We have all heard the saying that real estate is about location, location, location. The three keys to practice management are process, process, process “ Grant Hicks “. When you have a problem, make it a process. “Growth is a process of trial and error: experimentation". Benjamin Franklin.” I believe that successful advisors in the past, will not be the same successful advisors in the future. They will be the complete opposite of successful advisors in the past. Let me explain. In researching successful advisors, I discovered that they are doing the exact opposite of what other successful advisors are doing. You see, advisors of the future are focused on advice and planning and not products and services. They have built a process, that is not about problems and solutions but a process around clarity of goals and advice. They have built a process focussing on the client's purpose. It is as client centric as you can get. Future Ready Financial Advisors embrace process because “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing. W Edwards Deming” Future Ready Financial Advisors have a script binder to help clients achieve clarity and cover off the most important conversations and questions their best clients and prospects ask. Questions such as “ What do I get for the fee I pay?” Is it a process and a clear script, and they do not wing the answers when they are faced with difficult questions. Are you telling your ideal clients and prospects, we have a process and here it is with confidence, clarity, and consistency. The process is different than the average advisor, and the results speak for themselves. Acquiring ideal clients with a process, and servicing them with a process, while running the practice with a process. Do you need to work on any of your processes?

Successful teams adapt their workflow, while weak teams gripe about how difficult the process is.

“If a business is to be considered a continuous process, instead of a series of disjointed stop-and-go events, then the economic universe in which a business operates, and all the major events within it, must have, rhyme, rhythm, or reason. Peter Drucker”. So what is your process for the ideal client experience? Is it a purposeful process with a clear agenda and process? Do you have a binder of what the ideal client process is, what they get and what it costs? What is the pre meeting process and the post meeting process? Does your team have a written process to follow, organized in a binder or online workflows, or are you telling them the process repeatedly every day? Future Ready Financial Advisors have a checklist of items they want to cover off in a meeting are fully prepared and it clearly shows how prepared they are for the meeting because they have clarity around the answers they anticipate will come. They do not leave it to chance. Their office is well lit, well organized and well prepared for the valuable conversations that will flow as a result of preparation. Future Ready Financial Advisors record their meetings with their client's permission because a key part of their process is to truly understand the client and what their needs wants and desires are. “ I put my heart and my soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process. “ Vincent Van Gogh.

“ If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it .” Peter Drucker

Future Ready Financial Advisors help their ideal clients focus on the most important items in a meeting, their goals and how to achieve them and hold them accountable to stay on track to achieve them. How do you deliver that message? How do you create an ideal experience and have positive emotions during your meetings? Future Ready Financial Advisors hand each client a tablet, show them a video or have at least a color printout, and show them where they are now and how to accomplish their goals. You must have pictures of the client's goals. At the very least, your font size has to be large enough on anything you share on paper for the weakest of eyes. “ You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward towards technology” Steve Jobs.

“We should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.” W. Edwards Deming

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin. This is my motto for my life’s work on practice management. Sure I know a lot about practice management and process, but if I told you everything I know about it, most would be useless unless you were involved in it. So I wrote a book about process ( Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors, Innovating financial Professionals Through practice Management”. Morgan James Publishing 2016 ) If you want a book on processes, here it is. Another great book on process was written by Ron Carson and Steve Sanduski “ Tested in the trenches: a 9 step plan for success as a new era advisor” Peak Alliance Publishing; 2 edition (Sept. 1 2012) “To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.” Winston Churchill. Your process is about change and being involved in the change. “ When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” Benjamin Franklin. So where do you start? It all starts with change, so my question to you on becoming a Future Ready Financial Advisor is this: What is one process you need to work on today to prepare for the future? My answer to you would be simple.

Your process should be about change and being involved in the change. “ When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” Benjamin Franklin. So where do you start? It all starts with change, so my question to you on becoming a Future Ready Financial Advisor is this: What is one process you need to work on today to prepare for the future? My answer to you would be simple.

Start by having a process binder and a script/ questions process binder. What do you think the McDonald’s franchise binder for processes that Ray Kroc built is worth? By the time of Ray Kroc’s death, McDonald’s had 7,500 locations in 31 countries and was worth $8 billion. “ Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” John F Kennedy

If you want to learn better scripts and would like to have a community of Ideal Clients, then join me and Bill Bachrach in San Diego this summer. Attend the next People Skills Workshop, August 16-18th in San Diego. https://peopleskillsnetwork.com/

If you would like more information about financial advisor workshops or coaching to build your value promise process, email us at grant@advisorpracticemanagement.com

For a copy of our guide " Future Ready Financial Advisor" go to http://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/resources or http://futurereadyfinancialadvisor.subscribemenow.com/

Envision that you have already accomplished your most important goal for your business today. How does that make you feel? Act as if it has already been done. The message is clear, the best advisors spend more time on servicing clients BECAUSE they have invested the time and energy to put their processes in place.

“ Helping Financial Advisors take action, to create 100 quality financial plans for their clients”. My mission if you choose to accept it is “ To help advisors to create 1 million quality financial plans for people”. Ask your clients and prospects this question " What does a quality financial plan mean to you? Let me know if I can help you grow your practice.

Grant Hicks, CIM, National Director Practice Management
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

909-17th Ave SW, 4th Floor
Calgary, Alberta T2T 0A4
Tel 587 390 3148
Cell 403 970 8895
Email grant@ghicks.com

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