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.

5 Traits You Need to Have If You’re to Build Strong Relationships with Clients

5 Traits You Need to Have If You’re to Build Strong Relationships with Clients

Your personal likeability and trustworthiness are more important than your professional knowledge when it comes to winning and building enduring client relationships. Professional credentials, while important, are only a backstop to the forging of strong personal connections. Focus on developing your soft skills.

Here are five traits you need if you want to create long-lasting relationships with clients and become more referable.

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Don’t Sell Investments – Focus on The Relationship

Don’t Sell Investments – Focus on The Relationship

I believe in my heart someone should transfer their entire account to you without any investment recommendations. We’re not in the investment business, investments are our products. We’re in the business of getting kids through school, minimizing taxes, and getting people retired. We have to focus on the relationship, not the money. If you sell investments, sooner or later your clients will be angry. All investments have their bad days as well as their good days. So don’t discuss investments, it’s not necessary.

Listen to this audio episode or read the transcript below to learn a story that illustrates how focusing on the relationship without discussing investments will help you open the account.

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11 Best Practices for Gathering Referrals

11 Best Practices for Gathering Referrals

People trust recommendations from people they know, and the lifetime value of a new referral customer is higher than of a client acquired in another way. Despite this, advisors shy away from asking for referrals – citing that to be one of their most awkward tasks.

The good news is that, if asked at the right time, most clients would be happy to advocate on your behalf. Less than a third of advisors ever ask though. Don’t act like the majority – because referrals are at the core of growing your business.

In this post we’ll look at some best practices for gathering referrals.

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How to Prepare Your Clients for The Next Market Correction

How to Prepare Your Clients for The Next Market Correction

The Natixis Investment Managers 2018 Global Financial Professionals Survey revealed that 57% of advisors believe investors are unprepared for a downturn. This illustrates how difficult it is to convey the nature of turbulence to clients – and that volatility is an unavoidable part of the investment process.

Take the lead – prepare and educate your clients on the nature of market volatility. Then it will be far easier to counter their anxiety when the next market correction comes.

Here are 5 things you can do right away.

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How to Prepare Yourself for Market Corrections

How to Prepare Yourself for Market Corrections

Stocks will edge higher, sometimes for prolonged periods of time, but this should never give rise to complacency. Because there’s always a ‘bear market’ waiting just around the corner.

Don’t get caught out when the markets start to fall. Prepare yourself in advance, both for your own peace of mind – and so you’re ready to reassure clients that there’s no reason to panic.

Here are some things you can do to make sure you’re in command when market corrections take place.

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There Are Three Main Ways to Gather New Clients

There Are Three Main Ways to Gather New Clients

There are three main ways to gather new clients and grow your business. To excel, you should put your effort into mastering all three of them.

1. Acquiring new clients from existing clients
Referrals are by far and away the best way to gather new clients. And the only way you can earn referrals is by becoming referable – which will only happen once your clients feel you’re delivering them a 5-star service.

Clients won’t refer you until you become part of their inner circle, when you become someone they like and trust on both a personal and professional level.

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Self-sabotage – 10 Behaviors to Avoid

Self-sabotage – 10 Behaviors to Avoid

Self-sabotaging behaviors can create problems, interfere with goals and ultimately put your career at risk. Without even realizing it you could be a victim of self-sabotage. Be honest and identify the traits that are holding you back so you can make the positive changes required to move forward.

Here are ten ways you could be self-sabotaging – along with some recommendations on how to do things better.

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