October 23, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Financial advisors with any ambitions of growing their practices in the next couple of decades can’t ignore the emergence of Gen Z as an economic force. Though the estimated $143 billion in assets held by Gen Z is dwarfed by the trillions held by millennials, Gen Z workers are expected to outearn millennials as soon as 2030. They will be more educated and more ambitious than their generational predecessors, and they will be starving for financial advice.
The challenge for financial advisors is that while even today, the members of Gen Z are looking for financial advice, most prefer to find it through social media, the internet, and their parents or friends, according to the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.
The good news for advisors is that the same study found that 71% of Gen Z investors are receptive to working with financial professionals, counting them among the most trustworthy sources of financial information, second only to their parents.
The critical issue for any financial advisor hoping to attract young clients is whether they are perceived as someone who can be trusted to serve them in the manner they expect.
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Winning Over the Children of Wealthy Clients
January 22, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
As evidenced by the great wealth transfer of $30 trillion currently underway from the baby boomers to the next generations, wealth is generational, with far-reaching impacts beyond any one client. For financial advisors, it could be an unprecedented opportunity to grow assets or the greatest threat to their survival.
Why the disparity in outlook? Because some advisors will be better positioned than others to capture the attention and trust of the next generations. Advisors who fail to connect with the children of their baby boomer clients stand a better than even chance they will lose the assets upon their transfer.
The failure to realize that, when working with a client, you are also working with everyone dependent on them leads to advisors losing an average of 70% to 80% of a client’s assets following their death.
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How to Attract Emerging Affluent Gen Z and Young Millennials in their 20s
October 23, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Financial advisors with any ambitions of growing their practices in the next couple of decades can’t ignore the emergence of Gen Z as an economic force. Though the estimated $143 billion in assets held by Gen Z is dwarfed by the trillions held by millennials, Gen Z workers are expected to outearn millennials as soon as 2030. They will be more educated and more ambitious than their generational predecessors, and they will be starving for financial advice.
The challenge for financial advisors is that while even today, the members of Gen Z are looking for financial advice, most prefer to find it through social media, the internet, and their parents or friends, according to the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.
The good news for advisors is that the same study found that 71% of Gen Z investors are receptive to working with financial professionals, counting them among the most trustworthy sources of financial information, second only to their parents.
The critical issue for any financial advisor hoping to attract young clients is whether they are perceived as someone who can be trusted to serve them in the manner they expect.
Read more
How to Increase Your Life Insurance Sales Making Every Initial Meeting with a Prospect Successful
March 21, 2022 / by Russell Collins / Best Practices, Connelly Corner / 0 comments
When people meet with you for the first time, subconsciously they have four questions that need to be answered. They haven’t thought about these questions in advance but they cross their mind during that meeting. If they are answered, this will ensure that there is not only a second follow-up meeting, but also presents the immediate opportunity to develop a long-term relationship:
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
Are you competent?
Are you the sort of person who will put my best interests before your own?
In addition to these four questions, I believe that a person would also have to be thinking to themselves “this adviser makes sense!” if there is going to be an ongoing relationship.
How to make every fact-finding meeting a success
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4 Things You Can Only Achieve with Effective Communication Skills
June 3, 2019 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Effective communication skills are essential if you are to achieve successful outcomes for your business. Here are 4 relationship goals you should be striving for, along with the requisite soft skills you must possess if you are to realize them.
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Becoming a Financial Advisor Is Not All About Getting Licensed
May 20, 2019 / 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.
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5 Traits You Need to Have If You’re to Build Strong Relationships with Clients
February 18, 2019 / 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.
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5 Dos of Developing Good Storytelling Skills
August 13, 2018 / by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 2 comments
The ability to tell interesting stories is an essential skill for all advisors. Stories are an effective way of letting people get to know the real you, and they’re also useful when it comes to educating clients.
Few of us are born natural raconteurs – but if you commit to developing your skills and practising them regularly, over time you can become a great storyteller.
Here are 5 best practices when it comes to developing good storytelling skills.
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Every Financial Advisor Needs to Tell Great Stories
April 30, 2018 / by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Human beings have an innate desire to tell and listen to stories. Good stories grab the attention and inspire people to act, which is why storytelling should be an essential tool in your armory. If you become a great storyteller, prospects and clients will leave your office remembering both you and your message.
Stories are also a great way to help make the unfamiliar familiar – they promote the understanding of complex issues. Plus, they’re effective at creating an emotional bond between storyteller and listener.
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You Need both Hard and Soft Skills to Succeed as a Financial Advisor
February 12, 2018 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
You can’t offer financial advice until you have the necessary training and education under your belt. Learning the technical side is fundamental to your career, so that you can recommend appropriate products as well as adhere to the increasingly strict industry regulations.
But hard skills alone won’t secure you success. Even if you’re highly competent with technical information and product knowledge, unless you also possess the right soft skills, you won’t get your message across. Without excellent communication and interpersonal skills, you won’t get past the first post. That’s because prospects won’t understand what you’re saying or see why they should do business with you.
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Storytelling for Financial Advisors – Acquiring High Net Worth Clients through “Storyselling”
April 25, 2016 / by Diana Marinova / Connelly Corner, Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Nowadays “storyselling for financial advisors” is a big search trend. I found a book with that title but I doubt that’s what people in the industry are looking for. My guess would be that they are after high net worth clients with yet another “modern technique”. Truth be told, storyselling is just a catchy name for good old storytelling that Financial Advisors so rarely master completely.
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