Trending
Let’s face it, in todays world time is more critical than ever to successful wealth professionals. How can you deliver more value and spend more time with your ideal clients? How do you find more time to deliver more value?
Experience is everything
When I sold my financial advisory practice, my wife and I decided to look for a second opinion on our finances. After all, I work with financial advisors all day and see many practices. The advisor we went to see, we travelled to see them to get to the appointment. After waiting an additional 15 minutes the advisor apologized being late. He then proceeded to go into his pitch, while being completely unprepared and rushed, he finally got his technology to work. He talked most of the time and asked me and my wife very few questions. Needless to say, it was not a great experience.
What was the value?
I asked my wife after the appointment, “what was the value you got out of today’s meeting?’ She asked me, do all advisors work this way, because there was nothing valuable about that meeting at all. Nothing I said, nothing, I feel worse about our finances. He talked about products and markets and how will that help us achieve our goals? I don’t think he knows our goals and you always talk about the probability of success, and if he does not know with clarity about what we want, then the probability of success is low or unknown.
It was a great lesson for me
It taught me the biggest value a financial advisor or wealth manager can give to their best clients. Undivided attention that they deserve. Not being rushed or feeling the time constraints of another appointment or meeting, being well prepared and have a proven process, and well rested and happy to spend the time with us. Well rested is the key. If you are stressed and tired and have difficulty managing capacity, your ideal clients will feel it. If you are not well rested and focused, and rolling through another meeting, this is your chance , while reading this article to do something about it. Not tomorrow or next month or after you get caught up, recognize you need to do something now to manage the overwhelming capacity that is killing you and your business.
What is the next step?
You cannot change the fact there are only 168 hours in a week. You need to find hours, hundreds of them. Hours for you, your family and your best clients. It is not a simple fix. You cannot manage 300-500 relationships either.
The typical wealth manager or financial advisor I work with figures out they need to find 200-300 hours in a year to be more successful, both personally and professionally. What are you going to do to find 200-300 hours in 2021? I will give you four ideas, but stay tuned for my next blog. Segment, technology, people and processes, four ways to find time.
How about your goals for your practice in 2021? Our Practice management checklist or fee audit checklist
While each financial advisor's practice may have a different approach, advisors need to understand where their practice needs help, and will they get the right help for the right part of their practice. What areas does your practice need help with? Get a copy of our updated 21-page “Comprehensive Practice Management Strategies checklist” by going to our website.