September 14, 2020

Better communications, better efficiency for financial advisors 

Talking to your best clients one on one is easy. Talking to a group of your best clients seems daunting for some financial advisors. This is the reason why most financial advisors don’t have an advisory board of directors. Elite financial advisors know that feedback is critical to their success and 85% of financial advisors don’t ask for feedback. The 15% elite advisors that do ask for feedback earn on average 52% more than the average advisor. (source Business Health 2016 Pty Ltd, the value of practice management) If you are average and want to improve this year start with feedback.

How do you do feedback online? 

Simply draft up a few questions and add feedback to your client's agenda. Ask things like how has our communication been since the pandemic started? How can we improve our communications? What would you like to hear from us now? How often? The list of questions is easy, but the one question should be, “if I were to work with more people like you how would I connect with them and how would I meet them?” Ask your clients for help is easy if you have added value to their lives. They realize you are not asking for referrals, but favorable introductions, such as join our webinar.

The easiest question to ask

If you have an upcoming webinar, ask your clients this question, “can I ask you a favor? I am hosting a webinar on ____ and I would love it if you could join. Can you also forward the email to one person you know who would benefit hearing about _____ right now? Would that be ok to ask you to do that for me? I ask financial advisors on my webinars that question, and they always answer, YES. Now go ask your clients.

Plan a webinar with your ideal clients

You can call your top 30-50 clients ( or couples) again and make 50 phone calls, or have a webinar with all 50 of them in 30 minutes, what is the best use of your time? I am seeing tremendous success with financial advisors who invite a select group of clients and centers of influence and ask them by email or phone to forward to a friend. This is how they are building their database of prospects for 2020. How are you building your database of prospects? 

Webinar content

The webinar is about the feedback you are getting from your clients. It is also about your new offerings. This is a perfect time to introduce new value-added services you plan to deliver in the future. Clients get excited about this as they see creativity. Financial advisors discuss what their clients will receive at their next update meeting. This can range from goals-based planning discussions, as people's goals have changed during the pandemic. It can also include how you will offer to get organized in all 7 areas of their financial life. Tax, estate, risk, investments, insurance, debt, and cash flow. It can be new opportunities you see on the horizon, and how to avoid missing key opportunities. The wealthy hate missing out on opportunities. It can also be a new way to approach your meeting process, new team members, or a new way you plan to go forward with meetings.  

Share your feedback

If you have done feedback with your best clients, then share it during a webinar. This would be valuable for your clients to hear. I only see the elite, the top 15% of advisors doing this. Start today with feedback. Then plan to deliver more value than ever before. I truly believe “ The more value you give the more valuable you become”. If you want to raise your fees, raise your revenue, deliver more value!  Then it is easier to acquire more ideal clients. That is what practice management is all about. How are you going to deliver more value to your client this fall? How will you communicate it?

 One example of more value – your estate planning checklist

Tom Deans Ph.D. is a full-time professional speaker and the author of Willing Wisdom: 7 Questions Successful Families Ask. The Willing Wisdom Index takes 5 minutes to show you a probability of success in reaching your estate goals. Click here http://tinyurl.com/yxnvxcda  Watch the video on The Willing Wisdom Index and estate planning 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=RO2Js-7NONM&feature=emb_logo or click here https://bit.ly/3gzEy1u  Complete your own confidential estate planning checklist or learn more by clicking here http://tinyurl.com/yxnvxcda

Practice management checklist

In this comprehensive 23 page checklist, you’ll discover your blind spots and opportunities for your financial advisor practice.  https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/

If you would like help with your communications, feedback, or practice management to grow your business, contact me at grant@ghicks.com for a 30-minute discussion on how to implement more communication or click on our online calendar click the following link https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ and let’s talk.

Grant Hicks, CIM is President of www.advisorpracticemanagement.com where financial advisors and financial firms go to acquire more ideal clients and implement elite practice management processes in their practices. Grants combined financial advisor clients manage over 3 billion AUM , and earn over $30 million dollars combined!  

Enthusiastically yours,

Grant Hicks, CIM, President
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

Suite 1625-246 Stewart Green, SW
Calgary, Alberta  T3H 3C8
Cell 403 970 8895
Email grant@ghicks.com   

PS Where do you want to be in 3 years?

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