Easter has come and Passover is ongoing for those who celebrate those holidays. We attend Wooddale Church, a large congregation in Eden Prairie, MN, and we enjoyed a beautiful, inspiring, joyful Easter Service of celebration. For the Easter services, the traditional choir of about 60 people was joined by an orchestra of some 30+ people. As worshipers came in to take their seats these musicians were busy; very busy!

Musicians learn their art over many years. They have practiced and rehearsed. Prior to the beginning of the Prelude, the members of the orchestra engaged in their warmup, running through major scales, listening to their intonations, oblivious to the person in the chair next to them. Each member of the orchestra does their own thing to get ready for the performance. Listening to the noise they make is almost unbearable to the untrained ear. Everyone playing different scales, doing different things, warming up on their own. What one hears certainly cannot be called music, but rather it can be described as a racket! However, once the conductor raised the baton, the orchestra members gave him their full attention. Everyone was on the same page. Instruments were raised, and the first notes flowed out together. The music produced was inspiring, reverent… beautiful!

Often, running your business and making it successful is very similar to conduction a symphony orchestra. Like the musicians and the conductor, we learn our craft. We teach and train our teams. We continue to practice, prepare, and rehearse. And yes, we warm up for the week ahead. Monday mornings, like the symphony, often appear unorganized as people come together. People scurry here and there. Once everyone gets their coffee, greets their coworkers, and arranges their workspace. It’s time to start the performance. Whether you do it with a Monday morning meeting, or with a carefully designed business process and workflow, it is no different than the conductor who raises the baton. You are the conductor of the symphony called “Your Business.”

Make certain your team continues to train, rehearse, and prepare. Insist on constant, never ending improvement, which is “The Way of the Professional.” This applies to each member of the team; most of all to you. As does the conductor, lift your baton, lead from the front, and make professional music that benefits all who hear it!

“Work Hard & Have Fun!™”

Advisors frequently struggle with client reviews in three ways:

1. Preparing For Reviews
2. Getting Clients To COME IN for The Review
3. Generating Additional Business & Referrals From The Review

Client reviews provide tremendous benefit to the client and to you when executed properly. Consider the following tips to help your clients – and you – get the maximum benefit from regular client reviews.

1. Plan Ahead: Prepare a written Client Meeting Agenda; we will circle back to this at the end of the end of this post.
2. Focused Goals Review & Affirmation: Revisit the WHY’s of previous meetings. Make certain the client’s goals have not changed.
3. Develop Client-Specific Benchmarks: Clients should have non-performance related goals, such as annual saving targets, increasing income with inflation, creating/maintaining/growing emergency funds, will reviews, etc. It makes no sense to use performance as the sole or leading benchmark. Furthermore, the S&P500 as the primary benchmark is only appropriate if the clients goals indicate 100% investment in a broad range of stocks. Create customized Personal/Family/Business Benchmarks, of which performance is only one element, and then the performance benchmark will be a blend or series of different indices and/or benchmarks.
4. Review Past Decisions: This section reviews past planning decisions, risk management steps, and risk-adjusted performance of portfolios in light of the customized benchmarks.
5. Where We Go From Here: Changes and additions to existing plans, products, and services.
6. Building A List Of To-Do’s: Product/Service changes, additions, & replacements. Collaborative plans to meet with other associated professionals on behalf of the client. Service items.
7. Setting The Next Review Date: Dentists do it. Oil Change Services do it. YOU do it.

Building a Client Meeting Agenda involves the previous seven points, plus one additional item:

A List Of People To Whom You Wish To Be Referred

When client reviews are executed properly, this last item is almost a given. Advisors regularly get three to ten referrals using this strategy. Review your client agenda meeting protocol to maximize the value of your meetings, your relationships, and your business.

Work Hard & Have Fun!™

Wholesalers face aggressive activity objectives. Today’s standard is 25 in-person contacts per week. When covering larger geographies this proves challenging. As a result of insufficient scheduling, some wholesalers stop at an advisor’s office after calling to say, “Hey, I’m just down the street…” or – even worse – totally unannounced. “Do you have a few minutes?” turns into 30- 60 minutes. The wholesaler attempts to tell his or her story with little regard for the schedule of the advisor.

Recently a coaching client called me about a wholesaler dropping in unannounced and sucking up an hour of his Associate Advisor’s time. This wholesaler has a quality product, but my client called the wholesaler and advised him not to call or come back. You might ask if this is a little drastic; maybe so.  However, my client was waiting on a report that was to be prepared by the associate – and the report was late. Not only did my client fire the wholesaler, but he had to deal with a delayed meeting because the associate tried to be courteous to the wholesaler.

Are Drive-By’s ever appropriate? Possibly when dropping off a promotional item ONLY or to introduce oneself and schedule a future appointment. However, if a wholesaler expects the advisor to have empty time in his or her calendar because the wholesaler has empty time, the situation is totally unprofessional.

FOR ADVISORS: Be jealous with your time. Give wholesalers your “ground rules” for meeting. And be on time when you have a meeting scheduled with the wholesalers. Their time is as valuable as yours.

FOR WHOLESALERS: Schedule in advance. Use a scheduler. Set your next meeting at the conclusion of this meeting. And always be a pro.

Good Selling!