don't overpromise Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

5 Ways You’re Setting Yourself Up to Fail

August 8, 2022 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

I don’t think any financial advisor wakes up in the morning and intentionally sets out to fail. But I can think of many examples of advisors who unwittingly find ways to sabotage their efforts to build a successful practice. It’s often the little things they are either unaware of or don’t recognize as problems. But they’re big enough to turn prospects and clients away from you.

While you may not think you are setting yourself up to fail, you have to consider whether you’re doing the things necessary to prepare yourself for success. That includes taking a critical look at yourself and the way you conduct business and making immediate course corrections.

While there are dozens of ways advisors may be sabotaging their business, here are five we see most often.

Don’t Let Clients’ Concerns Escalate: Tackle Issues Head on

August 7, 2017 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Meeting your clients’ expectations is the least you can do – it’s simply part of your job – so don’t expect to get a pat on the back for it. If you want to retain clients for the long term, you need to step up your level of service way beyond this and be more proactive than other advisors. Offer your clients a heroic standard of service by taking ownership of their problems before they become detrimental to your business.

Here are four ways to ensure you keep things on track.

What Not to Do in The First Client Meeting

April 3, 2017 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

It takes hard work and perseverance to set up a first appointment with a potential client. Don’t waste this precious opportunity by approaching the meeting in the wrong way – because it’s unlikely you’ll get a second chance.

There’s no ‘first meeting rule book’, however there are some things to avoid if you want to move things forward. Here are a few.

Building Healthy Relationships with Clients – Six Steps Financial Advisors Should Take

February 27, 2017 / by Diana Marinova / Connelly Corner / 0 comments

As an advisor, how high you go is dependent on your ability to maintain long-term relationships. There’s no activity more crucial for the success of an advisor than relationship building. To help you evaluate your relationship building and management skills, I’d like to share a few of Don’s top podcasts on the topic. Hopefully, they’ll give you some food for thought and actionable steps you can take to improve your practice and create loyalty among clients.

Learn to Manage Client Expectations

October 10, 2016 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Running the business gets in the way of growing the business. That’s a fact of life in the Financial Services industry. As the business gets bigger, an Advisor has to make a decision. Am I going to manage money or am I going to manage client expectations? It’s almost impossible to manage both. In my travels, I find most elite Advisors opting for outside management. They choose to manage their clients and their clients’ expectations.

Not Following Up Is the Second Most Common Reason Advisors Get Fired

July 6, 2015 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

If you tell a client you will do something and then you don’t do it, you will sooner or later lose that client. Your dependability will be questioned.

Think how many times over the last six months people have told you they would do something and then failed to do it. If you do that same thing twice, even over a year or two, you will be deemed at first blush to be undependable.

That is a giant step toward being viewed as not trustworthy.

Six Relationship Management Tips for Financial Advisors

June 29, 2015 / by Diana Marinova / Connelly Corner, Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Did you know Don Connelly has a YouTube channel? He regularly shares his wisdom in audio and video format on various topics which are interesting to Financial Advisors. One such topic is relationship management.

Here are the top six relationship management tips, taken directly from Don Connelly’s YouTube channel.

Differentiate Yourself by Seeing Things from Your Clients’ Point of View

March 23, 2015 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

Differentiation is one of the biggest challenges financial advisors face. Clients expect you to have solid products, fair prices and a certain measure of performance as standard. But simply having the right credentials won’t demonstrate to them why you are uniquely placed to help them achieve their dreams and goals. If you really want to stand out from the competition you need to fulfill their expectations on another level. Among other attributes, you need to have empathy; the ability to see things from your clients’ point of view.

How Fear Can Cripple Your Financial Advisor Career

February 5, 2015 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Top advisors have fears. They don’t like facing rejection any more than average advisors do but they just accept their fears as part of the job. Here are some common fears that prevent good advisors from becoming great advisors, and some tips about how to face down your fears.

Looking Back on 2014

December 29, 2014 / by Don Connelly / What's New / 0 comments

Thank you.

Your support means the world to everyone here at Don Connelly & Associates. Without you, there is no learning center. Your loyalty is not taken for granted.

2014 was a learning year for me, as I’m sure it was for you. I remember Bob Dunwoody once described himself as a student-teacher. He said he learns as much from Advisors as he teaches them. I know what he means.

It was also a year of observation.

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