As the late Jim Rohn once said. "We’re affected by whatever we know or don’t know. Here’s a good phrase to jot down: Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is tragedy. Ignorance is devastation. Ignorance creates lack. Ignorance creates disease. Ignorance will shorten your life and leave you with the husks, nothing to account for. No, ignorance is not bliss."
What are clients ignorant of?
Coaching top financial advisors on a daily basis, we all know that there is a tremendous amount of change in the financial industry. But paying attention to the changes is important. As Albert Einstein said, "the only knowledge is experience". If you have not experienced the changes then how could you possibly understand them? Let me give you an example. I think by now every financial advisor has had a discussion about fees with a client or prospect. When the person asks you about those fees, it is not your answer that is important. It is the experience they have had so far in talking or asking about fees in the financial industry that is important to them. They want and deserve total transparency. Has this been their experience? Do they understand total transparency, everything they pay in dollars and percentages, and what they get?
What do you think you are currently paying your financial advisor or institution?
Asking prospects the question” what do you pay now and how long have you been paying it?” is like asking for their passport to be handed over. They are private about the fees they are paying because of two main reasons. Ignorance, in other words, they don’t know, or only know half the cost, cannot understand their statements, or they tell you “ I’m only paying 1 percent”. Showing you how clever they are in fee negotiation. But you're not interested in the cost in terms of percentages, you want to know the dollars they pay. Is that $10,000 per year or $50,000 per year? Percentages don't tell the whole story. It is total transparency in dollars that you are interested in discussing.
One page fee audit
What if you could show your ideal clients and prospects on one page everything they pay, and everything they get? (with compliance approval of course from your firm, and branch manager) Have you ever done a fee audit, showing you everything you are paying and more importantly, what you get and don't get for what you are paying? How do you feel when you are paying for something and not getting it?
Is it about the price?
This is where advisors can be ignorant about what is going on about price. Financial advisors I talk to every day seem ignorant about pricing. For example, did you know where pricing is going in Canada? According to
IFIC.ca“Investment fund sales totaled $20.6 billion in 2018. Mutual funds accounted for $109 million or 0.5% of the total and ETFs, $20.5 billion, or 99.5% of the total. 2018 recorded the lowest total investment fund sales since 2010. Now I am not here to tell you which products are best for your clients, but you cannot be ignorant of those numbers. You are not in control of the pricing of products, but you are in control of the value you deliver to your ideal clients.
Don’t get several more clients, deliver more value to your ideal clients and prospects
It took me 10 years as an advisor to learn that. ( your welcome) So how can you deliver more value, to your ideal clients and prospects this year? What are some of the value-added processes you can deliver, and demonstrate and clearly articulate, all on one page? How about a fee audit ( value audit for clients) or a beneficiary audit? Two value-added processes to deliver in writing to ideal prospects. Some clients forget the value you deliver. Help them experience it again. As Warren Buffet said,” Price is what you pay, value is what you get”.You're invited:Ideal Client acquisition webinar using a "Fee audit" and "Beneficiary audit" processes. Join us for this exclusive web training and learn how to deliver more value to acquire more ideal clients. Join Grant Hicks, CIM for an exclusive webinar LIVE on March 21 for this exclusive training session by clicking
here.
