5 Reasons You Should Get a Mentor
When you first start out as an Advisor you’re given a set of products to sell, but unfortunately they don’t come with an instruction manual. You need to learn how to market and sell them yourself. This is where a mentor can step in, by helping you prospect, sell and manage your practice.
Mentors can also help you stay on track and improve, no matter how long you’ve been in business. Making sure you can still execute the fundamentals is key to becoming the Advisor you always wanted to be.
As well as helping you to develop concrete, practical skills, your mentor can provide you with ‘soft’ skills too. By getting you to ‘think outside the box’ you can escalate not only your career but your life in general.
Here are 5 reasons why you should get a mentor
#1 A mentor can help you practice positive affirmation
A mentor can help you recognize what you are and what you want to be. They can help you understand that the personal always precedes the professional. Your craft, your ‘product’ is you; clients don’t buy your product over ‘you’, they buy ‘you’ because they believe the product you’re selling will do what you say it will do.
By getting you to write down positive affirmations about yourself your mentor will get you started on developing the self-belief you need to get clients to buy into ‘you’. Writing down who you are hardwires your DNA for success, improving your productivity.
#2 A mentor can help you recognize bad patterns
Can you be good 12 months in a row? Not many of us can. There will be points when you just seem to drop off the map. We all have cycles and patterns, and part of the success factor is breaking patterns that are not beneficial.
Your mentor can help you identify your low points – they often occur at the same time each year and they could be linked to a negative experience you had. By recognizing what’s holding you back you can take action and change the behaviors that are preventing you from achieving success.
Your mentor can help you get back on track and allow you to manage life rather than letting life manage you.
#3 Picture the future with the aid of a mentor
The world stands aside for people who know where they are going. Your mentor can help you develop the skill of visualization, something that can help you in many ways. For example it can help you become an accomplished presenter. Just as great golfers ‘see’ the shot before they actually hit the ball you can decide where you want your meetings with clients or prospects to end up.
Visualize where you want the session to tend up and guide it there. Have a great self-image, dictate the outcome. Imagine that the meeting will be a success and make it happen.
#4 Your mentor’s advice? Be positive!
Two things will never change – your clients will always have financial goals and you can always be there to help them achieve them. The fuel for both these events is a positive attitude. However if your clients sense you’re unsure neither of these events will take place.
A mentor can help you become the professional you really are by getting you to act like it. Dress like the head of a multi-million dollar company and act like one and you will win respect. Don’t ever apologize for what you do – make clients think you’re doing them a favor not vice versa.
Be enthusiastic about what you do – put a mirror in front of you while you’re on the phone and ‘Smile’. Because it’s true what they say, you really can ‘hear’ a smile at the other end of the line.
Your mentor might suggest you ‘pretend you’ve been fired’. So that every time you walk through the door on a Monday morning it’ll be your first day on the job. This will inspire you to do things differently, jettison things that aren’t productive and develop better habits.
Work with your mentor and drill this in on a regular basis and you’ll become a better manager of your time.
#5 Get a mentor for support on how to get back on track when times are tough
Despite a positive attitude it can be difficult to keep going. A mentor can help you dust yourself off and not be a quitter. There will be times when you won’t feel pumped up, but always remember, your clients still need you. People still need to put their kids through college, and plan for retirement; everyone still needs a place to put their money.
A mentor will tell you that the time to act is when you don’t want to. The way to get out of a slump is to get proactive no matter whether you’re tired or unsure. You need to get on the offensive and stop the competition from stealing your clients. Call your existing clients regularly and remind them why they chose you and remind them of their long term goals.
Think like a lifer. Keep prospecting – in fact ramp it up during the hard times. Don’t be harsh on yourself during bad economic times, take your mentor’s advice and emphasize the positives.
Working with a mentor can help you achieve all your goals and prepare you to face even the harshest of markets with equanimity.
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