/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Every financial advisor has faced this moment: The market drops and the phone rings. A client’s voice carrying a note of worry: “I’m just not sure anymore,” they say, or “Maybe we should pull back—everything feels too risky.” Suddenly the plan you’ve built together over months or years is being quietly questioned.
This happens to every advisor, no matter how experienced or how strong the strategy. Doubt isn’t a sign that the relationship is falling apart; it’s a sign that emotions have taken control. Markets fluctuate, headlines scream, life pressures increase, and suddenly the numbers on the screen seem less like data and more like threats to security, dreams, or peace of mind. The doubt comes from emotion well before it comes from analysis—rooted in fear, uncertainty, and vulnerability. It’s human.
What matters is not that doubt appears, but how the advisor responds when it does.
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How Financial Advisors Can Turn Client Doubt into Trust
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Every financial advisor has faced this moment: The market drops and the phone rings. A client’s voice carrying a note of worry: “I’m just not sure anymore,” they say, or “Maybe we should pull back—everything feels too risky.” Suddenly the plan you’ve built together over months or years is being quietly questioned.
This happens to every advisor, no matter how experienced or how strong the strategy. Doubt isn’t a sign that the relationship is falling apart; it’s a sign that emotions have taken control. Markets fluctuate, headlines scream, life pressures increase, and suddenly the numbers on the screen seem less like data and more like threats to security, dreams, or peace of mind. The doubt comes from emotion well before it comes from analysis—rooted in fear, uncertainty, and vulnerability. It’s human.
What matters is not that doubt appears, but how the advisor responds when it does.
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Three Challenges Financial Advisors Face in Their Daily Work
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
A recent post on this blog outlined three challenges Advisors face when acquiring clients. This week I’ll outline three more chief challenges you are probably facing in your daily work, along with some tips on how to overcome them.
#1. Providing clients with reassurance when the markets take a downturn
Keeping clients on track when markets take a dive is a situation many advisors find tricky. But It’s essential to know how to keep clients invested for the long term.
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Why Presence of Mind Is Crucial for Financial Advisors Success
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
Let’s talk about presence of mind.
When wagon trains traveled across America, the trips were fraught with peril. Wagon masters hired scouts to go in advance of the wagons to look for potential danger. All human beings are hardwired to be on the lookout for danger. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
The media serve as today’s scouts. We want to know what dangers lay ahead. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And the media outlets do a great job. Be careful!
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How to Manage Your Emotions in Difficult Situations
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
You know by now that I believe the development and use of certain soft skills contributes far more to our success than does the development and use of hard skills. Self-awareness is just such a soft skill. The importance of being aware of and controlling our emotions cannot be overstated.
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Emotional Intelligence Enables Us to Manage The Emotions of Others
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
You and I like to think of ourselves as objective thinkers. We try to put our emotions aside. We live in a world of research and numbers. Our recommendations are black and white. Investment results are there for all to see. Our advice is either good or bad. The plans we recommend either work or they don’t. Clients say yes or no. We open the account or we don’t.
Our clients, on the other hand, are subjective thinkers.
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