Key Take-aways from Top Producers

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Recently, I co-chaired this year’s Top Advisor Summit conference – over the day, 15 speakers talked about the drivers of their success and identified what they were doing to maintain their success going forward.

An overview of client sentiment:

The day was started by Price Powell, whose firm has collected data from over 50,000 Canadian investors on behalf of banks, investment dealers, private banking operations and financial planning firms.

He talked about the impact of the market meltdown:

• investors saying performance was below expectations went from 25% to 59%

Tags: Banking Operations, Canadian Investors, Client Assets, Community Leadership, Eight Hours, Financial Planning Firms, Investment Dealers, Investment Updates, Investor Service, Market Meltdown, Private Banking, Private Wealth Management, Professional Women, Prospective Candidates, Radio Stations, Share Of Wallet, Strides, Substantial Team, Summit Conference, Top Producers
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Responding to clients who drive you crazy

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

We all have them … clients whose emotion gyrate with markets, who second guess decisions, who create grief and frustration among their advisors.

In the perfect world, we’d part company with all of these clients.

In the real world, short of cases where clients are outright abusive or completely erratic, that can be easier said than done.

Sometimes these clients bring substantial assets, on other occasions they’re connected to other clients that we value … and when you have bills to pay, it’s unrealistic to tell every client who we occasionally find tough to deal with to take their business elsewhere.

Tags: Authors, Control, Crazy Joe, Decisions, Emotion, Frustration, Grief, Guess, Interaction, Local University, Long Time, Occasions, Perfect World, Poll, Psychology, Real World, Relationship, Substantial Assets, Time Client
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Three steps to building prospecting momentum this fall

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

In early September, I hosted a round table lunch in Vancouver with eight successful advisors.

A key topic was the frustration  most were experiencing in attracting new clients.

In discussing this further, consensus emerged that for almost everyone in the room, the number one objective for this fall is developing prospecting momentum, so that they hit the ground running in January.

Three things need to happen to build prospecting momentum this fall.

Step One: Giving client development priority

First, you have to make prospecting a top priority.

Tags: Amount Of Time, Assets, Business Goals, Business Step, Consensus, Consistent Time, Development Priority, Early September, Frustration, Investing Money, Mindset, Momentum, Objective, Referrals, Six Hours, Systematic Fashion, Three Steps, Tier Approach, Time And Money, Top Priority, Typical Client, Vancouver
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Five Words to Get Your Emails Opened

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

The escalating volume of email across everyone’s computer means that fewer and fewer emails are being opened.

That’s true of clients, who presumably should be motivated to open emails and it’s even more true of prospective clients who don’t have the same level of motivation to open emails.

A key challenge is creating a sense of urgency around opening our emails – often clients plan to get back to them at the end of the day, then run out of time and it never happens.

Step one – The right frequency

Tags: Email, Emails, Market Recap, Meaningful Content, Motivation, People, Prospective Client, Prospective Clients, Risk, Sense Of Urgency, Subject Line, Those Five Words
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Starring in a TV news series on retirement challenges

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Last November, I wrote a column titled “Tapping into today’s #1 client concern.”

The article discussed the skills and knowledge necessary to become a “go-to expert” on retirement planning  - and then about how advisors could get the story out.

Shortly after the column appeared, I received an email with some questions from Andy Fass, a veteran advisor in Sacramento with RW Baird, a leading U.S. independent brokerage firm.

In March of this year, he sent me another email – pointing me to a five part series titled “Plugging the Retirement Gap“  that had appeared on the local NBC television affiliate in Sacramento, in which he’d been prominently featured.

Tags: Compliance Department, Credibility, Fass, Gap, Independent Brokerage Firm, Kcra 3, Kcra Channel 3, Last November, Nbc, Nbc Television, Open Invitation, Prospective Clients, Referral Sources, Retirement Planning, Rw Baird, Segments, Tag Line, Television Affiliate, Term Business, Tv News
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10 Questions That Begin the Referral Process

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

This is a guest article by U.S. consultant Bob Burg, reprinted with his permission.

Networking isn’t a contest to see who can hand out the most business cards. Great networkers know that leaving self-interest at the door is the key to cultivating relationships — and referrals.

Tags: Business Cards, Business Events, Charity Functions, Cornerstone, Correct Perspective, Guest Article, Lead, Personal Sphere, Premise, Referral Base, Referrals, Relationship, Relationships, Self Interest, Sphere Of Influence, Synagogue, Term Networking
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A C.A. speaks out – Candid feedback from a referral source

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Recently, my weekly column in the Globe and Mail talked about the desire by many clients to be more involved in the decisions on their accounts and to act more like partners with their advisors.

In response I got an email from a C.A. in a mid-sized community in southern Ontario – we subsequently spoke on the phone.

His approach to referrals

This C.A. has spent twenty years working on his own supported by a small team of associates, focusing on business owners.

Tags: Audits, Business Owners, Candid Feedback, Certified Financial Planner, Compendium, Email, Expectation, Financial Planning, Globe And Mail, Investment Advisor, Investment Industry, Preparing Taxes, Referral Source, Referrals, Southern Ontario, Target, Tax Advice, Three Times, Twenty Years, Weekly Column
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Overcoming the biggest barrier to attracting new clients

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

In a recent column on US advisor website Horsesmouth, consultant Robert Middleton talked about the gulf between getting interest from prospects and following up with them.
Many advisors are successful at doing things to get an initial level of interest from prospective clients – and then fall down on how they follow up on that interest.
He refers to effective follow-up as the biggest gap most advisors encounter … and offers seven suggestions on closing the follow up gap.

Tags: Chamber Of Commerce, Encounter, Fades, Focus, Follow Ups, Gap, Horsesmouth, Information Abou, Initial Level, Lead, Maximum, Met, Networking Event, Prospective Clients, Prospects, Robert Middleton, Single Day, Suggestion, Time Script, Ups
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Five Minutes to Drive Your Day

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

For most successful advisors, the number one issue each day is how to compress 40 or 50 hours worth of work into 8 or 10 hours.

So I don’t suggest that advisors add items to their daily to-do list lightly.

There are only a few uses of times that I strongly recommend all advisors incorporate into their routines.

One is a short team meeting to start the day.

And I’d  also recommend a five-minute time block to write three hand-written notes, based on a recent conversation with a top performing advisor.

Building personal notes into your routine

Tags: Compendium, Confidence, Daily To Do List, Definitive Measure, Desk, Emails, Five Minutes, Handwritten Note, Leap Of Faith, Many Thanks, Market Crisis, Minute Time, Morning Coffee, Opportunity, Outlook, Personal Congratulations, Personal Notes, Taking The Time, Time Block
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Telling Your Team Story to Prospects

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

One of the things that high net worth clients look for in selecting advisors is a sense that they are part of a strong team, with back up should they be unavailable and a broad array of expertise behind them.

And certainly, as successful advisors have seen their books grow, the teams supporting them have expanded along the way.

For some advisors, however, effectively communicating the team behind you can be a challenge.

Telling the team story

The difficulty lies in how most advisors tell their team story.

Sometimes they’ll have a brochure with photos of team members.

Tags: Array, Blur, Brochure, Committed Team, Credentials, Emotional Connection, Emotional Impact, Glass Box Approach, Gmp, High Net Worth Clients, Initial Meetings, Meeting Room, Mutual Funds, Prospective Client, Prospective Clients, Prospects, Specifics, Team Members, Video Interviews, Wiman
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A proven path to gaining client assets

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Talk to successful advisors about their business objectives and for most increasing assets is towards the top of their list.

Some advisors believe that winning a greater share of assets from existing clients is driven by performance.

And while that may be true in some cases, research with 50,000 Canadian investors pinpoints eight advisor activities that lead to  increased client assets – none of which relate directly to performance.

A starting point on increasing client assets

I’ve written in the past about research showing that the majority of clients with

multiple advisors had never been approached about consolidating assets.

Tags: Benefit, Business Objectives, Canadian Investors, Client Assets, Conscious Decision, Corporate Insights, Distinct Minority, Investment Dealers, Money, Note However That, Perspectives, Portfolio, Profile, Relationships, Risk Return, Share Of Wallet, Skill Sets, Speakers, Tax Situation, Vancouver
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Is there a future for independent financial advisors?

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Conventional wisdom holds that in Canada advisors associated with financial institutions will gain an increasing share of the market – whether these be advisors working for the banks’ investment dealers or as branch based financial planners.

The proponents of this view point to the advantages of scale and the reassurance for investors and advisors provided by Canadian banks, particularly important in market environments such as those in the past couple of years.

In addition, the potential to tap into referrals to existing bank customers can help existing advisors accelerate their business growth and be a strong asset in recruiting new advisors.

Tags: Advisor Publications, Advisory Business, Bank Customers, Bob Veres, Canadian Banks, Charles Schwab, Client Assets, Contrary View, Conventional Wisdom, Different Path, Financial Planners, Independent Advisors, Independent Financial Advisors, Investment Advisors, Investment Dealers, Investment Products, Investment Scene, Market Environments, Money Solutions, Sole Proprietors
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Three Perspectives on Retirement Income Needs

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

The amount that Canadians will need in retirement is one of the most important – and at the same time most controversial – issues in retirement planning.

Here are three perspectives on this issue that you might find useful.

New research on US retiree income needs

Today’s email features an interview with Alicia Munnell, who from 1995 to 1997 was one of three members of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors and is founding director of the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Tags: Alicia Munnell, Bill Clinton, Boston College, Canada Data, Canadians, Controversial Issues, Council Of Economic Advisors, Food Shelter, Government Transfers, Household Spending, Housing Costs, Income Comes From, Metropolitan Area, Retirement Income, Retirement Planning, Retirement Research, S Council, Statistics Canada, Threshold Level, Transp
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Approaching people you know about working together

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Most advisors can identify people they know socially who they’d like as clients – for example long standing friends from university, other members at a golf club you belong to or people you’ve met through a community organization.

The challenge is how to introduce this topic without putting either you or your friends under pressure or having you seen as a glad handing, high pressure sales type.

One way to raise the subject of working together without putting people under the gun is through what marketing academics call “signalling” – sending an indirect message.

Tags: Academics, Advertisement, Banking Industry, Community Organization, Conversations, Economist, Email, Financial Advisor, Friends, Global Banking, Golf Club, Insightful, Market Turmoil, Marketing, Met, People Working, Prospects, Six Years, Working People, Xxxx
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Overcoming a key barrier to moving accounts

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Recent posts have focused on approaches to overcome the skepticism of today’s investors and ways to get in front of prospective clients.

In talking to advisors who have reached out to prospects, a common objection they hear to moving accounts is “I don’t want to lock in losses by selling my investments now.” Sometimes this comes up when they first talk to a prospect on the phone, on other occasions it arises during the initial meeting or when the advisor is presenting recommendations.

Here’s a step by step response if you hear “I don’t want to lock in losses” when talking to a prospective client.

Tags: Depressed Levels, Extent, Investments, Investor, Investors, Losses, Moving, Objection, Objective, Obstacle, Occasions, Paperwork, Prospective Client, Prospective Clients, Prospects, Skepticism, Step By Step, Step Response, Tension
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An unexpected route to ecstatic clients

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

A recent column in the New York Times about how to maximize the pleasure from vacations shed light on some recent conversations with investors that puzzled me at the time.

The column stemmed from recent research by behavioural psychologists on how to structure activity to generate the most impact – leading to some striking findings both for planning vacations and for structuring how clients experience their interactions with you.

Understanding how “peak-end” works

One of the most important findings is something called the “peak – end” phenomenon.

Tags: Behavioural Psychologists, Conversations, Coo, Disneyworld, First Trip, Grandchildren, High Point, Interaction, Investor, Matters Of Course, Maximum Impact, New York Times, Peak Experiences, Phenomenon, Pleasure, Shape, Striking Findings, Three Books, Twenty Years, Vacations
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The prospecting conversation that works today

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

My column in Investment Executive this month focuses on the new reality in what it takes to attract prospective clients.

Historically many advisors thought of conversations with prospects as an event.

You’d ask for a meeting on the phone – and you’d either succeed or fail.

Or you’d meet with prospects – and if they didn’t sign up at the conclusion of that meeting, it was a failure.

The problem with viewing a prospect conversation as an event is that you have to ask for a firm commitment at the end of any interaction – whether it be a request to meet when talking on the phone or asking for a decision to invest when meeting face to face.

Tags: Conclusion, Conversations, Failure, Firm Commitment, Fundamental Nature, Interaction, Interesting Articles, Investment Executive, Moving, New Reality, People, Pipeline, Poor Outcome, Prospective Clients, Prospects, Scepticism
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Four Essential Lessons from Steve Jobs

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Steve Jobs stands alone as today’s most admired CEO.

Recently, an article appeared in the US website Horsesmouth pointing out four lessons advisors can learn from Jobs, written by Steve Sanduski, a consultant with the PEAK organization in Omaha.

Lesson One: Say no.

Sanduski starts by pointing out that Jobs makes it his business to obsessively hit on a small number of things that are important to him.

Apple limits itself to three product lines – the Macintosh computer, the iPod, and the iPhone, with the recently announced IPad making it four.

Tags: Apple, Business Lesson, Ceo, Compendium, Conviction, Dramatic Impact, Initiatives, Iphone, Ipod, Macintosh, Macintosh Computer, Market Capitalization, Peak Organization, Philosophy, Pixar, Sanduski, Scale Projects, Steve Jobs, Target, Walt Dis
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A first step to rebuilding trust

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Among the casualties of recent market events has been the confidence of investors in their financial advisors and financial institutions. It’s not just that many clients believe that advisors and the investment industry over sold their ability to forecast market events. Even more serious, a growing number of investors today suspect that the advice to stay invested was influenced by their advisor’s desire to maximize compensation levels – in other words that their advisor put his or her interests ahead of theirs.

Not all clients suspect their advisors of a “heads I win, tails you lose” mindset – but the number who take this view is not trivial.

Tags: Anglo Irish Satirist, Asian Contagion, Compensation Levels, Economic Troubles, Explicit Code, Fricassee, Investment Industry, Jonathan Swift, Long Term Capital Management, Market Chaos, Market Collapse, Medical Profession, Modest Proposal, Portfolio Insurance, Rebuilding Trust, Satirist Jonathan, Systemic Failure, Wealth Advisors, Wealth Managers, Wholesome Food
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Talking to Clients About Market Timing

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Some clients have always wanted to try to time the market – to be in for the market for the ups and on the sidelines for the downs.

And those numbers have grown, driven by anxiety about the direction of markets and seemingly constant media coverage of money managers and market strategists making short term forecasts.

The only way to deal with the desire to time markets is to help clients understand how low the chances are of achieving this goal.

Just telling clients this isn’t good enough – in many cases, we have to provide evidence from a credible source to back us up.

Tags: Bond Portfolio, Column Points, Credible Source, E Zines, Forecasters, Globe And Mail, Globe Investor, Globe Mail, Hindsight, Investor Magazine, Market Strategists, Market Timing, Money Managers, Stock Bond, Stock Exposure, Stock Pickers, Stock Portfolio, Target, Term Forecasts, Time Markets, Ups, Valuations
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