Good luck. The new financial advisor will need to be MUCH smarter than the advisor from 10 or 20 years ago and will need to be a MUCH better marketer.
The financial advising business will get tougher. Why?Because your prospects are getting smarter. Are you getting smarter, too? Fifteen years ago, stockbrokers had an edge in that people had to call them for midday stock quotes. Financial professionals also had an edge, as they had product information and the prospect did not. That’s all changed. If all you’ve got is product information, your days are numbered. The new financial advisor will soon be the ex-financial advisor.
The broader your knowledge base, the more you stay one step ahead of your prospects. As they get smarter, so must you. If you stay wedded to selling only one product, don’t be surprised if it gets harder to do business. People want advice. Not product advice, but rather, financial advice. Start giving it and start charging for it! (Addressed in a future post - subscribe to this blog.)
This is the millennium of self-learning. Those new financial advisor who continually expands his knowledge base and apply what he has learned will win. Sadly, those who tread in one place will lose. The most important word in this paragraph is "apply" as in a future post, we will address the fallacy that "knowledge is power" and uncover the truth that "applied knowledge is power."
If you think that tax issues are for CPAs and legal issues are for lawyers, you’re mistaken. Some of the top financial advisors I know have far more expertise in their field than the average CPA or attorney. And they use that knowledge to attract business. After all, anything that anyone knows can be found in book or on the Internet. The resources to learn anything are at your fingertips and at your prospect's fingertips. Therefore, they don't need the new financial advisor for information because they can get information for free anytime.
If you have been lazy in seeking out experts, then I guess you have some work to do. No one will call you up to give you the answers. The answers are there, however, for the taking. Million-dollar producers are self-learners. And any new financial advisor that does not continually expand his knowledge of personal finance, his sales skills, communication and psychology, will die in this business. If a big producer wants to be an expert in direct mail, he reads books on direct mail and consults with an expert. In a short time, he too is an expert. And he makes profit with direct mail. Are you willing to "seek" so you shall "find?"
As an example, one new financial advisor wanted to become an expert speaker. He saw that speaking was a way to reach a lot of prospects and quickly build his business with seminars and presentations. He had no speaking experience so he called the National Speakers Association and asked them to recommend their best coach. He called the coach and was told she charged $7,500 for two-and-a-half days of coaching. Most new financial advisors would have been intimidated by the cost. But here’s how big producers think: “I invest $7,500. I can earn an extra $10,000 per seminar. This is a great investment. Let’s proceed.”
But learning by itself is not enough. The fallacy in our culture is that knowledge is power. Not true. Applied knowledge is power. More accurately: Applied knowledge = money.
Let me share an example. Plenty of CPAs know more than you do about IRA distribution rules. But in the last few months, one new financial advisor took what he knew, arranged it into a system to fill a seminar room and has so far earned over $100,000 by "applying" his knowledge of IRA distribution rules. The knowledge by itself was worthless until he packaged into something other people valued and marketed it.
New financial advisors--welcome!
This post provided by Javelin Marketing.
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