Financial services professionals constantly look for ways to stand out among their competitors. Consider the following idea this Valentine’s Day to reach out to your clients. Some of your best clients are widows and widowers. What do these people not get anymore? Flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day. Make an impact – and do something really nice – this Valentine’s Day. Send something to these clients and show them someone cares. Will you get business or referrals from this? Maybe or maybe not, but do it anyway; it’s the right thing to do.

Good selling!

1. Call your ten best clients and tell them you were just wondering how they were doing.
2. Deliver candy/donuts/coffee at a client’s office.
3. Do the same at your local fire department or police station.
4. List your top ten client’s hobbies and interests.  Do a web search and send them an article on topics that interest them.
5. Help sponsor a client’s family reunion. How will you know if a client has a family reunion?  Ask, or have your assistant ask.  Not a bad idea to send a letter to A+ clients asking this question.
6. Sponsor youth teams or events?  Show up at one of their events, encourage the kids, and meet their families.
7. Become a speaker for local civic groups and schools
8. Co-host a “Driver Safety Course” with AARP.  It will save people money on their car insurance, and you get the credit.
9. Host a day-trip for retired clients to area attractions.  Contact a travel agency to set it up, offer it at cost to attendees, and go on the trip.  The travel agency will comp your expenses and you get to spend the day with some of your best clients and prospects.
10. Send $5 gift cards from chain restaurants to your A+ client’s the month of their grandchildren’s birthdays. “Thought you might like to take them out for an ice cream.”
11. Consider tips 1-9 for your assistants. Your assistants can be your best marketing.

Your choice of a financial advisor ranks high upon the list of critical life decisions.  Selection of educational institutions, career, where to live, and family create lifelong consequences.  Choosing a financial advisor often determines what happens to the financial results of those consequences, all the way from financial independence to financial ruin.  Developing a relationship with a financial advisor requires due diligence and review; the advisor that is right for you today may not be the advisor you need in the future.  Consider the following keys to selecting and continuing a relationship with a financial advisor.

Choose An Advisor Whose Practice Is Client-Focused

Advisors who build a business – and it is important to remember that it is their business -  focus on their clients needs; your dreams, goals and objectives.  First, they need to focus on you.  Almost any advisor will spend some time early in an initial interview discussing his or her credentials, (as well they should) but the main focus of every meeting should be the advisor discussing your objectives, your resources, and your outcomes.  Eighty to ninety percent of an initial interview should be devoted to the advisor getting to know your goals and current situation. In addition, any meeting should lead off with a discussion of your objectives, and whether those objectives have changed in any way.

Everyone needs an advisor that is a general practitioner that is willing to use outside resources to help you realize your goals.  However, look deeply at an advisor that attempts to manage client relationships and manage money.  Money management demands an amazing amount of time, education, and expertise.  Rare is the advisor that can do both.  Most advisors are not trained in portfolio management, so look for advisors that know their limitations.  If an advisor states that they are an “investment manager” or “wealth manager” ask for their long term results – in writing.

Look for advisors that use a variety of financial instruments and devices to help clients reach their objectives.  Advisors that focus on one product as a solution to all problems should be avoided, as should advisors that sell primarily proprietary products.  If an advisor with The ABC group offers ABC insurance, ABC mutual funds or separately managed accounts, and ABC annuities – you get the idea – beware.  Does this advisor represent you or ABC?  Also seek advisors who discuss fees without your having to ask.

Choose An Advisor Who Focuses on Your Goals Instead of Products

Any time an advisor makes a recommendation for change, the conversation should begin with a paraphrase of your objectives.  Only after you reaffirm your goals should the advisor discuss the details of changes they propose. If an advisor’s first words focus on a new financial product or service, bring it to their attention, make the advisor tell you why the old solution is broken, and why they changed their opinion of their prior recommendation.

Earlier it was suggested you look for advisors that have broad product offerings.  On the other hand, look for advisors that can tell you specifically what they provide in the way of service.  Avoid advisors that state they specialize in a large list of services.  A brochure that says, “We offer stocks and bonds, mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, long term care, investment advisory services, tax planning, options, retirement planning…” often reveals an advisor who only wants to sell something – anything – to anyone who will buy it from them.

Choose An Advisor Who Offers Exceptional Service

Ask your prospective advisor, “What can I expect from you in the way of service?”  Every client deserves exceptional service.  You should always expect the following at at absolute minimum, regardless of the size of your account:

• Advice based on a comprehensive discussion of your objectives
• Prompt execution of all trades, orders, documents, returns, and applications
• Prompt return (twelve to twenty-four hours; same day for urgent situations) of phone calls and written correspondence
• An annual review face to face review

Instead of telling the advisor what you expect, ask for his/her service proposition, and see if it matches up with your expectations. You want an advisor that regularly communicates with you, as opposed to someone who only calls when they want you to make a buying decision. You should have reasonable service expectations, but if you don’t feel the advisor is as interested in you after you become a client as they were before you became a client, express your feelings and if necessary, change advisors.

Select an advisor that you genuinely like and respect.  While liking an advisor is not a good reason to entrust them with your financial affairs, you want to enjoy the meetings you have with this person who helps guide your financial future.

Beginning or continuing a client-advisor relationship requires homework in the way of research and referral, and an approach based on trust and teamwork.  Do not take this lightly; your future could depend on your decision.

Monday marks the beginning of the end – of the last week of the year.  Financial advisors often complain that nobody wants to do business during the Holiday Season.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  A host of opportunities exist with our clients, including:

• Year-end Portfolio Reviews
• Gift Purchases of Investments and Insurance Products (Hint: Investments are on sale right now!)
• Tax Loss Selling – and Repositioning of Those Assets
• Qualified Plan Sales and Transfers

In addition, make some investments of your own during the next month.  Invest in your best relationships.  Spend time with those individuals and businesses clients that are your best clients and prospects.  Get to know them better.  Make certain you care about them, and just not their business.  In addition, take some time to invest in yourself; hone your sales skills.  Tighten up and refocus your marketing plan for the coming year.  Look for opportunities within your business for client development and improvement of your profitability.  Don’t forget to take time with yourself and your family – the most important investment you make.

Sometimes we earn our money – and sometimes we get paid.  During the next thirty days, earn it.  Consider these ideas to help make next year your best ever.

Good selling!

Last night I enjoyed seeing a real professional at work.  Anne Warfield, CSP addressed the National Speakers Association’s Minnesota Chapter.  Anne is a gifted professional speaker and world-class corporate presentation skills trainer.  Her firm, Impression Management Professionals, says it is “all about how to communicate with candor but without judgment.”  Ann, along with her husband and business partner Paul Cummings, spoke about how they have built their business by providing a uniquely valuable corporate communications service proposition.

Here’s the point: Anne hasn’t just sold speeches and training – she has built a business.  She runs the business; the business doesn’t run her.  IMP utilizes the services of talented professionals within their business to maximize the potential of each client interaction.  This business will outlive Anne and Paul and provide real net worth, and not just an income.

Consider these questions:

• Are you building a business or are you just selling stuff?
• Do you create multiple ways for your clients to utilize your services?
• Do you focus on strategies and solutions or only upon products?
• Have you created a system to continually stay in from of your best prospects and clients using a variety of marketing techniques, or do you only call them when you want to sell something?

Your clients – and your prospects – are dying for an advisor that truly provides services that help them meet their financial objectives.  By building a business that delivers service at multiple levels your clients won’t focus on individual transactions.  So build strategy that meets their needs and helps you grow your business exponentially.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: Anne Warfield, CSP, National Speakers Association, professional speaker, presentation skills, Impression Management Professionals

Believe me; I know it is tough out there right now.  People passed nervous, anxious, and concerned several weeks ago; they are scared to death.  Investors continue to make the fundamental mistakes of buying high and selling low.  Asset allocation has become one hundred percent cash, spread over a large number of financial institutions.  Companies, (which are, oddly enough, made up of people) continue to freeze budgets, choose paralysis, and wait to see what happens next.

What everyone is waiting for will happen before they know it, for this too shall pass.

Make no mistake about it; we have seen a fundamental change in broad asset valuation unlike anything we have seen during our careers.  Mountains of debt and the prospect of parasitic new tax increases loom on the horizon. Earnings drift downward, or in some cases plummet.  Business failures will increase.
So where do we go from here?  Simple – get back on the phone.  Call your best relationships.  Contact new prospects.  Go see someone.  And in all cases, have your story down cold.

Last week I returned to an old discipline – twenty calls per day.  Not everyone was glad to hear from me, but some people were.  The results: four new speaking engagements, and several future commitments.

America, it is time to get back to work.  See the people.  Make some calls.  Ask for the order.  It won’t be easy – it was never easy – but you will open accounts and make sales.  When business returns to normal – if it is ever normal – your sales with grow beyond your wildest dreams, and your competitors will start calling you “lucky.”

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: buying high and selling low, speaking engagements

Yesterday millions of American investors panicked.  Unfortunately, so did many of their advisors.

Whenever the financial markets become volatile, investors have mood swings that exceed the magnitude of the movement in the market. (This goes for upward as well downward volatility.) Most of our clients grew up with depression-era parents.  These people grew up hearing things like “turn out the lights; don’t waste electricity,” and “money doesn’t grow on trees.”  They heard stories about people who “lost everything” although those people really didn’t have much to lose and what they lost was not lost in the market.

In addition, our clients watch the evening news and read the morning paper, and bad news sells.  Headlines included “Depressionary Tales”, “A Year of Losses” and “Stock Market Plunges.”  While it would be ostrich-like to ignore the current market environment, getting caught up in the hysteria of traders is never the right perspective for the astute financial advisor. The question becomes “Where should we direct our focus?”

When advisors conduct client reviews the vast majority of the time spent in the interview is focused on the investments and other financial products. Unfortunately, advisors dedicate very little time to review and adjustment of the client’s goals.  If the strategies utilized fit the client’s goals in the recent past, then what has really changed?  Instead of maintaining focus on the client’s goals, we allow the conversation to focus on prices that are set by traders!  If the client’s goals haven’t changed, then the strategies should not change either.  For example, if a client’s goal is income at a certain point in the future, and you have a solid asset allocation with good money managers, and you employ risk reduction strategies, the short term gyrations in financial markets exacerbated by junior reporters generating unrealistic scare headlines have no bearing on long term outcomes.

I recommend that the first third of a formal client review be dedicated to review of the client’s goals.  Don’t just talk about the numbers; paint the mental picture of what the long term outcome will look like to your client.  Keep them focused on what is really important to them about money, and then discuss the strategies you feel will get them there and why.  Be passionate, and do everything in your power to keep the client from buying high and selling low.  And ask for referrals, even in the face of a bull market.  Your clients know a lot of people just like themselves that want a financial advisor just like you who stays focused on client goals.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: investors panicked

Last week I went to one of my favorite places in the world – a fishing camp in Canada with my boys. While I love my role as a professional speaker and business strategist, it is good to have seven straight free days with no calls and no email. It was bliss.

This camp provides customer service beyond the exceptional. Every detail is focused on the guest. But no business is perfect – mine included. One morning I noticed my boat battery charger was unplugged, so I assumed the on-duty dock attendant (average age for this role is about 19) had forgotten to plug it in the night before. A different attendant was on duty than the night before, so I commented that there might have been an oversight. His comment was, “I wasn’t working last night. My co-worker was on the dock. ” The implication was clear – he was suggesting it wasn’t his fault.

The proper response would have been something like “I’m sorry if your boat wasn’t charged. I’ll ask my coworker about it. Would you have a few minutes for me to charge it now?

I can easily forgive a teenager for this response, but this incident reminded me that too often we don’t take responsibility in our business. If a colleague or the service department fails to deliver, you are the company to the customer – it is your responsibility to see that the problem is fixed. So when a customer encounters a problem, step up, say you are sorry, and do your best to fix it or accommodate the customer – even if it isn’t your fault. Even if the customer isn’t appreciative, you will know you did the right thing, and that always pays off in the long run.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: professional speaker, business strategist, customer service

When we speak of being “over-served” normally we are referring to something that has to do with adult beverages. Not always, however. Tony Pappas represents the best of professional salespeople, and has been a consistent sales leader over a career that spans four decades. Tony wholesales insured investment products for John Hancock, calling upon independent financial advisors. Recently he spoke with one of his best clients, an advisor in Michigan, and Tony asked his client for the secret to his success. The advisor said that one factor in his success was that he consistently over-served his clients. This advisor’s clients received such a high level of service that these clients consistently told their family, friends, business associates, and neighbors about the advisor’s exceptional service.

Tony gave me another example of exceptional service. He took his wife, Judy, to the Capital Grill in Troy, MI for dinner. Capital Grill is a high-end chain restaurant known for exceptional food and premier service. When Tony and Judy arrived for dinner, the server asked if this was a special occasion. Tony responded by telling the server they were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary. The server returned with complementary champagne. In short order a photographer arrived to take a photograph of the Pappas’. The head waiter and general manager soon arrived with greetings and congratulations. When they left the restaurant, the maître d’ presented them with the photograph – framed! Two days later they received a congratulatory card from the restaurant.

Do you think they will go back? Might they recommend Capital Grill to others? I suggest they are enthusiastic customers – for life.

How do you make your clients feel special? What client service touches demonstrate your appreciation for their business and relationship? Would they say you are their only advisor – their advisor of choice? Over-serve your clients, and you will increase your business through repeat sales and non-stop referrals.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: professional salespeople, sales leader, client service

Today I spent my lunch hour with one of my favorite people, author and professional speaker Ross Bernstein. Ross writes some of the absolute best sports books on the market, and his new book, The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules is fantastic. If you like baseball, you have to have to get this book. Ross has written nearly forty books, with titles on every major sport. In addition, Ross rates as one of the best speakers anywhere. With an incredible number of relationships in and stories from college and professional sports, his presentations are always a hit, and he uses his experience to teach powerful business concepts. Check out his website at http://www.bernsteinbooks.com.

Today we as we discussed marketing, I was so impressed by the way Ross is always willing to help his clients by going the extra mile. He always gives more than he is paid for, and the result is a continuous stream of new business. On top of that, Ross contributes significantly to many worthwhile causes that result from his speaking engagements.

When delivering your services, what do you provide over and above your clients’ expectations? Limitless opportunities exist for us to provide service that is exceptional by doing just a little bit more than our clients pay for. Examples of value-added services include:

• Customized portfolio reviews
• Provide books on financial topics
• Shareholder update seminars
• Speaking on financial topics for groups of interest to a client

Examine those little extras you provide to your clients – and think about how you can do even more. This extra effort always produces repeat business and referrals. What makes your service special? Answer that question, and your business will grow as a result of your efforts.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: author, professional speaker, Ross Bernstein, The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules