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IN
THE BEGINNING
The
term, “big thinker” perfectly fits Paul E.,
an advisor from the Mid Atlantic. By anyone’s standards,
Paul was very successful before he met me. But he felt
there was something missing in his approach. When I first
interviewed Paul for our coaching program, he told me
he wanted to take his business to the next level and that
meant attracting institutional accounts and wealthy families
with $10 million or more of investable assets.
Our
marketing strategies are very powerful for attracting
wealthy individual investors with between $500,000 and
$5 million of investable assets. We haven’t had a
lot of experience in the markets Paul wanted to work in,
but he convinced me he could make our program work for
him. Much to my delight, Paul has benefited from the program—in
a big way.
Before
Paul started the Effort-Less Advisor Coaching Program
his company had $139 million under management with four
people on the investment side and a Wealth Transfer group
and an Executive Benefits group. He and his partners are
experienced professionals who work in perfect synch.
Though
Paul and his partners sensed they were on the right track,
client-centered and always addressing client needs first,
they had one consistent, thorny problem. As Paul explains,
“We were getting referrals. But we weren’t getting
referred to the right people – at the right level…I
wanted a process for consistently having the right conversations
with the right people. I didn’t want to be concerned
about where my next client was coming from. I always felt
if I had a track to run on, the sky would be the limit
for me.”
Paul
was drawn to our coaching program because it is very process-oriented.
“I knew that I had all these good things that I was
doing. I just didn’t have everything packaged together
into a process that I could duplicate again and again.
I liked the fact that each advisor can customize Steve’s
content and marketing strategies to fit their situation.
Everyone is an individual and has their own goals and
dreams.”
Paul
found our relationship-building processes were ideal for
attracting ten and even twelve figure accounts. But he
says the biggest benefit was his dramatic increase in
confidence. Says Paul, “developing clarity of purpose
and knowing I am at the top of my game made me feel really
good about what I’m doing. Pulling everything together
and landing some significant new clients created a major
boost of energy for me and had a huge impact on my business.”
CLARITY
FIRST
Paul
was the kind of client who made a coach stand up and cheer!
Paul raised the most money of any of my first year coaching
clients. Over the last 12 months, Paul brought on about
$200 million of new money, in the worst market in 70 years.
So much for the bad markets. That represents only four
accounts; one individual and three institutions.
Paul
explains how he made our process work for him. “The
biggest problem I struggled with, from the day I started
in the business, was, ‘Who do I want to work with?’
I got bogged down working with people who weren’t
really good clients, because I needed the money. I think
that story is repeated all over the country. People end
up taking business that they do not want because they
don’t know what they do want and they don’t
know how to say ‘no’.”
In
our coaching program we segment the big “market”
into 15 top segments for financial advisors. Then we help
each advisor determine which segments and niches offer
the greatest opportunities for them. When they are clear
on what they want, advisors can say ‘yes’ to
their ideal prospects and ‘no’ to unqualified
prospects.
“Steve’s
coaching process really gave me a powerful clarity of
purpose. When I started to say ‘no’, I became
really focused on answering the question, ‘How do
I attract the people that we do want to work with?’
Once we answered that question, we were able to develop
a strategy to go out and make business happen on purpose.”
Paul’s
confidence was soaring. He had defined his ideal business
and developed profiles of his ideal clients. His research
interviews helped him hone his story and every presentation
to a targeted prospect became more and more compelling.
“The
second major positive force from the Effort-Less Advisor
Coaching Program was the quality of the other advisors
I met. I got to meet some of my peers who are very, very
successful; top people in our industry. They are all doing
the right things. I felt very comfortable with this group.”
“I
had a sense that I was pretty good at what I did, but
associating with this elite group of advisors locked it
in for me on a deeper, subconscious level. I now know
when I’m talking to a prospect they are unlikely
to meet another advisor who is as committed to excellence
or has a more compelling value proposition than me. That
insight gave me a boldness that I never had before. Steve
spoke about this in the coaching program. But until I
lived it, I didn’t really get it.”
LISTEN
AND THEN TELL YOUR STORY
“What
happened was we really drilled down on how we communicate
what we do with our clients. We did research interviews
with a number of really key people. We got really good
at telling our story and asking for advice.” Once
Paul fully internalized and could fluently communicate
his value proposition, he confidently went out and told
it to the right people.
“My
partner and I did a research interview with a key center
of influence who wasn’t a client (at the time). We
interviewed him because we knew he was well-connected
in this local community. We used a very casual approach,
but we were prepared and it went great. We wanted to understand
what he does, what he is involved with, what he thinks
about the value of our investment consulting process.
We wanted to know where he sees opportunities for us and
how we could appeal to him as an individual and as a member
of various institutional boards.”
Paul
found that his interview did much more than open the door
for getting information. Because he was talking with the
right people, he used the opportunity to explain his firm
and their investment philosophy. Paul shared his investment
consulting services and asked for feedback and advice
for refining his process. During the information exchange,
his subject discovered how Paul’s expertise could
solve some pressing problems for the investment committee.
Although
Paul felt the interview was very positive , there was
no clear result, at the time. The interview subject just
said, “OK, that was great, I’ll think about
that.” Then a few weeks later he called and said,
“I’m the chairman of the investment committee
for a private school and I would like your team to talk
to our committee about what you do.”
“That
meeting went extremely well,” Paul reported. “It
was one of those days when I was in the “zone.”
Everything that came out of my mouth was exactly what
I wanted to say – I was on. They said, ‘We want
to hire you to do a review of our investment process.
We’ll pay your fee to take the first step to get
involved.”
After
the meeting, two people approached Paul and his partner
as they were leaving. One gentleman was the investment
committee chairman of a major endowment fund that controls
over $500 million. He said, “Your investment management
approach made so much sense to me. I’ve never heard
anyone articulate it that way. I’d like to have you
do the same thing that we just hired you to do for the
other board I sit on.” So, Paul said, “That
sounds great, let’s talk.”
The
other gentleman was a retired doctor. He asked Paul if
he would be able to review his personal investments, or
if he only worked with institutions. “He was concerned
that he might not qualify to work with us. So, I said,
‘Sure, we can sit down and have a conversation with
you too and we’ll work it out.’ We ended up
with an $8 million individual account.”
Then
the endowment fund’s board hired Paul and his team
to do a review. They charged a fee of $25,000. Paul says,
“We feel good about it. We had a meeting the other
day and it looks like we’re on the right track. They
said the chairman of the committee is very happy with
our report. It was exactly what he expected. We’re
going to interview all the other members of the board.
They are some of the wealthiest people in our state.”
WORDS
OF WISDOM
When
I asked Paul what words of wisdom he’d like to share
with my readers, he didn’t hesitate in responding.
He said, “I just think there is an incredible power
in establishing your clarity of purpose, your value proposition
and your story and then getting out and telling your story
to the right people. I’ve realized that one of the
most powerful things in life is knowing what you want
and focusing on it. Then you can align your resources
and activities to get there. The Effort-Less Advisor Coaching
Program is very effective at helping your do all of these
things -- if you do the work.”
Paul
concluded by saying, “With the successes we are having
with our new processes, the future feels bright for us.
We just finished a business plan. Based on some conservative
assumptions, we should be generating a couple million
dollars of recurring revenue within the next three years.
So, that is an attractive business and we are excited
about the future. I think the coaching program has had
a positive impact on the firm as a whole. Everybody here
is happy.”
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