How to succeed in leading your financial advisor business?

When you start a financial advisor business, it’s easy to get lost in the sales. This leads many times to get into the pattern of working IN your business more than you work ON your business.

But it’s important you understand that your business won’t be truly successful until you can say with confidence that you can take off for a month – or three- and it can operate efficiently without you. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful sales career as a financial advisor. However, to start leading your financial advisor business requires additional planning and a shifted mindset.

You’re not just a salesperson – you’re a leader. So, what exactly do leaders in the financial advisor business do?

Read on to learn how you can build sustainable growth and strengthen your systems to propel your financial advisor business.

 

Invest in Yourself

The old saying goes that you’ll never go broke by investing in yourself.

Successful financial planners that are running a financial advisor business aren’t only well established because they understand the financial sector. What they’re actually doing is embodying leadership qualities. That leads to further their relationship with their clients and their team as a trusted expert.

Leaders are able to articulate a clear vision and showcase that they are strategic financial planners. They can also help people get from where they are to where they want to be.

Investing in your skillset as a leader and in how you can better serve others is the best first step you can take to succeed in leading your financial advisor business.

 

Document Everything

While leading your financial advisor business, it can take some time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. When you find what does, you need to document it in a living, master document (Google Docs with a weekly backup drive works great). That way, junior staff can follow your procedures when caring for your client.

As your business grows, you can make room for your A clients while they service your B, C, and D clients. If you follow these steps, they will do it with the consistent care and communication methods that had them stick with your firm in the first place.

When we speak about your A clients, it’s that niche group that you feel aligned with. You are 100% confident that you can help them. This may look like your everyday investor that values retirement savings and low-risk options that you only check in with once a year. Or, this could be someone who has a more active portfolio that requires comprehensive financial planning.

However, it needs to be more specific than that. What type of person do you like speaking with about business or having at a client event? Perhaps you enjoy helping real estate agents make the most of their commission cheques or lawyers save for their children’s education.

Once you begin to document everything, as your business expands, you can focus on these A clients while your methodologies are being carried out by other members of your team that are available to support your leading financial advisor business.

 

Listen

The key to success in leading your financial advisor business is by listening closely to both your clients and your team for insights to create the best experience. Ask lots of questions and analyze the details of your internal and external processes.

People are coming to you because they already believe you’re an expert. Your job now is to gather as much information as possible to translate that expertise into something that resonates with their specific objectives. Here are some ideas that you can ask your clients to get started.

1. What are your short-term savings goals over the next 1-3 years?
2. What prompted you to sit down with a certified financial planner?
3. What is your current method for managing your finances?
4. How did your parents handle money growing up, and what did you observe about it? How do you think that may impact your views on money today?
5. Is there anything you’re worried about when it comes to your finances? Do you stress about retirement?
6. Do you have any concerns about working with a financial planner or having help with money management?

To create your self-managing financial advisor business, you need to have these questions documented in a CRM. That way, your team can easily access to them when needed.

This will also help you to leverage your team to help your clients, increase productivity, and eliminate overwhelm.

 

Time Blocking

Leading your financial advisor business on a sustainable growth path requires time blocking. This helps you from falling into the overwhelm trap that many financial advisors face. Do you have control of your calendar, or are your clients controlling your day-to-day schedule?

Time blocking is essential to get the deep work done that will put your business on the trajectory you’ve set with your vision, mission, and goal planning. In the next image you can find a great example of time blocking. Here, we show you how to have a mix of client-focused work and buffer time. That will allow you to focus on what will move your business forward.

 

 

 

Automate Your Processes

The fastest way to achieve a self-managing financial advisor business is to automate your processes by leveraging both your team and technology. A CRM is a great place to start storing personal and financial information about your clients. Here, you can include their goals, and what products/services you’re currently working with.

From there, you can have an email automation set up that sends a quick happy birthday note. Also remind you to give them a quarterly update on their portfolio. You could even send a card for a momentous occasion too.

By listening to your clients’ goals you are creating the space to do the deep work required to propel your business forward. When you do this, you are acting as a leader within your financial advisor business, which will bring you fulfillment and success.

Are you leading your financial advisor business by your values, vision, mission and purpose?

Without taking this step, you’ll find your marketing and customer service initiatives struggle with a lack of direction.

Our One Page Business Plan helps you leverage your greatest asset and write a clear, concise plan that can set the foundation for your business.