By Daniel C. Finley
Financial advisers often ask me what it takes to get beyond mediocrity. After spending thousands of hours in coaching sessions with advisers, I have seen a pattern of skill sets common to very successful advisers.
Intention Skills
Success is rarely an accident. Instead, it happens to those who know what they want out of their business, map out the steps to get there and consistently work toward their goals. What I refer to as "intention skills" are not limited to big-picture thinking, but include the small details that are sometimes more vital.
For example, take Samantha, who for most of her career had simply wished and hoped that she could take her business to the next level, until she increased her intention skills by writing down a clear vision of what she believed her business could be and what it would take to get it there. This included everything from the types of clients she desired to a minimum account size and the services she could provide. By beginning with the desired outcome in mind and mapping out the steps to obtain those results, she left nothing to chance and instead created a step-by-step guide for her own success. The days of winging it were gone. As a result, she attracted more assets in a single month than she had in a single year.
Listening Skills
Some financial advisers like to talk more than listen. However, to have something meaningful to say to clients or prospects, you must acknowledge the situation, diagnose any challenges by listening to what they share with you and then be able to offer your solutions. Clearly, highly developed listening skills are a must for all financial advisers.
An example of someone who struggled with this was Paul, a financial adviser client of mine who often dominated his client meetings and rarely effectively listened to what clients had to say. He didn't realize how important listening was to making a better connection until we began working together. In coaching sessions we focused on drills where he would ask me questions, listen for the challenges and then offer his expertise and advice. This improved his listening skills as well as his intention skills, and now he goes into every appointment with the intent to understand clients or prospects and not overwhelm them with what he has to say.
Questioning Skills
Successful financial advisers know the power of well-thought-out questions. Good questions form the backbone of a great discovery process, because they serve as the foundation for uncovering the situation, the problem with the situation, the implication of not fixing the problem and the value of having the solution. Questions also play a pivotal role in helping clients and prospects want to "buy," instead of being "sold."
Cynthia, an adviser with 27 years of experience, recently realized she was trying to "sell" prospects and clients her recommendations instead of helping them understand what they needed and why they should want to "buy" her recommendations. This is a common challenge for many advisers, because it's easy to jump into a presentation explaining your recommendations without first taking the time to help clients or prospects understand the challenges they face and how you can help.
To help Cynthia with her questioning skills, we did a simple exercise. We took her recommendations for her next closing appointment, mapped out the benefits of each recommendation, identified the challenges these solutions would address and designed questions to help the prospect realize that he has these challenges. In other words, instead of telling the prospect what to do, she asked a series of questions to help him understand his challenges. This helped the prospect realize he needed a solution; after this realization occurred, Cynthia offered and explained her recommendations.
If this sounds like a lesson in increasing one's sales skills, you are right. Knowing how to help prospects or clients understand their needs by asking questions and presenting them with the solutions are sales skills that have transformed the businesses of many financial advisers.
Delegation Skills
Running any business can seem like a daunting task if you have a problem delegating. Conversely, all successful financial advisers I have worked with have sharpened their delegation skills at some point in their careers to allow others to do the tasks that they should not. This allows advisers to free up their time to do what they need to do-build, manage and maintain the business.
A good example of this is Alex, a 10-year veteran adviser who recently admitted he was overwhelmed with his business. We identified the types of tasks he was taking on by having him draw three columns, labeling them: "Tasks only I can do," "Tasks my assistant and I can do," and "Tasks only my assistant should do." After doing this exercise, his task list was cut in half! He realized he was doing a lot of his assistant's work because he just didn't want to let go, but by keeping control he was actually less productive. Now he has a better system, less anxiety and more free time to build his business.
Client Management Skills
Clients are the backbone of any successful business, and that's why I am very passionate about prospecting. However, attracting more clients-even qualified clients- is not always a surefire way of succeeding unless you can manage the clients you already have.
Consider Bill, a 20-year veteran with more than 500 clients. During a coaching session he expressed frustration and anxiety with his clients. "They run me ragged," he said. Each day, Bill was faced with countless emails, voicemails and phone calls. When I asked about the nature of most of these correspondences he admitted it was his clients reacting to the market. Ironically, Bill was the cause. In good times, he would call specific clients and ask, "Have you seen the market today?" Then he'd make a recommendation that seemed to be time sensitive. He didn't realize he was actually training his clients to be reactive, and as a result, many would follow the market on a daily basis and call him every time they became concerned.
After several sessions of role playing, we crafted a dialogue to help retrain him and his clients to have a more long-term investment approach. Over time, he incorporated this script into his client calls and transformed his business into a solid financial planning model.
Getting beyond mediocrity takes an increased awareness that what got you to this point in your business may not be enough to help you get to the next level. Instead, you may need to sharpen your skills. Start by identifying what areas of your business you feel are lacking and seek out the solutions. Then, apply those solutions on a daily basis. You will soon find you have sharpened your business-building skills to create the success you deserve.
Daniel C. Finley is a former adviser and current president of Advisor Solutions Inc., a business development consulting and coaching service for financial advisers. Contact him at dan@advisorsolutionsinc.com or type "Advisor-Solutions" on Facebook.
