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When Mentoring Requires You to Let Go

April 12, 2013 by fpapractice

Over a period of years, an adviser’s firm grows as his or her number of clients accumulates. Simultaneously, the adviser deepens relationships with existing clients. In what seems like no time at all, the adviser-client relationships evolve through many life events—birthdays and anniversaries, births, deaths, retirements, marriages and more.

Often, as the adviser acquires new clients, their investable net worth is larger than that of his or her original clients. Fast-forward two or three decades, and the adviser finds him- or herself with more households than can be manage. And, typically, the original clients continue to have smaller average investable net worth than the adviser’s newer households.

Many seasoned advisers hire junior advisers to lighten their workload and handle some of the smaller clients. But when it comes to transitioning clients, it is no surprise that the senior advisers may be reluctant to let go of the relationships that they and their clients have carefully cultivated and thoroughly enjoy. After all, they have shared all those years of life events.

Although advisers want to transition clients, some advisers can sabotage the transition process by convincing themselves that only they can meet their clients’ needs. Moreover, the experienced, successful advisers may look at their 30-year-old junior advisers and confront the reality that the junior advisers are simply not as competent, knowledgeable, or skilled at relationships as the senior advisers are.

But is that the right comparison?

Instead of asking, “Is junior as good as I?” a different perspective comes from asking, “Is junior as competent as I was when I was 30 years old?” Often, the reaction to that question is a swift acknowledgment that the adviser wasn’t born successful, but that he or she grew to become successful one client experience at a time—and maybe even one mistake at a time.

Realignment encourages senior advisers to not only “allow” relationships to transition, but it also refocuses the seasoned advisers on the purpose of bringing in junior advisers in the first place. That realignment remotivates seasoned advisers to transition clients and to set their junior advisers up for success.

Joni YoungwirthJoni Youngwirth
Managing Principal of Practice Management
Commonwealth Financial Network
Waltham, Mass.

Posted in HR/Staff, Operations | 1 Comment »

Creating the Pivotal Moment

April 11, 2013 by fpapractice

During one of my recent cumulative group coaching sessions, I had a discovery myself as I listened to my adviser clients. Our discussion was about losing the connection with a prospect during a meeting and somehow magically turning the conversation around to re-connect. After hearing this scenario several times, it was time to dissect this cycle to fully understand it. As a result, I gave the process a name—the pivotal moment.

The pivotal moment is that moment when an adviser takes control of the conversation and the prospect realizes there is merit in what they are hearing.

The most important thing to remember is that the pivotal moment is a process. Is it an exact science? No, instead it is part art and part science.

The Pivotal Statement

The pivotal statement is when the prospect say something that you know could turn into the pivotal moment, because the prospect sees the rationale or logic in your solutions. Here is an example:

Q. How are your returns versus the market?
(Let’s say that your returns were better than the market, but more importantly, the volatility of the market was much greater. The point here is that you want the prospect to understand this, but you need to ask the right questions to guide them in their understanding.)

Q. Are returns an important part of your buying decision?
(This question needs to clarify what the prospect views as important. And answering this question helps the prospect determine the degree of importance.)

A. Yes, it’s why I’m investing, to make money.

Q. So what you are saying is that if my returns have out-performed the market you would be interested in them?
(This is clarification as to why this is so important.)

Q. Is risk an important part of your buying decision? Because you don’t want to try and outpace the market at the risk of losing a lot, do you?
(This question needs to clarify what additional benefits the prospect might view as important, even if they had not previously thought of it.)

A. Yes, I’m not going to take unnecessary risk.
(Answering this question helps the prospect determine the degree of importance.

Q. So what you are saying is that if my investments had a risk that was equal to or less than the market you would be interested in them?
(Again, you are providing clarification as to why this is so important.)

Q. Then you will be glad to know that this investment strategy has outpaced the market in all categories—one year, three year, five year, 10 year and even 20 years. And that in the worst bear market year the market volatility fluctuated 50 percent, meaning that the market lost half its value, but this investment strategy was down 2 percent. So, knowing that this has better upside historic results with less risk, what do you think is the best course of action?

Sharpen Your Skills

It is important to note that memorizing what to say should not be done. You will have much better results if you simply understand the foundation of the process and know what direction you want to go with your conversations. Sharpening your skills is required if you want to get better at it. One way to do this is to use the pivotal moment exercise—an exercise that maps out each step of the process as mentioned above.

It has been my observation that the main reason why advisers lose their client’s or prospect’s interest is because they are too busy telling them what they should do as opposed to asking the appropriate questions, which leads down a path to helping them comprehend what the solutions are. Once a client/prospect comes to that conclusion, they do not feel like they have been “sold” your recommendations, and that is a pivotal moment!

To request a copy of the pivotal moment exercise, just email me at dan@advisorsolutionsinc.com.

Dan FinleyDaniel C. Finley
President
Advisor Solutions
St. Paul, Minn.

Posted in Client Skills | Leave a Comment »

New SEC Ruling Officially Opens the Door to Social Media for Financial Advisers

April 9, 2013 by fpapractice

For the financial advisers already communicating with customers on social media, last week’s big announcement from the SEC encourages them to take their social media engagement up a notch.

Finally ending the investigation surrounding Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his use of Facebook to announce disclosed corporate information, the SEC decided not to pursue civil charges against Hastings. Even bigger, the Commission ruled that they appreciate the use of social media sites as a new form of market communication. Furthermore, the SEC ruled that as long as companies are clear to investors about their plans for social media, it supports those seeking new ways to communicate with shareholders.

This announcement is a huge leap for the financial services industry, and perhaps more so for the financial adviser incorporating social media into their practices, as well as a push for those reluctant to jump aboard the bandwagon. In a previous 2008 ruling, the SEC said only corporate homepages could be used for sensitive information announcements. Now, as long as they follow compliance protocol and reveal no information that would give one group of investors an unfair advantage, social media stands as a sufficient method of communication between advisers and clients.

What to Expect

So, what can we expect for the financial services industry now that the SEC has given its blessing for social media?

According to a FTI/LinkedIn study, seven in 10 financial advisers are already using social networks for business purposes. At the time of the study, adoption rates were expected to significantly grow since more than half of advisers expected social media to play a significant role in their 2013 marketing efforts. This represented an 80 percent increase year-over-year. That fact alone was huge, but now, with the social media doors officially opened by the SEC, how will this statistic change? Will those advisers concerned with social media compliance risks finally take the chance and include contemporary marketing communications into their practices?

So now comes the time when financial advisers need to make the big decisions. For those already active online, will you broaden your reach and build a stronger social media presence? And, for those who have yet to embrace social, what is your excuse for avoiding a communication channel that 5 million affluent investors are using to research their final decisions?

Key Steps

You may have heard the phrase “what would you do if you weren’t afraid?” Advisers need to ask themselves that question. With the new SEC ruling and the existence of archiving solutions that ensure social media compliance, the time to act is now. So I challenge you to not be afraid. Take a deep breath, do your research and take the social media plunge.

For the most recent SEC commentary on social media, see their April 2 and March 15, 2013 releases at: SEC Says Social Media OK for Company Announcements if Investors are Alerted (April 2); and SEC Issues Guidance Update on Social Media Filings by Investment Companies (March 15).

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the RegEd blog on April 3, 2013.

CZ SepiaCaitlin Zucal
Marketing Coordinator
RegEd
Morrisville, N.C.

Posted in Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Get More Referrals from a Networking Group

April 3, 2013 by fpapractice

A financial planner recently asked me: “I belong to a referral group that has been meeting once a week for the past four months. No sales yet. What could I be missing?”

It’s hard to say what this planner is missing because I’m not attending the meetings with him. That said, I answered his question with a few more questions. If you’re a part of a networking group, chamber, association, or whatever, ask yourself the following questions.

Are you attending every meeting?
You can’t just show up to networking meetings when you feel like it. You must be an active and frequent participant. Remember, it’s all about the relationship. If you focus on relationship, the business will be there. How can you focus on developing relationships if you’re not attending enough meetings?

Are you paying attention to other members of the group when they’re speaking?
If the meeting is structured and attendees get an opportunity to deliver a presentation (some groups offer 30 seconds or a minute), literally take notes so you can follow up on what you’re listening to and learn who you need to get to know. Why? So you can help them and they can help you. If you and other members are more focused on the bagels and coffee, there are missed opportunities for everyone!

Are fellow members paying attention to you?
You can only expect this privilege if you pay attention to them (see above). That said, you must deliver a meaningful presentation that is articulate, a bit entertaining, planned, focused and with a call to action. A good model I’ve referred to in the past is the PEEC statement—your Profession, Expertise, Environments (target market), and Call to Action. If you can do this and change it up slightly for every meeting, you’re on your way. TIP: Costumes and props work well.

Are you meeting with other members’ one on one or in small groups?
Why? So you can learn more about them and their businesses. So you can learn how to refer them business. So you can get to know what they do when they’re not talking business. So you can build solid relationships. So they can get to know you too. Focus on the relationship and the business will be there.

Are you generating referral business to other members?
One of the best ways to establish trust and build relationships is to refer other group members business. But first, you must make sure they are absolutely awesome at what they do. Speak to their clients and see what they say. Also, when you generate referrals, insure they are sound, as in they have a great chance of turning into closed business. Otherwise, they may not be referrals.

Are you likeable?
This is tough. Do you like talking to other people? And do they like talking to you? Typically these dynamics go hand in hand. If you like hanging out with others and you find yourself laughing a lot, getting introduced to others, and being invited to outside events, this is a good sign. If this is not the case, you want to be honest with yourself. Ask for direct feedback from those you trust to determine how you might come across to other people. Although it may not be the thing you want to hear, it might be what you need to hear. And then, work on that.

Do other members come in contact with the type of business you want to do?
Are there successful centers of influence or referral sources (CPAs, attorneys, property and casualty brokers, etc.) in the group that you’re building positive relationships with? If not, why? Should there be? Can you invite them and get them to become members?

If you’re attending networking meetings, chamber mixers, association functions, speed networking events and other venues, ask yourself these questions and be honest with your answers. Can you look at yourself in the mirror and say you’re taking all of these approaches? Networking requires work, as in net-work.

Is it time to get to work?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMichael Goldberg
Founder
Building Blocks Consulting LLC
Jackson, N.J.

Posted in Marketing | Leave a Comment »

5 Things to Avoid During Your Next Client Presentation

March 26, 2013 by fpapractice

Last week, a financial adviser friend of mine invited me to attend a presentation she was giving to a group of her current clients and prospects. She invested a lot of time and resources to develop the presentation, and she spent many hours rehearsing it to ensure its success. However, I could not help but notice a number of common shortcomings that seem to be the most common traps speakers fall into when delivering presentations or speeches. Let me share some of those traps with you:

Failing to Emotionally Engage Your Audience

During a presentation, just stating the facts could increase the risk of losing your audience. Powerful and effective communication is a symbiotic interaction of emotional and intellectual powers that aims to engage your audience’s hearts and minds. While the scope of emotional power is to stimulate an audience’s imagination, intellectual power should be used to pique your listeners’ interest by using reasoned arguments and backing them up with data. Even when dispensing data and statistics to your audience, add some emotional color with an appropriate anecdote or a short story to make your delivery more powerful and meaningful.

An emotional connection is established only when you can satisfy your audience’s unspoken million-dollar questions: “What’s my takeaway here?” A clear answer to that question provides the emotional hook you need to captivate your audience. For example, instead of stating “Today, I will talk to you about the importance of establishing a spending rule while in retirement.” say “Today, you are going to learn how to reduce the risk of outliving your retirement savings.”

Not Being Genuine

The success of any presentation is also a direct function of the authenticity of the presenter. Do not waste time and energy trying to be and act as the person you believe your audience wants you to be, but rather focus on who you are and the message you intend to deliver. By trying to be someone else you will most certainly lose your most effective persuasion asset—your authenticity. I believe it was Judy Garland who once said, “Always be a first-rate version of you, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.”

Abusing Technology

When it comes to creating content and visuals for a presentation, nothing is friendlier than technology. PowerPoint can be a powerful tool, but only when you know how to use it. I continue to see a significant number of advisers who misuse this medium, as they cram too much content into their slides and often overload them with images, videos and animations.

The written content of a slide should be limited to very brief sentences or single words that act as placeholders for the thoughts and ideas you articulate during your presentation. Slides crowded with long sentences and dense paragraphs will lead your audience to think “this is a slow and tedious read-along.” The important fact that must be remembered is that a visual aid like PowerPoint is just an aid, and as such, can only help you get your point across. That’s it! The most important task must be performed by you: connecting to your audience in an emotionally engaging manner.

Omitting Stories and Anecdotes

A study conducted by well-known author and psychiatrist William Glasser determined that people retain 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, and just 50 percent of what they both hear and see. These statistics should provide strong encouragement to intersperse a presentation with clever anecdotes and relevant stories. Narratives help audiences give life and meaning to the movie that is going on in their heads as they listen to you. To facilitate this, use powerful human interest stories, memorable characters, and engaging, dramatic and amusing anecdotes relevant to your presentation. Fire up their imaginations and keep them interested. Ultimately, that’s what they will remember.

Speaking in Jargon

At one point during my adviser friend’s presentation, I realized that although she sounded very smart, a many attendees were having a hard time following and understanding what she was talking about. For the past 10 minutes, her speech had been filled with industry jargon and acronyms. This is a mistake too many advisers continue to make. When delivering a presentation or conducting a client event, you’re better off avoiding highly technical or industry-specific language. When preparing your speech, try to emulate the type of language that mainstream newspapers use to craft their personal finance columns. It may sound like the reporter is writing for sixth graders, but it is the clarity and simplicity of the language that enables everyone to understand it. Don’t forget the basic rule: If your audience cannot follow what you’re saying or understand what you’re offering, they won’t adopt or buy it.

As always, I welcome you to pose questions, leave comments or share any experience you had with presentations.

Claudio PannunzioClaudio Pannunzio
President
i-Impact Group Inc.
Greenwich, Conn.

Posted in Client Skills, Marketing | Leave a Comment »

6 Ways to Engage Your Former Clients

March 22, 2013 by fpapractice

Clients move on for many reasons. They move away, enter a new phase of life, decide to go it alone or may even have switched to a different adviser who is a better fit to them. Or, quite simply, your project may be complete and they chose not to continue with you “right now.”

Even though you may no longer be under contract, former clients should still be a vital component of your marketing efforts, as they can be easy to re-engage and one of your best sources of new client referrals. Here’s how to attract them back:

1. Keep Them in the Loop

Your former clients stay on your email list, receiving all the communications you send to cultivate the relationship with your prospects and clients. These are your monthly newsletter and other calendar-based communications. If they want out, they can unsubscribe. I find most former clients circle back again after an article I send or an opinion or experience I share as part of my relationship marketing strategy.

2. Engage Through the Good Old-Fashioned USPS

Send a friendly letter announcing a new service. Did you add in investment management, expand to include tax planning or partner up with an estate planner? Share the news offline and follow up with an email. Include a short, personalized handwritten note on the printed letter.

3. Set Triggers for Opportunities to Help

For example, I specialize in helping new parents and often re-engage with clients when they are debating the feasibility of sending their child to private school. It’s easy for me to track which clients have children who are approaching school-age and let them know how I can help them navigate the financial decisions that they will soon face. Use your CRM to automate much of this process and keep the follow-up resources in check.

4. Make a Check-In Call Once or Twice a Year

Even a voicemail “Hello” let’s them know you care.

5. Include Your Favorites on the Client Appreciation Event Invitation List

Even if they don’t show up, they will be happy you asked (and recall the perks of being a client).

6. Get the Results

Send a survey and ask about their progress on their financial plans. If they have positive actions and achievements to share, you’ll remind them of your value, and you’ll feel fulfilled. If they hit a roadblock you can invite them back in to meet with you. And, if the plan just didn’t work, you can learn more about how you might improve your process for the next client.

Thanks to these strategies, I find that most clients I’m not currently engaged with feel that our relationship has actually strengthened over time as I continue to be a part of their lives. They realize how easy it will be to hit the ground running should they require my services again, and many continue to send referrals years after I completed our engagement.

Kristin HaradKristin Harad, CFP®
Marketing trainer for advisers
www.kristinharad.com
San Francisco

Posted in Client Skills, Marketing | Leave a Comment »

The Art of Embracing Change

March 19, 2013 by fpapractice

Being in the financial services industry, you know there is one thing you can guarantee—that change is inevitable. It is how we embrace or shun change that defines the difference between having a successful advisory practice or one filled with constant struggles.

The overall solution is to have a consistent process for adapting to and moving through change.

Decide That You Are Done
Sometimes the hardest part of starting a new process is determining that the old one just doesn’t work anymore. It takes being honest with yourself to become aware there is a challenge and that you are tired of the push and pull. This is the most important part of changing anything aspect of your business—time management, prospecting, sales, marketing, or client servicing. So, the real question you need to pose is—Are the results I’m currently experiencing with my business ones I’m happy with, and if the answer is no, then am I ready and willing to ax the old and embrace the new?

Determine Your New Route
Once you are committed to changing whatever is not working, it is time to determine how you want to change it. The best way to do this is look to others— your branch manager, a trusted colleague, industry authors or even a business coach. Why reinvent the wheel? You just need to find the most appropriate solutions for you and your business.

Take Immediate Action
The biggest mistake you can make after you decide on a solution is not to take immediate action. If you let a few days, a week or a month pass while you let the process sink in, you are simply wasting time. Let your fear of change melt away with the anticipation of success. Let the mantra, “action alleviates anxiety” become your battle cry.

Create Productive Habits
Some say that it takes 30 to 90 days to create a new habit. In many regards this is true, so it is important to have a process for continuing new actions on a daily basis to create lasting change and develop those new productive habits. One way to do this is to make a game out of applying actions; give yourself a prize for winning or a punishment for losing.

Evaluate the Progress
The best way to determine if you are moving in the right direction is to continually evaluate your progress. If you have been playing the game of action you should easily be able to determine how many times you have accomplished your goals over the past month or so and if the new activities are providing you with better outcomes. If you’re happy with your progress, continue doing what works; if not, it is time to continue embracing change by making some adjustments.

Make a Course Correction
There is no shame in admitting that some things work and others do not. In fact, it is a productive part of being open to optimizing your business. Often times, just a slight adjustment to what you are doing can make all the difference. Take time to determine what part of the new process is and isn’t working before moving onto the final step.

Continue to Embrace Change
Ironically, once you have mastered the previous steps continuing to embrace change actually becomes the easiest step of all because you have already established your process—you simply go back to step one when something in your practice doesn’t feel right. Follow the steps again until your new process is working better than the old. Apply this series of steps to any facet of your business and see real results in several areas of your business.

If this blog post has resonated with you and you want to make real changes to your business, take the next step and email me at dan@advisorsolutionsinc.com to discuss what area(s) of your business you want to adjust.

Dan FinleyDaniel C. Finley
President
Advisor Solutions
St. Paul, Minn.

Posted in Operations | Leave a Comment »

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