/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Brad from Southern California is a Merrill Lynch advisor. He sent me an email, which is in a way, funny, but poses a very serious question nonetheless.
“Don, I have a strange concern. I’m concerned that in my attempt to make things simple I go too far. There are times when I feel I’m patronizing people by talking what I call ‘baby talk’. I literally get embarrassed sometimes. I know what you’re going to say, keep it simple. But when’s enough enough?”
Listen to Don’s answer or read the transcript below.
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Take Charge of Your Own Destiny if You Want to Be a Successful Advisor
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
If you want to succeed as a financial advisor you need to understand that you, and you alone, are in control of your career. Your future success relies on the choices you make, so take control without delay.
Take some time out to analyze your current practice and identify areas requiring improvement. Commit to change and to getting better at the basics. Change your mindset to re-inforce the idea that you are doing things out of choice rather than necessity.
Take note of Maya Angelou’s words of wisdom: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
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Five Skills That Will Make You Stand Apart from The Crowd
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Hard skills can be learned from a book. They’re the skills most of us spent 16 years in school focusing on. In contrast, there’s no clear path to learning soft skills. Soft skills have to be learnt ‘on the job’ via experience and with trial and error.
Soft skills are at the very heart of what it is to be a great financial advisor. They are the skills that will mark you out from the crowd. So make sure you excel at soft skills by putting in a lot of practice. And persevere.
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How to Be a Better Prospector
/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
To succeed in this competitive industry, you need to be creative when it comes to acquiring new clients. No one universal approach is likely to be your Holy Grail when it comes to prospecting. Instead, you will need to adopt a number of prospecting approaches and learn, through trial and error, which work best for you. Once you’ve found a method you’re good at, you’re likely to enjoy finding clients that way, boosting your job satisfaction as well as your ability to attract new clients. Here are a few prospecting approaches to try.
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Read This if You Need a Boost in Self-motivation
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
At some point in your career as a financial advisor you will experience a lack of motivation. When this happens you can either stay unmotivated and fail, or develop a new course of action and succeed. The following post includes some tips to help you do the latter.
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Am I Oversimplifying Things?
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Brad from Southern California is a Merrill Lynch advisor. He sent me an email, which is in a way, funny, but poses a very serious question nonetheless.
“Don, I have a strange concern. I’m concerned that in my attempt to make things simple I go too far. There are times when I feel I’m patronizing people by talking what I call ‘baby talk’. I literally get embarrassed sometimes. I know what you’re going to say, keep it simple. But when’s enough enough?”
Listen to Don’s answer or read the transcript below.
Read more
Happy 4th of July
/ by Don Connelly / What's New / 0 comments
Nations throughout the world celebrate important holidays in ways important to its citizens. America has eleven federal holidays and each is special. The Fourth of July might be the most special of all. We call it Independence Day or simply the Fourth. Read on.
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Common Mistakes New Advisors Make – Ones that Could Ruin Your Business
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
There are many pitfalls to face when you’re first starting out as an advisor and mistakes are easy to make. Look out for these potential mishaps because they could halt your business in its tracks before it even gets off the ground.
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Financial Advisors Who Lack These Soft Skills Often Fail
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 2 comments
The ability to master soft skills is key to your future success as a Financial Advisor. In fact, it’s easily as important as how much technical knowledge you have. However, advisors often struggle to develop the key soft skills required to build relationships with prospects and clients – and consequently their business suffers.
Perfecting your soft skills should be your number one priority. This post will help remind you to get back to the basics by focusing on five soft skills that could make or break your business.
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How Do I Get People to Call Me Back?
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
I heard this great question from Jesse in Grand Rapids. Jesse said he was having difficulty getting people to return his calls, after supposedly thinking about his proposal. He meets with prospects and makes his presentation. They say “Let me think it over, I’ll give you a call” and they never do. After some time has passed, he calls them and leaves messages but they never return his calls. Why is that?
Listen to Don’s answer to this question or read the transcript.
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Why Being a Good Advisor Is No Longer Enough to Succeed
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Few industries have become as commoditized as the financial services industry. It’s become more and more common to see a personal touch replaced by ‘cookie-cutter’ automated solutions.
On the bright side it’s clear that technology cannot replace the service of a really great financial advisor. Clients still crave advice that’s customized. They need the services of an advisor who can look at the ‘big picture’ and understand the complexities of their lives in terms of their aspirations, family and careers.
If you want to succeed you need to be more than ‘good enough’. You need to prove you are prepared to go that extra mile and provide a service that’s above and beyond your clients’ expectations.
How do you get to become an Elite rather than a “good” Advisor?
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