We’ve learned that delivering consistency offers us two huge benefits: First, it helps set us apart from every other firm. I don’t have to tell you that there’s little consistency in our industry. Big-box brokerage firms have thousands of advisors, and they deliver wildly inconsistent advice. On any given day, one broker might tell a client to sell a stock that another broker is touting as a buy. Brokers in a given office might be pitching an annuity while others pitch non-traded REITs, municipal bonds or mutual funds.
The lack of consistency, revealed at dinner parties, at kids’ soccer games and on the golf course, leaves every client confused and all of them wondering if any of the advice emanating from that firm is reliable. Compared to that, it’s easy for us to look good.
The second benefit of consistency: It makes our operation scalable. When you’re consistent, you don’t merely do something for one client; you can do it for hundreds, even thousands of clients (in our case, 30,000 of them). We stress scalability, and we can’t be scalable if we aren’t consistent.
If you want your firm to grow, focus on delivering consistency.
Ric Edelman, chairman and CEO of Edelman Financial Services LLC, a registered investment advisor, is an investment advisor representative who offers advisory services through EFS and is a registered principal offering securities through SMH. Advisory services offered through Edelman Financial Services LLC. Securities offered through Sanders Morris Harris Inc., an affiliated broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RicEdelman. Follow him on Twitter at @RicEdelman.