/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Anyone who has ever accomplished anything of significance started with a goal. Professional athletes, entertainers, business titans, and the millionaire next door will all tell you that they began with the end in mind, visualizing their destination and then mapping the road to get there.
We’ve written about the importance of goal setting and the significance of writing them down and keeping them in front of you to remind you of what’s possible. However, the process of goal setting is often marred with unrealistic expectations or ambivalence about what you want to achieve, resulting in unachievable or unmeasurable goals.
Financial advisors on the path to success can’t afford to wallow in hopes or pipe dreams. You need clearly defined, actionable goals that reflect your professional and personal ambitions. Although goal setting isn’t rocket science, it does require a deliberate process to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. In other words, it requires the SMART goal-setting framework.
Read more
How Financial Advisors Can Use AI to Free Up Time for More Client-Facing Activities
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Despite the shortfalls of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial advisory business in that it cannot replace advisors as relationship builders, there are several ways advisors can embrace AI to achieve higher efficiency and have more time for the human element of the business.
We know that AI is rapidly transforming industries, and the financial services sector is no exception. Financial advisors are often overwhelmed by managing multiple tasks at once, especially when much of their time is consumed by administrative and back-office duties. And, with the increasing complexity of financial markets and compliance requirements, advisors must spend more time on data entry, paperwork, and compliance at the expense of more client-facing activities.
Read more
Where Financial Advisors Can Get Help Building Their Practice
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Few careers are as demanding as building a successful financial advisory practice. In addition to acquiring essential financial knowledge, financial advisors must develop solid business acumen, hone their soft skills, and work tirelessly to build their clientele while consistently seeking improvement.
This business is not for the faint-hearted, and it’s foolish to think you can do it on your own. I don’t know many successful advisors who made it, especially when starting out, without the benefit of a support system, whether it’s a mentor, coach, accountability partner, or the comradeship of an advisor community.
Each avenue offers unique benefits to help you reach the next level, regardless of your business stage.
Read more
5 Priorities Financial Advisors Must Have to Succeed in Our Business
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
As you might already know, financial advisors need to be good business people to succeed, which entails having a solid business plan, creating an ideal client profile, developing project management skills, and acting and thinking like a CEO. Those are critical foundational elements for any financial advisor with ambitions of growing a successful business.
However, on a day-to-day basis, success in the financial advisory business requires a constant blending of priorities such as strategic focus, interpersonal skills, and industry knowledge. Here are the five top priorities financial advisors must focus on to thrive in their careers:
Read more
The Perils of Lacking Empathy: Why It Matters for Financial Advisors
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Nothing can form a human connection quite like the genuine expression of empathy. That human connection, which is the basis of trust in a relationship, is what clients want from their advisors. Failure to make that connection quickly can drive clients into the arms of a more empathic advisor.
Why empathy is so powerful
Empathy is the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes, understand their emotions, and connect with them on a deeper level. But to your clients, it’s much more than that. When you express genuine empathy with a client, they feel like they are the most important person in your life at that moment. You took the time to step inside their shoes, walk around, and make them feel understood without judging them.
Read more
7 Common Mistakes Financial Advisors Make that Repel Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
To be successful, financial advisors must work tirelessly to master their craft while putting in countless hours to build their business. Some have an easier time of it than others because they avoid the many missteps that can drive prospects and clients away. Even the most well-intentioned advisors can sometimes engage in behaviors that unintentionally repel potential and existing clients, creating an enduring uphill battle to grow their practice.
You spend a lot of time and resources to gain a foothold in this business. But if you’re not aware of the crucial mistakes many advisors make in trying to build relationships, you are less likely to avoid them yourself, making your job much more difficult—maybe even impossible. Here are seven common missteps many advisors make that you must avoid to have any chance of success.
Read more
Getting SMART About Setting Goals for You and Your Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Anyone who has ever accomplished anything of significance started with a goal. Professional athletes, entertainers, business titans, and the millionaire next door will all tell you that they began with the end in mind, visualizing their destination and then mapping the road to get there.
We’ve written about the importance of goal setting and the significance of writing them down and keeping them in front of you to remind you of what’s possible. However, the process of goal setting is often marred with unrealistic expectations or ambivalence about what you want to achieve, resulting in unachievable or unmeasurable goals.
Financial advisors on the path to success can’t afford to wallow in hopes or pipe dreams. You need clearly defined, actionable goals that reflect your professional and personal ambitions. Although goal setting isn’t rocket science, it does require a deliberate process to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. In other words, it requires the SMART goal-setting framework.
Read more
Why Financial Advisors Need a Coach
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
For challenging endeavors in which people seek to achieve a level of performance beyond their current capacity – such as sports, weight loss, or running a business – they have a better chance of getting over the top by working with a coach. Even successful business executives and sports figures recognize the significant gap that separates a plan from action, theory from practice, and activity from results.
For most people, it often takes an external force to push them beyond their comfort level. That’s what a coach does. The top athletes in the world hire a team of coaches because they know they can’t get to the next level without them. In complex and vital endeavors, we could all use a coach to keep us detached from our emotions and accountable to our goals when our discipline fails.
Ask any professional athlete, corporate executive, or entrepreneur why they hire a coach, and they’ll tell you they want to increase their earnings by improving their performance. It’s no different for financial advisors.
Read more
How to Regain the Trust of a Client After a Disagreement
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Can you think of any relationship that has never experienced conflict—where two people with the best of intentions fail to see eye to eye on an issue? Such is the nature of relationships, even where there is a track record of trust. You expect it in a marriage and even among colleagues—so why not between a financial advisor and their client?
It happens more than you might think. Financial advisors are wired to be analytical, while clients are often driven by emotion, which sets the stage for many “reality vs. perception” standoffs.
Read more
Four Imperatives You Must Embrace to Achieve Sustainable Growth in Your Practice
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
As you might already know, the key to achieving sustainable growth in a financial advisory practice is to focus on your core business of business development and client management. From a practice management standpoint, that requires developing business processes that enable you and your team to gain greater efficiencies while increasing productivity by doing more with less. In other words, turning your practice into a well-oiled machine.
But what about you? As the guiding force of your practice, what are you doing individually to ensure its sustainable growth? Business processes are essential for scaling your business and expanding its capacity for growth. But there are certain things only you can do to drive its growth.
Here are four imperatives financial advisors must embrace to achieve sustainable growth for themselves and their businesses.
Read more