Don Connelly, Soft Skills Trainer for Financial Professionals

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.

Being Accountable May Be The Key to Your Success

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Being accountable will benefit not only your business, but every aspect of your life. Being accountable to yourself will help you focus your attention on your performance, encouraging you to set and achieve personal goals. Being accountable to your clients will help you keep them on track and invested.

Here’s how being accountable will help you succeed as a Financial Advisor.

When You Find Yourself Discouraged, Revisit Why You Got in This Business

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I know there are times that you want to quit, you just want to throw in the towel. Clients get in your face, the market is working against you, things are bad, and you’re in a slump. Next time that happens, here’s a suggestion. Ask yourself why you got in the business and answer that question.

Listen to a story that illustrates how asking yourself this question will help you find courage to keep on doing what you’re doing.

How to Articulate Your Value to Prospects and Clients

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Ours is a highly commoditized industry. Financial advisors all tend to look the same, sell the same products and talk the same language. To get noticed you need to differentiate yourself from the competition by establishing your value to prospects and clients.

First, work out what you can bring to the table that others can’t. The next step is to verbalize your unique value proposition to clients and prospects.

If you do, prospects and clients will realize why it makes perfect sense to work with you.

Three Things That Clients Often Do – Even Though They Shouldn’t

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During your career, you’ll find over and over again that emotions cloud clients’ investment decisions – clients are not always inclined to act in their own best interests. At times like these you need to step in and be a behavior coach for them – otherwise they’ll end up regretting their decisions down the line.

Here are three things that clients want to do – but shouldn’t, and how to counter them.

Why You Need a Referral Strategy and How to Develop One

/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 3 comments

Many advisors are uncomfortable asking clients outright for referrals, finding it hard to strike a balance between being aboveboard about wanting to acquire new business and being pushy or needy.

If that sounds like you, then you need to change your mindset because there are only three ways to gather new clients: From existing clients, people you know who are not yet clients, and people you don’t know yet. The best way by far to find new clients is via referrals.

4 More Things That Could Get You Stuck in a Rut

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In a previous post we outlined four things that could get you stuck in a rut. Here are four more – along with some recommendations on how to get your business moving forward again.

1. Thinking you don’t need help

If you think you don’t need help in building your business, think again. Over time you will eventually work out how to do things on your own – but why waste time? With help you’ll get there far quicker.

As the ancient Chinese proverb says – if you want to know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

Use Your Clients as Your Sales Force

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Use clients as your sales force - welcome to Don Connelly 247

A few years ago I got a question from Ryan who was wondering if I could give him some tips on how to increase the word of mouth that his clients give on his behalf and perhaps help to bring in more referrals.

Listen to the recording of my conversation with Ryan or read the transcript below to learn what I suggest he does and how he can use his clients as his sales force.

5 Top Priorities for Advisors Who Want to Build a Healthy Practice

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If you want to build a healthy practice, there are several things you must prioritize, including the following.

#1. Prospecting
To run a healthy business, you need a pipeline full of good leads. Referrals will probably not be enough to grow your business – and networking, whilst productive, won’t guarantee that you’ll meet the right people. So, prospecting (i.e. actively recruiting or seeking out new clients) must become your priority.

Prospecting may be the least favorite part of your job. If this is the case, work on developing your soft skills so you become more comfortable with this task.

Why You Need to Be a Good Business Person to Succeed as a Financial Advisor

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A large percentage of financial advisors fail, not because they aren’t good at what they do, but because they lack the core competencies of running a business.

If you want to succeed in this profession, you need to become a business person.

Let’s look at what this entails.

How to Add Value to Clients’ Lives

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Prospects often struggle to find the right financial advisor – in their eyes all advisors tend to look the same, sound the same and sell the same products.

Make it easy for prospects to choose you by communicating your value to them in your first meeting. And if they decide to work with you, make sure you continue to communicate your value to them as clients. If you bring the value you promised, there’s a high chance they’ll remain loyal and refer you to others.

Here are some ways to bring value to prospects and clients.

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Articles by: Don Connelly