Three Ways to Break Through to the Next Level of Success – Episode 49
CEG Insights recently interviewed more than 1,000 elite financial advisors to answer a vital question: What are the top advisors in our industry doing that sets them apart and empowers them to succeed at such a high level?
Here’s what we found—along with strategies to implement that can put you on a path to the next level of success.
Optimize your core
- Segment to focus on higher net worth clients. Advisors often have too many sub-$500,000 accounts clogging their capacity and making it harder to service the people they really want to attract. Some of those clients might be better served by junior advisors within your firm, while it might make sense to transfer others to an outside advisor who is better suited to work with them. Still others may have significant assets spread out among several advisors. Capturing more of their assets may make sense.
- Get to know clients’ heirs. It’s really critical to develop a relationship with the next generation, ideally when those heirs are in their mid-20s. We find that by the time they get into their late 20s or early 30s, they’ve found their own advisors, and they don’t have any need for you. But if you get to know them earlier and build that relationship, you can better maintain that relationship as they get older and more successful—and become ideal clients for your practice.
- Adopt efficiency tools. Advisors often hesitate to use new technology. But by failing to do so, they become less efficient. They can’t use their team as effectively and they can’t prospect as effectively. AI is a game-changer here, in that it can help you do certain tasks in half the time it takes you to do them currently—such as automated meeting set-up, or meeting summaries. Commit to piloting an AI-based project in the next 90 days and see what happens.
Accelerate your growth
You’ve got to be systematic about getting referrals. That means not just asking for them but also tracking them and acknowledging them. A full 63% of all advisors told us they have a program for referrals, but 47% admit that their follow-up is shaky. That’s not being systematic. In stark contrast, 77% of the advisors earning $1 million or more have a documented process.
A real opportunity here with the metrics is the tracking. How successful is your referral program? How do you know that somebody’s being followed up on in a timely manner? There are so many technology tools now that enable you to systematize the referral process.
Important: When you get a referral, say thank you to the source. It’s such a small thing, but it’s really important—and it gets overlooked all the time.
Future-proofing your business
This strategy also involves your existing clients’ heirs and bringing them into the fold early on. Top advisors have, essentially, an “heir engagement playbook” that allows them to build relationships with clients’ children and grandchildren. Their playbooks call for conducting family meetings at which topics like financial values are discussed along with more typical financial issues.
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