You spend time with your ideal clients and prospects helping them get clarity around their goals, their dreams, and their future. You are a fantastic planner, and that is why people seek your council. But who helps you get clarity around your business goals for your future?
Clients need guidance
Your clients cannot do this on their own. You know that your ideal clients and prospects need clarity, they also need behavior management and coaching. The advisor who have figured this out, have found better-engaged clients because they understand that human nature will eventually kick in and get people off track. That is why they have become indispensable financial professionals.
Who holds you accountable?
Yet, I find that the missing piece is who is keeping the advisor in check with their behavior? Who is helping them get clarity around their goals? We know the average person does not see the value of behavioral coaching. The average investor does not see the value of behavioral coaching. Only the most successful athlete's performers and business people see the value. The elite advisor knows they must practice what they preach. They know that behavioral coaching is not something a head office can give away for free. They know they must seek out from other elite advisor programs that have helped them grow their business successfully while managing their behavior.
Get clarity around your business goals for 2021
This is not an article to discuss behavioral coaching. This is to help you get a deeper sense of clarity around your business goals. Every goal on the list relates to practice management for financial professionals. Seek out a professional that can help you with growing your business while managing behavior that can get you off track and cost a lot of time, energy and emotion to get back on track. Review the list below and tick off what you would like to accomplish in 2020. Print this off and go through the list. I will bet you will have at least 6 goals for your practice.
Business Goals-Based Planning Exercise
____ Lifestyle - Retire / slow down / plan future transition
____ Ideal client acquisition acquire more HNW clients
____ Profitability –Increase revenue in less time
____ Ideal service processes – Deliver more value
____ Segment – More time with ideal clients
____ Time management – work on business more
____ Valuation - know value and how to increase
____ Marketing and branding – Creating a clear value promise
____ Delegation and team management – Team to do more / outsourcing / workflows
____ Team and Hiring – Expanding team / associates partners
____ Communications -Become a thought leader
____ Products – change business model and products/ services
____ Conversations – Practice critical conversations with ideal prospects and clients
____ Planning – written business plan / marketing plan / marketing calendar in writing
____ Business – Investment / opportunity / business models for the future
____ Career – education / courses / designations
____ Leadership – Firm or industry leadership roles
____ Behavioral coaching – getting me and keeping me on track
____ Succession and transition put plans in place
____ Technology – Implement and leverage time
Top 3 priorities
It would be great to be able to work on everything, but prioritizing the top three areas with focus will help you get clarity for your practice for the future. Just like every client's goals are different, every advisor's goals are different. I always say “ instead of updating the plan, start by updating their goals”. I am sure you started the year with a business plan and a list of goals. Who holds you accountable for implementing to get to your goals. You know that is the value you deliver to clients, yet you are not practicing what you preach. Get someone to help you accomplish your business goals. This includes managing your behavior and human nature, mapping out priorities and most important of all, implementation.
How about your goals for your practice in 2021? Our Practice management checklist or fee audit checklist
While each financial advisor's practice may have a different approach, advisors need to understand where their practice needs help, and will they get the right help for the right part of their practice. What areas does your practice need help with? Get a copy of our updated 21-page “Comprehensive Practice Management Strategies checklist” by going to our website!
Related: This Is the Number One Challenge for Elite Financial Advisors