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.

How to Make Each Day a Success

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I think when an advisor is young or new in the business, he or she is always looking for the silver bullet, the magic bullet – the escalator instead of the stairway to success. I want to tell you a great story about the secret to success.

Watch the video or read the transcript below to learn this story about the secret to success.

Four Ways to Ensure You Deliver Outstanding Client Service

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If you fail to provide exemplary client service, you won’t succeed in this business. While good product knowledge and financial judgement are requisite skills, you must go that extra mile to attend to your clients.

Here are some ways to make sure your client service is outstanding.

5 Dos of Developing Good Storytelling Skills

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The ability to tell interesting stories is an essential skill for all advisors. Stories are an effective way of letting people get to know the real you, and they’re also useful when it comes to educating clients.

Few of us are born natural raconteurs – but if you commit to developing your skills and practising them regularly, over time you can become a great storyteller.

Here are 5 best practices when it comes to developing good storytelling skills.

4 Misconceptions about Market Volatility Your Clients Need to Be Aware of

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As a financial advisor it’s your responsibility to get your clients to stick to their financial plan for the long term. This means you’ll need to change any pre-conceived notions they may have about market volatility. In particular, you need to get across that volatility does not equate to risk or loss.

Here are some common misconceptions about market volatility your clients may have and how to address them.

Making Your Service Memorable

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Let’s talk about outstanding service. That’s the rare commodity in this country. Americans have forgotten what good service is. People around the world have forgotten what good service is. And I’m telling you, if you want to outperform the competition, don’t have just good service, make your service memorable; service people will talk about.

Listen to the audio or read the transcript below to learn Don’s thoughts on memorable service.

Five Reasons Advisors Needn’t Fear Technology

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People are becoming increasingly adept at – and comfortable with – interacting with computers. This is fueling the debate around the merits of automated versus face-to-face financial advice. In reality, there’s no reason why both forms of communication can’t happily co-exist.

Technology can be a powerful aid to advisors when it comes to prospecting, building and maintaining relationships but it cannot replace the job of a full-service advisor. Here’s why.

5 Rules for Effective Communication with Prospects and Clients

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In order to establish trust and credibility – and get your messages across to prospects and clients – you need to be an effective communicator. If you, like many advisors, find this a challenge, you don’t need to feel defeated. With hard work and practice you can become a proficient and natural communicator. Here are some key rules to bear in mind.

6 Analogies to Use When Convincing Clients to Stick to The Plan

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Stories and analogies are great ways to capture a client’s attention and get them to see things from a different perspective. When used correctly they’re highly useful tools to help persuade clients to act in the way you want them to. Analogies are especially effective because clients come to understand what you’re saying by drawing their own conclusions.

Here are six great analogies to help your clients see that they should stick to the plan.

Poor Communication Is The #1 Reason Advisors Get Fired

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The chief reason clients fire their advisors is not, as you may have thought, poor performance – it’s poor communication. A survey by Financial Advisor Magazine revealed that 72% of clients said they fired their advisors due to their advisor’s failure to communicate on a timely basis.

The best advisors put their communication strategy at the very heart of their business – and so should you. Not only should you build in time to communicate with clients – but take time to develop your soft skills so that you communicate effectively.

5 Ways to Reduce Risk

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I want to talk about reducing risk. I believe in my heart to not invest money is to go broke safely. You simply can’t save enough for retirement. Bertrand Russell said, ‘to conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom’. All clients are afraid of investing; they are afraid of losing money. In order to trust you with their money, clients have to conquer or at least control their fear.

Watch the video or read the transcript below to learn how to address their concern about risk and explain you can reduce risk.

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Articles by: Don Connelly