differentiate yourself Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

What Advisors Need to Do to Help Set Client Goals

September 26, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

According to a Morningstar study, what clients want most from their financial advisors is to help them reach their financial goals. That should be good news for financial advisors because, generally, people with clearly defined goals and ambitions for the future have the conviction to adhere to a long-term plan to achieve them.

However, it could also spell disaster for advisors who fall short in helping their clients articulate their most important goals and fail to gain their commitment to achieving them. To inspire action, client goals must be well-defined and quantifiable with genuine intrinsic value. Anything less is a hopeful aspiration, and hope is not a strategy.

Strengths or Weaknesses: Where Should Advisors Focus?

September 5, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Getting to the next level in any endeavor requires a thorough understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Your strengths have the potential to power your advancement, while weaknesses could possibly hold you back. But not all strengths and weaknesses are equal in the way they can impact your practice. The challenge for advisors is knowing whether to focus first on their weaknesses and then their strengths or vice versa.

Nail the First Meeting with a Prospective Client: Address What Your Prospects Want to Know

July 18, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship, Prospecting / 0 comments

It takes a lot of time, patience, and effort to move a prospect through the funnel to the point when they finally agree to meet with you. For every prospect that makes it that far probably six to nine fall by the wayside. That makes that first meeting ever so crucial. There’s a lot that must be accomplished. It has to go perfectly. There’s a minimal margin for error.

Every advisor has their own formula for constructing a perfect prospect meeting. It invariably includes a polished presentation and ample opportunities to present oneself as a likable, competent professional.

However, ensuring that first meeting is a success comes down to how you structure it to address all the prospect’s questions and concerns. They’re meeting with you to find out who you are and why they should work with you. They need the answers to very specific questions on their mind even though they may not ask them. So, why not structure the meeting around what your prospects really want to know?

Here are a few such questions they are asking themselves.

How to Increase Your Life Insurance Sales through Preparation

January 31, 2022 / by Russell Collins / Best Practices, Connelly Corner / 0 comments

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.

Why Client Communications Must Be Your Highest Priority

January 24, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Going into the new year, financial advisors need to take stock of their business and determine the one critical aspect they need to focus on that could make or break their year or even their career. Acquiring new clients is always a top priority, but there is even a higher priority for advisors hoping to break through to the next level. That’s because if you can’t retain the clients you have, you’ll find yourself in a deep hole, trying to claw your way out.

5 Reasons Advisors Need a Well-Conceived, Systematic Communications Strategy

January 10, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Financial advisors are reaching a pivotal moment that will shape their future. An increasingly competitive landscape, fee compression, the commoditization of advice, and increasing client expectations make client satisfaction, retention, and referrals more essential than ever. As advisors struggle to differentiate themselves in a sea of sameness, I always reach back to the time-tested solution: good communication.

If you have been following my blog for a while, you’re familiar with my core belief that communication is vital to developing solid and enduring relationships. You simply can’t form trusted relationships without good communication.

Most clients don’t feel engaged with their Advisor

To Develop Top-of-Mind Awareness with Clients, Develop Your Authority

December 6, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

We’ve reached the fourth and final issue in our series on Critical Issues Facing Financial Advisors Right Now—Staying Top-of-Mind with Your Clients. Of the four critical issues presented, developing top-of-mind awareness is perhaps the most crucial because it is paramount to your ultimate success. If you are not the first person your clients think of when good or bad things happen to them, things that impact their financial lives or the lives of their friends and family, you could have a long, slow slog to the next level.

I’ve written on the importance of top-of-mind-awareness in past posts, along with the strategies you can use to develop it among your clients. The key to remember is creating top-of-mind awareness is not about pestering your clients with calls and emails just to keep your name in front of them. You don’t want to annoy your clients.

The key is reaching them in a way that heightens their perception of you as someone who’s not a typical advisor but rather as a genuine authority in their field. Authorities have influence. Some even develop a kind of star power that gets people’s attention. What makes an authority? Content.

Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors: It’s Time to Start a Blog

April 26, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

For financial advisors competing in a digitally wired world, thought leadership is essential for those who want to stand far above others in a crowded field. Financial advisors who are thought leaders are viewed as authorities in their field and recognized experts– traits that have become table stakes for advisors hoping to attract the attention of high-net-worth clients. An increasing number of financial advisors are finding that blogging is an affordable way to establish themselves as a high-profile authority and a credible source of financial information in a highly competitive arena.

How to Clearly Demonstrate Value so Your Clients Don’t Question Your Fees

April 12, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

As a financial advisor, you know you bring value to your advisory relationships, which, in your mind, justifies the fees you charge. Your challenge is that, from your clients’ perspective, value is difficult to define. It doesn’t make it any easier when you consider that a client’s assessment of value is subjective, which can vary from client to client. A study by Vanguard attempted to quantify an advisor’s value in terms of how the right advice—primarily keeping clients from abandoning their strategy—can potentially increase a client’s returns by as much as 3% annually. The problem is that difference in performance isn’t apparent in your clients’ statements.

So, how do you demonstrate value in a way that makes your clients not feel the need to question why they’re paying the fees you charge—that they are getting their money’s worth? It may be as easy as simply giving your clients what they want.

3 Types of Prospects Financial Advisors Should Pursue and How to Connect with Them

March 15, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

3 Types of Prospects Every Financial Advisor Should Pursue and How to Connect with Them

All financial advisors know that prospecting is the lifeblood of their business. Filling the funnel with a constant flow of qualified leads has long been the biggest challenge facing advisors, regardless of how long they’ve been in the business. Scores of books and articles have been written on “the best” prospecting tips and techniques. Yet, many advisors continue to suffer from the “spinning your wheels” syndrome, feeling as if their efforts keep dredging up the same results—poor-quality prospects or prospects who have neither the incentive nor financial capacity to take action.

Sure, prospecting is and always has been driven by the “law of numbers,” but who says you can’t tilt the numbers in your favor. You’d be foolish not to try. Even if you’ve identified a target market based on an ideal client profile, it’s still a numbers game. However, if you truly understand the type of prospect you’re looking for, you may be able to drastically reduce the number of rocks you need to turnover.

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