/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Saying goodbye to clients often seems counter-intuitive to new advisors, whose primary concern is to grow a customer base. But failing to ‘weed out’ unprofitable clients is a bad idea for any advisor’s business. To succeed in this industry, you need to spend your time servicing your most profitable relationships and this necessitates dropping unprofitable accounts from time to time.
There can be many reasons why certain clients are no longer a good fit for you. Perhaps you’ve identified a need to downsize your business because it’s become impossible to serve a multitude. Or maybe you’re working with clients who ignore your advice, are too needy or blame you for poor market performance.
Whatever the reasons your focus should be on providing great service to your most valuable clients – which means you need to let the others go.
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5 Things That Could Ruin Your Clients’ Trust in You – in Seconds
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
It can take many years before clients come to know you and trust you, and during this time you’ll need to work hard to win them over. In order to earn their trust, you’ll need to demonstrate exemplary behavior and deliver a service that goes above and beyond.
But that’s not where it ends. It may have taken you years to build up trust but it takes just seconds to break it down. Just one slip and all that hard-won trust is gone forever. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you by avoiding the following behaviors.
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4 Reasons Why You Should Prepare Your Bear Market Presentation When The Market’s High
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
When the market declines your clients will no doubt be aware of the simultaneous fall in the value of their portfolios. And they will be concerned. Human nature dictates this. That’s why when the time comes, it’s crucial that you are prepared to counter their insecurity with reassurance. You must be ready to instill them with confidence that their investments are secure.
If you run and hide when the markets tumble (like a surprising number of advisors do), your clients’ fears will multiply. As a consequence, they could end up making a bad decision about their investments – or about working with you.
So, make sure you’re ready to step into the breach by having your presentation ready to hand. Here are four reasons why you should prepare that presentation right away.
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Best Practices for Letting Go of a Client
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Saying goodbye to clients often seems counter-intuitive to new advisors, whose primary concern is to grow a customer base. But failing to ‘weed out’ unprofitable clients is a bad idea for any advisor’s business. To succeed in this industry, you need to spend your time servicing your most profitable relationships and this necessitates dropping unprofitable accounts from time to time.
There can be many reasons why certain clients are no longer a good fit for you. Perhaps you’ve identified a need to downsize your business because it’s become impossible to serve a multitude. Or maybe you’re working with clients who ignore your advice, are too needy or blame you for poor market performance.
Whatever the reasons your focus should be on providing great service to your most valuable clients – which means you need to let the others go.
Read more
Every Financial Advisor Needs to Tell Great Stories
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Human beings have an innate desire to tell and listen to stories. Good stories grab the attention and inspire people to act, which is why storytelling should be an essential tool in your armory. If you become a great storyteller, prospects and clients will leave your office remembering both you and your message.
Stories are also a great way to help make the unfamiliar familiar – they promote the understanding of complex issues. Plus, they’re effective at creating an emotional bond between storyteller and listener.
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How to Get Clients to Stick to the Plan
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
It’s crucial that you get your clients to stick to the plan. If they don’t, they could forgo their comfortable retirement or build up debt when they put their kids through college. Your responsibility, as their financial advisor is to keep them on track. Here are three effective ways to do that.
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4 Things That Could Get You Stuck in a Rut
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
You won’t get stuck in a rut by chance. There’s always a reason behind a lack of career progression – from letting fears rule actions to lacking a career vision.
Here are four behaviors to avoid if you want to prevent yourself from getting stuck in a rut.
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5 Steps to Improve Your Sales Skills
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Advisors often dislike being known as ‘sales people’ – they see the act of selling as somehow disreputable. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Selling is essentially the art of persuasion. If you are to get people to open accounts with you, you need to convince them it’s the right thing to do. You need to become proficient at selling if you want to grow your business.
Top advisors are inevitably skilled salespeople. Make it your aim to become great at selling by taking the following steps.
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3 Types of Clients You Should Want to Attract and Retain
/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
It’s surprising to find that certain broad sectors of the population still remain underserved in certain instances.
If you, unlike other advisors, can devise a strategy to attract and retain these potentially valuable clients, you could vastly improve your business.
Let’s have a look at three types of clients you should try to attract and retain.
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Five Ways Tracking Can Improve Your Practice
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
If you don’t set clear targets or measure your performance, you won’t know if your business is going in the right direction. So, set aside time to identify the areas that are key to your overall success – then take steps to track how you’re doing. Your tracked data will help you understand how to improve or change things for the better so you can progress towards your ultimate goals.
Here are five ways how tracking can help you improve your practice.
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5 Ways to Develop Accountability
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Accountability is a trait many advisors lack, but one that elite advisors always possess. No matter how great your talent you won’t get ahead unless you become accountable for your actions and the actions of your clients. Without accountability you won’t develop the self-discipline you need to take charge of your career and make changes for the better.
If you need help to develop accountability, here are five ways you can get started.
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