/ 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
In this category you will find blog posts about clients relationship management – including but not limited to establishing trust, building a relationship, ending an advisor-client relationship, and more.
Four Ways to Ensure You Deliver Outstanding Client Service
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
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.
Read more
Poor Communication Is The #1 Reason Advisors Get Fired
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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
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.
Read more
5 Costly Mistakes That Could Lose You Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
When a client takes you on, they’ve decided they’re comfortable getting into a long-term relationship with you – and that’s a huge compliment. If you want to retain them, you must work hard to maintain the integrity of that relationship over the long term.
Don’t make one of these errors, or you could end up in the firing line.
Read more
4 Behaviors to Avoid if You Want to Allay Client Concerns
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
In the first meeting with you, prospective clients may be unsure if investing is the right thing to do. They may also have concerns about whether you are the right person to advise them. How you behave in your first meeting will dictate what happens next. You need to act to allay not only their objections around the investment process itself, but to eliminate any concerns they may have about working with you personally.
To make sure you leave them in no doubt about your ability, never do the following four things.
Read more
Getting Clients to Talk about Money
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
As financial advisors we’re comfortable talking about money, it’s what we’re trained to do. But for everyone else it’s a different story. Most people feel uncomfortable talking about money, so you need to consider how to introduce the topic in a relaxed way.
Don’t dive into the numbers at the initial meeting. Instead focus on building rapport with clients; then ask them what it is they want money for. The goals must come first – then the money. Once you understand your client’s vision of the future you can start doing the math on how to get there.
Read more