Make Sure You Are Not Just Moving, but Moving in The Right Direction
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.
Brian is the author of Relationship Momentum: The Secret to Making Ideas Move.
He is a Financial Advisor turned business consultant. Brian told us that his main focus with clients, individual and corporate, is to keep them on the move and headed in the right direction. Relationships take a lot of turns. The burden is on us to make sure those turns are for the better, not the worse.
Among other salient points, Brian explained that one way to fight back on fee pressure is to build a better value proposition.
If clients believe they will experience the top notch value an Advisor promises, they are less apt to focus on fees. Any good value proposition is built around the concept of customer satisfaction.
Mr. Church talked at length about brand ambassadors.
Businesses don’t move on their own. People, specifically brand ambassadors, make businesses move. A major point of emphasis was making sure that any brand ambassador we engage is absolutely clear about our mission. The person who is going to wave your flag must reflect your values, your ethics and your behavior. If you are serious about networking, the right brand ambassadors are of enormous value.
Brian discussed in detail where he felt out industry is headed.
In addition to continued pressure on fees, Brian mentioned three other possibilities ahead. One is industry consolidation, one is greater emphasis on behavioral finance and the third possibility is more focus on the client experience.
When asked where he felt Advisors might focus going forward, Brian suggested more and better utilization of brand ambassadors; getting more deliberate about growing our businesses and focusing on deeper and better relationships with our clients.
The danger of not focusing on these issues is getting enveloped or removed by the competition.
I loved what Brian had to say. We hear athletes talk about momentum. We hear physicists talk about momentum. We rarely hear Financial Advisors talk about momentum. We need more talk of this nature.
We are all building businesses and business growth gets easier with momentum.
At a 2009 key weapons treaty, Mikhail Gorbachev urged the world to keep moving toward the prevention of nuclear war by saying, “If you don’t move forward, sooner or later you begin to move backward.” He’s right.
The better goals we set, the better target we have and the more momentum we gain. Momentum comes about as the result of deliberate action. Don’t prospect without a plan. Don’t ever take relationships for granted.
Investment results and sales brochures do not move businesses forward. You move your business forward. Grow on purpose. Gain momentum.
If you like these highlights, you may want to purchase the webinar replay.
PLATINUM members of Don Connelly 24/7 learning center have free access to the webinar replay here.
