Posts Tagged ‘Advisory Boards’
Are You Willing to be Accountable to Your Clients?
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
One thing preventing us from getting more clients is our unwillingness to take their advice.
Susan Hammond, who conducts and blogs about customer advisory boards, posted a provocative question last week. She wondered whether some companies have avoided an advisory board because of the accountability involved. There is a big risk and assembling some of your best clients unless you are willing to take their advice, whatever it might be. In fact, this is probably the biggest risk in organizing an advisory board. Many more advisors tell me their biggest fear is that something negative might happen during a meeting, although I have yet to see that happen. I have difficulty even imagining it happening.
A reluctance to take a practice in a creative new direction clients would find valuable, or to cancel plans for expansion in a direction clients do not find valuable, is something I see more frequently. It is the dark underbelly of the personality it takes to succeed in the advisory business. We have to persuade clients to do things they don’t want to do, like save for the future. Like staying in the market as it reaches its low point. We are in the business of telling people what they should do. We know best. But, when it comes to creating value for clients, “I know best” is wrong. In that situation, the client knows best.
Scott Carlberg is a member of the advisory board for John Gugle of Alpha Financial Advisors in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a video interview about his experience, he says “done right, a client advisory board will deliver some news you don’t want to hear. But you have to face those things if you want to create a competitive advantage.”
Are you willing to take your clients’ advice, and create a financial practice tailored specifically to their wants and needs? Many advisors won’t. They will take their practice where they, the advisor, wants it to go. But the advisors who will be accountable to their clients will differentiate themselves from their competitors and will find it much easier to attract new clients.

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Tags: Accountability, Advice, Advisory Board, Advisory Boards, Advisory Business, Carlberg, Charlotte North Carolina, Competitive Advantage, Creative, Dark Underbelly, Fear, Financial Advisors, Gugle, New Direction, Personality, Provocative Question, Reluctance, Risk, Susan Hammond, Video Interview
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Are You Willing to be Accountable to Your Clients?
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
by Stephen Wershing, The Client Driven Practice
One thing preventing us from getting more clients is our unwillingness to take their advice.
Susan Hammond, who conducts and blogs about customer advisory boards, posted a provocative question last week. She wondered whether some companies have avoided an advisory board because of the accountability involved. There is a big risk and assembling some of your best clients unless you are willing to take their advice, whatever it might be. In fact, this is probably the biggest risk in organizing an advisory board. Many more advisors tell me their biggest fear is that something negative might happen during a meeting, although I have yet to see that happen. I have difficulty even imagining it happening.
A reluctance to take a practice in a creative new direction clients would find valuable, or to cancel plans for expansion in a direction clients do not find valuable, is something I see more frequently. It is the dark underbelly of the personality it takes to succeed in the advisory business. We have to persuade clients to do things they don’t want to do, like save for the future. Like staying in the market as it reaches its low point. We are in the business of telling people what they should do. We know best. But, when it comes to creating value for clients, “I know best” is wrong. In that situation, the client knows best.
Scott Carlberg is a member of the advisory board for John Gugle of Alpha Financial Advisors in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a video interview about his experience, he says “done right, a client advisory board will deliver some news you don’t want to hear. But you have to face those things if you want to create a competitive advantage.”
Are you willing to take your clients’ advice, and create a financial practice tailored specifically to their wants and needs? Many advisors won’t. They will take their practice where they, the advisor, wants it to go. But the advisors who will be accountable to their clients will differentiate themselves from their competitors and will find it much easier to attract new clients.
Copyright © The Client Driven Practice

Latest AdvisorAnalyst Practice Growth Stories
Tags: Accountability, Advisory Board, Advisory Boards, Advisory Business, Carlberg, Charlotte North Carolina, Competitive Advantage, Creative, Dark Underbelly, Driven Practice, Fear, Financial Advisors, Gugle, New Direction, Personality, Provocative Question, Reluctance, Risk, Susan Hammond, Video Interview
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How to Design a Referral Marketing Strategy – Results from Client Engagement Think Tank, Part Four
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
In my first three posts on our client engagement think tank, I set the stage for a discussion of a referral marketing plan. What we found in our roundtable discussion with advisors is that many do not target prospects particularly well, don’t use the target markets they have defined in their client onboarding process, and they don’t have a plan to attract referrals from that target group. So now that these observations are in the open, how do you write a plan to systematically attract referrals? Here are a few basic principles:
- Do an exceptional job – this may seem obvious, but many advisors I speak to want to know how to get referrals and do not question how the quality of their work may be part of the cause for not receiving more. Rather than ask “Why don’t my clients prefer?” Asked “What can I do better?”
- Get client feedback – In order to find out how good a job you’re doing, and what you could do better, have a systematic way of obtaining feedback from your clients. Whether through surveys or advisory boards, have a structured way to ask questions like How my doing? What am I really good at? What unique value do I bring to the relationship?
- Define your target market – Many advisors do not do enough work in defining who exactly their best target prospects are. Even many of the articles I have read on target markets only offer the shallowest and most superficial advice. It is not enough to define the target market by profession, a faith community, or an age range. And don’t even get me started on investable assets. You need to go beyond the obvious and develop a more subtle and nuanced description of the people you can service most effectively. One of the advisors I work with initially told me his target market was “women.” To be effective, you need to have unique skills and services that connect with a group. Therefore, that group needs to be less than 52% of the population. Ultimately, we arrived at a description that included “women who have just recently or are about to take control of their family finances for the first time in their lives.” These are not the “suddenly single” or the cases of “sudden wealth.” Many of these women are still married, and the family net worth has not changed. One example is a woman whose husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The family and assets have not changed, but she was facing the fact that she was about to be in charge. It is a group of people with similar needs, shared concerns, in need of similar services.
- Research the needs of your target audience – Now that you have determined who your target market is, consider what they might need from you do not currently provide. Perform a “gap analysis” on your practice versus the ideal practice for that target audience. Go back to your clients who are in that target audience and get their opinion on your research. Ask questions like “if I wanted to work with other people just like you, what services would I add that would make me the ideal advisor?” Bring them the results of your gap analysis, and ask “do you think I should add services like these?”
- Design your communication strategy – Once you have tailored your practice to your target market, design a strategy for communicating your area of specialty and your specialized services. Let your clients know specifically what kind of new client you are focusing on, and what special skills you bring to the table to work with them. Learn how to describe what makes you unique for that target audience so that you can clearly articulate it to the people you meet. Let people know that you worked with your best clients to tailor your practice to that target group.

Latest AdvisorAnalyst Practice Growth Stories
Tags: Advisory Boards, Client Engagement, Client Feedback, Faith Community, Find Job, How To Get Referrals, Investable Assets, Marketing Plan, Marketing Strategy, Profession, Referral Marketing, Relationship, Strategy Results, Surveys, Systematic Way, Target Group, Target Market, Target Markets, Target Prospects, Think Tank
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Don’t Ask For Referrals – Ask For Advice
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Let me introduce you to the most powerful business building question I ever learned.
The question was taught to me by Bruce Peters, my coach and mentor and my predecessor in doing client advisory boards for financial advisors. I have used it in many scenarios regarding many services. I have used it in sales presentations and performance evaluations. I frequently ask it on behalf of advisors at their client advisory board meetings. It is a powerful question. Here it is:
If you were in my position, trying to do what I am trying to accomplish, what would you do?
Let’s examine the value of this question in the context of getting referrals. People are complemented by being asked for advice. It gets their creative juices flowing. It elicits the kind of information you want while strengthening the relationship rather than deteriorating it, which is what happens when you ask directly for referrals.
For example, how does a typical client feel when asked “who do you know the can use my services?” Now, how do you suppose the client would feel if, after providing a description of your target client, you ask “if you were looking for other people like this, what would you do?”
First, this puts a lot more context around the request. It is a lot easier to recall people of a certain description than it is to think of people “who could potentially use our services.” It engages their creativity. If anyone comes to mind, there is a good chance your client will offer their names. If not, they have a graceful way out. There is no wrong answer. You may even get some good marketing ideas from them.
As I mentioned, this question can be used in all kinds of situations. If you had to describe the value of these services to other people like you, how would you do it? If you are trying to provide the ideal services to business owners like yourself, what services would you offer? If you were trying to connect with your trade association, how would you do it? If you had to fill the position of receptionist like I need to, where would you look to find the best candidate? If you were trying to improve your performance in this one particular area, what do you suppose you would try first?
Learn how to utilize this question and you will find yourself receiving much more useful feedback from clients and centers of influence.

Latest AdvisorAnalyst Practice Growth Stories
Tags: Advisory Board Meetings, Advisory Boards, Business Building, Business Owners, Creative Juices, Creativity, Financial Advisors, Good Chance, Good Marketing, Marketing Ideas, Mentor, Performance Evaluations, Predecessor, Referrals, Relationship, Sales Presentations, Scenarios, Target Client, Typical Client, Wrong Answer
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The Benefits Of Being In The Learning Mode: Can You Hear Your Clients?
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
The Benefits Of Being In The Learning Mode: Can you hear your clients?
by Stephen Wershing
If you want greater share of wallet and more referrals, periodically you need to be listening and acting on feedback. When it is time to receive that feedback, it is critical that you be in the “learning mode”. When I facilitate client advisory boards, I coach advisors to have a Zen mind. I encourage them to be in the state of openness. It is a little like practicing a form of meditation called mindfulness – accept ideas as they arrive, examine them without judgment, perhaps set them aside for further consideration, and move onto the next suggestion.
Getting into and staying in the learning mode is hard. As humans, we have a reflexive tendency to respond to questions with answers. Compounding that, we are in the business of providing answers. It is our job to share our expertise and tell people what to do. There are times, however, when we need to switch roles and get feedback on what we’re doing. If we want to improve our practices, we need our clients’ guidance. And in that situation, answering does not help. What do you learn when you answer? Nothing. How do you get better when you answer? You don’t.
Always seek value in these interactions. Ask what can I learn from this client? What can I learn from this situation? Look for questions to ask. If you are asked a question, try following the answer with another question. If possible, ask a question instead of answering. Here are some examples:
Before I answer that, what about this is important to you?
What would it mean to you if I could do that?
What would you say is the biggest concern you have that is prompting that question? (Which is a less threatening way of asking “why do you ask?”).
The need to discuss this was highlighted by a conversation I had with an advisor yesterday. We were discussing the agenda for his first client advisory board meeting. He said “I’m not sure what to put on the agenda, I don’t know what they want to hear about.” My response was that a meeting like this was not about what they wanted to hear, it is about what they have to say.
There is a time to answer. When it is a time to listen and the clients turn to speak, the longer you can stay in the learning mode, the more your clients will tell you how to do more business with them and how you can attract more clients like them.

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Tags: Advisory Board, Advisory Boards, Agenda, Board Meeting, Coach, Guidance, Job, Judgment, Meditation, Openness, Providing Answers, Questions With Answers, Referrals, Share Of Wallet, Suggestion, Tendency, Zen Mind
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To Get Referrals, Your Clients Must Understand Your Target Market
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
by Stephen Wershing, AdvisorChecklist.com
When Andrew Sullivan, of Sullivan and Schlieman in Atlanta, formed his client advisory board, one of their top recommendations was to give each of them a card listing his services and accomplishments. Their request was “tell us how to sell you.”
In a recent client advisory board I facilitated, the participants told the advisor “tell us who your ideal client is, so we know who to refer.” It is not the first time I have heard that kind of feedback from clients.
Experiences like this raise two critically important points. First, there is clearly a strong willingness, even an enthusiasm, on the part of clients to make referrals. This is not really surprising – Julie Littlechild’s research has shown that as much as 91% of our clients are willing to refer. (It also demonstrates why participants on an advisory board tend to be a firm’s best referral sources!)
Second, it is the strongest proof I can imagine that advisors must clearly define what they do and for whom. They must be able to describe their niche, their target market. Remember, these advisory boards are composed of the advisors’ best clients – the ones who should know best what they have to offer. And yet, they asked for guidance on what kind of clients the advisor hoped to attract.
If you believe you have defined your target client, here is how you can test how well you have done. Try this experiment – next time you talk to a couple clients you are on particularly good terms with, and who would be willing to take a minute for a little thought experiment, ask them this question: If I sent you into a cocktail party in the next room full of all kinds of people, and I asked you to refer a couple of them to me as prospective clients, how would you figure out who would be the best ones to send to me?
I suspect that most clients would answer “I don’t know.” And if that’s the response, you will know why you aren’t getting more referrals. Your clients are not sure who you’re looking for. And whatever you have done so far to define and communicate your target market, your value proposition, and your ideal client, you still have work to do.
Defining who you want as clients and what unique solutions and experiences you provide to people like them are the foundation of referral marketing. Get those two things right, and attracting new clients becomes much easier.
Copyright © AdvisorChecklist.com

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Tags: Advisory Board, Advisory Boards, Andrew Sullivan, Cocktail Party, Experiences, Feedback, Guidance, Ideal, Imagine, Julie Littlechild, Niche Market, Participants, Proof, Prospective Clients, Referral Sources, Referrals, Target Client, Target Market, Thought Experiment, Willingness
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How to Attract Referrals Systematically
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
In my first three posts on our client engagement think tank, I set the stage for a discussion of a referral marketing plan. What we found in our roundtable discussion with advisors is that many do not target prospects particularly well, don’t use the target markets they have defined in their client onboarding process, and they don’t have a plan to attract referrals from that target group. So now that these observations are in the open, how do you write a plan to systematically attract referrals? Here are a few basic principles:
- Do an exceptional job – this may seem obvious, but many advisors I speak to want to know how to get referrals and do not question how the quality of their work may be part of the cause for not receiving more. Rather than ask “Why don’t my clients prefer?” Asked “What can I do better?”
- Get client feedback – In order to find out how good a job you’re doing, and what you could do better, have a systematic way of obtaining feedback from your clients. Whether through surveys or advisory boards, have a structured way to ask questions like How my doing? What am I really good at? What unique value do I bring to the relationship?
- Define your target market – Many advisors do not do enough work in defining who exactly their best target prospects are. Even many of the articles I have read on target markets only offer the shallowest and most superficial advice. It is not enough to define the target market by profession, a faith community, or an age range. And don’t even get me started on investable assets. You need to go beyond the obvious and develop a more subtle and nuanced description of the people you can service most effectively. One of the advisors I work with initially told me his target market was “women.” To be effective, you need to have unique skills and services that connect with a group. Therefore, that group needs to be less than 52% of the population. Ultimately, we arrived at a description that included “women who have just recently or are about to take control of their family finances for the first time in their lives.” These are not the “suddenly single” or the cases of “sudden wealth.” Many of these women are still married, and the family net worth has not changed. One example is a woman whose husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The family and assets have not changed, but she was facing the fact that she was about to be in charge. It is a group of people with similar needs, shared concerns, in need of similar services.
- Research the needs of your target audience – Now that you have determined who your target market is, consider what they might need from you do not currently provide. Perform a “gap analysis” on your practice versus the ideal practice for that target audience. Go back to your clients who are in that target audience and get their opinion on your research. Ask questions like “if I wanted to work with other people just like you, what services would I add that would make me the ideal advisor?” Bring them the results of your gap analysis, and ask “do you think I should add services like these?”
- Design your communication strategy – Once you have tailored your practice to your target market, design a strategy for communicating your area of specialty and your specialized services. Let your clients know specifically what kind of new client you are focusing on, and what special skills you bring to the table to work with them. Learn how to describe what makes you unique for that target audience so that you can clearly articulate it to the people you meet. Let people know that you worked with your best clients to tailor your practice to that target group.
Clearly position yourself with your clients, your prospects, and the public. Come to own that particular spot on people’s brains, and when someone expresses a need for that kind of advisor they will naturally think of you

Latest AdvisorAnalyst Practice Growth Stories
Tags: Advisory Boards, Client Engagement, Client Feedback, Faith Community, Find Job, How To Get Referrals, Investable Assets, Marketing Plan, Population, Profession, Referral Marketing, Relationship, Surveys, Systematic Way, Tank, Target Group, Target Market, Target Markets, Target Prospects
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The Advisor Your Clients Crave
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Stephen Wershing’s presentation asks some very important questions for advisors to contemplate. Great questions lead to great answers, and the last position you want to find yourself in, is with a prospective client sitting in front of you, thinking to themselves, “So what?” or worse saying it out loud. The objective of your client communications should be to reinforce to your clients the “Why did I become your client?”, and to keep the “What have you done for me lately?” answers fresh.
Make a point of scanning through the presentation for the questions. If you hover your pointer over “more,” you can full-screen the viewer.
The Advisor Your Clients Crave on Prezi
Stephen Wershing, CFP® coaches financial advisors to be more effective and successful, and attract more clients and referrals, by developing more client-connected and client-driven practices. His process of collecting systematic and objective client feedback and using it to reorient an advisor’s practice effectively engages an advisor’s best clients to drive the strategic plan of the business. He consults financial practitioners on many practice management issues, including strategic differentiation, client advisory boards, and implementing technology. Read more from the author/contributor here.
Source: Stephen Wershing, The Client Driven Practice

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Tags: Advisory Boards, Cfp, Client Communications, Client Feedback, Contributor, Differentiation, Driven Practice, Financial Advisors, Financial Practitioners, Implementing Technology, Nbsp, Objective, Pointer, Practice Management Issues, Presentation, Prospective Client, Referrals, Relationship, Scanning, Strategic Plan
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The Conversation is the Relationship
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
The number of referrals financial advisors receive from clients is directly related to how often they meet with clients and what they discuss besides their portfolio when they do.
David Whyte, in works like his book The Three Marriages, makes a point about successful relationships. Two people talking about what they hope for, expect, and accomplish together are not having a conversation about their relationship, the conversation is the relationship.
So it is with financial advisors, according to the article “Secrets of Referrals” in Financial Planning magazine this month by Julie Littlechild. The article describes the conclusions of her soon to be released study Anatomy of a Referral.
Her research shows that the kind of communication an advisor has with clients has a significant influence on whether those clients become “engaged.” In her prior research, she established that engaged clients provide practically all an advisor’s referrals.
“Engaged clients have a deep relationship with their advisor” she writes. That relationship grows out of keeping clients focused and on track toward their goals, providing leadership, and soliciting client feedback on the kind of experience they want. So, it is enormously important to discuss a broad range of clients concerns during meetings taking a long view. And an objective process of obtaining systematic feedback, including surveys and client advisory boards, is a critical component of your client service plan.
Communication of the right type and frequency is, in large part, the relationship. And maintaining that relationship is the most direct path to engaged clients and more referrals.

Latest AdvisorAnalyst Practice Growth Stories
Tags: Advisory Boards, Client Feedback, Communication, Conclusions, Critical Component, David Whyte, Financial Advisors, Financial Planning Magazine, Julie Littlechild, Leadership, Prior Research, Referral, Referrals, Relationship, Significant Influence, Study Anatomy, Successful Relationships, Surveys, Systematic Feedback
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