/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
I’m convinced that the fastest growing industry in the world is cheap advice. From discount houses to DIY websites to blogs like this one, everybody’s got advice for us and most of it’s worth exactly what it costs, little or nothing.
That’s because it’s not advice. It’s information and information without a user’s manual is useless. There’s so much information disguised as advice being shoved our way that it’s hard to tell the good from the bad. Real advice gets lost in the shuffle.
Our advice is hard to sell precisely because there is so much information flying around falsely packaged as advice.
Read more
People Are Deciding about You, Not the Numbers
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 2 comments
When you are trying to convince someone to do business with you, you must earn that person’s trust. When you use charts, graphs and numbers to make your point, you are asking the person to trust the numbers. Asking someone to trust the numbers is really saying there is no need to trust you.
Read more
There Is No Ambiguity When It Comes to Being a Good Advisor
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Yet, while certain elements of this business are ambiguous, the challenge we face is not.
The correct way to succeed is straight-forward. Either you do things right or you don’t. Either you do the right things or you don’t. Either you see enough people or you don’t. Either you build a good business or you don’t. Embrace the clarity.
Read more
Your Job Is to Find the Pain and Make It Go Away
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Imagine if you were in long-term back pain and you were sorely in need of relief. Your diligence has led you to a doctor who assures you that, if you allow her to perform surgery, the pain would not merely be alleviated; the pain would be gone. She explains that there will certainly be some short-term discomfort, but any inconvenience will be worth it in the long run. You will be overjoyed when you are pain free.
Read more
Successful Investing Takes Time, Skill and Good Luck
/ by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
How would your client react if you suggested retaining a money manager with no experience? Better yet, how about one who isn’t licensed to manage money? Better yet than that, what if this money manager has never had a client? Your client would be his first. Out of the question, right?
Read more
People Think You’re So Smart When They Do All the Talking
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Did you ever walk away from a conversation thinking you just met a really smart, neat person, only to realize you did all the talking? I think we all have, at one time or another. What’s up? What do these people do to make us think they are so smart? They simply listen, that’s all, and we love them for it.
Read more
The More Words You Use to Get Your Point Across, the Less People Listen
/ by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills / 0 comments
Have you noticed that the more a person talks, the less connected to the listener he or she seems to be? There is no give and take. People like that think the listener finds them as fascinating as they find themselves. They are not fascinating. They are boring.
In your role as a Financial Advisor, talking too much is the kiss of death.
Read more
When Asking for a Commitment, Make Up Your Mind in Advance
/ by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills / 0 comments
Of all the presentations given by Financial Advisors to prospective clients on any given day, how many end up with no commitment being made? We’ll never know. Of all the presentations which end up with no commitment being made, how many end up that way because the Advisor didn’t ask for the commitment? We’ll never know that either. But we can take a pretty good guess and we can also guess why.
Read more
Never Forget That Your Client’s Original Goal Was to Beat the Bank
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
I’ve been mingling with clients for years and it never fails to shock me just a bit to hear how simple both their goals and their reasons for investing really are. For the most part, clients simply want to beat the bank, especially in low interest rate environments. They want to educate their children and build a retirement fund. That’s it. They aren’t trying to hit home runs. They are trying to hit singles and doubles. You can deliver singles and doubles all day long.
Read more
Advice Is the Hardest Thing in the World to Sell
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
I’m convinced that the fastest growing industry in the world is cheap advice. From discount houses to DIY websites to blogs like this one, everybody’s got advice for us and most of it’s worth exactly what it costs, little or nothing.
That’s because it’s not advice. It’s information and information without a user’s manual is useless. There’s so much information disguised as advice being shoved our way that it’s hard to tell the good from the bad. Real advice gets lost in the shuffle.
Our advice is hard to sell precisely because there is so much information flying around falsely packaged as advice.
Read more