Financial planners get the business they deserve

Based on their intentions, actions and results, financial advisers get the new, repeat and referral clients they deserve. David Penglase explains.

Business is not easy but it’s relatively simple when you break it down into ‘find clients’, ‘win clients’ and ‘keep clients’.

What makes it easier is when you focus in on the fourth key element – manage yourself to do these things consistently.

To explain the ‘manage yourself’ principle, let me start by saying that “people get your truth”: over time, your intentions, your actions and your results will either promote or expose you.

This has profound meaning for you and will deeply impact the relationships you have with your existing and potential clients and your referral partners and centres of influence – and the results you can achieve.

It might sound a bit harsh and abrupt; however, I am convinced that based on this, you get the new, repeat and referral business you deserve.

However, there are specific actions that you can take right now to better understand and refine your intentions and actions, and in turn, become an even more successful financial adviser.

Inescapable truth #1: Define what a prosperous work life means for you

Have you really defined what a prosperous work life means for you? As a professional trusted financial adviser, what’s in your control that will help you to create and maintain a personally rewarding work experience?

What is your reality around what needs to be done; what you need to have achieved and continue to be doing and achieving that will lead to you being even more engaged and proactive in your marketing, networking, contact initiation and client engagement activities?

If you can clearly define what a prosperous work life means for you (and not just what you don’t want or enjoy doing), this will lead you on the path to a happier, flourishing and prosperous financial advice business.

Inescapable truth #2: Take stock of your truth about you

You can’t escape the need to be happy and proud of your own truth – who you are as a professional financial adviser and who you are as a person.

What are you currently doing to work on your own truth: what you truly believe about your role as a financial adviser, about the products and services you offer and advise on, about the relationships you have with existing and potential clients, with your centres of influence and referral partners, about your character and integrity, about the goals you have set and the way you’re going about proactively progressing toward your goal achievement?

Inescapable truth #3: Define your intention for being a financial adviser

Why do you do what you do?

This is really important to be able to answer and understand. It is your intentions (your reason and your purpose for doing things) that cause you to feel pride – or not. Your intention will become clear over time to those with whom you come into contact.

To what extent have you defined your own intention for being a professional financial adviser for yourself, for your existing and potential clients, for your centres of influence and for your referral partners?

Of course your personal intention (your intention for you) for being a financial adviser might be to earn income, create your own personal wealth, to build a successful business, or to be able to live an amazingly wonderful personal or family lifestyle. And that’s fine.

However, when you’re with your potential and existing clients, your centres of influence and referral partners, your intention needs to consciously shift to an intention for the individual in front of you at each and every moment. People don’t particularly care about you – they care about what you care about them!

Inescapable truth #4: Control your inner voice

Your inner voice is, of course, what you silently say to yourself.

When was the last time you really tuned into those quiet, personal words?

Your inner voice will affect how you feel emotionally and physically. And, in turn, how you feel about things influences your decisions, actions and results.

What are you doing to tap into the impact of what your inner voice is saying to you about your role as a financial adviser, your potential, your relationships, your competence, the value you create and your intentions?

What is your inner voice really saying about the activities you need to undertake to win more new, repeat and referral business?

Inescapable truth #5: Develop intentional success habits

As a professional trusted adviser you will be more than typically under constant pressure to achieve many things in an ever-shortening period of time with limited resources, and you’ll always be reminded of just where you’re up to with your sales or business development targets.

The good news is that this creates an environment where your habits that support your success can kick in.

The bad news is that this creates an environment where your habits that restrict your success can kick in. You are a creature of habit and often do things as though on autopilot – and this can be positive.

However, there is a dark side to habit. It is the steps you take without thinking that can make the biggest differences in your life – whether that’s a positive or negative difference.

When are you on autopilot?

What are you doing to discover when you might be acting out of habit rather than intention?

When you’re with your potential and existing clients, you can’t be building rapport out of habit; you can’t be asking questions just out of habit and you can’t be showing value by demonstrating your products or services just out of habit.

You need to be tapping into your intention – being consciously connected and engaged with your intention for your clients as you’re building rapport, asking questions and showing value.

The more connected and aligned you are personally with your intention for your clients, the more connected and aligned your potential and existing clients will become with you.

Inescapable truth #6: Pursue intentional aspirational goals

You are an aspirational goal-seeking being, and because all humans have this as an innate drive, this explains the power of goal-setting.

As a professional trusted financial adviser, you know this more than most (or at the very least you ought to).

However, where it goes wrong in the business environment is that the goals that are set do not often align with a personal intention (a bigger why) that will inspire people to direct their intentional energy and actions toward their achievement.

What are you doing to align your own personal intention and motivation toward the goals you need to achieve in your role as a professional trusted financial adviser?

Inescapable truth #7: Build intentional trust relationships

You don’t get trust – you earn it. This is true for you in the relationships you have with your potential and existing clients, your centres of influence and referral partners, as well as others you interact with in your role as a financial adviser.

What are you doing to define and monitor the ways you’re earning and building trust?

What are the promises being made, and to what extent are they being completed? Where are there trust-fractures within the relationships required to help you achieve your goals?

Inescapable truth #8: Develop a thirst for intentional learning

If you are not learning, you are not growing, and if you are not growing you’re stagnating: how could that make anyone feel happy, flourishing or prosperous at work?

What are you doing that demonstrates your thirst for intentional learning?

Are you allocating a minimum of 60 minutes each week to keep building your skills, knowledge, confidence and pride as a professional trusted financial adviser?

Attending professional development events is a great start – but not just for the CPD points these earn you.

It’s about taking on the personal accountability around building not only your knowledge and skills on your products, financial strategies, technical abilities and your compliance requirements; it’s also about seriously taking the accountable learning actions to be the person you need to be to earn the business you seek. Character matters!

Inescapable truth #9: Be accountable for you success – it’s your intentional choice

As you consider each of these nine inescapable truths, it is inescapable that the choices you make on a daily basis are going to produce the results you achieve.

What are you doing for yourself to build your capacity to make wise, intentional decisions? How comfortable and confident are you in your capacity to make more wise and intentional decisions?

David Penglase is a conference speaker and author of ®.