Greensboro: “I want to buy some leads” barked Mark, a rookie financial advisor as he called into our office to inquire about our services. He impatiently continued, “Just tell me who I need to call and where I can find some affluent leads!”
To begin, Mark obviously had no idea regarding the services we provide. We are by no means a lead generation company. If Mark wants to buy some leads via the internet or mass mail affluent strangers, then we wish him the best of luck. Mark’s real dilemma was not that he couldn’t find a list of leads to call; it’s that he wants to bring in more affluent clients and has no clue how to market his services to them.
Don’t get me wrong, if you are in the early phases of building your practice, you need to be doing anything and everything to drum up business. And if you have to make a few cold calls here and there or hold a public seminar to generate some activity, that’s ok. However, there are more effective ways to go about this and one should always exhaust the high impact marketing activities first, especially when dealing with the affluent.
The sobering reality is that our research on new advisors (LOS 0-5) indicates that only .8% of new advisors are Rainmakers in today’s environment – meaning they bring in 10 or more one million dollar relationships a year. The first step in being able to sell to this type of investor, is understanding them.
Let’s dive into how the affluent look for options when selecting a financial professional. Our research on the affluent tells us that they make decisions based on one key criterion, word-of-mouth influence.
Here are the facts:
Primary method the affluent use in selecting a financial professional:
42% Ask friends, family, or colleagues for advice
23% Ask another professional for advice (CPA, attorney, etc.)
12% Do online research
5% Call a branch office of a major firm
4% Look for local seminars
4% Already have someone in mind
The affluent look to the advice of trusted friends, family and colleagues when they are determining where to look for options, they also ask other trusted financial professionals. And to a lot of advisors surprise, a very small percentage look to the internet; they use the internet as secondary research.
So, if the affluent look for options based on the advice of their friends and family, this begs the question, what are you doing to help stimulate that “word-of-mouth?”
- Are you networking in your community?
- Are you building relationships with other CPAs and Attorneys in your community?
- Are you holding intimate events or “lunch-and-learns” for your clients, COIs, and prospects?
- Are you giving Ritz-Carlton level service to the clients you have and penetrating their Centers-of-Influence?
You should envision yourself as running for the unofficial mayor of your community. Shaking hands with the movers and shakers in your community, a networking fiend.
Mark and a lot of his peers want to buy leads because it appears easy. Not in the sense of bringing in new affluent relationships, (actually it’s a great way to kill your closing percentage) but in the sense of comfort. He can purchase a list and keep busy, blame his lack of success on the quality of the list and keep an emotional distance by sitting in an office on the phone and never have to truly engage his target market. Rainmakers get out of their comfort zone, roll up their sleeves and create their own lists – they play without a net.
If you are all about “Leads, Leads, Leads” like Mark, open the phonebook and make a round of calls. If you want to start selling to the affluent, bring in more clients than ever before, start by working on your sales skills because they need to be seamless. Secondly, become a student of the affluent, it’s imperative that you know their needs, wants, and perceptions. Lastly, get face-to-face on the affluent playing field and start stimulating that good ‘ol word-of-mouth.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Foundation of the New World Advisor
Pasadena: “I just completed the Pasadena marathon,” proclaimed Jay as we began our coaching session. “I honestly wasn’t sure I could do it. If you would have told me a year ago that I would run a marathon in twelve months, I would have told you not to hold your breath.”
Jay had good reason to be excited. Over the past twelve months he transformed his life personally and professionally. When he first engaged The Oechsli Institute in a coaching relationship, he was stagnant. From a professional perspective he was a seventeen year veteran who had created a successful business – but he hadn’t been growing for a couple years. From a personal perspective, although he felt fairly healthy, he had gained weight and hadn’t exercised in a couple years. Initially, Jay’s excuse, or rationalization, was the financial tsunami. He felt like he didn’t have time to exercise and was just trying to keep his own head above water. Needless to say, this had been a radical transformation.
We’re not physical trainers; however we did help Jay set some serious goals, consisting of not only business goals such as new assets and new affluent client acquisition targets, but personal goals as well. One of Jay’s personal goals was to run a marathon. It was something Jay had always aspired to and from Jay’s perspective, he associated running a marathon with the peak of physical fitness. Jay has been neglecting a vital function to his professional success (physical fitness) and he was starting to realize it.
But why is it important for an advisor to focus on a personal goal, such as physical fitness, when trying to grow their business?
As you know, our ongoing research on the affluent and elite financial professionals has enabled us to create a model which we have deemed the “New World Advisor.” The New World Advisor model outlines seven characteristics of elite financial professionals who meet the expectations of today’s skeptical affluent investor. One of these components is balance. This is a component that can be easily overlooked, but as you will notice in our model, we place it at the base for it is the foundation to elite performance.
New World Advisors must have the mental and physical energy necessary to perform consistently at an elite level. Physical fitness is to the human body what a tune-up is to a car engine - it allows both to perform up to their potential. Contrary to this, an advisor who harvests negative energy and neglects physical fitness is miles away from meeting their potential. Let’s take a look at the statistics…
Average Days Per Week of Exercise
0-3 62.7%
4 13.8%
5 15.3%
6 3%
7 5.2%
Our research indicates that 62.7% of advisors are not getting the physical exercise they need. From this, we can deduce that more than half of financial advisors do not have the energy necessary for elite performance - consistently executing the high-impact Rainmaker activities.
This is not to say you need to run a marathon in order to be physically active, however the majority of financial advisors, not unlike the population in general, do not get enough exercise.
Incidentally, Jay’s business was also excelling. He was bringing in new clients at an accelerated pace (he’s become a Rainmaker) and at this writing has over seventy million in his pipeline. These two achievements should not be viewed in isolation. New World Advisors understand the importance of taking care of the balance in their lives and the correlation between personal success and professional success. This dual goal focus forced Jay to have an elevated level of self discipline and prioritize his days like never before – he had to carefully organizer his time to exercise regularly and execute the high-impact rainmaker activities.
The beauty of it all, is that Jay’s physical fitness routine afforded him the necessary energy for his Rainmaking efforts. His demanding days of social networking, meeting with clients, holding intimate events, and numerous organizational involvements are fulfilled with the necessary energy and passion.
This begs the question…
Are you amongst the 62.7% of advisors not getting the physical exercise their body needs and craves? Do you tackle everyday with vigor and energy? Are you meeting your professional goals?
As we concluded our session I asked Jay how the balance component had affected his personal and business life. “I feel great. I’ve never had more energy and confidence. I’m convinced it’s having a positive impact on both my clients and prospects.”
Jay had good reason to be excited. Over the past twelve months he transformed his life personally and professionally. When he first engaged The Oechsli Institute in a coaching relationship, he was stagnant. From a professional perspective he was a seventeen year veteran who had created a successful business – but he hadn’t been growing for a couple years. From a personal perspective, although he felt fairly healthy, he had gained weight and hadn’t exercised in a couple years. Initially, Jay’s excuse, or rationalization, was the financial tsunami. He felt like he didn’t have time to exercise and was just trying to keep his own head above water. Needless to say, this had been a radical transformation.
We’re not physical trainers; however we did help Jay set some serious goals, consisting of not only business goals such as new assets and new affluent client acquisition targets, but personal goals as well. One of Jay’s personal goals was to run a marathon. It was something Jay had always aspired to and from Jay’s perspective, he associated running a marathon with the peak of physical fitness. Jay has been neglecting a vital function to his professional success (physical fitness) and he was starting to realize it.
But why is it important for an advisor to focus on a personal goal, such as physical fitness, when trying to grow their business?
As you know, our ongoing research on the affluent and elite financial professionals has enabled us to create a model which we have deemed the “New World Advisor.” The New World Advisor model outlines seven characteristics of elite financial professionals who meet the expectations of today’s skeptical affluent investor. One of these components is balance. This is a component that can be easily overlooked, but as you will notice in our model, we place it at the base for it is the foundation to elite performance.
New World Advisors must have the mental and physical energy necessary to perform consistently at an elite level. Physical fitness is to the human body what a tune-up is to a car engine - it allows both to perform up to their potential. Contrary to this, an advisor who harvests negative energy and neglects physical fitness is miles away from meeting their potential. Let’s take a look at the statistics…
Average Days Per Week of Exercise
0-3 62.7%
4 13.8%
5 15.3%
6 3%
7 5.2%
Our research indicates that 62.7% of advisors are not getting the physical exercise they need. From this, we can deduce that more than half of financial advisors do not have the energy necessary for elite performance - consistently executing the high-impact Rainmaker activities.
This is not to say you need to run a marathon in order to be physically active, however the majority of financial advisors, not unlike the population in general, do not get enough exercise.
Incidentally, Jay’s business was also excelling. He was bringing in new clients at an accelerated pace (he’s become a Rainmaker) and at this writing has over seventy million in his pipeline. These two achievements should not be viewed in isolation. New World Advisors understand the importance of taking care of the balance in their lives and the correlation between personal success and professional success. This dual goal focus forced Jay to have an elevated level of self discipline and prioritize his days like never before – he had to carefully organizer his time to exercise regularly and execute the high-impact rainmaker activities.
The beauty of it all, is that Jay’s physical fitness routine afforded him the necessary energy for his Rainmaking efforts. His demanding days of social networking, meeting with clients, holding intimate events, and numerous organizational involvements are fulfilled with the necessary energy and passion.
This begs the question…
Are you amongst the 62.7% of advisors not getting the physical exercise their body needs and craves? Do you tackle everyday with vigor and energy? Are you meeting your professional goals?
As we concluded our session I asked Jay how the balance component had affected his personal and business life. “I feel great. I’ve never had more energy and confidence. I’m convinced it’s having a positive impact on both my clients and prospects.”
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Out of Comfort Zone Opportunities
As we ended our coaching session, David made a rare boast, “I’m really starting to get outside of my comfort zone; it’s an invigorating feeling. I’m going after more business than ever and people are actually taking me up on it. I figure, the chances of them asking me to manage their portfolio are pretty slim. So I’m taking the guess work out of it, I’m asking.”
For David, this was a revelation on two fronts. First, David realized that in order to become a Rainmaker he must commit himself to specific high-impact marketing activities. Secondly, in order to fully execute those activities it was going to require venturing outside of his comfort zone.
Before this transformation, David was like many advisors not fully capitalizing on the current confusing financial waters. He was doing his best to keep his own head above water, concerned about getting his personal portfolio in line and trying to appease any disgruntled clients. But now, after a small renaissance, he is singing a different tune. He is not only welcoming financial conversations and needling questions from affluent prospects, the types of conversations that make most advisors cringe; he is out in traffic actively soliciting them.
But this didn’t happen overnight, it took some coercion, commitment to action, and convincing David of two important statistics from our 2009 research. These statistics heighten the importance of getting out of your comfort zone and prospecting like there is no tomorrow. The first is the fact that a dismal 15% of advisors are spending more than half of their time on offense. The majority of advisors are not actively prospecting; this leaves more opportunity for the rest of us. Secondly, our research indicates that most advisors have not put together a recovery strategy for their clients and even less are communicating it. Combining these two telling statistics, we have a competitive landscape that is ideal for prospecting and an underserved target market.
Here are the tough times statistics:
Percentage of Time Spent on Offense (Prospecting)
No time spent on offense - 6.7%
25% or less - 49.0%
25-50% - 30.0%
50-75% - 12.3%
75-100% - 1.9%
Client Portfolio Recovery Strategy
No recovery strategy - 17.5%
Not comfortable w/ recovery strategy - 30.0%
Clear recovery strategy, but don't talk about it - 14.3%
Clear recovery strategy and communicate w/ confidence - 38.2%
David took heed once he heard these statistics and it was the boost he needed to convince himself that an unprecedented opportunity abounds, especially for the advisor who lives and breathes outside of his comfort zone.
David went on an “out of comfort zone” warpath. He started asking for introductions, planting himself in the right affluent circles, approaching social contacts with whom he had never before spoken business, and holding regular recovery plan events. He committed himself to action and removed any insecure hurdles in his mind because the need was evident; the affluent aren’t being serviced properly and advisors are at a standstill.
The biggest problem that advisors face when marketing is threefold: (1) they aren’t doing enough activity (2) when they are active, they aren’t doing the right activities and (3) even when they execute the right activities, they don’t execute with the necessary affluent sales skills.
Take an advisor who is targeting the affluent, like David, who is willing to jump outside of his comfort zone, get him doing the right activities, add a dash of seamless affluent sales skills, and you have a recipe for new assets.
Are you taking full advantage of this opportunity?
If you are ready to get on the affluent playing field and start doing the high impact activities required to bring in affluent prospects, here is a glimpse at the action plan that helped get David started...
1. Identify the Opportunity: Take a chance to talk business with that social prospect, ask for an introduction through one of your best clients, or take that CPA to lunch. Revitalize those opportunities you let slip away.
2. Commit Yourself to Action: Determine your plan of attack and get the wheels in motion. Be prepared to step out of your comfort zone and sharpen those sales skills. Revel in the comfort of being uncomfortable.
3. Be Consistent: Set a weekly goal for getting out of your comfort zone and hold yourself to it. Eventually, your comfort zone will expand. The initial activities that really make your hair stand up will become second nature.
As David and I concluded our session I asked him if activities like offering affluent prospects a “second opinion” took him outside of his comfort zone. He boldly responded, “Of course, but I’m ok with that.” He rhetorically continued, “Am I doing activities that take me outside of my comfort zone? Absolutely. Am I bringing in more business than ever before? Absolutely.”
For David, this was a revelation on two fronts. First, David realized that in order to become a Rainmaker he must commit himself to specific high-impact marketing activities. Secondly, in order to fully execute those activities it was going to require venturing outside of his comfort zone.
Before this transformation, David was like many advisors not fully capitalizing on the current confusing financial waters. He was doing his best to keep his own head above water, concerned about getting his personal portfolio in line and trying to appease any disgruntled clients. But now, after a small renaissance, he is singing a different tune. He is not only welcoming financial conversations and needling questions from affluent prospects, the types of conversations that make most advisors cringe; he is out in traffic actively soliciting them.
But this didn’t happen overnight, it took some coercion, commitment to action, and convincing David of two important statistics from our 2009 research. These statistics heighten the importance of getting out of your comfort zone and prospecting like there is no tomorrow. The first is the fact that a dismal 15% of advisors are spending more than half of their time on offense. The majority of advisors are not actively prospecting; this leaves more opportunity for the rest of us. Secondly, our research indicates that most advisors have not put together a recovery strategy for their clients and even less are communicating it. Combining these two telling statistics, we have a competitive landscape that is ideal for prospecting and an underserved target market.
Here are the tough times statistics:
Percentage of Time Spent on Offense (Prospecting)
No time spent on offense - 6.7%
25% or less - 49.0%
25-50% - 30.0%
50-75% - 12.3%
75-100% - 1.9%
Client Portfolio Recovery Strategy
No recovery strategy - 17.5%
Not comfortable w/ recovery strategy - 30.0%
Clear recovery strategy, but don't talk about it - 14.3%
Clear recovery strategy and communicate w/ confidence - 38.2%
David took heed once he heard these statistics and it was the boost he needed to convince himself that an unprecedented opportunity abounds, especially for the advisor who lives and breathes outside of his comfort zone.
David went on an “out of comfort zone” warpath. He started asking for introductions, planting himself in the right affluent circles, approaching social contacts with whom he had never before spoken business, and holding regular recovery plan events. He committed himself to action and removed any insecure hurdles in his mind because the need was evident; the affluent aren’t being serviced properly and advisors are at a standstill.
The biggest problem that advisors face when marketing is threefold: (1) they aren’t doing enough activity (2) when they are active, they aren’t doing the right activities and (3) even when they execute the right activities, they don’t execute with the necessary affluent sales skills.
Take an advisor who is targeting the affluent, like David, who is willing to jump outside of his comfort zone, get him doing the right activities, add a dash of seamless affluent sales skills, and you have a recipe for new assets.
Are you taking full advantage of this opportunity?
If you are ready to get on the affluent playing field and start doing the high impact activities required to bring in affluent prospects, here is a glimpse at the action plan that helped get David started...
1. Identify the Opportunity: Take a chance to talk business with that social prospect, ask for an introduction through one of your best clients, or take that CPA to lunch. Revitalize those opportunities you let slip away.
2. Commit Yourself to Action: Determine your plan of attack and get the wheels in motion. Be prepared to step out of your comfort zone and sharpen those sales skills. Revel in the comfort of being uncomfortable.
3. Be Consistent: Set a weekly goal for getting out of your comfort zone and hold yourself to it. Eventually, your comfort zone will expand. The initial activities that really make your hair stand up will become second nature.
As David and I concluded our session I asked him if activities like offering affluent prospects a “second opinion” took him outside of his comfort zone. He boldly responded, “Of course, but I’m ok with that.” He rhetorically continued, “Am I doing activities that take me outside of my comfort zone? Absolutely. Am I bringing in more business than ever before? Absolutely.”
The Power of Reputation & First Impression
Dallas: “I am absolutely embarrassed,” Fred mumbled insecurely the moment we began our coaching session, “I just had a huge affluent prospect come in for a second opinion meeting and I was sweating uncontrollably. I had sweat pouring down my forehead, my shirt was drenched and I had to excuse myself multiple times. They probably thought I was either extremely nervous or trying to ‘Madoff’ them. I’ve never had anything happen to me like this in my 17 years in the business.”
In Fred’s defense, the temperature outside that day was in the mid-nineties, a real scorcher, and Jay was dressed to the nines in a wool suit and tie. In addition, the conference room in which the meeting occurred faced west with the sun directly beaming in which easily raised the temperate a few degrees. These conditions were not new to Jay, but for some reason his sweat glands decided to jump into hyper drive that day while both prospects, dressed in shorts and t-shirts, coolly watched the perspiration spectacle from the sidelines.
Fred’s bizarre prospecting experience appears to be a scene from a television sitcom. And if you chuckle to yourself at the thought of such an experience, you’re not alone; I could barely keep a straight face as he was relaying the story to me. But Jay was mortified. He had a great opportunity within his grasp and from his perspective he just blew it. But did he?
Our latest research on the affluent points out that the two most important criteria for today's affluent in selecting a financial professional are…
1. Personal Reputation
2. First Impression
Reputation is an attribute that results from doing your job well and providing superior service to your clients over time. A positive, or negative, reputation spreads through clients and centers-of-influence by word of mouth influence. (By the way, a negative reputation will spread like wildfire.)
Fred has a stellar reputation.
Adding to his reputation, this prospect was not a cold lead but actually an introduction he has asked for from one of his top clients. Fred had two important factors in his corner. If an advisor can couple an outstanding reputation with the highest impact activity that Rainmakers engage in, asking for introductions, they’ve got a dynamic one-two punch.
Even though Fred felt his perspiration had gotten the best of him, he was able to maintain a positive first impression. His dress was right out of a Brooks Brothers display window and his conference room was clean and professional. His body language and eye contact displayed confidence and he portrayed a depth and breadth of industry knowledge in the agenda he prepared for the meeting. The fact that he began to perspire excessively was incidental, the first impression had already been made.
Fred’s worry was unfounded; within a week they were clients.
Because a professional’s reputation and first impression are such a critical element in today’s economic environment, it’s essential that all advisors take these criteria very seriously. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you try and access your own reputation and first impression.
Reputation:
- Are you providing high-level personalized (white glove) service to your best clients?
- Are you providing comprehensive wealth management services?
- Do you know enough about your clients to provide Surprise and Delight (small personal gift) touches?
- Are your client’s open and willing to give you introductions to their friends, family, and COIs?
- Have you lost any key clients over the past year?
First Impression:
- Do you always dress neat and professionally?
- Do you maintain good hygiene? (i.e. haircut, shaved, groomed)
- Do you maintain good eye contact with clients?
- Are you shoes shined?
- Do you possess a depth and breadth of industry knowledge?
It’s essential that advisors take the necessary steps to always be improving their reputation. It’s one of those intangible attributes that many advisors overlook because they think they have limited control over it. This type of thinking is completely wrong. We have the ornate ability to control our actions and therefore other’s perception of us. And you only get one chance to make a positive first impression.
As Warren Buffet says, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
In Fred’s defense, the temperature outside that day was in the mid-nineties, a real scorcher, and Jay was dressed to the nines in a wool suit and tie. In addition, the conference room in which the meeting occurred faced west with the sun directly beaming in which easily raised the temperate a few degrees. These conditions were not new to Jay, but for some reason his sweat glands decided to jump into hyper drive that day while both prospects, dressed in shorts and t-shirts, coolly watched the perspiration spectacle from the sidelines.
Fred’s bizarre prospecting experience appears to be a scene from a television sitcom. And if you chuckle to yourself at the thought of such an experience, you’re not alone; I could barely keep a straight face as he was relaying the story to me. But Jay was mortified. He had a great opportunity within his grasp and from his perspective he just blew it. But did he?
Our latest research on the affluent points out that the two most important criteria for today's affluent in selecting a financial professional are…
1. Personal Reputation
2. First Impression
Reputation is an attribute that results from doing your job well and providing superior service to your clients over time. A positive, or negative, reputation spreads through clients and centers-of-influence by word of mouth influence. (By the way, a negative reputation will spread like wildfire.)
Fred has a stellar reputation.
Adding to his reputation, this prospect was not a cold lead but actually an introduction he has asked for from one of his top clients. Fred had two important factors in his corner. If an advisor can couple an outstanding reputation with the highest impact activity that Rainmakers engage in, asking for introductions, they’ve got a dynamic one-two punch.
Even though Fred felt his perspiration had gotten the best of him, he was able to maintain a positive first impression. His dress was right out of a Brooks Brothers display window and his conference room was clean and professional. His body language and eye contact displayed confidence and he portrayed a depth and breadth of industry knowledge in the agenda he prepared for the meeting. The fact that he began to perspire excessively was incidental, the first impression had already been made.
Fred’s worry was unfounded; within a week they were clients.
Because a professional’s reputation and first impression are such a critical element in today’s economic environment, it’s essential that all advisors take these criteria very seriously. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you try and access your own reputation and first impression.
Reputation:
- Are you providing high-level personalized (white glove) service to your best clients?
- Are you providing comprehensive wealth management services?
- Do you know enough about your clients to provide Surprise and Delight (small personal gift) touches?
- Are your client’s open and willing to give you introductions to their friends, family, and COIs?
- Have you lost any key clients over the past year?
First Impression:
- Do you always dress neat and professionally?
- Do you maintain good hygiene? (i.e. haircut, shaved, groomed)
- Do you maintain good eye contact with clients?
- Are you shoes shined?
- Do you possess a depth and breadth of industry knowledge?
It’s essential that advisors take the necessary steps to always be improving their reputation. It’s one of those intangible attributes that many advisors overlook because they think they have limited control over it. This type of thinking is completely wrong. We have the ornate ability to control our actions and therefore other’s perception of us. And you only get one chance to make a positive first impression.
As Warren Buffet says, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
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