BachrachBlog

I was recently interviewed by MoneyShow.com at a consumer event. These are the interviews that have been posted on their website. These are directed for consumers but you may find them of value.

Follow the Map to Success

http://www.moneyshow.com/video/video.asp?wid=7094&t=3&scode=023006

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make

http://www.moneyshow.com/video/video.asp?wid=7095&t=3&scode=023006

The Value of Values-Based Investing

http://www.moneyshow.com/video/video.asp?wid=6986&t=3&scode=023006

Nice guys don’t have to finish last, but trying to make sure you never piss anyone off is guaranteed to slow you down. If you are serious about your professional goals, you can’t be worried about keeping everyone happy.

This may sound as if I’m contradicting my own motto: It’s all about them. But don’t be fooled. “Them” refers to people who are or will be great clients, not everybody else.

You have your goals, your standards, your system for serving clients. This is why “it’s all about them”—it’s the best mindset for creating a thriving, sustainable financial practice—not because you are entered in some kind of popularity contest. There will be times when you have to do something that is patently disagreeable to people, but doing so will be crucial to achieving your objectives.

In other words, you have to stand your ground if people
 treat you like a salesperson,
 don’t implement their plan,
 try to get you to alter your market strategy based on what they read in investing magazines, or
 are less committed to their financial goals than you are.

To me, it’s largely about integrity. How can you credibly purport to help others achieve their goals if you’re not achieving yours? You’ve got to be living a financially successful life, or you haven’t earned the right to help others be financially successful.

I have noticed that some of the advisors we coach get “wrapped around the axle” when a prospect doesn’t respond the way they hoped or a client doesn’t behave the way they would like. Does this ever happen to you? This is not productive and decreases future productivity because it can cause you to be tentative the next time you approach a prospect or a client.

This mistake is akin to the tennis player or golfer who can’t get over a bad shot. You’ve seen this scenario unfold before: player hits bad shot, player smacks club or racket on the ground, player stews over it and carries negative emotions to next shot, and player proceeds to hit several more bad shots, thereby making a bad situation worse; sometimes resulting in a really bad outcome. The best professional tennis players and golfers learn to quickly put their bad shots behind them. They learn to let it go. What about you? Can you let it go?

The key lesson here is that your success or failure NEVER hinges on the decision of one potential or existing client of any kind or any size. Your success or failure hinges on your daily habits. Take a look at your habits for Client Acquisition activities, for example. So… how many referral conversations did you have today? How many self-referral conversations did you have today? How many follow-up calls did you make today? How many phone or face-to-face appointments did you conduct today? How many phone or face-to-face appointments did you schedule today for the future? Imagine what will happen to your skill and confidence when you like the answers to all of these questions!

What would happen if most work days you engaged in the right amount of client acquisition activity? What if you did this on the days when people are responding positively to you and on the days when they aren’t? What if you didn’t let the inevitable negative responses deter you from doing what will lead to getting your next Ideal Client?

You can’t eliminate bad outcomes, but you can learn to let it go. The best way to let it go is to take the next action that moves you in the direction of your goals. This is what mature professionals learn to do.

If you want to be in control of your own destiny and not at the mercy of whether or not a few individuals struggle to make decisions about hiring you or referring you, learn to let it go.

A tendency to curb is over-explaining. I don’t care what other “experts” try to tell you: Clients don’t care about how stochastic modeling works, the difference between mutual fund managerial styles, or even specific return rates. People care about their personal goals and how you can help them get there for the reasons that are important to them. So don’t bore them with education, information or explanations they don’t want or need.

And by all means, get to the point when you ask people if they’ve decided to work with you. Don’t be indirect and expect the person to interpret your meaning. Don’t waste time tap dancing while you wait for someone to pick up on your hint that you’d like their business. Instead, say, “The next logical step for you is to hire us to write this plan for you. Here’s what you’ll get, and here’s how much it costs. Should we get started?”

Less talk, more quality clients.

Check out all the information-packed, complimentary webinars by clicking on the following link or cutting and pasting it into your browser.

http://www.baivbfp.com/pgrm_webinars.html

You’ll enjoy the high-content webinars to help you take your business to the next level. This year, we are doing a series called Success Leaves Clues. This is a series with top Advisors who have reached success – as they have defined it for themselves. Check them out!