We have team members turning on one another because much of the new client servicing standards we agreed to set in place are not working.
I don’t know if we should downsize and move into a smaller space, give people the option to WFH and then lose the great camaraderie that has always made us so great.
Recently one expert asked whether the letters I receive are authentic or perhaps I make them up. I’d like to use this column to address this and ask financial professionals to consider things we often don’t talk about in this industry.
Our advisors are good at what they do, but a couple of our best performers are terrible communicators.
I find it difficult to act as a social worker. I’ve no background in psychology. I’ve no skills to help warring couples find their bliss and agree on a center point when they have differing opinions.
We spent a small fortune in 2020 and 2021 on training for our advisors. We need them to get better at business building and finding new sales opportunities.
As we close out the year, I’ll provide my top five advisor observations from my work with large and small practices.
We need to do year-end planning but in past years it hasn’t gone well.
Why doesn’t my staff see my appreciation in action and how could they be upset about donations to organizations they care about?
It’s that time of the year where we reassess relationships, segment our client activity and look at where we want to spend our energy in 2022. This year, the topic of centers of influence (COIs) has come up.
Do you believe any advisor can become a strong salesperson?
Here are some things to do to incorporate feedback more consistently into your daily practice with your team members.
Pushing referrals is disrespectful to our clients.
If clients are determined to have a “negative tenor,” we put them on an “exit list” to move out of our firm.
You have reached the end of a road with a team member, and it is time to move on.
This article addresses the best practices when an employee is not making a transition and you are losing faith that the person will be able to do what’s needed in the role.
What do you do with an intractable advisor?
I have heard some team members say they got along better when it was all virtual.
The pressures of this remote environment, far too much work, many new clients to be onboarded, and changes we’ve made to our staffing model and how we do things is creating confusion and infighting.
I understand the need for refreshing marketing, but the quote we received (for $40,000.00) is outrageous.
A client engaged us about three months ago. But based on the time we’ve worked together, I do not enjoy or like him.
Is it common for advisors with employees returning to the office to get requests like, “Can I get gas paid for?
We’ve known about the need transition clients to a new advisor for three years, but suddenly we are running out of time.
As the founder of the firm, I am concerned about our reputation and client satisfaction.
We have a number of legacy clients who are on old fee schedules.
While my advisors complain about things and want them fixed, once we take a step and decide to fix whatever it is and we improve it, we have to listen to complaints about its problems.
I will share the five most important take-aways I’ve learned from advisors during this virtual experience.
He continues to participate in sessions (mostly held in the early afternoon) and he seems at best distracted, at worst under the influence.
My partner and I have worked together for a long time. We are polar opposites, but it is like a marriage. We want to name a third partner, one of our existing financial advisors.
We aren’t crass or insulting, but we like to poke fun and give one another a hard time about things we do wrong.
My concern is that 90% of our clients who are very happy with our relationship are not referring. We want to implement an initiative to grab the attention of these clients and help them help us grow.
We are changing the name of our firm. We have recently acquired a couple of individual advisors who had run practices using their own names.
Once on Zoom, our new team member took a call from a friend. He didn’t mute fast enough, and we heard him say “Yuh, I’ll be there Saturday night.”
How do I manage my boss, who is not a nice person?
Now that people are going out and it is more normal, we’d like to do a client event.
What are some best practices for onboarding new team members in the advisory practices you see?
If clients are happy and my advisors are doing what they need to do, credentials are not necessary.
My problem is figuring out how best to share the details of my family’s issues with the other advisors in my firm.
We have had multiple conversations with our advisors about asking for more referrals. But our clients are older – in their 70s.
Do I let this go? Do I confront him? What if he makes it seem like I was the one who was guilty of the misunderstanding?
I am one of five partners at an advisory firm and the only female. I get paraded out whenever there are important prospects or firm-wide client events.
In the past few weeks, I have received numerous inquiries on how to improve empathy and listening skills for busy advisors.
How do we keep our teams motivated to keep looking and growing?
Is there a way to change an advisor’s mind who is pushing back so they can understand my view and see that it isn’t a negative but rather a positive?
We have found a number of candidates with great credentials on paper, but when we speak with them they don’t seem to be a good fit for what we’re building.
My advisors are pushing back on our fees. They are hearing from clients they believe they are paying too much for our services.
A woman to whom I was referred because she is facing a nasty divorce turns out to be a close acquaintance of mine.
How do we help our clients who are working parents (especially the working mothers) de-stress and manage their time better?
I lost one of my long-term clients over a political disagreement. He criticized the delayed openings in our state, yelled about the inflation that will be coming and then told me I didn’t even like Dr. Seuss!
What activities should we consider this year to replace the normal in-person dinners and client events we have always done?