Become Brilliant at the Basics Archives - Page 3 of 4

Working Mostly Online in a Post-pandemic World Is Especially Hard on New Advisors

/ by Diana Marinova / Best Practices, Connelly Corner / 0 comments

This turbulent year is almost over and looking back, we see a few clear trends of topics that interested Financial Advisors the most on our blog during 2020. We’d like to share some of them with you now, in case you missed them the first time around.

Here are the first three topics most requested and read by our community of financial professionals in 2020.

How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

An increasing number of financial advisors are catching on to the fact that most of their clients and target market reside in a digital world where, if they fail to connect with them there, they risk becoming irrelevant or obsolete. Email, the internet, and social media have transformed the way consumers conduct their lives, and their influence now surpasses all other forms of persuasion, including television and print media. The critical question financial advisors must ask themselves now is, “How much digital influence do we have over our target market?”

Creating Your Financial Advisor Marketing Plan

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

The biggest growth challenge for financial advisors is finding qualified leads. But before that can happen, advisors must be able to attract enough of the right people who might become qualified leads. That’s what marketing does for you. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It can’t happen by aimlessly wandering around. Most advisors have enough trouble managing their time between being an advisor, running their practice, and prospecting. What’s needed is a marketing plan.

Financial Advisors: What You Should Be Doing During the Holidays

/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

First things first: Use the Holidays to spend time with friends and family. That’s what you want for your clients; That’s what I want for you. Recharge your batteries, and remember why you’re working so hard: To provide a better life for the people you love.

Besides: The immediate return on investment (ROI) of generic cold calling techniques tends to decline after Thanksgiving. Not that it doesn’t pay off eventually. I’m a hard-core prospector, and I hope you are, too. Smart prospecting always pays off in the long run. But it’ll take a little longer to pay off at the end of the year, because you’ll get a lot of people saying, “call me again after the Holidays.”

So, if you’re going to take some time off to be with the family, the Holidays are as good a time to do it as any!

Then, here are a few more holiday marketing ideas if you’re spending time at the office after all.

3 Issues Financial Advisors Should Address to Overcome the Trust Deficit in Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Financial Advisors face a huge trust deficit. That’s significant because who holds a more important position of trust than an advisor who can impact when people retire, how they live in retirement, and what’s their financial security late in life when they need it the most? For advisors whose livelihood depends on attracting new clients and retaining them, that’s a major obstacle to overcome every day.

Now Is the Time to Take Your Video Marketing to the Next Level

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

As a result of the covid19 pandemic, both advisors and their clients have discovered the benefits of virtual communications. For clients, it has resulted in more convenient, expeditious, and personalized communications from their advisors, which they value tremendously.

For advisors, it has resulted in greater efficiency, more visibility, and more opportunities to connect with prospective and current clients, which translates into more growth and profitability. To a great extent, advisors have been able to turn an obstacle into an opportunity by adopting video conferencing and webinars with great success.

However, with the adoption of virtual communications, advisors have only scratched the surface of technology’s potential to transform their business. Imagine what could happen if advisors take full advantage of the technologies available today that have increased visibility, customer satisfaction, and retention, and converted more leads in other industries for several years.

Let’s take, for example, how tech-savvy Financial Advisors are turning to video marketing and live streaming as a way to get their message out.

6 Marketing Ideas for Financial Advisors Adapting to a Post-COVID World

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

The recent COVID diagnosis of President Trump, the First Lady, and a number of other White House staff should be a wake-up call to all of us. Don’t get cocky, and don’t get lazy. While it’s not as lethal as many of us feared in February and March, it’s still a very contagious virus.

So, it’s going to be a while before we can go pressing flesh in person like so many advisors have done for generations. Gone are the Chamber meet-and-greets and going door-to-door doing face-to-face prospecting with business owners.

But people still have financial needs, and we’ve got to find ways to reach them. Don’t get call shy! Now more than ever, people need to hear from us!

That means most of us need to be upgrading and modernizing our marketing approach in the Era of COVID.

Why It’s Critical for Advisors to Build Online Influence

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

The most significant transfer of wealth between generations is underway right now. For Financial Advisors, it could be an extraordinary opportunity, or it could threaten their very survival. Ultimately, it’s a matter of trust.

Do investors have trust issues with Financial Advisors? A study by the CFA Institute revealed that the financial services industry is among the least trusted industry. Only half of those surveyed indicated they trust the financial service professionals to do what’s right. In a separate survey, the CFP Board found that just 40% of investors trust financial advisors to put their interests first.

Of the emerging group of affluent investors, millennial and Gen Z investors – the ultimate beneficiaries of the great $30 trillion wealth transfer occurring over the next 30 years – may be the least trustful.

Create an Elevator Speech that Wins

/ by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills / 0 comments

Yes, I’m a huge believer in stories, and in taking time to build value in your services, your brand, and in taking a detailed fact-finder, so you can make your engagement truly client-centered and set yourself up for the close.

But as we all know, many times there just isn’t enough time.

Sometimes you don’t have a leisurely lunch appointment. Sometimes it’s just a meeting engagement: A shared Uber ride, a shared elevator. That’s why you need an “elevator speech.”

Before we get into what constitutes a good elevator speech, let’s think about what you want your elevator speech to accomplish for you.

In 30 seconds or less, a good elevator speech should accomplish the following:

Establish your unique value proposition (UVP).
Establish a reason to initiate contact later.
Establish the means to initiate that contact.
Set up the expectation of contact.

Let’s look at each one in turn.

How to Build Your ‘Why I Am Here’ Story

/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments

Your ‘why I am here’ story is an essential market differentiator. First of all, not every financial advisor even has one – other than to make money. And out of those who really do have a client-centered reason for being in this business, not all of them are able to express it. So if you have a real reason you come to work every day, and you’re able to articulate it in a way that makes sense to the clients and gives them a reason to work with you, you’re already way ahead of the competition.

That’s why you need a “why I am here” story.

But the ability to articulate your story in a way that makes it stick is essential. You don’t want to get lost in the details. You don’t want to get sidetracked. You don’t want to get interrupted while you’re trying to tell it. And you don’t want to bore the listener!

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