/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
There’s never been a better time to be in the financial advisory business. And if you’re new to the industry, the opportunity is limitless—if you’re adequately prepared. But if you aren’t, the journey can be a long, slow, uphill slog with a minimal chance of success.
Too harsh? Not at all. It’s a fair warning to anyone who gets into this business with little or no understanding of what it is about and what it takes to succeed.
Historically, the advisory business has attracted young people enamored by numbers, analysis, and their application in the investment world. And most are motivated by the desire to help people achieve financial security. Here’s the deal, though—you can’t help people if they don’t trust you. You can’t build a practice if you can’t convince people to follow your advice. You can’t stay in business if you don’t prospect, and prospects won’t gravitate toward you if you don’t stand out.
Read more
5 Essential Things New Financial Advisors Must Know to Be Successful
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
There’s never been a better time to be in the financial advisory business. And if you’re new to the industry, the opportunity is limitless—if you’re adequately prepared. But if you aren’t, the journey can be a long, slow, uphill slog with a minimal chance of success.
Too harsh? Not at all. It’s a fair warning to anyone who gets into this business with little or no understanding of what it is about and what it takes to succeed.
Historically, the advisory business has attracted young people enamored by numbers, analysis, and their application in the investment world. And most are motivated by the desire to help people achieve financial security. Here’s the deal, though—you can’t help people if they don’t trust you. You can’t build a practice if you can’t convince people to follow your advice. You can’t stay in business if you don’t prospect, and prospects won’t gravitate toward you if you don’t stand out.
Read more
How to Get Your First Client as a Financial Advisor
/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments
All financial advisors start in the same place—with no clients. Getting that first client (who’s not a relative) is a significant hurdle but not insurmountable. And, as many successful advisors will tell you, once you clear that first hurdle, it’s off to the races.
While getting your first client can be a challenge, you can succeed with the right skills, a solid game plan, and a hefty dose of persistence.
Read more
How to Convince Prospects and Clients That You Understand What They’re Going through
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
It’s long been said that people might forget what you say. But they will never forget how you made them feel.
There’s a lot of truth to that. And one of the first things your clients and prospects should feel is that you understand what they’re going through. Before some of you were born, there was a great, great sales trainer and educator named Zig Ziglar. Look him up! He learned to sell by selling brushes. Door-to-door.
He went on more sales calls before breakfast than some of you go on in a month. And he used to say “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care… about them.”
There’s two steps to that equation: First, you need to genuinely understand what they are going through. Second, you need to communicate that to them.
Read more
4 Reasons Financial Advisors Should Invest in Education and Self-Development Early On
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Warren Buffett is perhaps the most successful investor there ever was. Not from just one or two big hits, but from a long string of investment successes over more than six decades. But he didn’t get where he is now without studying very hard at Wharton, then at Columbia, where he studied with the legendary Benjamin Graham.
Further, like a Roth IRA, self-development pays off the most when you do it aggressively early in life. The benefits of learning and knowledge compound over time (as long as you keep learning).
Here are four reasons why you should start investing in education and self-development as early in your Financial Advisor career as you can.
Read more