3 tips for working with clients that take financial advisors to the top

Chance plays little role in the steadfast success of financial advisors. It’s about being of value to clients. Following is the advice that, for these multiple Top of the Table qualifiers, created more value for clients and has shaped the careers of some of the giants in the financial services industry.

1)      Build trust by listening to and understanding clients.
Clients must trust you, but that doesn’t automatically happen just because you show them facts and figures. Clients want to feel that you care about them, and you can’t care about them unless you know and understand them. When you know and understand them, you’ll provide good advice. Alain Quennec, CFP, CIM, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

2)      Don’t sell. Show clients how to achieve their goals.
The more you do good for somebody, the better you do financially for yourself. Why discount that by selling? We can do our job right and get paid even more because of it. Stephen Kagawa, FSS, LUTCF, Monrovia, California, USA

3)      Specialize. It increases income and better assists clients.
A generalist who sees everybody, sounds like everybody else. If you need heart surgery, you’re not going to go to a general practitioner, you’re going to go a heart surgeon. See yourself in that specialist role. Clay Gillespie, CFM, CIM, Vancouver, Canada

Find four more tips that take advisors to the top, in the video “7 things top advisors do.”

By Antoinette Tuscano, MDRT content specialist

Try these MDRT videos for more advice from some of the best in the financial services industry:

• • Double your income and work less! Inside high-performing offices: How you can increase your income by working less and specializing more. 
  • Fee-based planning. A better method?: Forget starting the year at zero. Instead, multiply your income by becoming fee-based
  • 7 ideas to build a marketable practice: Are you limiting the growth and worth of your business by not using these seven key ideas?
  • How to make money without selling: Inside high-performing offices: How not selling products, but instead putting clients’ needs first and listening without judging built successful practices for two Top of the Table qualifiers.