Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
I am frustrated by one of our advisors. He brought a relatively small amount of business with him (around $25 million) when he joined the first last year and promoted himself as having a number of connections in the community. Since that time, he has not brought in one additional dollar of new assets. How do I motivate him to sell? He doesn’t make a ton of money on the assets he has, so I would hope he is self-motivated, but I’m not seeing it.
Tom N.
Dear Tom,
There are a number of things you can do to motivate him, but keep in mind that ultimately, we are all self-motivated. Incentives work for a reason, but people have to decide they want to make a change before you will see any progress.
That said, there are a few steps you could take. Many times I see that advisors want to grow and contribute, but they don’t have the tools or knowledge. It might be that he needs coaching or mentoring from you, someone on your team or an outside third party. Many advisors are not wired to sell and need some guidance.
You probably want to look at his incentives. He will become self-motivated faster if there is an attractive carrot at the end. I find that often advisors are compensated well for managing existing clients, and any new business is treated as a bonus. If possible, tie his overall compensation to a mixture of client retention, new business development, referrals and other factors. If you can measure where he is now and put quantitative goals in place, you can track progress each month or each quarter. I hear from some advisors that while their firm expects them to grow, no one really inquires about what’s working and what’s not. Make sure to set clear expectations and have ongoing dialogue with him to show you are interested in his activities and want to support him.
Please do remember that most advisors have never been taught how to sell. They usually learn by watching someone else, attend training or coaching or learning from their mistakes! It’s a difficult process for many. Find ways to both support and encourage him while measuring the progress he makes.
Dear Bev,
I don’t know if this fits your column, but I am preparing for a presentation at a conference. I want to be a compelling speaker, but public speaking has never been my strong suit. Any tips on how to make a splash?
Sarah P.
Dear Sarah,
This is one of my favorite topics – I call it Presenting with Confidence! It’s amazing how many times we have all gone to conferences to hear someone speak that we admire. We can’t wait to hear what the person has to share, and then the presentation is so bad, we can’t even concentrate on what the person is saying! So I give you credit that you are thinking about this and planning for success.
Make sure you know something about the audience. Ask some engaging questions and get them to raise their hands: “How many people know [fill in the blank] about this subject?” “How many people have had a hard time learning this in the past?” Try to gauge their knowledge and interest level. If you can get some information on attendees beforehand, see what you can learn about their interests and backgrounds. The more you can gear your comments to their situations, the better received it will be. This can be as simple as including some “jargon” they understand, or creating a scenario they might deal with every day to explain your information.
Be sure to break your presentation down. Look at everything you want to convey, then separate the material into logical segments. It’s best not to have more than seven segments of information, and three to five is even better. Tell the audience in the beginning what you’ll cover, then focus on each segment individually, and then summarize by going through the main points you covered in each segment.
The beauty of the chunking process is that it often helps to organize a lot of information into sections so you are not repeating, and it gives you the chance to set expectations with your audience so they know what’s coming.
Be sure you have a closing statement, or a take-away. The best presentations can be where the audience gets a step-by-step summary, so they know how to use the information post-presentation.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995; in 2008 she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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