Advisor Insights

Stretching Your Comfort Zone

2010-02-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

Cleveland: “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into” said Bill on a recent coaching session. He was referring to a conversation he just had with his neighbor, a prominent attorney in the area with a plethora of affluent connections.

Bill had been doing his homework. He found out that his neighbor was part of a running group that met every Tuesday. The group consisted of the attorney’s two law partners, several notable doctors and a few local businessmen – a Rainmaking goldmine.

With a little preparation, Bill was prepared to capitalize. He called his neighbor and asked to be personally introduced to some of his running group friends. He offered to treat them all to lunch or maybe cocktails after work. However, the attorney had a different path in mind.

He said, “Better yet, you used to be a runner, I’ll just steer the group by your house on Saturday morning and you can join us for a jog.” Bill quickly agreed, knowing the tremendous opportunity at hand. By the end of the call, he realized what he’d done – hence the call into our office. Bill had committed to a 15 mile run; the only problem being that he hadn’t ran in three years, much less trained for 15 miles.

Just when he had overcome the mental hurdle of asking for the introduction, a new, more physical challenge was staring him down. What’s the takeaway from this little vignette?

Simply put – comfort zones. It was uncomfortable for Bill to ask his neighbor for the introduction (he had never done this before). Yet he overcame this hurdle, asked for the introduction and now has connections to some very wealthy people.

It was just as uncomfortable, some might say stupid, for him to run 15 miles. Yet he agreed to the run, trained for it (in 3 days), and made it to the finish line so he’d have a chance to interact with everyone after the run.

It’s easy for us to conceptualize growth from a physical perspective, but not as easy from a mental perspective. If you want to become a marathoner, you research how others have done it, set very concrete goals, train regularly, and push yourself to improve.

The mental comfort zone, especially in business, rarely gets this type of attention. Lofty goals are set, robust business plans are created, but the training required is non-existent. Not much different than Bill attempting to run 15 miles without having run for three years. It’s no wonder that less and less advisors are reaching the elite levels of the business (only 1.3% were Rainmakers in 2009). The disconnect between intentions (goals) and the actual results is wider than ever, largely because the necessary actions (training) required to achieve these goals isn’t happening.

For that reason, we thought it might be helpful to offer a few tips for making 2010 the Year of Rainmaker Training:

Set a Big Goal – This needs to be difficult enough to light your internal fires of motivation, but not so difficult that it’s unrealistic.
Create an Activity Regimen – Fill your calendar with the activities directly linked to the big goal you’ve set. This is your training schedule.
Deliberately Practice – Master the art of selling to the affluent by deliberately practicing specific sales skills. You need to be seamless in explaining what you do, offering second opinions on portfolios, socially networking, closing for appointments and so on.
Push Yourself to try new prospecting activities – What you’re currently doing is likely to produce the same results. If you’re looking to raise the bar, try something new, even if it makes you feel a little uncomfortable at first.

This all boils down to good old-fashioned dedication and hard work. Today’s affluent expect nothing but the best, so make the commitment, push yourself (mentally and physically, and the future is yours!

The Process Tipping Point

2010-02-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Greensboro: “I’ve heard you speak about process when it comes to building elite financial teams. Can you help our team put the right structure in place? I feel like we just don’t have the right model for dealing with the affluent.” said Tina, an advisor who recently called our office. Her question hit the heart of a major issue; written procedures for critical team functions. Through our coaching, we've found that many teams fall into two very different traps:

Having no process at all – essentially “flying by the seat of their pants”
Having way too much process – having rules, processes and procedures for the simplest of tasks

Both of these issues take equal toll on team efficiency. Our current market crisis has prompted a flood of calls regarding our coaching services. Many advisors are inquiring about affluent sales training, but there’s another group who’s more concerned with creating a more efficient practice. The increase in client service required by this market crisis has forced many teams to re-examine their bandwidth, processes and support staff.

The ironic thing is that teams like Tina’s who come to us for help with "processes" are often those who already have too many in place. To be certain, there must be enough process to guide the daily actions of both advisor and support staff. Process should drive the signing of new clients, the scheduling of appointments and your service model. And those areas are simply the starting point.

However, process becomes too much when it becomes so cumbersome, so tedious, that team members spend more time minding the process than doing their job. For instance, we've worked with teams who've had one hour team meetings every day, procedures for triple-proofing outgoing emails, six page outlines after client or COI meetings, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I’m not kidding; we’ve actually seen these procedures in action.

Process overload keeps these advisors buried in their office rather than in the affluent playing field. They have less personal time with clients, get far less referrals, and keep their affluent circles lean. None of which is good.

The Prescription

You may not be as overloaded with process as the team referenced above, but as we enter a new year and plan for 2010, everyone needs to examine where they stand regarding process.

For Teams Suffering from Process Overload

Just as we advised for Tina, plan a meeting and instruct each team member to come prepared with three ways to increase efficiency. This usually involves 3 ideas for eliminating redundancies. Not all of these ideas will be implemented, but all should be considered with an open mind. You’ll be surprised at the good ideas this tactic can generate. The idea is to come away from this meeting with concrete action items for both reducing non-essential workload and increasing client and prospect schmooze time.

For Teams with Too Little Process

Commit yourself to adding some structure to your team. You can’t afford to go “half-cocked” into one of the biggest prospecting opportunities of our lifetime. As part of your 2010 business plan, create a simple guideline for each of the following team functions:

Bringing on new clients
Holding client reviews
Conducting performance reviews
Monitoring regulatory compliance
Delivering comprehensive wealth management solutions
Conducting effective weekly team meetings
Delivering personalized client service

This is all about balance. Teams need structure, but not micromanagement. Tina took the initiative to re-examine and in some ways rebuild her team’s operations. They’ve streamlined their practice, eliminated wasted effort, and created a concise practice manual that provided the structure within which the team could operate. This did more tan improve overall efficiencies; it provided a welcome bit of peace of mind to the team leader. The end result was certainly worth the effort.

Business in Social Settings

2009-12-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

Greensboro: “I’ve got a wealth of social connections, but have been reluctant to go after the business. I just don’t feel comfortable putting these people in an awkward position”, said Fred, an advisor who recently called our office.

Fred is one of many advisors who struggle with the idea of putting social contacts into their pipelines. You may be asking, if this makes people uncomfortable, why don’t they focus their efforts elsewhere? Well, because social connections often represent an enormous (and fairly quick) prospecting opportunity – low-hanging fruit, if you will.

People that like you, trust you and respect you professionally are one step away from being clients. You should be the person they trust most to handle their family’s financial affairs. The key is introducing your services properly; in a non-threatening, non-salesy, “doing a favor” kind of way.

In our coaching, we see several core mindset issues that hold people back from mastering social prospecting:

Social Self Consciousness – Being intimidated by approaching people of wealth.
Poor Sales Skills - Not being sure how to approach social contacts the right way.
Fear of Being Salesy - Not wanting to appear like a salesperson is a major issue – Closely aligned with poor sales skills and social self-consciousness.
Low Confidence – This is often conveyed as “Not wanting to put your relationship in jeopardy if something goes wrong”. Many advisors don’t feel confident enough in their service offering.

From Fred’s perspective, the issue was part sales skills and part confidence. With a combination of serious self-awareness (recognition of strengths and weaknesses) and intensive performance coaching, Fred went through a metamorphosis. He rededicated himself to stepping outside his comfort zone and deliberately practiced his affluent sales skills in two core areas:

Verbiage: Fred was intent on mastering the language he would use in approaching his social contacts. We scripted some basic bullet points and he practiced until he “owned it”.
Timing: Week by week, we helped Fred activate his “Rainmaker Antenna”. We knew that he was having frequent conversations with his social contacts regarding their family and their business. Each of these conversations had one or two natural points for him to introduce his professional services.

Here’s where opportunity meets preparation. Within one week, he was speaking with a doctor friend of his who started complaining about upcoming tax changes. So he offered to meet and share some thoughts on what his team is doing for some of their current physician clients. Then he found out that a small business owner at his club was preparing to sell some real estate, so he mentioned the work he’d done with other business owners and suggested they meet to ensure that their family was on the right track.

These are two of countless opportunities that heretofore Fred, like so many advisors, let slide. However, the new and improved Fred – self-aware –deliberately practicing his affluent sales skills –allowing himself to go far outside his comfort zone has offered second opinions to eight different social contacts, four of which became clients in a relatively short period of time. And he did all this without being perceived as a salesperson.

Fred’s story isn’t an anomaly; this kind of transition can be yours – if you dare. Step outside your comfort zone, practice your sales skills and you too will reap the rewards of high impact social prospecting.

Strategic Networking

2009-12-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

Portland: Ring Ring - I answered the phone to find Jim, an advisor who, like many others, desperately wanted to build his practice. He said, "I just sold my practice in Tennessee, I moved to Portland, and I'm starting all over". I assured him we'd seen this situation many times, yet he insisted, "You don't understand, I really need to build my practice. I convinced my wife to make the move and she was against it all the way. I promised her that I would rebuild our lifestyle, but with this market downturn I think I'm in over my head."

The market downturn was the least of Jim's worries. His poor sales skills were a much bigger issue, hence his call to our office. Convinced we could help, he entered into our Performance Coaching and committed himself to doing everything possible to rebuild his practice the right way.

Jim was fighting an uphill battle. Even though his new market was wealthy, his in-town connections were minimal. They sparsely consisted of two clients and a couple of wholesalers. In his own words, he was forced back into "rookie mode" -- with one clear exception. He knew full well that the way he built his first practice wasn't the way to rebuild in today's environment. Times have changed and the affluent are more cynical and skeptical than ever. Any attempt at cold calling just wouldn't bring in the type of clients that he was now capable of servicing. Jim had to do something - and fast.

I'm about to outline one of the core methods used by this advisor to start the rebuilding process with a bang. This will be useful, not only for rookies or those rebuilding a practice, but for anyone looking for more affluent clients. The answer, believe it or not, is strategic networking.

Notice that I said "strategic" networking. This isn't your ordinary meet and greet or card-swapping party. This is getting on the affluent playing field, going where the affluent go, doing what the affluent do. This is your entry point for strategically (and seamlessly) selling your professional services.

Granted, this seems like a pretty basic principle. Which begs the question, why do so many people have a negative feeling about networking? The main reason is that most people aren't good at networking.

Strategic networking is highly effective. We hear it every day in our coaching and we see it in our research. 35% of advisors brought in at least one new million dollar client last year through networking. If everyone really networked the right way, we know this statistic would be far higher.

Getting Started

Get involved with 2 to 3 strong networking activities. This could be at a weekly poker group, a Rotary club, a country club, a charitable organization. Look for groups that:

Put you in contact with affluent prospects
Have regular meetings - once per quarter isn't enough interaction to build meaningful relationships
Give you time to interact with people at the meetings/events
Will allow you to get involved; showcasing your competence
Involve the kind of people and activities that you enjoy!

There is a six month rule of thumb regarding social networking. Develop relationships, get involved and make a good impression before proactively marketing your services. So…

For the first six months, ease your way into these groups, become involved and think in terms of:

Targeting specific people that fit your ideal client profile.
Developing meaningful relationships with them.
Unless they bring up business before then, work hard for six months then start proactively putting them in your pipeline.

Jim understood the task at hand; he had to start making a footprint in the new community that he'd targeted. He started reaching out to various charities and community groups that would allow access to the movers and shakers. After a half dozen calls and a handful of trial meetings, he had a much better idea of where the affluent congregated in his community. Not to mention, within his first month (not six), he landed a $1.2mm client (was going through a divorce and needed help), connected with the top real estate agent in town (a great COI), and played three rounds of golf with an Indy racing team owner. The last time we touched based with Jim he estimated a little of $10mm in his pipeline as a result of his networking efforts. Was that a bit of social prospecting and strategic networking? You bet.

Power of Role Modeling

2009-09-22T04:06:00.000-07:00

San Diego: “Where do I look for help?” asked Alex, a new advisor who attended one of our workshops and then continued, “I’m new to the business, I’m getting better, but I could still use the advice of someone who’s ‘been around the block’ a time or two. When I look around my office, most of the advisors aren’t bringing in business, but that’s only part of their troubles. Most are in a funk, some are truly depressed, and others are on their way out of the business. My manager just doesn’t seem to have time for me”

You might look at this and say Alex needs to become more internally focused, not worrying about the others advisors in his branch. And to some extent, you’re exactly right. But where should new advisors look for guidance? They’ve been plopped into a financial war zone without a survival kit. The learning curve is steep in this environment; there’s a lot to master and not a lot of time to do it.

This recession has put more money in motion than ever before. Which is a perfect opportunity for new advisors who perform the right activities, the right way, to bring in new clients. And, obviously, this will lead to a serious income stream. But only a fraction of advisors (new or veteran) are capitalizing on this opportunity; aka, bringing in affluent clients. One of the major contributors to this poor performance is a mis-understanding of how to market financial services to the affluent. Which is why so few veteran advisors are capable of serving as mentors in today’s environment; they lack both the marketing and sales skills.

Experts will tell you that the use of a role model and/or mentor plays a critical role in personal and professional development. This type of modeling behavior starts when we’re in our formative years, naturally adopting the behavioral patterns of our parents. It’s instinctive.

The secret, later in life, is to replicate that process as it relates to our careers. Unfortunately, today, for a variety of reasons, most new advisors aren’t being inundated with elite advisors giving them guidance on how to grow their practice. There just aren’t that many advisors who are capable and or willing and able to serve in that capacity.

We have always found it helpful to look beyond the world of financial services, finding a historical or famous role model. It could be a business icon, a political leader, a sports legend, or really any other top performer. Take Sam Walton for example. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart (love it or hate it), is a phenomenal success story. His autobiography, Made in America, isn’t about financial services, tough economic times, or getting started as a new advisor, but it’s filled with practical advice from someone who’s achieved the highest level of success.

Whether it was Walton working night and day at his first little store, or his aggressive in-store promotions, or flying his prop plane from store to store well into his golden years, there are plenty of life lessons for those of us looking to build our careers. Walton was truly a person who knew his strengths, saw an opportunity, and spent his every waking moment trying to make his dreams a reality. At this point, it’s time to ask yourself two critical questions:

Who is your role model?
What would he or she be doing in this financial tsunami?

If Sam Walton was transplanted into today’s environment as a twenty or thirty something, picked up by a financial firm, and told to bring in new clients – or else. What would he do? He’d look at this as a huge opportunity to land the accounts of the countless, jaded affluent investors in his area. You can be certain; he’d find a way to succeed in a big way.

As Walton wrote in Made in America, “…if I were a young man or woman starting out today with the same sorts of talent and energies and aspirations that I had fifty years ago, what would I do? The answer to that is a little harder to figure out. I don’t know exactly what I would do today, but I feel pretty sure I would be selling something, and I expect it would be at the retail level, where I could relate directly to customers off the street. I think I’d study the retail field today and go into the business that offered the most promise for the least amount of money.”

Financial services, anyone? What provides more opportunity for less start-up?

The opportunity is there for those who want it bad enough. The first step is to get your head in the game. All too often, we’re looking for that magic secret from a top advisor, or that “how-to” book full of industry best practices, hoping that we’ll find the perfect answer for taking our careers to the next level. Rarely does this perfect answer exist.

If you haven’t already, pick a role model who is either doing the right activities and getting real-time results in today’s tough environment, or select your Sam Walton from history books. Then make a personal commitment to learn everything you can about them, identify some of their most admirable qualities, and work hard to live up to their benchmarks. They became successful for a reason, and more times than not, their habits are worth replicating.

New Good (Bad) Ideas

2009-09-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

We’re coaching a team that’s comprised of a very successful senior advisor, a new advisor and two support staff. Shortly into one of our initial coaching calls, Jim, the new advisor spoke up, “After coming back from a conference last weekend, I've come to the realization that there are plenty of ways to become successful in this business".

He’d been to a conference put on by a fund company and couldn’t wait to share the “new” ideas he gathered from other participants. Before we dissect these three ideas, let me forewarn you that none were “new”, none were right for him, and all three gave us a window into how easily he could be pulled off track.

Here's what he shared with us:

* I found this company that sells high net worth lists in our area. I'm thinking I should buy one, send them mailers, and hold a few seminars. It's simple math; if I buy 5000 mailers, I'll end up with a handful of qualified prospects.

This sounds good and worked for plenty of advisors in the old days. It's not effective nowadays because the affluent are more cynical and skeptical than ever. They’re not selecting a person to oversee their family’s finances based on a postcard and a nice dinner. Not to mention, if this method does bring in new accounts, they’re typically small and not worth the time, money and energy spent attracting them.

* There was an advisor at the conference who was telling me how he worked with community banks to manage their trust assets. I know a banker and he knows bankers. This could be a huge new initiative.

We've heard numerous success stories built around this exact concept. The problem was that this new advisor had almost no connection to this market and no idea how to provide the service he was trying to sell.

* I heard about this firm that helps you buy financial practices. Do you think it's a good idea?

For a new advisor, absolutely not. In the long run, no matter how great a practice you buy, you've got to know how to sell and service the affluent. At this juncture, it was apparent that Jim was losing his focus and running the risk of getting caught-up in low-impact activities – and he was not selling his teams services to affluent families in his community at all.

It took about three minutes for Jim to share his new strategies and then the balance of our coaching call was spent guiding him back on track. From early on, the senior advisor and mentor was doing his best to equip him with the marketing activities and verbiage he needed to go after the affluent (introductions, networking, strategic alliances, etc).

Whether it was an attempt to impress his mentor or basic impatience (the affluent make decisions on their time line), Jim was allowing himself to get frustrated. It usually took the tone of complaining that the senior partner wasn’t not giving him enough smaller clients and using the economy as an excuse for not being able to get any affluent prospects in front of the team.

The real issues for this advisor were two-fold:

1. He had lost his focus. As a result, he was about to deviate from his “critical path” - engaging in low-impact activities that would be a waste of time and money. He was allowing results, not activity, to determine his confidence. And because he had yet to bring in any new affluent clients, his confidence was shaken. This compounded his problem because any activity that put him front and center with affluent prospects pulled him out of his comfort zone and he was avoiding them. He was even intimidated by his social contacts because he knew he should be approaching them about business.

2. He was looking for that magic bullet that would catapult his career. Rarely does this happen. It’s far more likely that a series of “singles” will occur rather than a “homerun”. The singles come from getting personally introduced to new people, building relationships with potential strategic partners (CPAs and attorneys), networking in affluent circles, holding small client/COI events, and so on.

There are only so many ways to build a financial practice. This isn’t a new .com business model that’s changing its marketing plan every other week. This is a business that’s built on word-of-mouth influence. It always has been. The key is to master the activities, early in your career, that help you meet affluent people, develop rapport, and put them into your pipeline.

Two New Advisors in Tough Times

2009-08-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

San Diego: “I’m four years into the business and recently got asked to speak in front of my wirehouse’s regional conference. I realize; this is an honor”, said Tim, a recent participant in our Rainmaker Weekend. He then said, “We brought in more business than 90% of all advisors in my region, but that’s not saying all that much. If we’re in the top 10%, everyone else must be really struggling.”

Tim is winning amidst these tough times and is a clear example of someone doing it right. He’s actively engaged in marketing his practice, very disciplined with his activities, and he’s always looking to refine his sales skills. The ongoing financial crisis has only intensified his drive to achieve. It is these traits that initially helped Tim build a practice and now are accelerating his growth. With only four years in the saddle, he’s become the envy of many veteran advisors.

Unfortunately, Tim’s observations about the other advisors at his firm speaks volumes for the entire industry. His firm isn’t the only one with paralyzed advisors. Many advisors, rookies and veterans alike, are struggling to keep their heads above water. I’m sure we don’t have to remind you of this. One step into most offices makes this case ten times over. The atmosphere is like a funeral home, attitudes are down, incomes are down, prospecting is non-existent, and it’s no wonder so many advisors are in a funk.

Greg, another new advisor in Tim’s office who, if Tim is Advisor A, would be the ideal template for Advisor B, Tim’s polar opposite. Because Greg is a rookie, the pressure is on to bring in new clients. Unlike Tim, who is able to use pressure as a constructive motivator, Greg falls into what we refer to as the “negative programming cycle,” which is too much thinking (too little action), which leads to negative thinking, which leads to worry. And too much worry paralyzes, it’s a cancer to any productive behavior.

So it comes as no surprise to us that Greg’s numbers are not where they need to be. Now he has created his own reality as his fear of losing his job, for lack of performance, are real. Advisor B’s come in all tenures, rookies and veterans, and although veterans might not be worried about losing their job, many are concerned about their standard of living.

In Greg’s case, we’ve been told that he once had a positive attitude. Now he’s probably spending more time looking for a job than for new clients. To top it off, he’s taking heat from his firm because his assets are below their benchmarks, and from his clients because their portfolios are down. According to Tim, and we’re not sure how this has occurred, he’s even been taking heat from the prospects he’s been contacting. You don’t need to be an industrial psychologist to recognize early career burnout.

Our job, as researchers and coaches, is to find out why Tim and other Advisors A’s are having so much success, while the Greg’s of the world, young and old Advisor B’s, are struggling to stay afloat. The answer, in its most basic form, is that Tim is living The Achievement Cycle while Greg is not.

The Achievement Cycle epitomizes the idea of doing whatever it takes to succeed. As you see in the model. It starts with setting a GOAL. Tim set a Rainmaking goal of bringing in 15 new clients, each with $1 million or more of investable assets, with at least $15MM in new assets for 2008. Greg’s goal was to keep his job. The key is setting a goal that ignites your internal fires, that allows you to dream, not merely survive. Survival, just hanging on, is not motivating at all. At best it’s simply I hygiene factor, “I need this job.” Goals that are most motivating are one’s that are tough, yet attainable. It is then, and only then, that these goals can become so firmly imprinted in your mind that you often dream about them in your sleep.

The next step is where the achiever’s (Tim – Advisor A) and non-achiever’s (Greg – Advisor B) paths split. Once the goals are properly set, and Tim bought into being a Rainmaker with his heart and soul, achievers move right into ACTION. They execute the activities that are directly linked to the big goal they’ve set. And they perform these activities even when they are forced out of their comfort zone, even when they’re tired, even when that little devilish voice of doubt is whispering in their ear “You’re not going to make it,” they execute no matter what.

Your challenge, if you accept, is to become Advisor A – be like Tim. We’ve created the following little assessment not only to help you take an honest look in the mirror, but to also create a template of an Advisor A that you can use as a guide.

My client acquisition goals are clear and fully imbedded in my subconscious mind (I dream about my goals).
I am highly disciplined and always execute my daily prospecting activities, regardless of what I might be thinking or how I feel.
I avoid negative advisors like the plague.
I know an Advisor A and model use him / her as a role model.
I am having two face-to-face encounters with strategic intent (bringing in new business) a day.
I am continually working on my sales skills.
My antenna is out and I am constantly finding opportunities to discuss business.
I consistently go outside of my comfort zone.
I carry myself with pride and confidence.
I love helping people with their finances.