

How to Educate Clients About the Importance of Investing Beyond Their 401(k)

April 15, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments

For most people, there’s little to think about when it comes to making contributions to their 401k plans. They enjoy reduced current taxes, deferred taxes on account earnings, and, for most, a matching contribution from their employer. That’s a huge incentive to contribute as much of their earnings as possible—up to $23,000 in 2024, and those over 50 can add $7,000 in annual catch-up contributions.

But is maxing out 401k contributions really the best retirement savings strategy for your clients?

While deferred taxation in a 401k is great for capital accumulation, they will owe ordinary income taxes on their withdrawals, impacting their cash flow in a critical life stage. Many retirees are shocked by the amount of taxes they owe on their retirement income.

Should FAs Allow Clients’ Political Opinions to Influence Their Investment Decisions?

April 8, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom, Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Here we are again—another presidential election year. If it’s like the last couple of elections, financial advisors are sure to see some clients wringing their hands over which candidate will win the White House and how that will impact the financial markets and their investments. At the very least, you’re likely to get an earful of some clients’ political viewpoints—which is fine if they don’t try to correlate them with how they should invest their money.

For decades, investors have tried to find some correlation between elections and investment performance, hoping it will foretell how a particular outcome will impact their portfolio so they can adjust their investment strategy appropriately.

Of course, if you search far enough, you might be able to uncover data that supports such a link. But you’re not going to find any that decisively shows a causal relationship or enough of one to warrant serious consideration for changing investment strategies based on election results. Still, some clients have such strong political views that they see a connection in all aspects of their lives, including how they invest their money.

To Ensure Success, Financial Advisors Must Fight Through Mental Roadblocks and Self-Doubt

April 1, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Being a financial advisor can be an enriching career with both monetary and personal fulfillment. The price for such success is years of hard work, sacrifice, and overcoming extended bouts of mental roadblocks and self-doubt that can shatter one’s self-confidence and potentially derail a career.

These mental hurdles can manifest in various ways but are almost always a result of intentional or unintentional behavior that hinders your own success or well-being—in other words, self-sabotage. It’s like consciously or unconsciously throwing a wrench in your own engine by the actions you take, such as procrastination, negative self-talk, perfectionism, quitting tasks prematurely, and avoiding challenges.

It can also transpire through unhealthy mindsets such as fear of failure, fear of success, low self-esteem, imposter syndrome, lack of confidence, and limiting beliefs.

Few careers are as demanding as being a financial advisor, which makes it imperative to avoid doing things that can make it more difficult. All these actions and mindsets are avoidable, but it takes a conscious effort to weed them out, using “emotional self-regulation” – a process of monitoring, evaluating, and modifying your behavior. Here’s how it works:

What Is an Initial Benefit Statement and How to Use It

March 25, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills / 0 comments

As I have mentioned already on the Don Connelly 24/7 learning center, I was taught a method of selling called Professional Selling Skills (PSS) many years ago. It was and still is the bestselling course in the world. Let’s talk about the first step in giving a Professional Selling Skills presentation. That step is called the Initial Benefit Statement.

Watch this video episode or read the transcript below to hear Don explaining what it is and how to use it.

Getting SMART About Setting Goals for You and Your Clients

March 18, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Anyone who has ever accomplished anything of significance started with a goal. Professional athletes, entertainers, business titans, and the millionaire next door will all tell you that they began with the end in mind, visualizing their destination and then mapping the road to get there.

We’ve written about the importance of goal setting and the significance of writing them down and keeping them in front of you to remind you of what’s possible. However, the process of goal setting is often marred with unrealistic expectations or ambivalence about what you want to achieve, resulting in unachievable or unmeasurable goals.

Financial advisors on the path to success can’t afford to wallow in hopes or pipe dreams. You need clearly defined, actionable goals that reflect your professional and personal ambitions. Although goal setting isn’t rocket science, it does require a deliberate process to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. In other words, it requires the SMART goal-setting framework.

For the Sake of Time, Learning to Say “No” Is a Vital Skill Advisors Must Master

March 11, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Being able to maximize time to spend on high-payoff activities has long been a significant challenge for financial advisors who must wear many hats on their path to success. Advisors not in control of their time typically have less of it to spend interacting with clients and prospecting for new clients and other activities essential to the growth of their practice.

To gain more control of their time, advisors can follow these steps:

– Setting clear goals,
– prioritizing and planning tasks and activities,
– delegating and outsourcing administrative tasks,
– utilizing technology to automate repetitive tasks where possible,
– blocking time and batching similar tasks together,
– creating a focused work environment to limit distractions and
– learning to say “no.”

Steps to Take When Ending a Client Relationship

March 4, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

For everything it takes to secure a new client, it seems counterintuitive that a financial advisor would fire one. But, under certain circumstances, that’s precisely what you must do to keep your practice on the right growth trajectory while keeping your sanity.

Holding on to clients who stray outside your profile of an ideal client, or when they become too demanding or no longer follow your advice, can weigh you down. Your time is too valuable to spend it with clients who aren’t a good fit for you.

So, you need to fire them. But how? Ending a client relationship is a delicate process, but it doesn’t have to be awkward for you or the client when handled with care and professionalism. Much like a structured onboarding process, you should also have a clearly defined “deboarding” process to make it easier on everyone. Here are some steps to consider when ending a client relationship.

Current Events Are White Noise

February 26, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments

Seemingly each day, the media hysteria heightens. You’d think nobody would want a steady diet of bad news, but you and I know that it’s not going to stop. Why? Because bad news sells.

Do you ever wonder why bad news sells? Do you ever wonder why we focus on what’s wrong in the world? We do that because we’re concerned about anything that threatens our sense of wellbeing.

Watch this video or read the transcript below to learn why we do that and what you and your clients should focus on.

How Financial Advisors Can Take Control Over Their Time

February 19, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

As a financial advisor, your most valuable resource is your time. If you are not in control of how you spend your time, then you are not in control of your results. Controlling your time and injecting your schedule with the right mix of high-payoff activities is vital to achieving your goals.

However, time is a diminishing resource, which is why it’s so valuable yet so challenging to manage. Advisors must find a way to maximize their critical high-payoff activities, such as client interactions, prospect meetings, and prospecting, while allocating sufficient time for other essential activities that need to get done, such as administrative tasks, marketing, and planning. Advisors must also be able to allocate adequate time for professional and personal development and ensure there’s enough left over for a healthy work-life balance.

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Articles by: Don Connelly