Maximize Your Efficiency
This question comes from Michael who is with Bank of America:
“How many hours a week should I be working? My background is as follows: I’ve been in business for six-and-a-half years, I do about $400,000 in production, I’ve got $47 million assets under management. I’m currently working about 55 hours a week, I spent the first five years of my career at a Wirehouse, working many, 70-plus hour weeks. I’m wanting to scale down to 45 or 50 hours, and still become a $1 million producer in the next 5-7 years. Do you think this is possible working 40 or 50 hours a week?”
Listen to the audio or read the transcript below to learn Don’s advice on how to maximize your efficiency.
I think it is absolutely possible doing those numbers while working 40 or 50 hours a week. The idea of course, is to make the hours as productive as possible.
I think an advisor is in the same situation as a doctor. The more patients you can see, the more money you’ll make.
I think it’s very important to maximize your efficiency.
You’ve got to be in front of people as much as humanly possible. And you’ve got to be in front of the right people. Here’s what I mean when I say “right people”.
Years ago John Keeble, founder of FSA , wrote an article where he said:
“Over the years I’ve come to redefine my definition of a prospect. I always defined a prospect, as somebody with cash, who was a decision maker, who had a financial need. I find that incomplete. To me a prospect is someone who has cash, who is a decision maker, who has a need but who values my opinion.”
So when I say to you you’ve got to be in front of the right people, I mean wealthy people who value your opinion.
That’s the hard part of this job – prospecting.
I was in a meeting a while back for one of the biggest Wall Street firms. It was announced several months ago at that firm, the average FA spent 70% of his or her time preparing to meet with clients and 30% of the time meeting with clients. Yet the average production was almost $700,000. Can you imagine if we could reverse those numbers and spend 70% of our time meeting with clients? At that point the sky is the limit.
A couple of years ago my dentist had a problem. He said his calendar was full, he was seeing as many patients as he could possibly see. He was charging as much as he could possibly charge, meaning as much as anybody in town.
To charge higher fees for his services would price himself out of the business. He said ‘I have no way to make more money, what do you think?’ I saw him sometime later and he said he’d solved his problem.
What he did was hire a young dentist who came out of med school with a lot of bills, and a lot of debt, and he put him in a fabulous situation. Basically Kenny, my dentist, gave his new dental partner, all his patients to do the more mundane retail work – the fillings, etc. And what my dentist kept were the very expensive high end services like veneers, bridges, crowns and root canals.
He mentioned in the old days, a root canal would take three visits, and now with laser drilling it can be done in 40 minutes, and the charge is $800. So he is now making more money than ever, working less than ever, by spending his time with patients who need more sophisticated, high end services.
Back to Michael’s question – I think it’s time for you to begin working with larger clients.
If you recall that movie Jerry Maguire, where Jerry is asked, ’ what is your goal?’ He says ‘My goal is fewer clients, larger clients, more personal service.’ I think that’s what you’ve got to do within your firm’s policy.
So I appreciate the question Michael, get out there, see the right people and begin to prospect up. You’ve got to be talking to people that can give you more money. Then you can do as much business as you want.
We’ve featured Mark Dick on Don Connelly 24/7 a lot. Mark works a few days a week, and he works very very smart, and he does about $3 million a year in production.
So yes, you can do it, Michael, just keep at it and work smarter.
* This AskDON episode first appeared on Don Connelly 24/7. If you liked this episode, consider joining the learning center – Professional and PLATINUM members have access to hundreds of audio and video podcasts like this one. 30-day trial available.
