Recent Articles in PLATINUM MEMBER Library: Weekly Focus

Weekly Focus - July 16, 2014 - "Everybody Tells You What To Do"
Jul 15, 2014

Don't tell me what to do. I just got an industry newsletter telling me to take advantage of what will turn out to be, in retrospect, one of the greatest buying opportunities ever. I was told to call my clients right away. I got one the other day telling me that this time things were not different and I should act accordingly. I was told to call my clients right away. I got yet another one last week warning me to beware of what will turn out to be a trap for the bulls. I was told to call my clients right away.

Weekly Focus - July 8, 2014 - "The 12" Ruler"
Jul 8, 2014

A friend in Louisiana is a storyteller, capable of wonderful great word pictures.  Here's an idea he uses with great success. 

Weekly Focus - July 2, 2014 - "Why Good Stories Are So Important"
Jul 1, 2014

There is one area you can improve upon immediately that will ensure you open more accounts and gather more assets. Tighten up your language so that people better understand what you are saying. Filter that vast reservoir of knowledge you have, so that when you present your ideas to clients and prospects, you are speaking concisely, not abstractly. You know so much more than they do about this business that it's hard to simplify. Yet, your ideas are no good if nobody understands them.

Weekly Focus - June 25, 2014 - "A Strong Referral Is The Best Way To Move Forward"
Jun 24, 2014

Referrals are integral to growing your business. You can only acquire new assets from three people going forward: existing clients, people you know who are not yet clients and people you don't yet know.

Weekly Focus - June 18, 2014 - "Let the Sifting Begin"
Jun 17, 2014

Do you know what you want to accomplish and where you want to go to accomplish it? Let the sifting begin. It is important that you know from here on who is and who is not a prospect. A person who has a financial need, who is ready to act, who is a decision maker and who has the money available is not a prospect. Sorry. A prospect is a person who has a financial need, who is ready to act, who is a decision maker, who has the money available and who values your opinion.

Weekly Focus - June 11, 2014 - "Just Do It!"
Jun 10, 2014

Success in any endeavor results from learning to do something right and then doing it right every time. The more consistently you perform, the better you get. The better you get, the higher you go. That's true of retina surgeons, that's true of mathematical technicians and that's true of Financial Advisors.

Weekly Focus - June 4, 2014 - "Take a Tip from a Pro"
Jun 3, 2014

You are a Financial Services professional. My friend Teddy is a golf professional. You and Teddy have a lot in common.

The similarities. For instance, most golf professionals possess similar knowledge. The highest paid and most successful ones are the better communicators. The same is true of Financial Advisors.

Weekly Focus - May 28, 2014 - "There Is No Silver Bullet for Prospecting"
May 27, 2014

Deserving and earning our clients' trust is still the surest path to introductions. The burden is on the Advisor to make sure he or she is referable. I refer my friends to my doctor because I like my doctor and I trust him. I have complete confidence that my friends will be better off knowing him. I know they will have a rewarding and beneficial experience just by sitting with him. He is eminently referable. I want them to meet him.

Weekly Focus - May 21, 2014 - "Don't Let Corporate-Speak Kill You!"
May 20, 2014

I have a hyperactive gag reflex when I get around corporate-speak. A few years ago, I sat in a meeting during which a senior executive of a very large firm told the attendees that we were all in a new paradigm.

Weekly Focus - May 14, 2014 - "What Should Advisors Be Practicing?"
May 8, 2014

We know golfers practice grip, stance and alignment all day every day, if they want to be great. They make it a habit, just like brushing their teeth in the morning. We know pitchers practice keeping the ball low all day every day, if they want to be great. They make it a habit, no different than taking a shower every morning.

Weekly Focus - May 7, 2014 - "Excellence Is a Habit"
May 6, 2014

You've probably heard me say this before: Top tier Advisors are blue-collar workers in a white-collar world. They weren't born top tier Advisors. They became top tier by practicing their trade day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out.

Weekly Focus - April 30, 2014 - "Why is Greatness Reserved for So Few?"
Apr 29, 2014

Achieving greatness has very little to do with talent and a lot to do with hard work. That's why so few Advisors become great. It's too demanding and it takes too long. As time passes, most Advisors stop developing their skills and stop getting better.

Weekly Focus - April, 23, 2014 - "Can you will yourself to greatness?"
Apr 22, 2014

As a Financial Advisor, you can't depend upon someone else to pick you up when you are down. You've got to do it yourself.

Weekly Focus - April 15, 2014 - "Keep to the Point!"
Apr 15, 2014

I don't think I've ever heard an Advisor talk about his or her presentation and I think I know why that is. Our presentation is easy to take for granted. After all, how hard can it be? Isn't it just a matter of relaying the facts? Actually, it's a lot more than that.

Weekly Focus - April 9, 2014 - "Be a Person of Action"
Apr 8, 2014

The pressure to make a living as a Financial Advisor can be and often is overwhelming. We are torn between taking the time to build a long-term business and earning a living right now. The obstacles we face are legendary; not seeing enough people, too many Advisors chasing too few wealthy individuals and not having a steady income, to name a few.

Weekly Focus - April 2, 2014 - "Align Your Priorities"
Apr 1, 2014

As you go about mastering your craft, have your priorities in order. I am convinced that the number one priority in the Financial Services industry is the need to be an effective communicator.

Weekly Focus - March 26, 2014 - "Is your service less than exceptional?"
Mar 26, 2014

I see an out-of-control train heading right at us. The name of the train is Poor Customer Service.

Weekly Focus - March 19, 2014 - "I can't invest now because . . . "
Mar 18, 2014

There is so much uncertainty in investing that people look for reasons to postpone the decision. For every reason you can think of to invest, your clients and prospects can think of a reason not to invest.

Weekly Focus - March 12, 2014 - "Recognize when it's time to move on"
Mar 11, 2014

Prospecting is the backbone of our business, but you don't need to chase an individual ad infinitum. How much is enough? That's up to you to decide. But I will remind you that you are in a position to change someone's life forever. Because of you, kids can go to college and not borrow money. Because of you, people can retire to Florida or Arizona and not continually worry about money.

Weekly Focus - March 5, 2014 - "Salesmanship"
Mar 5, 2014

We tend to get the same objections over and over: "The timing just isn't right for me", "I already have an Advisor" and "I'm not interested". It is difficult to answer a comment. Turn the comment into a question and answer the question.

Weekly Focus - February 26, 2014 - "Be Enthusiastic!"
Mar 4, 2014

Four suggestions, if I may.

Weekly Focus - February 19, 2014 - "Attitude"
Feb 25, 2014

As I've told you often, I have never met a successful pessimist. I unequivocally believe that attitude is everything. There is no more powerful Advisor than the one who loves this business. When you are in love, you are passionate. Like enthusiasm, passion is contagious. People will feed off your passion. Nobody wants to associate with a negative person.

Weekly Focus - February 12, 2014 - "What's the difference between selling and marketing?"
Feb 18, 2014

To be a successful Financial Advisor means to spend the majority of every working day selling and marketing yourself. Ironically, two of the most under taught subjects in our field are selling and marketing. Training generally focuses on products and the mechanics of functioning as an Advisor. We study the hard skills and then make our living with our soft skills.

Weekly Focus - February 5, 2014 - "Time, the Great Equalizer"
Feb 11, 2014

Thinking long-term is easier said than done. All clients set out upon their investment journeys with the noblest of intentions and the same mantra: "I am a long-term investor. I am a long-term investor. I am a long-term investor."

Weekly Focus - January 29, 2014 - "It's Okay to be Uncool"
Feb 4, 2014

Have you ever been in a situation where someone is angry and you put the blame for their anger squarely on your own shoulders? Did you ever say 'I'm sorry' when it wasn't your fault? Did you ever beat yourself up because you tried to ask for referrals and ended up saying something you thought was stupid? Did you ever feel badly about yourself because somebody else was upset with you? All those actions are the result of a poor self-image.

Weekly Focus - January 22, 2014 - "Simple is Beautiful, Simplistic is Naive"
Jan 28, 2014

Clients don't understand much of what we say. They just nod like they understand. I think in a lot of cases, we intimidate people with our knowledge.

Weekly Focus - January 14, 2014 - "Practice for the Right Reasons"
Jan 21, 2014

The key to succeeding at anything is to learn to do something right and then do it right every time. That, of course, is easier said than done. Too few people have the competitiveness to practice on a day-in and day-out basis.

Weekly Focus - January 8, 2014 - "How much are you liked and trusted?"
Jan 14, 2014

There are many obvious reasons for staying in touch with clients. But one reason for staying in touch is not so obvious. Too many clients, at some point, forget why they invested. Perhaps, at times, success in the short-term has made them overly-confident. They feel it makes sense to get more aggressive. Or, conversely, perhaps the incessant reporting of current events has made them overly cautious. Either way, it's up to you to put out the fire.

Weekly Focus - January 2, 2014 - "Goal Setting"
Jan 7, 2014

The beginning of a given year is the time to rewrite our goals, our mission statement and our business plan. For some of us that will involve a major overhaul and for some of us it will involve a tweak. For all of us, it will be a thought-provoking experience.

Weekly Focus - December 23, 2013 - "Is It Time to Try Something Different?"
Jan 1, 2014

I urge you to learn how to make good decisions. The path to success is a deliberate one. It involves a lot of hard work and a lot of hard decisions. Nobody gets successful by accident. For you to become successful, you've got to take action. The first step, as basic as it sounds, is to decide to become successful. If you're focused, your day won't slip away. You will account for your time.

Weekly Focus - December 18, 2013 - "How Important Is Social Competence to a Financial Advisor?"
Dec 22, 2013

There is an assumption among people that if you lack social competence, you lack competence elsewhere. That may be unfair, but that's a reality of dealing with the public. And in our business, a perceived lack of competence is a game changer.

Weekly Focus - December 11, 2013 - "Hard work is not a prison sentence"
Dec 17, 2013

I recall reading David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed, a wonderful discussion of the origins of colonial American culture. His premise is that we had four distinct migrations by four distinct folkways, the Puritans to New England, the English cavaliers to the Chesapeake Bay, the Quakers to the Delaware valley and the Irish and Scottish to Appalachia.

Weekly Focus - December 4, 2013 - "Don't knock the competition"
Dec 10, 2013

If you were given sample tastes of four different fine, expensive merlot wines, could you tell the differences? Probably not. If you could, you know a lot about fine wines. Perhaps, even, you’re a connoisseur. It takes a connoisseur to detect nuance. The less we know about a subject, the more we see similarities.

Weekly Focus - November 26, 2013 - "Perspective"
Dec 3, 2013

I don’t think that many people would argue the premise that Advisors who are typically happy make more money than Advisors who are typically unhappy. Prospecting is easier. People naturally want to be around happy people and naturally want to stay away from unhappy people.

Weekly Focus - November 20, 2013 - "Don't Keep People Guessing"
Nov 26, 2013

When people look at you, what do you want them to think? How do you want them to feel when they walk away after engaging you? What is your message?

 

Weekly Focus - November 13, 2013 - "Fear of Failure"
Nov 19, 2013

Failure and rejection hurt and bouncing back is never easy. Yet the career you have chosen necessitates failure the majority of the time. Why would you do that to yourself?

Obviously you do it because the rewards outweigh the risks. It never gets easy, but it does get easier. The longer you are in this business, the better you get. The better you get, the more frequent the victories. But even the best Advisors in the world deal with failure on a daily basis.

Weekly Focus - November 6, 2013 - "Do you consider yourself different from other Advisors?"
Nov 12, 2013

As a Financial Advisor, you can't depend upon someone else to pick you up when you are down. You've got to do it yourself.

One critical soft skill every Advisor must nurture is self-awareness; fully understanding your traits feelings and behaviors. With that understanding come self-motivation and, just as importantly, the avoidance of self-sabotage.

Weekly Focus - October 30, 2013 - "They'll fight over it when you're dead"
Nov 5, 2013

I saw something on a website awhile ago so cool that it tipped my decision to buy. I was surfing for a briefcase and had Google'd leather goods. I came across a website entitled saddlebackleather.com. The quality of the website and the quality of the products posted on the website were both outstanding. But that's not what tipped me. On this website, there is a section called "Our Rivals."

Weekly Focus - October 23, 2013 - "Listen Up"
Oct 29, 2013

Financial Advisors can’t merely be listeners. They must be professional listeners. There’s a big difference. All too often we hear, but we don’t listen. Consider the following observations:

"No one ever listened themselves out of a job" – Calvin Coolidge

Weekly Focus - October 16, 2013 - "The Right Tool for the Right Job"
Oct 22, 2013

Are mutual funds better than stocks? Are stocks better than ETF's? Are Treasury Bills better than CD's? Well, is a hammer better than a saw? Is a belt sander better than a pair of pliers? Is a screwdriver better than a wrench? The fact is that all of these tools are all designed for specific jobs.

Weekly Focus - October 9, 2013 - "I Need More Information"
Oct 15, 2013

Every hesitant prospect will tell you that he or she needs more information in order to make a decision. They'll never get it. If they had all the information they needed, it would not be a decision. It would be a foregone conclusion. This is where your power of persuasion enters the picture.

Weekly Focus - October 2, 2013 - "Just Be THAT Much Better"
Oct 8, 2013

I heard someone once say that in horse racing the winner gets a million dollars but the second place horse gets a bale of hay. Does that mean the first horse is a million times better? Of course not. He's really just better by inches.

Weekly Focus - September 25, 2013 - "Decide for Yourself"
Oct 1, 2013

You are not going to become successful by accident. The fact that you're reading this is proof to me that you know that.  The first step in being successful is deciding to be successful; deciding where you want to end up. Make that decision yourself. Don't let anyone else make that decision for you.

Weekly Focus - September 18, 2013 - "Keeping It Simple"
Sep 24, 2013

Einstein's suggestion was to find simplicity out of clutter. That is very sound advice. You know intuitively that the simplest presentation is the best one. The simplest story is the one people will remember.

Weekly Focus - September 13, 2013 - "The Right Path is Uphill"
Sep 17, 2013

You'll know when you are on the right path. It's uphill. And that's precisely why so few excel, be it in our business or any other vocation. Most people want the easiest path, the one that doesn't involve hard work. Work hard every day, settle in for the long haul and be patient. Attack the obstacles in your way. Use your talents. Having talent and not using it is the same as having no talent at all. In short, do those things unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

Weekly Focus - September 4, 2013 - "The Price of Accomplishment "
Sep 10, 2013

The most important coin of our realm is relationship building.  The amount of money you earn and the ultimate value of your business are based upon your ability to create and maintain long term-relationships.  Build those relationships with great care.  There is a Slovenian proverb that says what you build easily will fall quickly.

Weekly Focus - August 27, 2013 - "You Are the Last Line of Defense"
Sep 3, 2013

The stock market is still one of the most, if not the most, attractive places for a client's money, despite a seemingly endless spate of controversy. It is, after all, the last place an individual can properly diversify. The media sells a lot of time, space and articles by implying that disaster lurks just below the surface, waiting to drag down the unsuspecting investor.

Weekly Focus - August 21, 2013 - "It Just Feels Good to Chase Near Term Performance"
Aug 27, 2013

The time to buy stock is when it hurts the most.
The deeper the market goes, the safer it is.
Two-star funds probably have more upside potential than five-star funds.
We slash our prices and people run away. How about that?

Weekly Focus - August 14, 2013 - "Words of Wisdom"
Aug 20, 2013

I have a good friend and business coach, Rick Yeattes. I am constantly learning from Rick and one thing he taught me is that it is necessary to end something before we can begin something new. If we don't end the things that are bothering us, we end up carrying so much baggage that we eventually become dysfunctional.

Weekly Focus - July 28, 2013 - "I'm Not Cut Out for Greatness"
Aug 6, 2013

Achieving greatness has very little to do with talent and a lot to do with hard work. That's why so few people in any field become great. It's too demanding and it takes too long. That's true with Financial Advisors and wholesalers. As time passes, most Advisors and wholesalers stop developing their skills and stop getting better.

Weekly Focus - July 24, 2013 - "Make Sure You Prospect Every Day"
Aug 4, 2013

Prospecting is the backbone of our business. In fact, I will argue that it's the most important duty one has to do well in order to go to the top. The biggest producers in our business are without doubt the best prospectors. No matter how good you are, you will not succeed if people don't know who you are and what you can do for them.

Weekly Focus - July 17, 2013 - "Mastering the Job is Not Enough"
Aug 4, 2013

I have noticed on more than one occasion that Advisors who no longer feel compelled to improve simply stop being good at what they do. Slowing down is not the problem. Stopping is the problem.  I see too many talented people fall by the wayside.

Weekly Focus - July 10, 2013 - "Penny Wise, Pound Foolish"
Aug 4, 2013

Ed runs his own account. He pays no Advisor fees or commissions. His neighbor, George, has a Financial Advisor and pays commissions and fees comparable to a few pennies for each dollar invested. Ed reads a lot and spends a lot of time doing what he feels is extensive research.; George doesn't do those things. His Advisor does.