The younger representatives who I mentor often ask how I became motivated so quickly. A big factor in my development was my environment and, I’ll be honest with you, I got lucky.
I came up in one of the best environments an advisor could ask for in the early years of my career. Most of my colleagues were 15 to 25 years my senior – the salt of the earth, people who lead by example, people I trusted, who cared about others, and people you would love to have in your community.
Because of all this, I trusted them completely when they told me about the importance of life insurance, and disability insurance, and saving money. And when they shared stories of what they accomplished with their clients, I soon felt as if I had embarked on a lifelong mission.
Another important aspect of the culture I came up in was high expectations. If you did not qualify for the Million Dollar Round Table by the end of your third year where I worked, you were terminated. I wasn’t going to wait until my third year.
I bought a poster board to cover my bedroom door. From the board’s lower left corner to the upper right corner, on a diagonal line, I wrote the letters “MDRT”; from the left upper corner to the lower right corner I drew another diagonal line, and I wrote “Rookie of the Year, 1990.”
I focused on both of those things. I looked at them every single day. There were many days I felt defeated and many days I worked long hours, but I never went to bed without walking past that chart.
By the end of 1990, I qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table, and I won the prestigious rookie of the year award. I qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table each year since entering the business, and even achieved “Court of the Table” on three separate occasions. All of this was achieved in my 20s.
I can’t stress enough how I owe my early success to so many people. I simply followed the instructions offered by my superiors. When I had questions, I went to my mentor who always helped me. When dealing with cases that I couldn’t quite get my head around, I worked jointly with colleagues, who were always there for me.
I remember at the end of my first quarter hearing the importance of learning via joint work. From then on, I made a point to participate in a minimum of one joint-work appointment each week. I participated in as many as four in some weeks.
During my first calendar year, I completed 84 joint-work appointments. After the 30th meeting, I felt I could sell better than some of the people that I collaborated with, which often frustrated me, but I always managed to learn one or two things from every meeting, which ultimately benefitted me down the road.
I’m the first to admit that I’m not smart enough to invent original sales concepts. Every single thing I know about sales was absorbed from others through my dedication to learning and my ability to soak up information like a human sponge in the first decade of my career.
Most of my material comes not from my victories, but from multiple defeats, the challenges and rejection I faced daily. While there were many tough days, I have such fond memories, and the experience molded and shaped my entire future.
Much of who you are today is the product of your environment. Your environment is more than just other people, but people play a big part of it. Think about the people in your life. What expectations do they set for you? How would you describe the culture they create? Are they available and able to provide you with support?
Take control and make a conscious effort to be with people who inspire, guide, mentor and challenge you to become the best you can become. Don’t limit yourself just to the people in your office. Seek others across the country or form a study group. With technology, most geographic limitations have been removed.
As you are building this environment, remember that it takes time. You can’t just snap your fingers and have all the right people in your life. But in the meantime, you can always learn from others through books, blogs, audio programs and more. Find the people who have achieved the most success in your field. Dive deep into their content and figure out what makes them tick. Commit to continually seeking these individuals out and it will have a dramatic impact on your life!
As we approach the end of this year, there’s no better time than now to spend some time in reflection and set your goals for the coming year.
Ever since my first year as an advisor, I always challenge myself to think big – and this year I want to challenge you to do the same. However, before you get started on this exercise, first you need to know what thinking big really means.
This is a topic that I talk a lot about in my workshops and training programs. Often times I ask the reps I’m working with to rate themselves on a scale of zero to ten. Ten means that you are tapping into your entire potential and zero means that you are nowhere close.
On average, most people give themselves a score somewhere around seven, a couple people will say eight. For the vast majority, I think that this shows that we are setting the bar too low.
Research shows that about the top 25% of financial advisors made over $160,490. On top of these salaries many advisors earned bonuses, so realistically you could assume the top five to ten percent are more likely earning between $200,000 – $300,000.
However, if you look at the top financial advisors in the U.S. who work with individual consumers and families, you’ll find an enormous gap. According to Forbes, the top advisor in the United States is Jeff Erdmann. He has $7.1 billion in assets with a typical household account of $36 million.
I feel fairly confident in saying that he made at least $25 million in net revenue. Are there a lot of advisors who are making this amount? No. But this is proof that it is possible.
Think about it from another perspective. The world record for the one-mile run is 3 minutes and 43 seconds. That’s the fastest a human has ever done it. At 51 years old, there is no way that I could run it under 4 minutes. However, 3 minutes and 43 seconds is the bar.
With this in mind, on a scale of zero to ten in your one-mile run, you don’t give yourself a ten unless you’re setting the world record. Makes sense, right?
The same holds true for your career. If a financial advisor making $25 million sets the bar as a ten, then how is it justifiable that an advisor making $300,000 would give themselves an 8 or 9 rating?
Now, this brings up a whole another topic that I think is a sensitive one, which is that not everybody needs or wants to be that $25 million per year advisor. For some advisors, they’ll say it’s not important to them. But I think that hurts us to think that way.
There’s a healthy balance between being happy with where you are in your life and what you aspire to be. If you feel that you never have enough, if you’re never happy, if you’re always looking for more and you never stop and smell the roses, life is pretty miserable.
It’s up to you to find the balance between feeling blessed and happy for what the good Lord gave you while simultaneously stay inspired and motivated to tap into your full potential. There’s an art to it.
But what becomes problematic is when reps immediately start thinking about all the things that they have to give up in order to reach their full potential.
They think if I were to make $25 million per year, I wouldn’t be able to have a great relationship with my wife or husband. I wouldn’t be able to have a great relationship with my kids. I wouldn’t be able to coach my son’s T ball or my daughter’s soccer.
I call that The Power of the AND versus the Tyranny of the OR. The “OR” is the bad one. In this mindset, you have to choose between the things you want in life. By choosing one, you miss out on the other.
On the other hand, there is The Power of the AND. Think about what your world would look like if you could figure out how to earn $25 million and be happily married, have an unbelievable relationship with your children, have unshakable faith, great friends, superb health, and lots of fun hobbies.
That’s a well-balanced life and it is possible! But you have to believe it in order to achieve it.
That’s a lot to think about, but the most important thing is that when you think about the bar you set for yourself, it should be a wakeup call.
Most people can only set the bar based on the environment they are in. The bar becomes whoever the best producer is at your office or that you’ve ever met. When you hear about this individual producer in Connecticut that makes $25 million, you say to yourself I never met that guy, I’ve never seen that guy, I don’t believe it.
The art and challenge of thinking big is really getting out of your normal territory and believing in what is truly possible. My wish for you this coming year is to set your sights higher than ever before and think BIG!
One important aspect of taking a good fact finder is to gather key pieces of data from your prospect. Without an understanding of their current income, assets and liabilities, you can’t help them to formulate a plan to achieve their financial objectives and protect their family from the unexpected.
In my 27+ years of working with advisors, I have found that many fall into the habit of simply writing down these numbers – but they don’t take the time to understand the importance of the story behind them. To me, it’s like the difference between a snapshot and a movie. A snapshot is just a moment in time – but a movie tells you the whole story.
Consider that two clients could be in identical financial situations, but have arrived there as a result of dramatically different circumstances, decisions and behaviors. For example, take a 30-year-old client who has $50,000 in his savings account.
In one situation, a client was frustrated by overspending in his early twenties. He committed to saving $1,000 per month for the past four years, and has accumulated $50,000. Here is someone who has successfully made a major life change for the better. He is now a saver and sticks to the plan.
Compare this to a client who inherited $200,000 from his grandfather two years ago, but blew most of it on lavish trips and gambling. He’s down to $50,000 and is depleting his resources at a rapid pace.
Same number. Very different stories.
Financial security is a journey of 20, 25 or even 30+ years. It’s our job to help our clients make it to the Promised Land. This means that, in the long run, the number in a client’s savings account today is far less important than the story behind it.
The key is to ask questions, listen and continue to follow up until you have the movie – not just a snapshot.
Another opportunity for you to dig deeper in your fact finding is with your client’s salary. A salary is not that significant by itself. Again, it’s just a number.
In the long run, the number in a client’s savings account today is far less important than the story behind it.
Monthly net cash flow is far more important than gross salary. So, start with the amount that gets deposited in their checking account after taxes and health insurance.
Then, ask how much is spent on the mortgage or rent, as well as discretionary and non-discretionary expenses. Factor in their debts and you’ll quickly be able to calculate how much they have left to save and invest.
One recent article highlighted the finances of a couple with an annual household income of $500,000. Similar to their story, some of your clients with an expensive lifestyle may feel as if they are just “scraping by,” even with a high income.
Your job is to ask the right questions to help them understand their reality and determine what that means based on their financial goals.
Past behavior can give you great insight into your client’s current circumstance. However, it’s also important that you explore any foreseeable changes in your client’s future.
Are your clients in a long-term relationship? Planning on getting married? Or, are they married but in the process of a divorce?
Do they want to have children or additional children?
Are their children approaching college? If so, do they want to go to college? Or, are they nearing college graduation?
Do your clients love their jobs and plan on working part-time once in retirement?
Or, do they hate their jobs and can’t wait to cut back on hours, retire as early as possible or switch careers at some point?
Are their parents still alive? Are they in good health? What sort of relationship do they have with them? How about their spouse’s parents?
At the end of the day, it’s about having an authentic desire to understand your client’s story. For clients who have major life changes on the horizon, ask follow up questions to better understand how these changes could impact their financial planning.
A simple start would be:
Tell me how you think that might impact your planning?
And then be quiet and just listen.
Logically, every client knows they need to save more. But why haven’t they been able to do that to this point? What’s getting in the way?
Understanding the story behind your clients’ current financial situation and helping them connect emotionally to their goals is how you’ll help them get where they want to go.
So, make sure you dig deep in your next client meeting. Seeing the movie vs. the snapshot is the key to doing what’s right for the client – and it’s what’s needed to take your practice to the next level.
The key to prospecting is all about generating high quality referrals – this means asking for them on a consistent basis.
However, most reps only ask for referrals in some of their meetings. First, they “feel” out the meeting to see if there is a positive connection.
Then, based on how they are feeling, how the meeting is going and the odds of being exposed to social rejection, they determine whether or not to ask for the referral.
When they forgo asking for the referral, it’s attributed to reasons such as:
“I don’t know enough yet.”
“I don’t deserve referrals.”
“I haven’t added value yet.”
“I feel my clients would be doing me a favor.”
These attitudes are disempowering and will defeat you before you even get started.
It’s critical to your success to rise above this self-defeatist mentality and replace it with an empowered mindset. There are three keys to the empowered mindset.
The first key is your own honesty and integrity. The second you walk into the room with your clients, you have to leave your own needs at the door.
It is not about meeting your quarterly goals or qualifying for your next incentive contest. It’s about having a genuine and insatiable appetite to help better your clients’ lives.
When you approach your clients from this mentality, they can feel it. It’s incredibly attractive and it makes it far easier to ask for the referral.
Financial planning is not a logical business.
It’s not as if you can take a fact finder and your clients instantly realize that they need to save more money, increase their life insurance and fund a 529 plan for their children’s education.
These steps often make all the logical sense in the world, but we are not in a logical business.
Therefore, the second part of the empowered mindset is realizing that you bring tremendous value to your clients simply in the questions you ask.
This means going beyond asking for their name, date of birth, income, and assets and filling out the fact finder.
Instead, it requires authentic, thought-provoking questions, being 100% present in your meeting and truly listening to their answers.
While I challenge you to come up with your own, one question that I used in my fact finding process was, “In your early years, what did you learn about money from your Mom and Dad?”
After I’d ask the question, I’d stop, listen and ask clarifying questions. This created a new and powerful experience. Simply by asking this question, you are providing your prospect an opportunity to think through their answer and how it impacted their lives.
And that’s just one question – by the time you finish a fact finder, you’ve hopefully asked 10 more just like it. And that brings tremendous value.
"A real referral is when someone introduces someone they care about to someone they trust."
You must believe that your client’s referral to you is an enormous opportunity for them to impact the people they care about. It is not a favor to you.
We all have experienced moments when someone arrives in our lives and has dramatically altered the course of it for the better. This is your client’s chance to have that effect.
They should carefully think through the most important people to refer to you. And when they do introduce you to someone they deeply care about, you can take comfort in knowing that you will give them your absolute best.
This mindset is a dramatic contrast from the negative thoughts of:
“I know you’re not going to want to do this… I’m really worried about asking you for the referral because I haven’t sold you anything.”
“I’m nervous that if I ask you for a referral, maybe you’ll be so turned off by it that you won’t want to work with me going forward.”
“I know this business has a bad stereotype, but please just give me a chance. Maybe after a few years they’ll grow to trust and like me…”
We all have the empowered mindset some percentage of the time. But, when a prospect hangs up on you, someone doesn’t take your advice or you miss your goals, it’s really easy to get into a negative mindset. Conversely, when everything is going right, an empowered mindset comes naturally.
Your challenge is to work towards more consistently living with an empowered mindset, regardless of your day-to-day experiences. Reflect on the three keys to this mindset and remind yourself of them before your meetings.
Most importantly, act on it! Make a commitment to consistently ask for the referral, with the goal of doing it every time. Action is the best way to reinforce your beliefs and is what will allow you to reach your full potential.
