effective listening skills Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

How to Become Naturally Empathetic (and Build Deeper Connections with Clients)

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

At a time like we are now experiencing, when clients are feeling anxious and vulnerable about the future, financial advisors’ most potent tool is empathy. They need to know you understand how they’re feeling about their circumstances and their concerns about the world around them.

There may not even be a problem for you to solve other than to make your clients feel understood and validated for having those feelings. That’s where many financial advisors fall short because they view themselves strictly as problem solvers and not therapists. If your goal is to build enduring relationships with clients who have confidence in your advice, that needs to change.

To Get to “Yes” Financial Advisors Must First Get to “Why” and Stir Up Emotions

/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

What if, in every initial client meeting, your prospects would just come right out and tell you what’s important to them and what it would mean to them if you could help them? Indeed, it would make your job much easier, but then anyone could do it. The challenge is most people don’t think that way, and it’s your job as a financial advisor to help them uncover their most important issues.

But even that doesn’t go far enough because all you’ve done is uncover the “what.” People don’t act on the “what.” They act on the “why.” When fully revealed, the “why” becomes the key motivating factor. It contains the emotions that drive people to act. Your value as a financial advisor is to get people to take the actions you know will help them. If you can’t trigger the emotions behind what’s important to them, they are not likely to take action.

6 Marketing Ideas for Financial Advisors Adapting to a Post-COVID World

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

The recent COVID diagnosis of President Trump, the First Lady, and a number of other White House staff should be a wake-up call to all of us. Don’t get cocky, and don’t get lazy. While it’s not as lethal as many of us feared in February and March, it’s still a very contagious virus.

So, it’s going to be a while before we can go pressing flesh in person like so many advisors have done for generations. Gone are the Chamber meet-and-greets and going door-to-door doing face-to-face prospecting with business owners.

But people still have financial needs, and we’ve got to find ways to reach them. Don’t get call shy! Now more than ever, people need to hear from us!

That means most of us need to be upgrading and modernizing our marketing approach in the Era of COVID.

Sales Jiujitsu: How to Introduce Yourself as a Financial Advisor

/ by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills / 2 comments

Occasionally I get asked about the best way to introduce yourself as a financial advisor.

That’s an important skill. But in some ways, focusing on introducing yourself to other people is looking at the problem from the wrong direction. There’s always the risk that going to a business mode when the prospect is not yet receptive to it will cause them to go into “shields-up” mode.

Instead, turn that process inside out: Consider finding ways to get prospects to introduce themselves to you.

The difference is fundamental.

Becoming a Financial Advisor Is Not All About Getting Licensed

/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Naturally, you need to be sufficiently educated and qualified if you are to do the job of a financial advisor. But that’s not nearly enough. Financial advisors require a unique skill set that consists of not only technical knowledge and business skills but also excellent interpersonal ‘soft’ skills.

Many advisors enter the industry mistakenly believing the former skills are more important than the latter. That’s why so many advisors leave the trade in their first year – because they weren’t able to cut through the noise and attract enough clients.

The First Client Meeting: Are You Making Any of These 10 Common Mistakes?

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship, Prospecting / 0 comments

The First Client Meeting - 10 Common Mistakes

It’s all too easy to slip up in the first meeting and lose any opportunity to open the account – and this is especially true for new advisors.

In this post we’ll help you identify mistakes you could, without realizing it, be making. Take an honest appraisal – do you recognize yourself doing any of the following? If so, take action to fix these mistakes.

7 Things You Can Do for Clients to Show That You Care

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

If you are to be a successful financial advisor, you need to do more than simply manage money. You need to be great at managing relationships – in particular, you need to show your clients that you truly care about them.

If you care more than people expect you to care not only will clients remain loyal to you, but they’ll feel comfortable about referring you to friends, family and colleagues.

Here are 7 ways to show you care.

5 Traits You Need to Have If You’re to Build Strong Relationships with Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

Your personal likeability and trustworthiness are more important than your professional knowledge when it comes to winning and building enduring client relationships. Professional credentials, while important, are only a backstop to the forging of strong personal connections. Focus on developing your soft skills.

Here are five traits you need if you want to create long-lasting relationships with clients and become more referable.

How to Articulate Your Value to Prospects and Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

Ours is a highly commoditized industry. Financial advisors all tend to look the same, sell the same products and talk the same language. To get noticed you need to differentiate yourself from the competition by establishing your value to prospects and clients.

First, work out what you can bring to the table that others can’t. The next step is to verbalize your unique value proposition to clients and prospects.

If you do, prospects and clients will realize why it makes perfect sense to work with you.

5 Rules for Effective Communication with Prospects and Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

In order to establish trust and credibility – and get your messages across to prospects and clients – you need to be an effective communicator. If you, like many advisors, find this a challenge, you don’t need to feel defeated. With hard work and practice you can become a proficient and natural communicator. Here are some key rules to bear in mind.

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