Deep client relationships needed to succeed
Financial planning is the most dependent on the closeness and depth of the peer-to-peer relationship of all professions an individual can take as an adviser, Mentor Education believes.
Mentor’s founder and principal, Dr Mark Sinclair, said the importance of interpersonal skills and structuring advice practices with highly focussed efficient frameworks that allowed planners to develop deeper, stronger relationships with clients was a priority for his firm.
“Nowadays constant change has become the ‘norm’ and staying on top of compliance, administrative and due diligence demands can literally suck the very marrow from a planner’s enthusiasm to provide high level client service, care and attention,” he said.
Mentor chair and non-executive director, Dr Jim Taggart, said being grounded through genuine concern for people was the bedrock on which highly successful advice businesses were built.
Taggart said the seven habits of highly successful financial planners were:
- Put family first;
- Start each day by sending a message to your family members first, then staff and at least 10 clients to show that you are thinking of them;
- Divide your week into 10 sessions;
- Put your attention into your staff because good staff will always put your clients first;
- Build a support team who will receive and send emails on your behalf;
- Take every opportunity to meet people; and
- Cultivate relationships as your number one, life-long, strategic asset.
“The reward will be strong new business growth and referrals as the result of a highly-regarded business reputation, personal brand and a competitive edge over competitors and robo-advice providers,” he said.
Sinclair and Taggart noted that it was not easy and the difficulty of maintaining a strict regime of time to constantly reach out to clients demanded immense personal discipline and the highest of organisational skills.
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