/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Financial advisors must manage all aspects of their advisory business to ensure client satisfaction, business growth, and profitability. That includes compliance, marketing, business operations, financial management, and professional development. But by the time you’re done with all that, your time typically goes unmanaged.
The bottom line is that if you’re not in control of your time, you’re not in control of your business. That means your business controls you, making growing it nearly impossible.
With business demands pulling you in multiple directions, you have less time and focus for your top two priorities: client acquisition and retention. Anything less than an equal measure of highly concentrated effort in both will invariably lead to stagnation, client attrition, or both.
With time as one of your most valuable assets, it’s crucial to implement strategies tailored to help you prioritize your time and balance these competing priorities.
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Why Client Disengagement Is a Critical Warning Signal—and How Advisors Can Recognize the Early Signs
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Picture this: You’re in a client meeting, presenting a solid financial plan. Your client nods along, approves every recommendation without a single question, and the session ends early. It feels successful, right? Even efficient. Like everything’s on track. But here’s the catch—client disengagement often appears smooth on the surface. In reality, it’s a silent alarm ringing in the background, signaling that something’s off in the relationship.
As a financial advisor, you thrive on building trust and guiding clients toward their goals. Yet, when clients tune out, it’s not just compliance; it’s feedback. Disengagement signals unmet needs, weakening connections that could lead to clients drifting away. This post explores why client disengagement is a key warning sign, how advisors might unknowingly contribute to it, and the early signs to watch for. By recognizing these cues, you can move from reactive fixes to proactively strengthening your client relationships.
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Stop Random Acts of Marketing: How to Build a Repeatable Client Acquisition System
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Picture this: It’s January, and you’re fired up. You blast out a polished email newsletter to your list, promising yourself you’ll do it monthly. You even make a few cold calls and post a thoughtful LinkedIn update.
Then, life happens. Client meetings pile up, paperwork buries you, and by April, you realize you haven’t sent a single follow-up. Sound familiar? This is what I call a random act of marketing—a burst of effort followed by radio silence.
For financial advisors, this pattern is all too common.
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Long-Term Care Scripts and Phrases to Help Financial Advisors Ease Client Conversations
/ by Don Connelly / Difficult Planning Conversations / 0 comments
Long-term care planning may be the most avoided conversation in financial advising, and also one of the most important.
Most clients don’t want to think about aging, getting sick, or needing help. And many Financial Advisors hesitate to bring up the topic at all. It feels personal. It feels heavy. It feels like it might derail the meeting.
But here’s the truth: if you don’t bring it up, your clients may face devastating financial and emotional consequences later on; and they’ll wonder why their trusted Advisor never mentioned it.
This blog post is designed to help you confidently start the long-term care conversation, using simple, tested long-term scripts and phrases you can adapt to your style. Whether you’re meeting a new client or revisiting planning with someone you’ve worked with for years, these words can help you bridge the gap between good intentions and real protection.
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Time Management Strategies for Financial Advisors: Balancing Client Acquisition and Retention
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Financial advisors must manage all aspects of their advisory business to ensure client satisfaction, business growth, and profitability. That includes compliance, marketing, business operations, financial management, and professional development. But by the time you’re done with all that, your time typically goes unmanaged.
The bottom line is that if you’re not in control of your time, you’re not in control of your business. That means your business controls you, making growing it nearly impossible.
With business demands pulling you in multiple directions, you have less time and focus for your top two priorities: client acquisition and retention. Anything less than an equal measure of highly concentrated effort in both will invariably lead to stagnation, client attrition, or both.
With time as one of your most valuable assets, it’s crucial to implement strategies tailored to help you prioritize your time and balance these competing priorities.
Read more
How to Bring Back Face-to-Face Meetings with Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
A survey by YCharts in December 2019 found that clients didn’t feel engaged and wanted more personalized communications. We’ve posted several times that, pre- and post-pandemic, the frequency and style of advisors’ communication directly impact client trust and confidence in their advisor, financial plan, and their likelihood of keeping their advisor.
A more recent report, post-pandemic, found that, though virtual meetings had taken hold as a viable form of communication for advisors forced to limit in-person meetings, it’s likely that the decrease in face-to-face contact contributed to client feelings of reduced communication. That’s a direct threat to the strength of the advisor-client relationship.
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