Give clients what they most want

One of the biggest misconceptions about financial advisors’ success is the idea that their services, planning and advice are what clients want most. They’re not.

Clearly, your services, advice and recommendations are important. But there’s something more important.

Understand what matters

The most important factor in your success is something else, and it’s right under your nose. What clients want most is you and your personality. It’s the way you speak, the way you make people feel about their money, their situation and their future. And how you make them feel about themselves.

It comes down to this: When you make people feel good, they want you by their side — advising them, protecting them and working with them. Before clients buy your services, they buy you.

That’s why I tell advisors they have no competition. It’s because there is only one you.

Highlight your values

I can coach advisors about how to get in front of more people, accelerate their business growth and improve on what they’re already doing. The rest, however, is on them.

As an advisor, it starts with your values. What you believe about yourself and your world and what’s important to you. The essence of who you are. Your values determine your attitude. It’s how you feel about your clients and how committed you are to serving them.

Your attitude affects your activities — your work, of course, but also the way you treat your clients and prospects — all the things that constitute client relations.

Give your clients and prospects what they want most — you!

Sandy Schussel is a performance acceleration coach who has been working with financial advisors for more than 20 years, helping them break through to higher production levels.

For more about mindsets that build success:

• Watch “Mindset, vision, focus” (MDRT member exclusive) Top of the Table member Karl Hartey explains a path to success with mindset, vision and focus.
• Watch “Mindset shifts for success,” a collection of MDRT videos on YouTube that offer insight into the mindsets of top financial advisors.
• Read “Achieve the success you want” to learn how small improvements and changes in mindset led to success for MDRT member Jeremy Mark Wellington, Dip PFS, Dip CII.