By Daniel C. Finley
Being a bear market adviser is no easy task. You are constantly faced with challenges that you may not have had in good times. It's what you do with these challenges that can make all the difference in your business today, tomorrow and for years to come. Remember, tomorrow's results are a function of today's actions.
Where are you placing your energies and concentration? Are you seeing opportunities to build a better business beyond the current bear market, or are you losing your sense of motivation and confidence as a result of the market's fluctuations, your clients' fears and your own anxieties? If you answered the latter, it is time to go beyond the bear market.
History shows us that all bear markets eventually end, just as all bull markets eventually end. Now, the real question is: Where will you be when it is over? If you wish to have more clients and assets under management, then apply these seven strategies for success.
Strategy 1: Master Your Headspace
Any good coach will tell you that if his players do not have their heads in the game, they have already lost. Your business is no different. You must know your purpose, show up every day with a game plan and be ready to be thrown off guard by life's little interruptions such as market fluctuations, client servicing issues and even your own negative inner dialogue. You must have a strategy to keep your head in the game at all times to win the game of success.
Strategy 2: Master Your Goals
To help you succeed, you must master your goals. Goals are merely a wish list if they are not put into action. It is that simple. But, how do you take a lofty annual goal and turn it into reality?
Compartmentalizing your goals is the first step to success. Dividing your annual goals into quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily and then finally hourly goals turns an enormous task into a very doable one; one that you can accomplish. Sustaining your hourly goals is just a function of anchoring them-creating strong enough reason to accomplish them and strong enough reason not to avoid accomplishing them.
Strategy 3: Master Your Time
To help you accomplish your goals, you must master your time. In this business, there are two things that you can never get back once you have lost them: your license and your time.
There are two steps to mastering time management. First, mastering the structure of your day and second mastering your interruptions. The former is done by having a daily scorecard-a daily record of activities that you do in order to stay on pace with your daily and hourly goals.
Not all daily scorecards are right for all advisers. If you are left-brained (very analytical), you may want a lot of detail recording dials, contacts, appointments set, etc. If you are right-brained (very creative), you may want a very basic daily scorecard, such as the Advisors Solutions' "bottom-line" list, a tool I created, that is a record of the five most important bottom-line activities that you need to accomplish every day, such as prospect/client servicing, and getting ready for or attending appointments, just to name a few.
Once you have the list, prioritize it and add a time-blocking sheet to it so you build continuity in your day. Now, anchor your goals by using positive rewards to accomplishing four out of five bottom-line activities, or use negative punishments if you don't accomplish them by the end of the day.
Once you have your structure by using a daily scorecard or bottom-line list, you will need help with the inevitable-managing interruptions. The secret to managing interruptions is to prioritize each interruption immediately after being interrupted. All interruptions are not important and urgent, and as a result you do not need to take care of them the minute they come in. Using the Advisor's Solutions' "time matrix" to-do list-a list with four columns, each signifying a level of importance-will help you prioritize interruptions easily.
Strategy 4: Master Your Prospecting
When the market turns around, you will want to have more ideal clients. The only way to do this is to prospect daily! There is no getting around it.
I believe that the most important bottom-line activity to start your day with is adding more ideal prospects to your pipeline and moving prospects through your pipeline. But, how do you prospect in a bear market? First, you get your headspace in line. Second, you determine your goals and anchor them. Third, you use the bottom-line list or some another form of daily scorecard. Fourth, you find your prospecting strength and you master it.
If you are a great speaker, do seminars. If you are a great networker, schedule time to go to networking events. If you built your business cold calling, go back to the basics and start calling your target market. Use your strengths to accomplish your goals. If you don't feel you have a prospecting strength, it's time to get the technical expertise you need to get results.
Strategy 5: Master Your Client Servicing System
Going beyond the bear market is about mastering key facets of your business so that you are more effective. Mastering your client servicing system is important because you need to not only keep your clients, but to keep them happy during difficult times.
If you think clients will leave you just because of poor returns, think again. Clients know that the market is bad, and they know that their statements are probably down, but they stay or leave you because of the service you provide.
To master your client servicing system, segment your book by A, B and C clients. Determine your client servicing levels and what you will do for each type of client. Automate your client servicing levels in your contact management system and announce your increased client servicing to your current and new clients. This will ensure that you do in fact give an increased level of service that your competition does not.
Strategy 6: Master Your Sales Skills
The saying, "People hate to be sold, but they love to buy" holds true in any market.
Mastering your sales skills is not about learning how to manipulate prospects and clients. Instead, it is about how to uncover financial challenges and present your financial solutions. The key to doing so effectively is to master questions-based selling, a system for asking better questions so that you can uncover clients' situations, problems, implications of not addressing problems and their need for your services.
In addition, you must master the objection, which is a natural part of the sales process. To do so, use a system such as the objection-resolutions model, which is the following four-step process to handle objections:
- Show empathy/acknowledgement
- Best question (to question their belief system about the objection)
- Three benefits
- Close
Finally, you must master the close. If you have asked the right questions and helped clients overcome their objections, then the close will be a natural next step. One of the best closes I have ever heard is called the "ultimate close," which is simply asking for the order: "Are you comfortable moving ahead?"
Strategy 7: Master the Journey
It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. In 1994, a branch manager told me, "Enjoy the journey; it will be over before you know it." During that year, when all was doom and gloom, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.14 percent. Many thought the sky was falling and all would be lost. As you know, the following five years were amazing, followed by three difficult years and the cycle went on and on.
My point is that this too shall pass. You will find yourself in better markets, but why not build a better business in the mean time.
Mastering the journey is about finding more effective ways to work on your business while you are working in your business. Apply these seven strategies for success and go beyond the bear market.
Daniel C. Finley is the president of Advisor Solutions Inc., a business development consulting and coaching service for financial advisers, and creator of The Advisor Solutions System, a 24-week group coaching program. Contact him at dan@advisorsolutionsinc.com.
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Tools to Use
Has the market got you down? Do you need a little confidence boost? Sign up for author and business coach Daniel Finley's free Monday Morning Motivational e-mail at www.advisorsolutionsinc.com/free.html and get the weekly affirmation you're looking for.
Sample Lists
To receive samples of the Advisor Solutions' bottom-line list and time matrix to-do list mentioned in this article, e-mail Dan Finley at dan@advisorsolutionsinc.com.
