How much money did you pocket in 2013? How much money are you planning to take home this year? We find a large percentage of financial advisors are strongly motivated to be more economically successful in 2014 than they were in 2013. If you’re one of these financial advisors, please read on.
Let’s start with the complications. The desire by financial advisors to do better—let alone become exceedingly successful in 2014—faces some serious headwinds. Many of them believe:
There are unlikely to be bull markets that are going to drive the growth of assets under management. Thus, financial advisors simply cannot expect increases in the value of assets to bolster their revenues. The consequence of this perspective is that they’re either going to have to bring in new assets or brilliantly outperform the market.
More diverse professionals will be offering the same products and services. It’s as if everyone is able to offer the same array of services as everyone else, which is true more than not. This will increase the amount and even the level of competition for better clients.
Clients are going to be more circumspect and demanding. Especially since 2008, clients of all stripes are increasingly questioning their financial advisors and wanting more. The result is that financial advisors will usually have to deliver more, including more of their time. Concurrently, clients are often pushing down fees.
There are other factors that will be deleterious to the profit-producing ability of financial advisors. When you put them all together, the picture for financial advisors is not all that rosy. But it’s far from “hitting the iceberg” bad.
For those financial advisors who know what to do (a large majority) and are able to implement well (a small minority), the current and probably future environment is and will be a boon for their businesses. While most financial advisors will be scrambling and are likely to find success beyond their grasp, the astute ones will be capitalizing on the situation and thereby profiting handsomely. Clever and capable financial advisors will be able to benefit from these circumstances to garner the lion’s share of the superior business opportunities.
It’s important to note that we’re not talking just about know-how. What to do is fairly simple and, we’re confident, most financial advisors are well versed in what they have to do to be successful. We’re not even talking about the mind set and specific behaviors that are involved. While these thought processes and actions are probably less pervasively recognized, cognitive awareness of what to do remains insufficient.
Effective implementation is essential to becoming exceedingly successful. With information very often free, the ability to take the information and adroitly leverage it is what will enable you to be one of the big winners in this increasingly hyper-competitive environment. With information being free, let’s discuss the four sets of behaviors required for you to become exceptionally successful and probably somewhat if not very wealthy.
Four Critical Sets Of Behaviors
When it comes right down to it, to be exceedingly successful as a financial advisor requires you to implement four sets of behaviors fairly well. They are:
1. Deliver high-quality services and products to clients.
2. Manage your practice profitably.
3. Ensure there’s chemistry between you and prospects (and subsequently clients).
4. Source high-caliber prospects on a preferential basis.
Let’s delve into each of these four things.