/ 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.
Read more
5 Ways You’re Setting Yourself Up to Fail
/ 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.
Read more
Creating Your Financial Advisor Marketing Plan
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
The biggest growth challenge for financial advisors is finding qualified leads. But before that can happen, advisors must be able to attract enough of the right people who might become qualified leads. That’s what marketing does for you. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It can’t happen by aimlessly wandering around. Most advisors have enough trouble managing their time between being an advisor, running their practice, and prospecting. What’s needed is a marketing plan.
Read more
How to Choose Your Specialty as a Financial Advisor
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
The financial services market is becoming more complex and more complex every day. Everybody needs a focus. And those with focused practices are better able to serve their clients. None of us can be all things to all people so it’s important to specialize in the kind of advice you give.
But do you know how to choose your specialty as a Financial Advisor?
There are two key considerations – both equally important: Your market, and your passions.
Read more
5 Steps to Attracting and Retaining More Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Lack of success in this industry can be a result of many failings – from a lack of business acumen to ineffective soft skills. In this post we’ll look at some key areas many advisors might consider focusing on in order to attract and retain more clients.
Read more
Best Target Markets for Financial Advisors: How to Choose The Best One for You
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ target market for advisors. A market that may be perfect for one advisor may be a poor fit for another. You need to narrow down to the best target market for you, based on your personal background, specialty, knowledge, interests, social networks and so on.
By identifying your perfect niche you’ll find it far easier to differentiate your practice and set yourself up as the ‘go-to’ expert.
If you’re struggling to identify the ‘right niche’ here are a few ways to get started.
Read more
11 Best Practices for Gathering Referrals
/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
People trust recommendations from people they know, and the lifetime value of a new referral customer is higher than of a client acquired in another way. Despite this, advisors shy away from asking for referrals – citing that to be one of their most awkward tasks.
The good news is that, if asked at the right time, most clients would be happy to advocate on your behalf. Less than a third of advisors ever ask though. Don’t act like the majority – because referrals are at the core of growing your business.
In this post we’ll look at some best practices for gathering referrals.
Read more
5 Reasons Why You Should Only Work with ‘Ideal Clients’
/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
Rather than pouring all your energy into searching for any and all new clients, you should be working out how to attract your ‘ideal clients’. If you agree to work with everyone who comes your way, your business will not continue to be sustainable.
Here are five reasons why it will pay you to drill down to your target market and decide only to work with these types of people.
Read more
What’s the Journey of the Successful Advisor Like?
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Developing a career as a financial advisor is not for the fainthearted. There are plenty of pitfalls to look out for along the way. New advisors often lack the essential soft skills they need to hit the ground running while others embark on the journey without a clear roadmap or measurable goals to guide them.
Here’s a look at how successful advisors navigate their way to success.
Read more
5 Financial Advisor Marketing Ideas You May Never Have Thought of
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
To stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace, advisors need to be creative in their approach to finding and retaining clients. Here are a few marketing tactics you may not have come across that could help to ignite your business.
Read more
How a Marketing Resume Can Help You Get Out of a Rut
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
If you feel that you’re stuck in rut, and can’t see how to get your business back on track then it’s time for a change. The worst thing you can do is just sit there and hope things pick up. Overcome your inertia and develop a clear marketing and client acquisition strategy. Decide what your unique value proposition is and create a marketing resume.
Read more