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Financial advisors struggle with massive interruptions. How can you minimize the distractions and focus on getting your work done when you have an inbox that keeps growing every single day with more and more emails more and more webinars more and more interruptions? Here are some strategies to help manage your time and inbox.
Templates
In your inbox, you can have certain folders. The one folder that I use every single day is my templates folder. Rewriting similar emails over and over is a complete waste of time. Why not build and use templates each and every day and build a collection of templates, so that you can respond to emails by using a templated response, cutting the hours of your time. For example, meeting email templates, prospect follow-up templates, and client service templates.
Scripts
The next folder you should always have is a script folder. When you call clients for appointments, open the script folder. When you call prospects for appointments or when you talk to centers of influence, having your scripts handy in your inbox makes it easier. It will get rid of call reluctance and get out of your own way. I'm either writing scripts or collecting scripts and editing scripts all the time for different functions for myself and for financial advisors. The most common script used is when I call prospects or when I am doing webinars.
Prospects
As a financial advisor, connecting and following up with prospects is part of your contact management system. I usually recommend a PRM and CRM prospect relationship marketing and client relationship marketing as two completely different tools https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/crm-and-prm Having them in your inbox folder makes it simpler and easier to do the follow-up. Having a folder where you can consistently look on a weekly basis at the prospects you're working on, and the prospects you're following up on will help you manage prospects better. Do you have a solid follow-up process for prospects or are you winging it and letting things slip through the cracks?
Other key folders
What other folders will help you to minimize your inbox better quicker or faster? Here are a few ideas. Have one for staff so you can prepare for staff issues. Have one for marketing, so you collect marketing ideas and open the folder when you time block to work on your business. Have one for practice management and business or practice planning. Consider one for planning ideas including the 7 areas, tax, estate, risk, insurance, investments, debts, and cash flow. It's like building a filing cabinet for all of the paper on your desk so eventually, you have more and more filing cabinets and you keep filing more information. PS do you time block 2 hours per week to work on your business? The advisors that do work 80-100 hours on their business and processes, and the advisors that have MORE processes are MORE successful.
Nothing urgent in financial services
My mentor Bill Bachrach taught me this years ago and I never forgot it. Bill said, "there is nothing urgent in financial services ever". Why do we feel like we have to look at our inbox all of the time and check on our phone all of the time and respond to people all of the time? I get it you want to give people a high level of service. You want to be available, and you want to be able to communicate. But it must be in a timely fashion that builds and manages their expectations. Your ideal clients you can get back to right away as they are paying you the most. Your non-ideal clients do not need to be communicated at the same speed. I used to fly a lot. I have priority status for priority calls at certain airlines because I was one of their best customers. Everyone else is on hold. That is a perk or a benefit that most people understand. Do you treat everyone the same? That is not fair for your high-paying clients, is it? Most advisors have a massive sense of urgency towards their inbox and they can't get off that email treadmill. It's time that financial advisors created new habits towards email responses and expectations. The secret bill gave me is having a mindset around email and that mindset is that there is nothing urgent in financial services. Stop acting like there is everything urgent in financial services. Once you change your mindset around "there is nothing urgent financial services" you will start to manage your inbox and your client's expectations for your team and staff better. Thanks, Bill Bachrach (www.billbachrach.com) for your sage advice on managing my inbox.
The perfect week
One of the best time management strategies I ever learned as a financial advisor, is the perfect week concept. What does the perfect week look like for you? Plan on paper or an excel spreadsheet when you would time block certain key meetings including ideal client prep and meetings, non-ideal client meetings, ideal prospects, and COI's. Also, time blocked is time to work on the practice each week, staff communications, exercise, and other key elements of a successful practice. Start with how many meetings you want to have with clients, then with prospects, and then add COI's. It should be a formula like 6 ideal clients, 1-2 ideal prospects, and one COI meeting each week. Then keep track of your weekly numbers on your spreadsheet. The activity tracking will help you know if you are planning the right time with the right people and tracking your weekly 6-1-1 cadence.
Where do I start with time management?
As Jim Rohn said " Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job you can make a living, but if you work hard on yourself you'll make a fortune.” https://www.success.com/jim-rohn-on-working-harder-on-yourself-than-your-job/ Start by time blocking two hours per week to work on you and your practice!
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