BachrachBlog

2. Are you comfortable asking for referrals? If you’re great at what you do, you won’t be uncomfortable asking people to introduce you to others. You’d never hear someone say, “I’m a great pilot, but I wouldn’t want to ask anybody to fly with me.” When I was single, I noticed that my most attractive friends were always comfortable approaching someone they wanted to meet, and they always got a great response. In the most extreme cases, they didn’t even have to do the approaching—people would just find them. If nobody’s finding you, maybe you’re not as attractive as you think you are. Do your clients make excuses when you ask them for referrals? Do you they tell you, “I don’t know anybody who’s looking right now, but if I come across someone, I’ll let you know. Why don’t you give me a couple of your cards?”

Basically, there are three ways to build a business in the financial services industry.  What kind of business are you running? Here’s a three-step litmus test to help you find out.

1. How full is your appointment calendar? Are you spending your time prospecting and marketing because you’re not earning the referrals you’d like? Are you meeting with people three or four times before they hire you? Are you sitting down with clients to discuss irrelevant, superfluous topics that waste your time and theirs? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re running a dumb business.

Don’t allow your clients to pull you into discussions about what I call financial pornography. If I was your financial advisor and you wanted to have a discussion about how the war on Iraq was going to impact the market, I would not even entertain that conversation with you. Instead, I would explain to you why that’s a waste of your time and mine, and remind you that we have an investment philosophy where we focus on what we can control. I would also remind you that we have a long-term financial strategy, so regardless of what happens in the economy, the market, or the world, my job is to help you achieve your goals for the reasons that are important to them, not time the market.

Although this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, educating clients is a waste of your time and theirs. Discussing the war in Iraq as it relates to investments is academic. It’s not practical and it doesn’t alter the outcome of your clients’ investments. At most, it provides nothing but a false sense of security. “But it makes the clients feel comfortable,” you might argue. Well, do you want to be in the business of giving your clients a false sense of comfort, or telling your clients the truth?

Telling the truth is actually an interesting and surprisingly effective marketing strategy. When you take a rational approach—when you have rational discussions with rational people—they respond rationally. If you’ve got an irrational approach to try to move irrational people to buy investments and insurance from you, you’ll end up with a high-maintenance clientele and your primary function will be to accommodate their baggage. There’s a whole group of advisors who say, “Yeah, that’s what it’s like to be an advisor. You have to accommodate people’s ineffective and false beliefs.” If you want to run a smart business, don’t focus on educating clients and having these kinds of conversations. Instead, fill your appointment calendar with meaningful, rewarding engagements.

Are you swayed by the facts?

Last week, after a workshop for top advisors, one of them said something interesting to me; “90% of the population is not swayed by the facts.”  Think about that for a moment and ponder the truth in that statement.  Then, be sure you are not part of the percent who is not swayed by the facts.

Here’s what else that I have learned about Universal Truths and Natural Laws:

You can’t change them. You can’t fight them. They have no emotion. They have no investment in whether or not you succeed or fail. In fact, they don’t care if you live or die. It’s impossible for them to care about you because they don’t even know you exist. They don’t care about your background, your upbringing, your personal story, your personal tragedies, or your strengths and weaknesses. They don’t care if you suffer from depression, addictions, or were abused as a child. They don’t care about your race, your religion, your gender, your age, or your heritage. They don’t care if you grew up poor, middle-class or wealthy. They don’t care how unique you are, how special you are, or how important you are. They don’t care how much potential you have. They don’t care how much you are loved by your parents, your grandparents, your children, your spouse, your friends, your pets, or how much you love them back. They don’t care if you are attractive or unattractive, healthy or unhealthy, fit or out of shape, able-bodied or disabled. They don’t care how smart you are, how experienced you are, or how much you care about helping people. They don’t care if you are having a bad hair day or a no-hair day. They don’t care if your house burned down, your spouse left you, or your dog died. They have no interest in your needs, your wants, your goals, your aspirations, or your values. They don’t care about your religion, your faith, or your beliefs. They don’t care how much value you bring to your community or how much of a difference you are making in the world. They are not mean or malicious. They have no agenda. They don’t have any emotional capacity to be concerned about anything or anyone. They are what they are. The Laws of Success. Universal Truths. Natural Laws. Please don’t shoot the messenger. None of this is my idea. It is what it is.

There are simply Universal Truths and Natural Laws that exist for every Financial Advisor who chooses to be successful at acquiring and serving clients.

To whatever degree you choose to deny, resist, or fight Universal Truths and Natural Laws is the degree to which you will fail to achieve your potential. Whatever time and energy you expend to change them or resist them is wasted time that you will never get back.

Surrender to these laws and you will immediately experience more inner peace. Embrace these truths and you will move to a higher level of professional success and happiness in life.

Commit to developing more skill, more confidence, more emotional fortitude, and more discipline in each area described above and you will soon be enjoying far greater results.

And, remember, don’t shoot the messenger. None of this way my idea. I didn’t get a vote either. I’m just trying to help and do the best I can on my journey… just like you.