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The greatest advisers tend to be doing similar things to the other great advisers usually, and very few of them seem to be doing something that nobody else could do either. They just execute better.
The financial advisers who consistently achieve sustained extraordinary growth and performance are typically superb on at least one of the following:
- Relationship Management. They know their clients personal lives incredibly well and are completely attuned to helping achieve client goals, and a high proportion of their clients are advocates.
- Specialise. That might be in either an area of expertise, a particular demographic/market segment, or as a holistic planner in a tight geographical area. But they carve out a niche.
- Networking. The ability to develope and maintain external professional relationships and lead those relationships to develope more quality, higher value, and more frequent new business opportunities for all involved.
- Cross-selling. Both products and services are continually cross-sold so that the average “client value” becomes exceptional, and highly profitable.
Not only are the very best advisers generally doing more than 1 of these simultaneously, but they usually develop all four strategies sequentially. They begin by knowing their clients better than any other “professional” in their clients’ lives, and are proactively managing life choices and changes with great advice.
Typically the elite advisers move into some form of specialisation, and it worth stressing that “specialisation” sometimes means being an excellent “general practitioner” who dominates a local area. The best example I have ever seen was an adviser in a town of 6,000 who was consistently the number 1 or 2 producer for an institution for 20 years consecutively. The institution he was aligned to judged his performance in terms of product sales…but his clients judged his performance in terms of the value he created by understanding them and their world. Product sales were reasonably incidental to the adviser and his clients, and he was so thoroughly embedded in the fabric of the community that he really was the financial adviser to the entire town. He specialised in being a great holistic adviser.
That type of positioning and presence in a niche, geographical area or target market segment, creates the opportunity to network collaboratively with other key influencers. To really capitalise upon that opportunity does require an attitude of helping the other professionals build their presence and influence, rather than merely expecting them to support your business.
With professional networking and centre-of-influence marketing firmly embedded as a primary business driver of new client engagements it is virtually inevitable that the elite adviser can no longer provide significant amounts of personal time to simple transactional work at that point in their career. They develop packaged services or leverage labour and technology to free them from the administrative functions of the business at this point to handle simple transactional or administrative service work, which leverage the advisers time and efficiency, without creating the impression that they are not giving clients the full attention their issues deserve.
It is the typical pathway to greatness as a professional, and maximum practice value for many.
Anyone aspiring to build a great practice, where they are valued highly, and rewarded well, would do to plan and then execute these 4 steps:
1. Know your clients better than anyone else, and maintain close contact. Be there.
2. Carve out your niche. Whether that is demographical or geographical doesn’t matter. Own it.
3. Collaborate with other professionals whom your market needs. Refer others, then be referred. “Always Be Collaborating”.
4. Develop systems and services to handle simple transactions and client needs, and introduce leverage into your practice. Free yourself up to concentrate on the high value work of actually listening to pepole and helping them find better ways ahead.
Becoming great doesn’t happen overnight of course, but it certainly can happen for any adviser if they concentrate on executing the things which will take them there.