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 clients 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.

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

Comprehensive practice management

What is the probability of success in reaching your business goals with your current business plan? 70-80%? Does it cover all areas of practice management? If you would like a questionnaire on practice management to help you answer this question, go to my website www.advisorpracticemanagement.com or click here https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/coaching

Let’s talk

If any of this resonates with you, let’s have a brief discussion on what’s holding you back from accomplishing more in 2019? No obligation, If you want to build your ideal practice, acquire more ideal clients, deliver more value to your best clients, become an elite advisor with and ideal business or run your financial advisory practice more effectively, then click on the link to set up a call, https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat to help you get clarity around your future business plans.
or email me at grant@ghicks.com

“ Helping Financial Advisors take action, to create 10,000 comprehensive financial and investment plans for their clients”. Ask your clients and prospects this question " What does a comprehensive financial and investment plan mean to you?

Let’s work on your business together. Email us for your copy of our "Exclusive prospecting strategy checklist, or fee audit guide" to acquiring more ideal clients. Email grant@ghicks.com

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

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Practice management is about process, process, process