mastering client relationships Archives - Page 2 of 6

Working Mostly Online in a Post-pandemic World Is Especially Hard on New Advisors

/ by Diana Marinova / Best Practices, Connelly Corner / 0 comments

This turbulent year is almost over and looking back, we see a few clear trends of topics that interested Financial Advisors the most on our blog during 2020. We’d like to share some of them with you now, in case you missed them the first time around.

Here are the first three topics most requested and read by our community of financial professionals in 2020.

How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

An increasing number of financial advisors are catching on to the fact that most of their clients and target market reside in a digital world where, if they fail to connect with them there, they risk becoming irrelevant or obsolete. Email, the internet, and social media have transformed the way consumers conduct their lives, and their influence now surpasses all other forms of persuasion, including television and print media. The critical question financial advisors must ask themselves now is, “How much digital influence do we have over our target market?”

Six Ways Financial Advisors Can Establish Trust in Today’s Virtual World

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

You can have all the technical and market skill in the world. But if people don’t trust you, you’re not going to open new accounts.

It’s just a fact of life in sales: If people don’t trust you, their defensive mechanisms are going to be up during the entire sales process. If you’re lucky, they’ll tell you. At least that way, you get to face the trust issue head on. That might give you a fighting chance.

But more often than not, you’ll be met with polite silence, and the dreaded “we’ll give you a call if we decide to do anything.”

If you hear that, chances are you whiffed on the trust issue.

After all, if you had their trust, they’d be looking for ways to talk themselves into doing business with you!

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.

How to Build Your ‘Why I Am Here’ Story

/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments

Your ‘why I am here’ story is an essential market differentiator. First of all, not every financial advisor even has one – other than to make money. And out of those who really do have a client-centered reason for being in this business, not all of them are able to express it. So if you have a real reason you come to work every day, and you’re able to articulate it in a way that makes sense to the clients and gives them a reason to work with you, you’re already way ahead of the competition.

That’s why you need a “why I am here” story.

But the ability to articulate your story in a way that makes it stick is essential. You don’t want to get lost in the details. You don’t want to get sidetracked. You don’t want to get interrupted while you’re trying to tell it. And you don’t want to bore the listener!

5 Creative Marketing Ideas for Financial Advisors to Attract New Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 4 comments

The biggest issue most Financial Advisors face is attracting a steady stream of new clients. In a post-pandemic world that could be even more difficult with seminars and networking events out of the question for a long time to come.

Here are five creative marketing ideas Financial Advisors can use to attract new clients without breaking the bank.

Remember to run any promotional or marketing activity by your compliance department before making any steps toward detailed planning or execution.

Automated Marketing for Financial Advisors – 5 Ways to Improve Your Practice

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

For many business owners marketing is tough and likely not the reason they started their business in the first place! As a Financial Advisor, your work is primarily focused on money management and building client relationships, not marketing. Having said that, a proactive and well-planned marketing initiative can go a long way in improving and growing your practice, so you can do more of what you love.

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.

8 Stories to Help You Build Trust and Open Accounts

/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments

As you might know already, I’m a big believer in telling a story.

As I write this, it’s presidential campaign season. The candidates are all about telling their stories. They want to get their preferred narratives out there, in front of voters. Successful candidates are very well rehearsed on these stories. They constantly make references to these stories, in the effort to brand themselves, differentiate themselves from other candidates, and inoculate themselves against attacks from competing candidates and their staffs.

Why?

Because it works!

It works in financial services, too.

In fact, it works so well that I don’t want you to have a single story defining you. I want you to have at least eight! And I want you to know them cold.

Becoming a Financial Advisor at 40? Yes, You Can!

/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

This is for all you career-switchers, and those considering a career change move into financial advisory services:

Don’t listen to the nay-sayers and the haters: You absolutely can become a successful financial advisor as a second career. In fact, as a career-switcher, you’ll have many advantages over your younger peers in your training classes.

Here are some of the many pros of becoming a financial advisor mid-career – and a few of the obstacles you may encounter.

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