value proposition Archives - Don Connelly & Associates

Ten Strategies for Encouraging Your Clients to Spread the Word About Your Business

/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

We’ve often posted about the importance of creating an extraordinary client experience to make yourself more “buzzworthy” as an advisor your clients will want to discuss. You can’t even think about creating a compelling word-of-mouth buzz until you create the kind of service that feels personal, unique, and genuinely caring to your clients. That should be your primary focus.

However, beyond creating an extraordinary client experience, it’s essential to turn your clients into vocal advocates, like human billboards spreading the word about your business. While it does happen—having a delighted client go on and on about your service to a friend or colleague—most people are not naturally inclined to initiate a conversation like that without some help and encouragement.

Here are ten effective ideas to inspire your clients to spread the word and advocate for your business proactively.

5 Priorities Financial Advisors Must Have to Succeed in Our Business

/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

As you might already know, financial advisors need to be good business people to succeed, which entails having a solid business plan, creating an ideal client profile, developing project management skills, and acting and thinking like a CEO. Those are critical foundational elements for any financial advisor with ambitions of growing a successful business.

However, on a day-to-day basis, success in the financial advisory business requires a constant blending of priorities such as strategic focus, interpersonal skills, and industry knowledge. Here are the five top priorities financial advisors must focus on to thrive in their careers:

A Guide to Securing Second Meetings with Prospects: Turning First Impressions into Lasting Partnerships

/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

It’s no exaggeration to say that the initial meeting with a prospective client is a make-or-break moment that sets the tone for the relationship and determines whether it will continue in a second meeting. The initial meeting is a crucial dance between the advisor and a naturally skeptical prospect who wants to know why they should work with you.

In a crowded field of financial advisors, the initial meeting presents a critical opportunity to differentiate yourself. Prospects are likely to meet with multiple advisors. You must make the prospect feel they’re making the right choice in working with you and that they should expect an advisory experience with you that they can’t get from anyone else. That’s a tall order.

But if you’re organized, practiced, and have the end in mind—a second meeting with the prospect—you can make each initial meeting a success.

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.

Factors Financial Advisors Should Consider When Choosing a Fee Structure for Their Practice

/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments

Among the more critical decisions a financial advisor must make is determining their fee structure—what to charge clients and how to charge them. After all, the fee structure sets the tone for how clients perceive the value they receive from your services.

If clients feel that the fees are too high relative to the value provided, it can lead to dissatisfaction and attrition. Conversely, if they perceive your fees as fair, it can foster trust and long-term loyalty. However, if they are too fair, it could threaten your business’s bottom line and sustainability.

Choosing the proper fee structure is a delicate balancing act for advisors. It requires consideration of client expectations, business sustainability, and your own financial goals. Your fee structure should align with your business model and client base, leading to stronger client relationships and business success while fulfilling one’s fiduciary obligations to clients.

Here are the pivotal factors to consider when determining how to structure your fees:

The Non-Salesy Way to Finding and Attracting Your Ideal Clients

/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

Financial advisors’ success hinges on building trust and long-term relationships. To do that effectively, they need to target the right audience—individuals who value their expertise and require the specific services they offer.

Successful advisors know how to identify a niche that represents their ideal client. More importantly, they know how to reach out in a way that leads to a connection without resorting to pushy sales tactics. The key is to create a sustainable and repeatable process that positions you as an expert in a particular niche to the extent that they are drawn to your message.

Here are the steps to follow:

‘Why Should I Do Business with You’: Crafting a Compelling Response to a Prospect’s Critical Question

/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments

For every financial advisor, the question, “Why should I do business with you?” hangs heavy in the air during initial consultations, whether spoken or not. It’s a pivotal moment, a crossroads where trust and value must intersect to convince the potential client to take the next step. While tempting to launch into a self-promotional monologue, a nuanced, client-centric approach is critical to unlocking that coveted “yes.”

It’s crucial to understand that a prepared, cookie-cutter approach, such as reciting your value proposition, won’t work. Every prospect is unique, so it’s essential to adapt your approach based on their specific circumstances and needs using the following framework:

Winning Over the Children of Wealthy Clients

/ 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.

How to Become Your Client’s Trusted Confidant

/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments

We’ve frequently stressed the importance of building deep and trusting relationships with clients. Practically speaking, the stronger and more enduring your client relationships, the greater their lifetime value to you in terms of repeat business, growing assets under management, referrals, and family legacies. For financial advisors, the profit truly is in the relationship.

The most successful advisors seek to take the relationship even deeper—to the point where they become a trusted confidant of their clients. They want to be the first person their clients think of when any significant issue arises, be it a family milestone (i.e., birth, college graduation, engagement), family tragedy (i.e., divorce, death), career change, or any major family decision (i.e., new home purchase).

To some, that may seem like going above and beyond. After all, isn’t it enough to have the family’s trust to act in their best interests in helping them manage their money? Is it appropriate to try to insert ourselves into every aspect of their lives? What do we gain from that? What does the client gain? Why would a client want their financial advisor as a trusted confidant?

5 Essential Lead Generation Tools for Financial Advisors

/ by Don Connelly / Prospecting / 0 comments

A common mistake many advisors make is to look to lead generation as a short-term solution to a dwindling pipeline, with bursts of activities such as cold calls, direct mail, email blasts, or scheduling webinars. While these can sometimes work to fill the void temporarily, they can be very time-consuming, inefficient, and unpredictable.

To ensure a constant flow of qualified leads, lead generation must be built into your daily practice as a machine continuously attracting leads to your pipeline. Fortunately, with digital technology tools, generating qualified leads is easier than ever.

Here are the essential tools available to any advisor seeking to create a systematic process for generating non-stop qualified leads:

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