What Really Is The Job of a Financial Advisor?
To be an elite advisor you obviously need technical knowledge and expertise. But, just as importantly, you must possess superb soft skills. Your role is to change your clients’ lives for the better and you can only do this if you can effectively communicate with them. To do your job properly you need to get across to people the importance of investing, and why you are the perfect advisor to oversee their investment plan. Here are three aspects of your job as a Financial Advisor that should never be overlooked.
It’s your job to communicate the importance of investing
To get clients to understand why they need to invest ask them how many pay checks they have left before they hit retirement. If they’re aged around 45 this will probably number around 240 or so. Which is not a whole lot of checks to fund what could be a lengthy retirement.
This line of questioning can provide a big wake-up call. It gets prospects to focus on the reality of their situation: Without acting, that comfortable retirement – the one they kind of imagined would somehow ‘happen’ – could simply be a pipe dream.
To press home your point and create urgency, ask prospects if they’d be happy to drive at breakneck speed to get to a destination on time. This level of risk would make most people feel uneasy. Explain that it’s a similar scenario when it comes to investing: By delaying investing they are reducing the chances of safely achieving their financial objectives. By starting the process early, they will be more likely to achieve their goals without undue stress or risk.
It’s your job to outline your value as a financial advisor
Getting prospects to understand the need to invest for their future is crucial. You also need to communicate your value as a financial advisor to prospects and clients. You are an essential part of the investment process – there to personally ensure your clients achieve their goals and fulfil their dreams.
You need to communicate that it’s not your job to make people rich; it’s your job to do your very best to ensure that they will never be poor. Most people simply want to find a way to beat the bank, secure a comfortable retirement or ensure the kids enjoy a debt-free college education. And It’s your job to make this happen.
Your clients need you. They need your unique expertise and total dedication to ensure that, in the long term their investments stay on track. You can offer them a personalized service that’s above and beyond their expectations – making you a very necessary part of their investment equation.
It’s your job is to help manage people’s behaviors.
The essence of your job as an advisor is to help people and ensure they adapt their behaviors so that they no longer have the prospect of an uncertain financial future.
Yes, your job is about balancing portfolios. But it’s just as much about caring for and transforming your clients’ emotional wellbeing.
Even the most meticulously constructed investment plan will fail unless you can get clients to understand that when markets fall there’s no reason to panic. Your advice is indispensable – you are the ‘antidote to panic’ as Nick Murray, puts it. Unless you pull them back from the ledge clients may slip and fall – destroying any hope of achieving their long-term goals.
If you want to drill down to what your job as a financial advisor really is, consider why you entered the profession in the first place. If it’s a desire to help people because you genuinely care about what happens to them – then take steps to truly fulfil your role: Practice and perfect your soft skills. These are the tools that will enable you to communicate the benefits of investing, your unique value, and why clients need to invest for the long term.
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