Our proven tools and techniques are used by advisors today to service and expand their books of business.
This is the introduction to a series of snippets based on my book, “The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual”, with some new thoughts. Each snippet addresses a section of the manual. The manual and our coaching program includes:
What you can expect in our coaching sessions:
How does consulting improve your performance?
We combine coaching and consulting to get the solutions you need. Consulting is an “understand (the situation), tell, and do” methodology. Coaching is more of an “ask, guide, and monitor” methodology. In “coachulting” combination, the coach will:
The tools and techniques discussed in this manual tend toward consulting because they provide advice. The coaching part of an engagement helps financial advisors define those areas that can best serve the advisor. The coach then works with you on how best to approach implementation. Engagements are uniquely designed for each FA team based on the advisor’s current situation, their wants and needs, and where they want to be at some future point in time, your “desired future state.” David I. Leo, Introduction Snippet 1 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 have questions or would like assistance in personalizing and implementing approaches from The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual, schedule a free 45 Minute Strategy Session at https://calendly.com/davidileo or contact me at David@CoachDavidLeo.com or visit my website at www.CoachDavidLeo.com My book is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Advisors-Success-Manual-Structure/dp/0814439136 There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness... Niccolo Machiavell Our proven tools and techniques are used by advisors today to service and expand their books of business.
This is the introduction to a series of snippets based on my book, “The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual”, with some new thoughts. Each snippet addresses a section of the manual. The manual and our coaching program includes:
What you can expect in our coaching sessions:
How does consulting improve your performance?
We combine coaching and consulting to get the solutions you need. Consulting is an “understand (the situation), tell, and do” methodology. Coaching is more of an “ask, guide, and monitor” methodology. In “coachulting” combination, the coach will:
The tools and techniques discussed in this manual tend toward consulting because they provide advice. The coaching part of an engagement helps financial advisors define those areas that can best serve the advisor. The coach then works with you on how best to approach implementation. Engagements are uniquely designed for each FA team based on the advisor’s current situation, their wants and needs, and where they want to be at some future point in time, your “desired future state.” David I. Leo, Introduction Snippet 1 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 have questions or would like assistance in personalizing and implementing approaches from The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual, schedule a free 45 Minute Strategy Session at https://calendly.com/davidileo or contact me at David@CoachDavidLeo.com or visit my website at www.CoachDavidLeo.com My book is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Advisors-Success-Manual-Structure/dp/0814439136 "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." -- Michael Jordan The complexities and challenges of operating a Financial Advisory practice for retail investors should not be understated. They include:
It’s simple to define but much more complex to manage all these variables. Therefore, if we can identify ways to simplify some of the individual tasks of operating a Financial Advisory practice, we must jump on it. The successful advisory practice has three essential elements:
Develop potential investors through LinkedIn. According to Business of Apps, “LinkedIn is the world’s preeminent social network for professionals. Members create online résumés, listing their current and previous job roles, their skills, and their education.” Of its 660 million+ in over 200 countries (11/19), the United States is the biggest market with 165 million users, 90 million who were senior-level influencers, and 63 million who were in decision-making positions (2019). “If you’re looking to rub shoulders with the cream of the business world, LinkedIn is the place to do it – online at least. Executives from every Fortune 500 company use the social network, LinkedIn claims. There are even claims that four out of 10 millionaires use LinkedIn.”[1] In addition, there are 3 million United States jobs posted every month, 9 billion content impressions take place on LinkedIn weekly, 280 billion feed updates viewed annually, and 130,000 articles are published on LinkedIn weekly. If you want a list of quality prospects, LinkedIn can provide:
All you have to do is to boil information down to wisdom and possibilities using a structured process. The power of LinkedIn for advisors lies in the connections of your connections (your second-degree connections). Use LinkedIn as a prospecting tool to get to know more people. The more first-degree connections you have, the more second-degree connections you will likely have in your network. Six quick tips to prospecting on LinkedIn from experience:
Here’s a simple process to follow for productive prospecting:
LinkedIn is a powerful and productive platform to market and sell your services. David I. Leo, Using LinkedIn for Client Acquisition Snippet 16 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 have questions or would like assistance in personalizing and implementing approaches from The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual, schedule a free 45 Minute Strategy Session at https://calendly.com/davidileo or contact me at David@CoachDavidLeo.com or visit my website at www.CoachDavidLeo.com My book is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Advisors-Success-Manual-Structure/dp/0814439136. [1] https://www.businessofapps.com/data/linkedin-statistics/ “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou Acquiring introductions from clients is best done in person and after getting positive client feedback. Include this as part of your client face-to-face planning and review meetings using an approach I call “aided recall”. It can also be of great value to meet in the client’s environment. Harvey Mackay is quoted as saying, “The most important reading you can do is on the walls of your client’s office or home.” For your very best clients, think about client home visits which can be convenient for spouses and older clients.
Best Practices For Acquiring Introductions If you have effectively implemented the “Six Core Client Facing Process,” and are delivering the outcomes that client’s value, then you are in a solid position to seek introductions from clients. More importantly, your client must:
Seek Feedback From Current Clients The best time to get introductions come after your client has experienced the value you deliver and the positive outcomes they achieved which can be part of your annual or semi-annual review meeting. Every review meeting needs a formal written agenda and includes a set of feedback questions such as:
Seek Introductions Using Aided Recall Assuming you receive positive feedback, you can move into the introduction process using the principle of “aided recall.” “Aided recall” means prompting your clients by inducing an association of ideas (or people) to help them recall other individuals who are the same or like them. It narrows the question, so people’s names and faces easily come to mind. For example, an employee of Exxon should more easily be able to identify others they know who are also employees of Exxon. Saying, “George, I enjoy working with you and am pleased you see so much value in our work together. Perhaps there are other Exxon Petroleum Engineers that could also benefit from the work we’ve done together.” After a pause, you can add, “Would you be willing to introduce me to them?” Knowing your clients, who they work for, what they do, what their interest and hobbies are, who they are related to, to what organizations they belong, etc. will help you in seeking introductions as you can be more specific. I have had clients that built family trees of their clients to identify potential prospects! Focus Introductions Around Life Changes That You Best Serve One example of where you might focus can be regarding life changes that create “money in motion” opportunities. There are at least four basic money in motion categories:
These are situations you can discuss with your clients. Some examples include:
David I. Leo, Client Acquisition Through Introductions Snippet 15 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 have questions or would like assistance in personalizing and implementing approaches from The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual, schedule a free 45 Minute Strategy Session at https://calendly.com/davidileo or contact me at David@CoachDavidLeo.com or visit my website at www.CoachDavidLeo.com My book is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Advisors-Success-Manual-Structure/dp/0814439136. “Plan your execution. Execute your plan.” Anonymous Business Development entails both marketing AND sales.
Marketing is about getting a potential client to know who you are, in part by building a brand. A potential client may get to “know” you through email content marketing, social media, advertising, writing, or public educational events. The intent of marketing is to begin to get people to know, like, and trust you. At some point you have hopefully “earned the right” to move towards a business relationship and seek an initial business meeting. A “suspect” is a potentially qualified client based on buying authority, financial capacity, and willingness to buy. If that “suspect” is willing to meet with you, or has met with you, and is qualified, you now have what we define as a “prospect” and you can move to the sales process. The sales process begins with establishing a rapport to develop your relationship and moves into a “discovery” meeting. There are at least 20 business development approaches that can be used by financial advisors to acquire new clients and their assets. However, there are only a few key approaches that experience, and data show need to be part of your client acquisition strategy. Introduction to Business Development The objective for business development is not growing the number of clients but growing your number of profitable clients. You need to balance the cost of the services to be delivered in support of client retention and loyalty with the value of the client to the business. How do financial advisors acquire those profitable clients? Most advisors see this as one of their top challenges. Every advisor seems to have said, “If I can get them into my office, I can close them.” Business Development is about how you can get potential clients into your office. Start by segmenting your clients with your 80/20 analysis, then ask, “How do you create another 10 of the top ~20% of your clients that provide ~80% of your revenue and profitability?” Look at replicating your top tier clients. As you acquire more “top” clients, eventually growth will hit a critical mass and then start building on itself. Malcolm Gladwell refers to this as a “tipping point” - which is like a snowball rolling downhill to build momentum. A solid client base and “top client” growth can eventually hit a “tipping point,” so it’s important that the growth momentum has you focus on that top part of your book; the clients you want to replicate. In part, you are creating your “ideal client” profile. What can you do to acquire a new number-one client every year? Also ask:
Grow your business by starting with your top tier - the clients who highly value you and your services and fully accept your business model (including your fee structure!). David I. Leo, Business Development Overview Snippet 14 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 have questions or would like assistance in personalizing and implementing approaches from The Financial Advisor’s Success Manual, schedule a free 45 Minute Strategy Session at https://calendly.com/davidileo or contact me at David@CoachDavidLeo.com or visit my website at www.CoachDavidLeo.com My book is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Advisors-Success-Manual-Structure/dp/0814439136. |
Archives
June 2030
Categories |