My 10 Biggest-Payoff Tips for 2024

1. Give the gift of team-building to your team or firm this coming year. Most people in advisory firms and teams work under a lot of pressure. It’s always busy, clients are often demanding, the markets change quickly and the stress is high. People can’t be expected to work well alongside one another and “just get along.” Human beings are complex. Even the nicest, most accommodating person can get irritated with their colleagues. Help them, and give them a structured situation where they can bond more effectively.

2. Reward your team members appropriately. Make this the year to focus on compensation and incentives. It isn’t always about money, but pay people what they are worth and what’s reasonable for the market. Acknowledge a “job well done” in different ways throughout the year and help your team share in the wins as much as possible.

3. With #2 above, set goals – let the team know what success will look like for them at the end of 2024. Make the goals both quantitative and qualitative and provide regular updates on how well you are doing. Gather the team together once a quarter (at minimum) to talk about what’s working and what’s not. Help them see where their contributions are having an impact.

4. Allow your team to talk about obstacles. Even the best, highest performing teams run into obstacles throughout the year on the road to meet their established goals. But most senior leaders don’t create a forum where the team can share their obstacles and talk about what to do to overcome them. Allow your team to give voice to what’s getting in their way and talk about what your team can control, what you can influence and what’s out of your control. Help your team to focus on what you can all do together to overcome and move on!

5. Focus on growth. Your firm and team probably grew quite nicely over the last couple of years – most did. But you can’t expect what you did before to work in the future. The market, the economic environment and people’s lives change. Take stock of what got you to where you are – a “look back” and a current state analysis – and then look forward to what you want to do differently to win new opportunities.

6. Refresh your message and the way you tell it. You don’t have to change your name or logo, but review what you have been saying and see if there are ways to give your message stronger hold with your market. Weave in stories and examples, be clear who you are focused on (your niche), highlight your team and how well they work together, outline the experience someone will have with you once they become a client. Find opportunities to include strong elements that help a prospect understand who you are and why you are different.

7. Define your niche market. Yes, it’s been said a million times but only about a dozen of the financial advisory firms or teams I’ve coached started out with clearly defined and articulated niches they market to on a regular basis. Clarify whom you serve best. Commit to it. Be specific and clear and create your marketing around this niche.

8. Define the client experience (what I call “TCE”) and make the external experience the clients have match the internal experience. Be sure your team knows who is doing what, and when and how they interact with one another. This could be one of the bigger gifts you give your team in 2024. It means they are operating with a process and smooth handoffs and transitions to serve clients well. The better you define this, the better able you are to tell clients about it (and explain it to prospects) and the easier it will be for your team to execute what’s needed. If you haven’t defined it clearly, pull your team together to do this. It can be a great group activity and bonding experience!

9. Charge clients what you are worth, and have a fee schedule. I have worked with far too many advisor firms this year working off of dozens of fee schedules, with deals cut everywhere. I often see clients whose fee does not make sense. There is often no logic to the way the fees are assigned to clients. Make this the year you bring alignment to everything. Create segments of clients and fees associated with them and decide – along with your team – to stick to it!

10. Let me end here with something I consider to be one of the more important things you can commit to doing throughout 2024 – focus on fun. Yes, I know that sounds so unimportant based on everything else I’ve outlined, but make time to enjoy what you all are doing and have some laughs – even if you have to schedule it outside of the office. People want to enjoy their work and their workplace. Most people enjoy their work, their colleagues and going into the office every day much more if they have a little bit of levity with what they are doing. “Fun” means different things to different people, so poll your team first on what they’d most enjoy but then do it.

I wish you, your team and everyone around you a happy and healthy new year, and I look forward to continuing to hear from many of you with your questions and insights so I can help everyone in our profession get better at what they already do so well!

Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022 and 2023. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She 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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