May 12, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
I was speaking at a Financial Services conference in Australia and heard an insurance company CEO issue a provocative challenge to the audience members.
“If you stand on any street corner in Sydney and ask everyone who walks by to buy life insurance, every eighty-fifth person will. The questions is, do you have what it takes to hear the word ‘no’ eighty-four times in a row?”
The failure rate in the Financial Services industry is north of eighty percent.
This industry hires a small fraction of the people who apply. We provide good training, good products and good internal and external support. Yet most fail. And they are good people who got hired for good reasons.
Lack of self-confidence doesn’t mean lack of ability.
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Why Some Clients Love Their Advisor
May 22, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices, Don Guest Authoring at... / 0 comments
The latest guest post by Don Connelly for FA Magazine is about what makes some Financial Advisor so special; why some clients love their Advisor. Here is how to blog post goes.
When I speak at client events, I arrive early and stay late. I have fun chatting with clients. I like to know what’s on their minds. Their concerns are varied yet predictable. There are rarely any surprises…
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It Takes Persistence and Perseverance to Keep Doing a Difficult Thing
May 15, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Do you think it’s possible for you to become one of the best Financial Advisors in the world? How about in your firm or in your town? Is it possible for you to be great, to be admired and looked up to? How about rich? How about famous? Or are the rewards for the other guy? Have you thought long and hard about what it takes to become great?
It has been said that advice is what you seek when you already know the answer but wish you didn’t.
The good news is that all those things are within your grasp.
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Self-Confidence Will Make You Unstoppable
May 12, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
I was speaking at a Financial Services conference in Australia and heard an insurance company CEO issue a provocative challenge to the audience members.
“If you stand on any street corner in Sydney and ask everyone who walks by to buy life insurance, every eighty-fifth person will. The questions is, do you have what it takes to hear the word ‘no’ eighty-four times in a row?”
The failure rate in the Financial Services industry is north of eighty percent.
This industry hires a small fraction of the people who apply. We provide good training, good products and good internal and external support. Yet most fail. And they are good people who got hired for good reasons.
Lack of self-confidence doesn’t mean lack of ability.
Read more
Make Sure You Are Not Just Moving, but Moving in The Right Direction
May 5, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship, What's New / 0 comments
Brian Church, business consultant and author, was our special guest on the recent April 30, 2014 Webinar. Participants from around the globe watched and listened as Brian put forth his ideas on how Financial Advisors can and must keep their businesses, their ideas and their client relationships moving in the right direction.
We must focus on LIFT, Brian’s term for growth; bettering our delivery, making the best use of our time, and growing our revenue through thick and thin. As fees continue to get compressed, we must increase the value of what we offer to the public.
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Self-awareness Helps You Understand How People Perceive You
April 28, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
As a Financial Advisor, your image is all-important. You’ve got to get it right. The burden is on you to decide how you want people to perceive you. As you are crafting your image, be reminded that every word you say and every move you make are advertisements. In too many cases, there is a big difference between what the Advisor thinks he is sending as an image and what the world perceives.
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Acquiring Negotiating Skills Will Help You Open More Accounts
April 21, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
When a prospective client is trying to decide between you and the Advisor across the street, you need to make the case that you are the obvious choice and the prospective client has to agree with your conclusion.
The time will surely arise in your career when a client wants to move his or her account to another Advisor.
The time will surely arise in your career when a client feels she deserves a lower fee. The time will surely arise in your career when a client balks at a suggested course of action. The time may very well arise when a client decides to manage his account himself. All these issues must be resolved tactfully.
Any dialogue intended to reach an understanding is a negotiation and negotiating involves specific skills.
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Why Storytelling Is Important for Financial Advisors
April 17, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Don Guest Authoring at..., Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Today we’ll share the latest post Don Connelly wrote for Financial Advisor Magazine – it’s about storytelling and more specifically, why storytelling is important for Financial Advisors.
You are not judged by what you say. You are judged by what the other person hears. That’s one reason of many why you should become a great storyteller. Stories help you get your point across better than any other form of communication. Stories stir emotions.
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Empathize, Don’t Sympathize
April 7, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
There is never a convenient time to invest. The market is too high, the market is too low, we need a new kitchen first and a million other reasons are readily available. The toughest investment decision every prospective investor faces is the decision to do it. This is where you must play bad cop.
A big part of your job is getting people to do what they don’t always want to do.
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Good Manners Will Endear You to More People than You Realize
April 3, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 1 comment
The euphemism ‘Silent Majority’ most likely dates to the 1830’s in America. It originally signified dead people, there being more dead people throughout history than living people at any moment in time. It slipped into our political vocabulary in the 20th century. Today the phrase denotes an unspecified large majority of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. There are so many things about which people simply do not speak up. One such thing is rudeness.
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