How to Overcome the Challenges Keeping You from Reaching Your Goals

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you’re doing the impossible.”– Francis of Assis

Whether you are dissatisfied with your production, your lifestyle, fulfilling your client responsibilities, your business growth, your differentiation, or having too many unprofitable clients, a structure, organized approach to your business can overcome your business challenges and drastically improve your outcomes.

Action Steps

​Financial advisors must structure and organize their financial advisory practices so that they can put themselves in a position to grow their businesses and resolve their challenges. To structure and organize your business for efficiency and effectiveness, you need to:

• Formally segment your book and analyze the results in depth. Segmentation of clients into tiers should be reviewed and modified as needed annually. It should also be based on more than assets and/or revenues.
• Segmentation will also help you answer the question, “How many clients can I effectively and efficiently manage while providing services that will help ensure retention?”
• Detail your Client Service Model or Promise for each of the client tiers you choose to service. In “The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual”, you will learn exactly how to approach detailing these promises using a structure that provides consistency and completeness for both the client and advisor.
• Define and implement your six core client-facing processes:
  • Intake Process — discovery at the onset of your relationship
  • Financial Planning Process— as part of a set of wealth management solutions
  • Risk Management Process — risk above and beyond investment risks
  • Investment Planning Process — in a consultative manner
  • Client Service Process — deliverables highly satisfactory to the client
  • Client Planning and Review Meeting Process —highly effective communications to keep you aware of client satisfaction

Commit

Commit that every client you are willing to accept into your practice will receive a version of these processes based on their needs, the deliverables they deserve, their value to your business, and the fees you charge in compensation for the value you deliver.

• Understand the value you deliver but also the cost of your deliverables. Value is determined by the client; cost is determined by you. Do not deliver items that clients do not value, because they usually have a cost.
• Develop a real business plan. This plan is much more than a set of goals. Goals are the “What” and the “How Many.” What do I want my 20XX assets under management (AUM) to be? What do I want my 20XX production to be? How many new clients do I want to acquire?
• A business plan lays out the “How,” the “When” and the “Who.” In addition to outlining where I am and where I want to be, the plan defines the strategies and tactics for how to get there, by when, and who has responsibility.
• Develop a quantitative metrics plan. Quality actions lead to quality results. While you need to hit your numbers, it is the actions you take that will drive the numbers. The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual addresses how to create an action plan and convert those actions to results.
• Develop your marketing and sales approaches. Your business plan will call out the three to five marketing and sales approaches you plan to use as part of your client acquisition strategy. The actions lead to quality results. While you need to hit your numbers, it is the actions you take that will drive the numbers. The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual addresses how to create an action plan and convert those actions outlines the primary approaches available to you to acquire new clients and their assets. You need to detail which approaches you will use and how you will use them.
• Develop your differentiation strategy. Before this can be done, you need to understand the processes you must implement and what they will deliver to your clients in terms of benefits to them. After that, you can define your differentiation.

These are the elements you need to implement to have a successful financial advisory practice. With the exception of the marketing and sales approaches you will choose to implement as part of your client acquisition strategy, this is not a pick and choose menu of options but is much more like a surgical process. From the time a patient arrives at a hospital for his or her procedure until the patient leaves the hospital as a healthy individual, there are no optional steps. They are all required for an optimal outcome.

Next Steps, Ask Yourself

• What challenges are keeping you from reaching your goals?
• What have you tried to overcome them?
  • What has worked and why?
  • What has not worked and why?
• What did you learn and what would you do differently?

 
David I. Leo

David Leo is Founder of Street Smart Research Group LLC. He is an author, speaker, coach, consultant, and trainer to financial professionals. David is an experienced business manager who works solely with Financial Advisors, Planners and firms who want to organize, structure & grow their businesses by attracting, servicing, and retaining affluent clients.

​If you would like additional details or have any questions about his articles or an interest in coaching schedule a free 45 Minute Strategy Session @ https://calendly.com/davidileo or contact him @ [email protected]. Call 212-598-4229 (Office) or 917-379-1249 (Cell) and visit @ www.CoachDavidLeo.com