Financial Advisor Winners and Losers 

(Excerpt from The Mile High Maverick)

It’s been interesting over the last couple of weeks. We had a fabulous coaching call to kick-off March, with Toby Milroy and I extensively covering the new promotion and the A-Z of back to basics on the new client introductory process.

Next, I made quick stops in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I did ‘mini-boot camps’ with members and non-members alike. If you live in California and missed these, you missed what became a very valuable small group learning opportunity. Each participant left with a comprehensive marketing plan for targeting 20 or more new clients in March.

The participants represented quite a range. The most successful business represented (in San Diego) had the most tremendous growth out of everyone I met in the three cities. It became obvious right away in these events that I could spot the big winners from the losers. By losers, I mean those who have just been sliding along laterally. No, it wasn’t as if they were wearing a suit or a Rolex. The evidence which separated the winners and losers was their focus. Just about everyone who attended was an accomplished entrepreneur. Many had 20, 30, or more years in operations.

Separating Winners and Losers

The ‘winners’ focused on new marketing ideas, better processes, and how to maximize their revenue per client and retention. They talked about their objectives, not from the technical side of it, but from an orientation of ‘target market’ success in attracting that market and their goals for growing their business.

The ‘losers’ in the group typically had two evident traits: their primary focus in conversation to other participants before the ‘mini-boot camp’ was predominantly on their services and how they’re expanding their range of offerings to their clients. They also talked about the technical aspects of their business.

Another sign I spotted in the ‘losers’, and this is most of the ‘sliding along laterally’ or losing 10-20% this year, was in their lack of active participation in personal education. The lowest-performing businesses had gradually stopped paying attention to the education materials and resources they were receiving. Usually, they stopped going to training events like Quantum Leap and Extreme Success Academy. Ultimately, they ‘reverted to the familiar’ and spent their time with peers who had similarly low expectations.

Next Steps for Winners and Losers

Fortunately, I believe for both groups, I have opened their eyes. Business owners who believed having 50-100 clients is doing pretty good saw a much broader world with much bigger opportunities. It should be easy with all the resources I give you in all the events and coaching sessions I host, for you to run a thriving business that continues growing.

There are lots of examples of businesses doing very well because they pay attention and continue to expand their education. One success example was of a business that moved from $17,000 a month to well over $110,000 a month in the last 18 months. I work with them monthly on coaching calls; they’ve only implemented a few of the strategies I’ve taught them, but they do implement and have a positive belief system that it is possible.

Oh, and before I forget, the struggling businesses have another thing in common: they are surrounded by peers in the same situation. The best way to improve your results is through peer pressure to validate the potential for double, triple, or quadruple the results you are having currently. That’s why there is no substitute for the combination of both personal and peer coaching environments. I can tell you all day long what’s possible. But, seeing others who are no smarter than you achieving much better results is the ultimate proof you can do it yourself.

Shortcut to Winning?

For those who think right now it’s tough—we had my first business, which has been in the same location 30 years, take on 36 new customers last month. One of our newest branches had generated 79 intros from a wide variety of mostly non-paid community outreach systems. Another generated 210 intros in February from one community outreach activity. The year is going to be huge for those who keep learning, implement that learning, and get in gear.

Our efforts (which to date have been very successful) are to bring a smaller team of very focused practice owners together to be trained extensively in ‘Best Practices’. A trade show with a variety of ‘Break-Out’ sessions is useful and we support those efforts. For our part, we want a 9 a.m. – midnight “roll up the sleeves and immediately go back and implement.” Therefore, we have lots of stories of business owners leaving our events and jumping from $17,000 a month to over $100,000 a month or jumping from a high 6-figure a year-plus net personal income. Designed to immediately improve your income, our events are not designed for focusing on your technical competency. They are focused on learning the immediately implementable business and marketing practices and processes.