Archive for September, 2009
Today’s best use of 90 minutes
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Sometimes the most important messages we convey to clients aren’t the intentional ones.
Take the signal your office sends when people come for a meeting.
Ask most advisors what they want to communicate to existing and prospective clients and you’ll hear words like “professional”, “organized”, “disciplined”, “successful” and “client-focused.”
Those are certainly the right qualities, especially during times like these – but a stark contrast to what many advisors actually communicate. Just a few of the image killers I’ve seen in advisors’ offices:
- A reception area with magazines that are either too low end for the advisor’s client base or out of date
Tags: Andex, Area Walls, Coat Closet, Coat Hangers, Coat Of Paint, Coffee Table, Fresh Coat Of Paint, Globe And Mail, Globe Mail, Ibbotson Charts, Ikea, Jumbles, Motel Six, One Saturday, Overflow Storage, Prospective Clients, Reception Area, Side Tables, Stark Contrast, Storage Space, Wall Street Journal
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Advisors must help clients deal with debt
Monday, September 28th, 2009
Tags: Beneficiary, Commitments, Competitive World, Executive Committee, Importance Of Planning, Jonathan Williams, Leadership Positions, Mdrt, Norm Trainor, Person Concept, Pinnacle, Proper Perspective, Robert Zimmer, Select Group, Standard Of Excellence, Succession Plan, Succession Planning, Symbolism, What This Means, Younger Associates
Posted in Advisor.ca, My Practice | No Comments »
Three ways to make the most of this summer
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
In recent conversations with advisors, many talked about feeling exhausted and looking forward to the next while to rest and relax.Canadian summers are traditionally associated with warmer weather, holidays and a more leisurely pace – and we can certainly hope that this summer will be no exception.
What’s important is that we use the next two months in a purposeful way, so that we don’t wake up on September 1 and ask where the summer went.
In fact, advisors should put plans in place to achieve three important goals this summer – to rejuvenate, reconnect and position your practice to hit the ground running on Tuesday September 8, the day after Labour Day.Rejuvenate
Tags: Amount Of Time, Conversations, Family Members, Fighting Fires, Goals, Holidays, Labour Day, Leisurely Pace, Maximum Productivity, Names List, Nine Months, People, Personal Relationships, Priority, Relax, Staff Members Work, Three Ways, Time Off, Weather, Work Colleagues
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The Key to Outstanding Client Relationships
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Lots has been written about what advisors can do to create outstanding client relationships.
What’s often missed is the role that clients themselves play – quite simply, there are some clients whose mindset and behaviour make a deep bond impossible. In many regards, it’s clients themselves that more than any other single factor determine whether a strong connection is possible.
The fact is that advisors aren’t powerless victims when it comes to the clients you deal with – advisors do have a choice on this matter.
Tags: Attributes, Client Relationships, Financial Adviser, Globe And Mail, Globe Investor, Globe Mail, Important Things, Investment Ideas, Investor Investment, Investors, Mindset, Podium, Powerless Victims, Prospective Clients, Relationship
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Celebrating Advice: The Bag Lady of Bay Street
Monday, September 21st, 2009
Tags: Advice, Bag Lady, Bay Street
Posted in Advisor.ca, My Practice | No Comments »
Building a World Class Financial Advisory Firm
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
Financial Services is a relationship business. The bond between a financial advisor and a client is very personal. The challenge for financial advisors is to extend that relationship of trust and personal connection to include the other people in the firm who work with clients.
Dave Richmond is the head of a financial advisory firm in Jackson, Michigan. His vision is to build a multi-million dollar financial advisory firm. For Dave, the thing that gets his juices flowing is building a business or entity that makes peoples’ dreams become reality. This is true not only for the clients of Richmond Brothers, but also for each of the people who work in the firm. Dave expresses the challenge of growing the business in this way;
Tags: Advisory Services, Business People, Culture, Dollar, Dreams Become Reality, Financial Advisor, Financial Advisors, Financial Advisory, Financial Services, Interaction, Jackson Michigan, Juices, Met, Personal Connection, Philosophy, Quality Of Service, Relationship Business, Richmond, Surveys, Time Clients, Voicemail Message, World Class Business
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Warning: Antagonize Clients at Your Own Risk
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
At one time, companies could antagonize customers with impunity – the worst that would happen is that they’d leave and perhaps tell a few friends.
Last year, a musician flying United Airlines had his guitar smashed by luggage handlers.
When his complaints fell on deaf ears, he retaliated with two hilarious and devastating You Tube videos, the first went viral with over five million views. The links are below; if you enjoy these, you may want to consider forwarding them to select clients.
There’s an important lesson here for companies – if you alienate customers, make sure they’re not musicians. United could not have bought publicity this bad if they’d tried.
Tags: Deaf Ears, Impunity, Luggage, Musician, Musicians, Production Values, Publicity, Risk, Target, Thousand Dollars, Time Companies, Tube Videos, United Airlines
Posted in Dan Richards | No Comments »
Responding to HNW fears of scandals
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Tags: Fears, Scandals
Posted in Advisor.ca, My Practice | No Comments »
The One “Key” Question That Will Set You Apart
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
This article a guest post by Bob Burg, acclaimed speaker and author of the underground bestseller, Endless Referrals.
Imagine yourself as the prospect, hearing from numerous salespeople all interested in selling you their product or service, and all of them, talking incessantly about how theirs is best and can help you the most. You can almost see the dollar signs in their eyes, can’t you?
Most salespeople make it clear that – as my friend and master speaker, Nido Quebein says — they subscribe to radio station W.I.I.F.M. (the letters standing for “What’s In It For Me?”).
Tags: Bob Burg, Dollar Signs, Endless Referrals, Imagine, Nido, Radio Station, Salespeople, Underground Bestseller
Posted in My Practice | No Comments »
Articles you can send to clients (July 22, 2009)
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
These days, so much press and much of the consensus are negative tilted and its hard to find some good articles that you could use to provide your clients with food for positive thought. Sometimes, its not strictly a matter of conviction, its a matter of keeping your clients talking. We found several articles that were positively balanced or motivated that might reinforce some of your discussions about earnings, Canada and its commodity complex, and where to go next (?).
First, on the subject of corporate earnings. Three bellwether stocks from the Capital Goods, Pharma, and Chemicals sectors may be a clue to an economic revival.
Tags: Acquirers, Amp, Array, Bellwether, Bloomberg, Canadian Resources, Capital Goods, Caterpillar Inc, China Petroleum And Chemical, China Petroleum And Chemical Corp, Chinese Companies, Cnooc China, Cnpc China, Corporate Earnings, Doing Business, Dupont, Dupont Co, Earnings, Economic Revival, Economy, Emerging Market Stocks, Energy Production, Estimates, Foreign Markets, Fund Acquisitions, Future Energy, Gas Business, Global Importance, Globe And Mail, Globe Mail, Impetus, Jobs, Margins, Merck, Mutual Funds, National Petroleum, New Money, New York Times, Offshore Oil, Oil And Gas, Oil And Gas Companies, Oil Patch, Pejorative Sense, Petroleum Corp, Positive Thought, Profits, Recession, Resources Sector, Sinochem, Sinopec, Sinopec China, Stock Funds, Surprises, Term Prospects, Three Cities
Posted in My Practice, articles you can send | 2 Comments »
Using a client review to increase revenue
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Posted in Advisor.ca, My Practice | No Comments »
Business planning for 2009: More lessons from a trek up Kilimanjaro
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Many advisors are using the holiday break to reflect on their business.In two columns last fall, I detailed ten lessons from a 2004 trek up Mount Kilimanjaro that might be helpful as advisors think about plans for the year ahead.
Last Monday, I highlighted the first four lessons. Today, I summarize six more takeaways from a trek up Kilimanjaro and complete my “top ten” list.
Last week’s business planning lessons were:
1. Set stretch goals
2. Invest the time to pick the right strategy
3. Put a plan in place that tilts the odds in your favour
Tags: Big Picture, Business Planning, Challenges, Climbers, Favour, Journey, Last Monday, Magnitude, Motivation, Mount Kilimanjaro, Occasional Glance, Odds, Porters, Real Heroes, Stretch Goals, Support Staff, Takeaways, Time Energy, Top Ten List, Trek
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Common advisor communications mistakes
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Posted in Advisor.ca, My Practice | No Comments »
The importance of personal connections
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Over the past few months, we’ve all read about “the new frugality” that has become part of our culture.As a result, many consumers have been rethinking their spending – with some surprising insights about the importance of personal connections in tough times.
A recent Wall Street Journal article described the impact of personal connections on decision making. Lawn and pool services that send a different crew every week are easy to cut. On the other hand, it’s much harder to pull the plug on someone that has cut your grass or cleaned your house for years, who has brought vegetables from their garden and shown you pictures of their kids.
Tags: Birthdays, Chains, Conversations, Financial Advisors, Find Birthdays, Frugality, Grass, Independent Restaurants, Loyalty, Personal Connections, Piece Of Cake, Pool Services, Professional Service, Referrals, Regulars, Restaurant Owner, Street Journal Article, Tough Times, Vegetables, Wall Street, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Dan Richards | No Comments »
The ultimate motivator to take action
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
This article is by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Originally published in Horsesmouth, it is reproduced with his permission.
Intentions are not actions. If you are forever making plans to upgrade your marketing but never doing it, you need to up the stakes. Playing it safe will only get you what you’ve been getting.
If you’ve procrastinating, here’s how to get out of your rut.
When it comes to promoting their business, a large number of advisors are looking for what I call “silver-bullet marketing”.
Tags: Action Plan Marketing, Acton, Business Coach, Business Development, Excuse, Favourable Results, Horsesmouth, Human Activites, Ills, Imagine, Lucky Day, Lunch, Marketing Business, Marketing Development, Met, Motivator, Newsletter, Plan Marketing, Robert Middleton, Silver Bullet, Speaking Engagements
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A five part conversation to rebuild market confidence
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
The events of 2008 damaged investor confidence and trust in two important respects.First, many investors saw erosion in the confidence and trust in their advisor and financial institution.And second, many investors have become dubious about the long term merits of investing in the stock market.
For many clients, the top priority for advisors is to rebuild confidence and trust both in them and in markets.
After the tech wreck of the early part of this decade, many Canadians took a skeptical view towards high tech stocks generally and especially towards start ups.
Today, many Canadians are looking skeptically at ALL stocks.
Tags: Canadians, Dramatic Decline, Emotional Response, Erosion, Financial Institution, Financial Institutions, Five Elements, Investing In Equities, Investing In The Stock Market, Investor Confidence, Market Confidence, Market Turmoil, Merits, Productive Conversation, S Market, Skeptical View, Start Ups, Term Goals, Top Priority, Ups
Posted in Dan Richards | No Comments »
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