/ by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 1 comment
There are things we know and there are things we don’t know. A first thing we know is that every single time the stock market has gone down, it has come back.
A second thing we know is that every single time the market has gone down and come back, it has gone on to set new highs.
And, a third thing we know is that a perplexingly large number of investors lose money in the stock market, despite knowing the first two things.
What we don’t know is what the market will do tomorrow.
Read more
Four Common Client Objections and How to Counter Them
/ by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills / 0 comments
There’s so much uncertainty surrounding investing that people postpone the decision. Clients and prospects can think of a multitude of reasons not to invest: Whether it’s tax time, retirement looks too far away or they want to buy a new car or kitchen.
However, when clients say they’ll ‘think it over’ it doesn’t mean they’ve found a good reason to delay investing; perhaps it means they don’t trust you enough yet, perhaps they don’t understand what you said or perhaps you simply haven’t convinced them to act. So how do you get them to do the right thing and start securing their financial futures?
Here are some common objections you’ll face – and how to answer them.
Read more
Weekly Focus: Goal Setting
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 1 comment
The beginning of a given year is the time to rewrite our goals, our mission statement and our business plan. For some of us that will involve a major overhaul and for some of us it will involve a tweak. For all of us, it will be a thought-provoking experience. Goal setting comes first. Decide what you want to accomplish and write it down. Set a date by which you will accomplish each goal. If you were charged with running a twelve-minute mile and nobody posted a finish line, you would have no way of knowing if you succeeded. It’s no different with business goals.
Read more
Why Financial Advisors Must Embrace Prospecting
/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 1 comment
Prospecting is the one crucial marketing activity you need to undertake in order to identify and attract new clients.
New clients will not fall into your lap by accident. If people don’t know who you are, they will never understand what you can do for them. If you don’t make prospecting a habit you will neither achieve success in terms of your own goals, nor will you be able to help others achieve theirs. So rather than dreading the ‘prospect’ of prospecting, see it for what it is: the backbone of your business.
Read more
Don’t Feel Guilty About Not Being Perfect
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
There will be times when you get it wrong. Car mechanics and even doctors don’t get it right all the time and neither will you. Mistakes are easy to make and inevitable. As markets get more and more complex the chances of getting things wrong increase even more, and the longer you’re in business the more times you will be wrong.
But never see this as failure. Accept mistakes as part of life and keep on track by not feeling guilty. If you are doing everything you can with everything you’ve got you are a winner so you have nothing to feel guilty about.
Read more
Why It’s Good News that Investments Go Up and Down
/ by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
*This is a podcast originally posted on Don Connelly 24/7 learning center*
Mr. and Mrs. Client, on your way to meeting your goals, your investments will go up and down in value. Now I understand everyone’s game plan is to buy something that goes up. That’s about the extent of the plan. The reality is investments go up and down in value.
What we have to realize is volatility is not risk. Volatility is volatility.
Read more
Your Clients Look to You for Leadership
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
The more uncertain the times, the more certainty clients want from you. They want you and they expect you to guide them to their goals. Like it or not, you are depended upon for your leadership skills. This may be unfair to you.
You weren’t taught leadership in training.
Nonetheless, the role has been thrust upon you.
Read more
Play The Cards The Market Deals You
/ by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 1 comment
There are things we know and there are things we don’t know. A first thing we know is that every single time the stock market has gone down, it has come back.
A second thing we know is that every single time the market has gone down and come back, it has gone on to set new highs.
And, a third thing we know is that a perplexingly large number of investors lose money in the stock market, despite knowing the first two things.
What we don’t know is what the market will do tomorrow.
Read more
Every Advisor Needs to Bring Back the Story
/ by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills, Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 3 comments
The ability to tell good stories is vital if you want people to like and trust you. Your clients like you and trust you. They didn’t buy a financial plan or a managed account. They bought you.
People can’t ‘buy’ you until they know you and the best way to get to know you is to hear your story. And they can’t hear your story until you tell it to them. The better you do that, the sooner you open the account. As Peter Guber says, you tell to win.
Read more
Teach Your Clients to Focus on the Destination, Not the Journey
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
As an Advisor, you are perpetually caught in a paradox. You want your clients to focus down the road on the outcome, while you, in fact, can’t do that. You are bound to focus on the process of investing; because the process is all you can control. You certainly can’t control outcomes.
Read more