5 Essential Things New Financial Advisors Must Know to Be Successful

5 Essential Things New Financial Advisors Must Know to Be Successful

There’s never been a better time to be in the financial advisory business. And if you’re new to the industry, the opportunity is limitless—if you’re adequately prepared. But if you aren’t, the journey can be a long, slow, uphill slog with a minimal chance of success.

Too harsh? Not at all. It’s a fair warning to anyone who gets into this business with little or no understanding of what it is about and what it takes to succeed.

Historically, the advisory business has attracted young people enamored by numbers, analysis, and their application in the investment world. And most are motivated by the desire to help people achieve financial security. Here’s the deal, though—you can’t help people if they don’t trust you. You can’t build a practice if you can’t convince people to follow your advice. You can’t stay in business if you don’t prospect, and prospects won’t gravitate toward you if you don’t stand out.

Read more

How to Increase Your Life Insurance Sales through Preparation

I am of the opinion that one of the major stumbling blocks for new (and, surprisingly, even more experienced) Financial Advisers in conducting successful initial meetings with prospective clients (as well as review meetings with existing clients) is the lack of proper preparation.

In recent years Dealer Groups have introduced a one-size-fits-all templated fact finder document to be used by their advisers in both initial and ongoing discussions with prospective or existing clients. In terms of compliance requirements, the dealer group needed to protect itself from possible future litigation down the road and therefore many participated in designing the questions that their advisers could ask.

From my experience, I believed that there were two problems with this approach.

Read more

5 Traits You Need to Have If You’re to Build Strong Relationships with Clients

5 Traits You Need to Have If You’re to Build Strong Relationships with Clients

Your personal likeability and trustworthiness are more important than your professional knowledge when it comes to winning and building enduring client relationships. Professional credentials, while important, are only a backstop to the forging of strong personal connections. Focus on developing your soft skills.

Here are five traits you need if you want to create long-lasting relationships with clients and become more referable.

Read more

Be Prepared – Don’t Ever Run and Hide

Be Prepared - Don't Ever Run and Hide

What do you do when the market takes a turn for the worst? Do you wait for the storm to pass and simply do nothing – or do you reach out to clients and reassure them things will get better? According to recent research carried out by Financial Advisor Magazine failure to communicate with clients on a timely basis is the number one reason advisors lose clients. The upshot is you need to be prepared to talk to clients both in the good times and the bad times.

Read more

top