The ClientWise Blog

Recently I was traveling for business meetings in south Florida, and had an engaging conversation with a very successful advisor. This discussion was enlightening on a broader scale, and the advisor has given his permission to share our thoughts.

Years ago, when financial advisors were known as “stockbrokers” and cold-calling random strangers on the phone was still thought of as the only way to build a business, I knew a branch manager at Paine Webber who taught his rookies a valuable lesson.

Pat Riley said this.

If you know sports and basketball, you know Pat Riley. He’s a former coach and player. He’s now president of the Miami Heat. He’s regarded as one of the best coaches of all time. He’s also a superb motivator, and the source of many inspirational sayings, of which this is one of the best.

Of all of Pat Riley’s achievements, he is not a coach in the ICF sense, i.e. an executive coach credentialed by the International Coach Federation (ICF). Yet this quote pretty much sums up one of the cornerstones of ICF-based coaching.

Moving out of your comfort zone ain’t easy – even for successful financial advisors. That’s why they call it the comfort zone.

Yet, staying put has hidden risks too. That’s the premise of Doug Sundheim’s new book, Taking Smart Risks. 

As he points out, the dangers of staying in your comfort zone aren’t sudden, obvious or dramatic. They are like a really slow leak in your bike tire. You don’t notice it until you are miles down the road.

This Mother’s Day marks the 99^th official celebration of maternity and parenthood.

What are the principal challenges that financial advisors face vis-à-vis their client interactions?

Generally, financial advisors have the best of intentions with respect to their overall client engagement. It seems to be in the “advisor DNA” to want to interact with, and help, their clients. Yet, given the increased demands and stressors that have been placed on financial advisors today, things can fall through the cracks.

What follows is a list (unranked) of the key challenges that financial advisors face when interacting with their clients:

It happens to the most successful financial advisors. You glance at the clock, and it’s already 3 p.m. and you say to yourself… “Where did the day go? I haven’t gotten ANYTHING done!”

Of timely import for successful financial advisors is the recently released research report, “Influencing the Mass Affluent”, jointly produced by LinkedIn and Cogent Research.

The following guest post has been contributed by Jamie Needham, digital-marketing strategist at American Century Investments.

Whether they use it for gathering insights, sharing content with clients, researching prospects or promoting their business, the fact is that successful financial advisors are using social media to grow their business.  And the number of financial professionals doing so is growing each year.  So what is it that advisors are doing on social media? Should you be one of them?

According to the 4^th annual Financial Professionals Social Media Study from American Century Investments, nine out of 10 advisors have a social media profile, and one-third are using it for these specific business purposes:

As a successful financial advisor, have you ever been stuck in the holding pattern of over-preparation?

For example, have you ever:

• Not fully engaged in LinkedIn because your LinkedIn profile wasn’t “just right’?

• Held off on attending a networking function or other event because your elevator pitch wasn’t “perfect”?

• Avoided giving a presentation to a priority prospect because your presentation deck (i.e. pitchbook) needed some tweaking?

• Or something else?

If so, you might be stuck in the over-preparation stage.