An affluent client will appreciate that you have a system, or process, that sets you apart from your competitors.
Stephen D. Gresham, executive vice president of the Private Client Group for Phoenix Investment Partners Ltd., is the author of Attract and Retain the Affluent Investor: Winning Tactics for Today's Financial Advisor. He is currently working on a book of best practices for advisors and brokers, from which this article was excerpted.
Lessons From The Industry's Mega-Advisors
After developing their $1 billion to $25 billion fee-based practices, many of the profession's largest advisors wished they had done certain things differently. What were those things? What can you learn from them? How can you emulate the "best of the best" to expand your business? They didn't develop their businesses by accident; nor should you.
Having interviewed many of the world's mega-advisors about how they created their world-class businesses, I discovered many key elements to their success. We discussed a host of topics, including: business philosophies, attracting and retaining high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth clients, practice-management considerations and technology.
Their approaches and practices were substantially different from the vast majority of average advisors. Let's outline some of the key findings regarding their practice management issues.
The majority of those interviewed said that in their earlier years of production (all had started as retail brokers), their businesses developed in a haphazard manner.
They lacked a systematic plan for business development that, in hindsight, they wished they had implemented.
Their failure to plan and address key business-development issues decidedly slowed their business growth and allowed otherwise avoidable problems to occur.
Only a few had any predefined plan regarding exactly when they would add additional staff members or partners.