A financial advisor has many different responsibilities. First, an advisor needs to take multiple exams to get the appropriate licenses. Once they are approved an advisor needs to build a client base, learn each individuals’ life goals, and choose appropriate investments through holistic financial planning. These challenges are a big reason for the high turnover rate within the industry. What steps can an advisor take to overcome these challenges? How can they run a successful business?
Check out the advice below that aims to simplify the life of a financial advisor:
Make Prospecting Your Top Priority
As a financial advisor you will be expected to wear many hats. To build your book of business you need to use a combination of marketing and sales skills. Figuring out how to get in front of the RIGHT individuals is half the battle. In this day and age, digital advertising is paramount. Promoting prospecting events over social media (within the limits of your firm’s rules!) can attract the right individuals for your business. Don’t forget about “old-school” word of mouth prospecting. Getting referrals from close friends, family members and current clients is a great method to attract new clients.
Entertainment Opens Doors!
Putting on great client events is crucial for building your client base. It may help you as an advisor to attend a few of these events yourself to see what works and what does not. Ideally, you want an event that your clients and potential referrals will WANT to attend, while you as an advisor will get the chance to interact with the attendees. One proven game plan for a successful event is to have an expert guest speaker create a presentation around a timely topic. Some common venues used for a client events include: restaurants for dinners and cocktail hours, golf/tennis outings and sporting events. Many advisors prefer events that have receptions, as this makes it easier to mingle with prospects and clients.
It is important advisors also adapt to the technology age that we are all living in. As future generations mature, prospecting through virtual events and advertising will be crucial for a financial advisor’s success. In the future, expect advisors to do more video call meetings and less face to face meetings. Creating a consistent game plan to build a practice virtually will be needed for new advisors to succeed. Companies like AdvisorEngine are working to help advisors manage their business online in a more efficient way.
Listen To Your Client Base
Once you have established a solid client base, it is important to keep your foot on the gas! Make sure you are allocating the proper amount of time to meet with ALL of your clients. Most advisors like to meet with clients at least quarterly to engage in an investment review. Top clients may attract extra attention to meet their planning needs.
While it is important to educate yourself on the capital markets, the days of being solely a stock/bond picker are dwindling away. Holistic financial planning has been a growing trend among many successful advisors. While some may roll their eyes at this buzzword, few will argue it is one of the most important aspects for advisors to use with each one of their clients. It is important for an advisor to truly get to know their own clients. They need to familiarize themselves with a client’s lifestyle and learn what is REALLY important to each client. From there, a good advisor will devise a personalized financial plan based on the information they gathered from their client. WARNING: If a client feels like an advisor is not listening to them, they will leave for another advisor!
Organization
Creating a system to keep yourself organized is vital for any wealth manager. Having assistants that can manage a calendar will really help an advisor allocate their time more efficiently. If an advisor feels their time is being stretched thin across their own client base, they should consider partnering with another advisor. A lot of the largest wealth managers have an entire team that is dedicated to help support their clients’ needs.
In the digital age, it is very important for advisors to have a reliable CRM tool to keep track of their book of business. Thankfully, advisors now have the ability to use specialized wealth management software. AdvisorEngine offers financial advisors an integrated platform to help manage their client’s assets. What separates AdvisorEngine from its competitors is that the platform is multi-faceted, handling client relationship management, portfolio management, reporting, CRM, compliance and marketing.
AdvisorEngine offers advisors a CRM for Financial Advisors called Junxure. So far, over 1,400 financial firms have trusted Junxure as their CRM of choice, and Junxure has received a 98% score in customer satisfaction. In a difficult environment for financial advisors, the Junxure CRM platform is a useful organizational and analytical tool for present day financial advisors.