Recent years have been challenging. Pressing forward, it is time to get a refocused client acquisition for advisors.
The fact of the matter is that it should not take a new year to come up with goals to accomplish. In fact, we believe that goals are a result of a lack of process. Yes you can aim to acquire 10 clients in 2020 but what are the steps you are going to take to accomplish it? Make more calls? Ask for more referrals? Hold more seminars? What are you going to do? Rather than come up with a number, come up with a process that works for you and the team.
Every year is the same thing for millions across the country. Look to your local gym on January 2nd and you will see the parking lot packed to the gills with the goal setters that typically taper off in 1-3 months. DO NOT BE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE! They rely on goals rather than processes. The goal is just the end result of a process. It is much easier to alter a process to obtain the desired result rather than alter the desired number.
If you admit to yourself that you are finding it difficult to come up with a prospecting process, goal, or even where to start, the team at Odegee Data has your back! Along with industry leading data, insights and actionable information specifically intended and designed for financial advisors, the most valuable service we bring is the proactive support:
- Monthly proactive support and idea calls to track progress, pipeline and ensure you are on the right track
- Feedback from you to see what additional features would benefit you the most
- 7-Day dedicated support for whenever you decide to market or prospect
- Ideas other advisors have leveraged to win more business
As financial advisors, we rightfully put ourselves between clients and just about everything else. You want to help your clients make the right decision for them and their future. They trust YOU to keep their best interests in mind. They also want you to become a sounding board for ideas while providing honest, straightforward feedback.
If you work at a larger firm, you know exactly what we are talking about when your client receives a piece of mail or correspondence without your knowledge or approval, leaving you the one to answer for it. It is frustrating, unprofessional and downright embarrassing. It leads us to become more protective and micro managerial of our clients.
We need to control every little detail to ensure they are receiving the best experience in an increasingly competitive space. We understand this but know that asking for help when it comes to prospecting will open up new doors of revenue for you.
Prospecting is a time consuming but potentially revenue producing activity. Every day that goes by you don’t add someone to your pipeline, the more it sets you back from growing. This is a problem. Admit it, sometimes it is beneficial to have someone light a fire under where it will make you move a little faster and with purpose. This is what we do to support you. We know you want to grow, we know you want a better life, you just need to ask us for help!
Whether or not is is the Odegee Team you decide to work with to find and acquire more clients, make sure you are at least receiving this when interviewing others to support you:
- What is their background? Do they have experience in this field? Do they know what challenges I am facing?
- Are they asking the right questions to understand my business, direction and market?
- Are they familiar with where the industry is going or at least have an opinion on it?
- Can I easily contact you with questions, support or to act as a sounding board for ideas?
- Do you truly care about the success of my practice or am I just another number?
Whoever you decide to potentially bring on as a partner or platform, make sure they have YOUR best interests in mind!
Another mistake we commonly make is that we do not let others know what we are planning to do! Share your desired results with others around you and you are more likely to fulfill those results based on outside perception. You do not want to disappoint those you have shared your goals with.
Building a process is much easier when working backwards. We suggest you read this article we put together on helping break down a desired end result.
- Are you happy with the last few years of business development?
- Is your book currently growing with new clients? What channels are these coming through?
- How much time do I spend on marketing, servicing & administrative tasks?
- Can I delegate energy draining, lower producing activities to someone else?
- Are systems that are in place helping or hurting my growth?
- Am I willing to invest in new resources and technology in order to grow?
This is just a sample of the questions you should be asking yourself. You will know after the first question whether or not you are on the right path or not. Either way, you should begin to develop a scalable, repeatable and time saving process you can use to acquire more business. Investing in simple to understand and operate systems and technology will be able to provide more time for you to focus on growth and the servicing of your current client base.