Monthly Archives: December 2010

Competitive advantage comes from doing things others are not doing and cannot do.

Colin Shaw, Revolutionise Your Customer Experience

Top 5 characteristics of outstanding achievers

Written by . Posted on December 22, 2010. Filed under Leadership, Personal Effectiveness. No comments.

Having spent 20 years motivating and managing teams and individuals, I like to think that I’m able to recognise genuine talent and commitment when I see it. Stella English, for example. For those of you who don’t recognise the name, Stella English won the 2010 Apprentice competition, picking up a six figure salary along the way. As Sue and I watched the final last weekend, I reminded her that Stella had been my tip for the job way back in week one.

And that got me thinking. What is it that separates outstanding achievers from those that might best be described as “average”? Think of some of the most successful people you have ever worked with or come cross and I’d be surprised if they don’t possess most, if not all, of these attributes.

1. Great attitude

They have a “can do” positive attitude. They are tenacious and focus on achieving their goals. They know what they want and need to achieve and focus absolutely on doing so. They are resilient and seem to be able to take ambiguity, change and challenge in their stride. Are you a radiator or a drain; physically…, mentally…, financially?

2. Accountability and Responsibility

They take personal responsibility for their situation and for making things happen. They don’t blame circumstances or other people or organisations. They recognise that they and only they, are accountable for their results/success.

3. Organised and structured

They consistently focus on their top 2/3 priorities every day. Getting other “stuff” done is a bonus. They plan ahead by “zoning” their diary to block out time for the activities that have the greatest impact on their success. They also delegate effectively, even tasks they could do themselves.

4. Enthusiastic and optimistic

They have a real passion about what they do and genuinely care about the people around them. They never forget to appreciate and show a genuine interest in others. they see the glass as half full rather than half empty. They are great to work with because their energy and enthusiasm is infectious and a great motivator.

5. Great networkers

They know everyone. Literally everyone. They have built up an extensive network of contacts and centres of influence. They also surround themselves with people whose opinion and counsel they trust and with whom they often enjoy a long term relationship. Alan Sugar is a tremndous example of this as the programme clearly illustrates every single week.

What key characteristics of outstanding achievers would you add?

Can I also take this opportunity to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful 2011. My blog will resume after the festivities on Wednesday 5th January. Until then, take care.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Will Rogers

Creating an efficient, scalable and consistent investment proposition

Written by . Posted on December 17, 2010. Filed under Financial, Marketing, Proposition, RDR, Webcasts Webinars and Videos. No comments.

In this webinar I am joined by Kevin Ferriby, Managing Director of Informed Financial Planning to discuss, in the form of a real life case study, the process that Kevin went through to find his “no compromise solution” to creating a consistent investment approach that works for Informed’s clients. This solution has transformed the business by increasing recurring revenue by 20% (despite reducing both adviser and staff numbers), improving profitability and reducing the time taken to deliver client reviews by a factor of 6. Listen in to find out how.

Understanding your value – the key to confident “adviser charging”

Written by . Posted on December 15, 2010. Filed under Financial, Pricing, Proposition, RDR. 1 Comment.

My clients won’t pay fees. I wish I had £1 for every time I’ve heard that comment from advisers. If the statement is true, why do the very people those advisers are talking about, pay upwards of £60 per month for a Sky TV subscription? Because they value it. They think it’s worth it (which is amazing when you consider some of the abject tosh that is shown each week).

Let’s assume the statement is true for a second. That would suggest that the logical conclusion is that they won’t pay YOUR fees because they don’t value what you do. That’s the challenge. Helping clients to see the value you add and the difference you make. I attended a conference last week where I spoke to a number of individual advisers who seemed to be carrying around significant self doubt about their intrinsic value to their clients resulting in a reluctance to charge enough (or at all) for the advice they provide.

So, how and where does a typical adviser add value in the client relationship?

First/initial Meeting –

By explaining the role of the adviser. (providing context)
By explaining exactly what the client can expect from you. (clarity)
By giving clients some high level insights into how you might help. (reassurance)
By showing clients how you have helped other people like them. (case studies)
By helping clients to decide whether you are the right adviser for them. (informed decision)

During the factfind/discovery meeting

By gathering ALL relevant information about the client’s circumstances…
By ensuring we understand the clients values, goals and priorities…
By establishing the clients attitude to risk…

in order to ensure that the advice you provide is based  on a comprehensive understanding of their current situation. (professionalism and reassurance)

Plan/Strategy/Recommendations

By using your experience and knowledge to develop a personal plan for each individual client which is focused totally on helping them achieve their goals and aspirations. (focusing on what’s important to them)
By checking that a client’s existing investments/products are helping to achieve their goals. (helping them to understand what they already have)
By ensuring the plan is simple, effective and tax efficient. (saving them money)
By ensuring the plan is within the clients tolerance for risk. (peace of mind)

When you present the plan

By providing a comprehensive and holistic written plan for the client to keep. (a roadmap to follow)
By explaining all aspects of the plan in a way that clients will understand. (simplifying what appears complex)
Answering any questions the client has or clarifying anything that is unclear. (improving their understanding of financial issues)

Implementing your recommendations

By ensuring forms are fully and accurately completed. (ensuring the process goes smoothly)
By selecting the most appropriate provider for each product solution. (confidence in the quality of the solution)
By submitting all the relevant paperwork to the selected providers. (dealing with all the paperwork)
By chasing providers as appropriate and keeping the client informed on a regular basis. (holding providers accountable)
By ensuring that the clients instructions have been accurately actioned and that any documentation is correctly issued. (checking that everything has been properly actioned)

Review

Ensuring that the clients strategy and plan is regularly monitored and reviewed…
Checking that the clients plan is on track to achieve the agreed objectives…
Making appropriate recommendations for change where this is not the case…
Explaining and implementing any recommended changes to the plan…
Updating client records…

to make sure that everything stays on track to achieve the goals that are important to the client

Other areas

Identifying opportunities to save tax (Income/Capital Gains/Inheritance). (saving money)
Simplifying seemingly complex concepts. (simplification)
Explaining, in simple terms, anything that the client doesn’t understand. (peace of mind/confidence)
Providing peace of mind for the client by giving context to short term volatility of investment markets. (reassurance)
By being available to act as a sounding board for clients. (accessibility, responsiveness)
By educating clients at every opportunity to ensure they increase their level of understanding on financial matters (e.g. Volatility, asset classes, risk, diversification, etc) (education)
By informing clients regularly about issues of relevance (changes to legislation, market volatility etc.) (keeping them informed)

Isn’t that worth more than a Sky TV subscription?

Others can stop you temporarily; only you can do it permanently.

Don Ward

Creating a Marketing Plan you’ll stick to.

Written by . Posted on December 8, 2010. Filed under Marketing. No comments.

Today I want to look at what I call a “Real World” marketing plan. In other words, a marketing plan that is realistic and that you can implement consistently and cost effectively.  The “text book” marketing plan (you know the type I mean, the one that gathers dust on the shelf because it takes two people to lift it!) will contain all the latest “must have” research and analysis as stipulated in last weeks marketing lecture at Harvard Business School such as:

  • Situation analysis (PEST and SWOT)
  • Gap analysis
  • Product Portfolio analysis
  • Boston Matrices (lots of them)
  • Competitor analysis
  • 8 P’s marketing mix
  • Brand Development Plan
  • Media Strategy
  • Etc…

In an ideal world all this research and analysis can be helpful but unfortunately the world isn’t ideal… it’s real, and most small businesses don’t have the time, budget, expertise or resources to create a text-book plan. They need something affordable, practical, pragmatic and workable; a plan that only includes information that will drive activity. (Mine is 2 sides of A4!)

A “Real World” marketing plan has just 5 elements:

  1. Objectives: What are your marketing goals, what do you want to achieve?
  2. Strategies: What high level strategies will you develop to achieve the goals?
  3. Tactics: What specific actions are you going to implement to deploy the strategy?
  4. Marketing Calendar/Diary: Specifies what happens when and who is accountable for making sure it does.
  5. Budget: How much are you prepared (do you need) to invest to achieve your marketing goals?

Creating a structured marketing plan with clear actions and accountabilities is essential to successful and sustained marketing activity but it doesn’t have to be complex. As with so many aspects of planning, focusing on a few key activities and executing them well and consistently will beat the perfect plan that sits on the shelf and never gets executed.

I am pleased to offer a complementary copy of a “Real World” marketing plan template to the first 10 people/firms to send me an email requesting one. Don’t miss out. Do it now!

You can either take action or hang back and wait for a miracle

Peter Drucker

Moments of Truth (1)

Written by . Posted on December 1, 2010. Filed under Customers, Marketing, Proposition, RDR. No comments.

In my time working with advisers I have come to realise that there are key “moments of truth” in the relationship between adviser and client. Today I want to explore just 1 of these.

What do you do?

If someone asks you that question at a dinner or party or social event, what do you say?. How confident do you feel? How well practiced is your reply? Many advisers find it a huge challenge to come up with a set of words that won’t result in the questioner looking for a polite way to excuse themselves and move on.

In most cases advisers don’t actually answer the question. Please don’t take this the wrong way but they’ll respond with something totally lacking in creativity such as “I’m a financial adviser”. Look at the question again. They asked you “what do you do?” Not “what’s your job title?”

Every “What do you do?” encounter is an opportunity to help the questioner recognise that you have something they really need and you have to be able to explain in one clear sentence exactly what you do in a way that elicits the response – “Sounds like just what I need” or at worst, “That sounds interesting, how do you do that?”  Something like “I help business owners make smarter decisions about their personal and business wealth” is much more likely to provoke the desired follow up repsonse and will most certainly result in a longer conversation.

Your response should also be jargon free. Use words that somebody will immediately and accurately understand. If you have to educate them even just a tiny amount so that they understand what you said, you’ve lost.

When you’ve told them what you do wait for their response before explaining in great detail how you do it. In fact in terms of the level of interest they’re more likely to genuinely listen if you engage with them on an emotional level and explain why you do it.

Some examples

A “Leadership Coach” might say “I help people lead their organisations out of chaos”.

A “Strategy Consultant” might say “I help organisations construct a vision for their future that will enable them to thrive”.

I say “I help advisers find and build profitable long term client realtionships, increase their revenue and improve their profitability”.

What do you say?

Points to remember

  • Don’t tell people what you are; tell them what you do.
  • Ditch the jargon and technobabble- use simple language they’ll understand.
  • Tell them what you do, not how you do it.