What Are The Most Important Networking Skills for Financial Advisors?

What Are The Most Important Networking Skills for Financial Advisors

Networking is an important prospecting tool, especially for newer Advisors who have a paucity of clients. Probably the two most common ways to network are via social media or face-to-face. Both methods are effective if done correctly.

The concept of networking is not new. In fact, it is two thousand years old. It would not have survived if it didn’t work. Getting ahead in the business world has a lot more to do with who you know than what you know.

While networking is pretty straight forward, there are specific skills involved. It involves a lot more than simply handing out business cards. Like other prospecting methods, networking entails being brilliant at the basics.

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It Takes Persistence and Perseverance to Keep Doing a Difficult Thing

Persistence and Perseverance for Financial Advisors

Do you think it’s possible for you to become one of the best Financial Advisors in the world? How about in your firm or in your town? Is it possible for you to be great, to be admired and looked up to? How about rich? How about famous? Or are the rewards for the other guy? Have you thought long and hard about what it takes to become great?

It has been said that advice is what you seek when you already know the answer but wish you didn’t.

The good news is that all those things are within your grasp.

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Acquiring Negotiating Skills Will Help You Open More Accounts

Don Connelly audio blog post

When a prospective client is trying to decide between you and the Advisor across the street, you need to make the case that you are the obvious choice and the prospective client has to agree with your conclusion.

The time will surely arise in your career when a client wants to move his or her account to another Advisor.

The time will surely arise in your career when a client feels she deserves a lower fee. The time will surely arise in your career when a client balks at a suggested course of action. The time may very well arise when a client decides to manage his account himself. All these issues must be resolved tactfully.

Any dialogue intended to reach an understanding is a negotiation and negotiating involves specific skills.

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Get Your Work Done in Sixty Percent of the Time

Get Your Work Done

I can tell you without hesitation that the amount of time you spend marketing yourself this year determines how much you will grow next year. If you don’t prospect and market yourself, your business will wither and die.

I can also tell you without hesitation that running your business gets in the way of growing your business. The details eat up your time. There are only so many hours in the day. What to do then? Why do we give tasks more time than they need and what can we do about it?

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What Is #1 Reason Advisors and Wholesalers Fail

Why Advisors Fail - What's the #1 Reason

Lance Armstrong once observed that a boo is a lot louder than a cheer. He’s right. And a no is a lot louder than a yes.

Advisors (and wholesalers) who fail often do so because they don’t see enough people.

Imagine the financial planning gods coming down and granting you immunity for a year. You don’t need to rely on your skills. Every time you call for an appointment, the person says yes. Every time you ask the person to become your client, the person says yes. Every time you ask for an introduction to your clients’ friends, they give you five names and go with you on the appointments.

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There Are Only Three Objections You Will Ever Get

Overcoming Objections - There are only three objections you will ever get

Generally speaking, there are only three objections you will ever hear: I don’t have any money, I already have an Advisor and a third catch-all category we’ll call “I’m not interested.” Obviously, there are many more objections, such as “I can get it cheaper elsewhere.” But those specific objections fall into the catch-all category. Telling you that a discount house is cheaper than you is a way of someone saying he or she is not interested.

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