Three Must-read Success Stories for Financial Advisors
As a financial advisor you need to work flat out on building your business. But it also pays to take the time to stand back and find inspiration from the best in the business. By understanding what helped some top pros rise to the top of their profession you can gain valuable pointers to motivate you both personally and professionally.
Here’s a brief introduction to three professionals you should have on your radar.
The first success story I’d offer is of Mark
Mark has been a regular contributor to Don Connelly 24/7 over the years, and he’s both a friend and a mentor. Mark has 44 plus years’ experience in the business as an Advisor. He’s a multi-million dollar producer and has amassed 100s of millions in assets during the course of his career.
Mark’s a man of many talents. Before becoming an advisor, he served overseas in NATO’s underwater demolition team. He also has a degree in criminology and, amongst many other things, he’s a skilled silversmith. In the late 60’s Mark found his niche as a financial advisor.
Mark believes advisors should build their books in a down market, not in an up market. When the financial markets are in crisis you should call your clients to reassure them that the world isn’t coming to an end. Maintaining this kind of communication is essential if you want your relationships with clients to prosper. It’s also an opportunity to offer your clients’ friends or family a second opinion – the chances are their own advisors won’t have touched base with them.
Mark’s positive approach can really help you prospect your way out of a slump – helping you build a client base during a downturn.
Mark also believes that our equity as financial advisors lies in not just our clients’ but our clients’ children and clients’ children’s children. He has many fourth generation clients and advises FAs to become the ‘family broker’ for the long term.
Another success story for you is Marvin
An early mentor of mine, Marvin is a firm believer in the importance of great salesmanship. And no one’s better at sales than Marvin, he’s perhaps the greatest salesman in the country. Marvin began to notice over the years that advisors – although they clearly understood their products – lacked good sales skills.
He urges advisors to be proud of their status as a sales person. As an FA you are offering a valuable service – financial advice. Most people don’t ‘want’ to buy financial advice or products – in spite of the fact they desperately ‘need’ them. They would far rather go on extended vacations or buy designer clothes. Your job as an FA is to make people understand not just that they ‘need’ the products or advice but that they ‘want’ to buy them. According to Marvin selling is a ‘noble’ profession – we help people do the right thing – to secure their financial futures.
And the last success story for this post is the one of Ike
As an asset protection attorney, Ike has created protection plans for clients in the seven to nine figure net worth range as well as for those on their way to accumulating significant wealth. Clients include medical professionals, private business owners, builders, professional athletes – or anyone who needs to protect significant amounts of wealth and work from a “universe of infinite risk”.
His specialty is in developing cutting edge hybrid strategies that combine financial, legal and insurance products. This form of asset protection is a way to legally and proactively organize all personal wealth in one form, protecting assets from each other. Ike’s approach ensures that his clients’ assets are not wiped out – and that what they worked hard for gets passed on to the kids.
Surprisingly only a small number of ‘wealthy’ clients have this kind or adequate protection in place. Because of his unique expertise he’s ideally placed for providing the legal and financial planning required for this kind of service, putting him in a truly elite position. As an Advisor, it would be well worth your time to explore a relationship with an asset protection attorney in your town.
These are three people who offer excellent role models for those new to a career as a financial advisor as well as those who need to find a source of inspiration to boost performance. By being able to identify and address what clients want and need these professionals have created their own success stories.
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