Note that I know very little about Dessanomics or Money Trax, other than what a few of my clients have told me. My recommendation here are more to do with what is best for my client’s long term business needs.

Should I do the Dessanomics course even though I am already doing the Money Trax course?

On the left brain logical side you don’t need Dessanomics.

On the right brain creative side Dessanomics along with your experience with Money Trax it will give you strategies that you can use to improve your client engagement, customer service, marketing, product offering and sales process … while taking care of the prime directive; giving your clients the best service possible based on their needs.

The other benefit is that it will help you to enhance your Unique Selling Proposition because you will be able to Mash Up what you have learned from both Dessanomics and Money Trax. Given that Dessanomics is a Canadian based and Money Trax is USA based, you will be able to Mash Up the best from both worlds.

Please remember that we need to develop the Emotional Reasons To Buy Now as part of your Client Needs Analysis / Client Engagement Process because a client will not buy Logic, whether it is Dessanomics or Money Trax.

Please remember to Time Block time and space to follow up the Dessanomics course so that you can debrief / Mash Up, integrate it and create an action plan to implement it into your business.

Free One Page Business Plan Webinars September 9 & 28^th – Register Now!

Announcing Leading Advisor’s One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars and the One Page Business Plan(TM) Webinars!  “If you don’t get the words right, you might build the wrong business and may never get the numbers right.” The dates for the One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars are: Friday, September 9th at 11:15am EDT Wednesday, September 28th at 12:30pm EDT

Who should attend?

• Do you have too many scattered ideas?
• Do you need to focus on a few?
• Do you need to jumpstart your business right now?
• Do you have no time or interest in writing a 50 page business plan?
• Do you need to determine if you’re focusing on the right things?
• Do you need an effective blueprint to keep yourself and team focused?

Then consider a fresh, simple approach to business planning that will enable you to focus on what is important…the One Page Business Plan^(TM) – a powerful tool for building and managing a business. It’s short, it’s concise, and it delivers results quickly and effectively. There can be no question as to where your business is headed when it is in writing, especially when you have the key essentials about growing your business clearly specified on a single page.

Is this another ho-hum course on business planning like the ten others you have attended – no way! I know how to capture the essence of any business in just a few minutes using the innovative key word and short phrase techniques using the One Page Business Plan^(TM).

To Register for the One Page Business Plan^(TM) Free Webinars:

Call Laura at 250 248-6012 / 1 877 248-6012 or e-mail Laura at lreilly@leadingadvisor.com and you will receive your GoTo Meeting Webinar Link, Phone Number and Access Code.

• Friday, September 9^th at 11:15am EDT
• Wednesday, September 28^th at 12:30pm EDT

 

This is an article that Neil Menzies of Arbutus Financial wrote for Manulife’s eDialogue monthly.

Flash forward to 2011 and Neil has a flourishing business at Arbutus Financial. “Over time, I gained momentum and my natural market of 25-year-olds matured into more senior roles in business – controllers, CEOs, CFOs – as we all grew older,” says Neil. “My little one-man operation has grown to a firm with two locations, in Vancouver and Nanaimo, and a talented ten-person team.”

Embracing technology, while challenging and expensive because it advances so quickly, is a key plank in Arbutus’s business growth. “Today, being progressive and light on our feet is essential,” says Neil, a self-described “gadget guy” who loves playing with new technology in his spare time.

Each advisor at the firm is equipped with a customized iPad for use in the planning process, which Neil says results in a consistent Arbutus Financial client experience and the iPads are simple to update.

Keeping things simple, standardized and easily repeated is essential. “Our goal is for clients to have a consistent white-glove experience, regardless of which team member they have contact with. Leveraging technology ensures we all have quick access to information, make detailed client-contact notes and truly know the people we serve.”

Arbutus’s standard tech platform also includes:

• Paperless office, with document scanning, efiling, paperless fax
• Interoffice messenger communication on each desktop
• Standardized desktop for each team member, simplifying training and improving best practices
• Secure remote access to office computer and filing system
• Proprietary client database (CRM), with key information at fingertips, for quick response to client queries, including soft facts regarding client profile (example: mother has Alzheimer’s, do not take instructions)
• Resource eLibrary – centralized with key resource materials to assist with communicating planning strategies
• Use of Dropbox for document management and mobility
• Robust telephone system with many options for customization, mobility etc.
• Cordless headsets for all team members
• Copytalk for dictation
• eProcedure Manual, to ensure consistency of delivery, and understanding of standard operating procedures

Neil credits a mentor who taught him the potential for productivity improvement through technology integration. He took that advice and grew with it. “We are fortunate to have an excellent support staff with a culture of cooperation and collaboration. A standardized technology platform is essential in supporting our growth. By sharing best practices through technology, we all learn to work smarter, not harder.”

Free One Page Business Plan Webinar June 23^rd – Register Now!

Announcing Leading Advisor’s One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars and the One Page Business Plan(TM) Webinars! “If you don’t get the words right, you might build the wrong business and may never get the numbers right.” The date for the One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinar is: Thursday, June 23rd at 1:45pm EDT

Who should attend?

• Do you have too many scattered ideas?
• Do you need to focus on a few?
• Do you need to jumpstart your business right now?
• Do you have no time or interest in writing a 50 page business plan?
• Do you need to determine if you’re focusing on the right things?
• Do you need an effective blueprint to keep yourself and team focused?

Then consider a fresh, simple approach to business planning that will enable you to focus on what is important…the One Page Business Plan^(TM) – a powerful tool for building and managing a business. It’s short, it’s concise, and it delivers results quickly and effectively. There can be no question as to where your business is headed when it is in writing, especially when you have the key essentials about growing your business clearly specified on a single page.

Is this another ho-hum course on business planning like the ten others you have attended – no way! I know how to capture the essence of any business in just a few minutes using the innovative key word and short phrase techniques using the One Page Business Plan^(TM).

To Register for the One Page Business Plan^(TM) Free Webinars:

Call Laura at 250 248-6012 / 1 877 248-6012 or e-mail Laura at lreilly@leadingadvisor.com and you will receive your GoTo Meeting Webinar Link, Phone Number and Access Code.

• Thursday, June 23^rd at 1:45pm EDT

 

Dear Joe Advisor,

To change the perception about how busy you are, I would send out a letter that looks something like the following … noting that by you writing it, whether you send it or not, you will get more focused on the reasons that you have more time for HNW clients and their referrals;

Dear Dick & Jane Client,

Thank you for the opportunity to work with you as your financial advisor to grow your assets, protect your assets and leave a legacy.

I’m writing to explain how Cathy, Ryan & I and our systems are providing you with the best possible service and here is what we are doing for you:

( This is where you need to brainstorm the points of your service offering – to get an idea, please click this link that has a list of our service offerings. )

Having said all of this, this leaves me with time to meet with you in person or over the phone to provide you with the best service possible.

Our team and our systems also allows me to offer our products and services to like minded individuals like yourself that want to grow their assets, protect their assets and leave a legacy.

As you are communicating with your close circle of associates, family and friends … I’m inviting you to think of the best way to introduce them to me so that they may receive the value that you have received.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service and I’m looking forward to our next conversation.

Yours truly,

Joe Advisor

 

I broke the belt clip part of my OtterBox through no fault of the OtterBox while getting out of a taxi when I was in Winnipeg last week and OtterBox is shipping me a new one free of charge.

Thank you OtterBox.

 

For more, see: Make the transition to fee-based compensation

Free One Page Business Plan Webinars May 11^th & 26^th – Register Now!

Announcing Leading Advisor’s One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars and the One Page Business Plan(TM) Webinars! “If you don’t get the words right, you might build the wrong business and may never get the numbers right.” The dates for the One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars are: Wednesday, May 11that 11:15am EDT Thursday, May 26th at 12:30pm EDT

Who should attend?

• Do you have too many scattered ideas?
• Do you need to focus on a few?
• Do you need to jumpstart your business right now?
• Do you have no time or interest in writing a 50 page business plan?
• Do you need to determine if you’re focusing on the right things?
• Do you need an effective blueprint to keep yourself and team focused?

Then consider a fresh, simple approach to business planning that will enable you to focus on what is important…the One Page Business Plan^(TM) – a powerful tool for building and managing a business. It’s short, it’s concise, and it delivers results quickly and effectively. There can be no question as to where your business is headed when it is in writing, especially when you have the key essentials about growing your business clearly specified on a single page.

Is this another ho-hum course on business planning like the ten others you have attended – no way! I know how to capture the essence of any business in just a few minutes using the innovative key word and short phrase techniques using the One Page Business Plan^(TM).

To Register for the One Page Business Plan^(TM) Free Webinar:

Call Laura at 250 248-6012 / 1 877 248-6012 or e-mail Laura at lreilly@leadingadvisor.com and you will receive your GoTo Meeting Webinar Link, Phone Number and Access Code.

• Wednesday, May 11^that 11:15am EDT
• Thursday, May 26^th at 12:30pm EDT

 

It is clear that you want to give extreme service to your A & B clients.

Then there are the C clients that simply don’t meet your criteria because your vision has outgrown them.

Some  C clients have been trained by you over time to think that you are running a Tim Horton’s Drive-Through.

You know the ones that;

• Show up without an appointment
• Call and avoid leaving a message with your assistant even though your assistant asks; “What is it regarding, perhaps one of our associates can help you and provide you with quicker service?” and the C client’s reply is; “Just get him/her to call me back”.

These C clients need to be retrained with;

• Your assistant’s reply to the C clients that show up without an appointment; “Joe Advisor is not available right now. Would you like to schedule an appointment?” and the C client’s reply is; “I’ll drop back in a while” and your assistant’s reply to the C client is; “With respect, Joe Advisor is booked solid so you need to book an appointment. Is Tuesday at 2pm or Wednesday at 10am better for you? Just to make sure, let me make sure that we have your contact e-mail and phone numbers.”
• C client e-Mail; Dear Joe Client, Thank you for the opportunity to be your financial advisor and for leaving me a message. To serve you the best, please e-mail me back with your question and I will take immediate action to help you. Looking forward to being of service, Joe Advisor

* *

Dear All,

I’ve been shortlisted for Advisor.ca’s ‘Name That Visionary Contest’: Who are the Top 10 leaders in the industry today?

Round One is over and the candidates have been narrowed down to 20 entries.

The next step is to vote for the top ten entries and you can do this by clicking here; 

http://www.advisor.ca/partnersuccesscenter/aca10/bioform.html

There are two ways I could have played this:

1. Pretending to be a shy and demure Canadian, because that is what Canadians do, in the hope that people will vote anyway - ”I don’t take part in these celebrity competitions because it’s beneath me”
2. Bold, outrageous and provocative - ”asking for the business” - vote for me because I love the exposure!

Another reason that I am doing this is to demonstrate the power of E-Nurture Marketing as you are a reader of my E-Newsletter and we were initially introduced through speaking or via the internet.

Honestly, it would cost tens of thousands to receive the exposure that this contest can create.

So I’m asking for your help.

The next step is to vote for the top ten entries and you can do this by clicking here and PLEASE VOTE FOR ME;

http://www.advisor.ca/partnersuccesscenter/aca10/bioform.html

 Again, why am I asking?

• The exposure is absolutely great for my professional career development
• The publicity is a vindication for all the hard work done with clients and the philosophy and ideas that we share in these and other pages
• The encouragement to me to keep fighting the fight for quality career and independent financial advisors
• My coaches and mentors all get to take a break as my unmet need of recognition is satisfied
• You will have to spend a few minutes thinking about your personal Top 10 leaders in the industry today 

To vote CLICK HERE; 

http://www.advisor.ca/partnersuccesscenter/aca10/bioform.html

 

The issue is we are being fuelled by The Culture Of Fear that we have been hammered with in this new millennium from questionable wars, oil shortages, the environment, the economy through to the fear of a pandemic and possible inflation on the horizon.

In the middle of all of this is the rogue behaviours of a few financial advisors have been overselling questionable products with excess commissions to unqualified clients.

Compliance is not going to go away so learn to pay Attention.

Pay Attention to Attention Management so that your valuable time and energy isn’t sucked away majoring in minor things.

Pay Attention to building the following components of your business to include a big vision to add value to those you serve which in turn will yield a bigger income that will fund the team and the systems that you need to remain compliant.

• Values, Positive Feelings, Positive Beliefs
• Vision
• Business / Marketing Plan
• Budget Cash Flow
• Goals
• Hiring & Delegation
• Customer Service
• Product Focus
• Relationship Management
• Time Management
• More Profit
• Attention Management –> Quitting

To remain Compliant you have to Quit the Routine that is killing you and pay more Attention to Compliance.

 

In the days of milk and honey one could comfortably go forward with fee for service type work with a verbal understanding of the work that is required and the fee per hour for the work.

At the same time a script needs to be developed to go along with the letter of engagement that goes something like “This is the way we do business”.

It is best to treat everyone the same then it is automatic … no favors.

One must honor the value that they provide.

It is only the fear based ego mind that gets in the way of presenting the letter of engagement with limiting beliefs about how the client may receive the letter.

 A valued client will appreciate and respect you for the way you do business and an undervalued client will not appreciate you and disrespect you in the end by playing games by not paying you or discounting your payment and value.

Best to get the letter of engagement out of the way right at the beginning because if the client gets their nose out of joint about the letter of engagement then they will get their nose out of joint when it comes time to pay.

 

Agenda

• SWOT
• Vision, Purpose, Mission
• Vision – 1 Year, 3 Years, 5 Years
• Budget
• Objectives, Strategies, Actions – 90 Day Goals
• Delegation / Job Descriptions / Virtual Assistant / Review
• Leadership / Decision / Time Management / Practice
• Follow Up

Areas Of Business

• Planning, Projects, Schedule
• Administration
• Computers / Systems
• Financial
• Marketing A – In House
• Marketing B – Marketing Funnel
• Marketing C – Associate Advisors
• Office
• Production ( Customer Service )
• Products
• Sales Process
• Team Leadership / Harmony / Conflict Resolution
• Training

 

Today is a bitter sweet day at Leading Advisor because today is the day that the new Administrative Assistant was going to start, the new office is ready to go and we have nobody to fill the chair – by choice.

This is because we made a decision not to hire the person that seemed to be the right choice.

In many ways the person was perfect for the job.

At the same time, I contributed to creating a potential hiring mistake by wanting to hire up.

Hiring Up, meaning hiring someone that was overqualified for the position that just happens to have loads of experience in marketing and publishing.

So here is some real time public admission that the painters house isn’t always painted as we made the same mistake that many people make with their hiring.

They try to get a jack of all trades and in the financial advisor’s case, they try to hire what they term as a back office assistant and kid themselves that the same person can be a marketing wiz at the same time.

There are a few Nightingales out there and if you have got one pay them well as they don’t come along very often. Nightingale meaning someone that can take care of the back office and do the marketing at the same time. However, the majority of the time the jack of all trades doesn’t work out because they will be good at many things and a master of nothing.

What matters is matching the job description to the behaviours not trying to match the behaviours to the job description.

We attracted a person that had more “hire up” than we were ready for with marketing, book publishing and writing experience galore and we decided not to go ahead because the job description would not have honoured the behavioural style and the talents that the person aspired to and the job description would not be honoured either.

So back to the drawing board with another six week hiring process with a goal to hire by August 1^st.

The good news is Laura and I will be able to take a slower pace taking a number of one week Staycations that includes; spending alone time together, reading, bike rides, hikes, trips to the book store, going to Starbies, yoga, kayaking and playing with Shadow.

Shadow and his new toy Whale that he returned with along  with a load of other cool gifts from the Puppy Shower that our friends put on for Laura and Shadow on Sunday, June 14^th, 2009.