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!