By Karl Hartey
Getting started as a financial advisor isn’t easy. We’ve all struggled. You can go beyond that, however, if you’re determined, apply direction to your career, and focus on creating goals and a vision for your career. About 20 years ago, I did just that when I decided I wanted to join MDRT’s best advisors and qualify for Top of the Table.
How to make goals feel more manageable
To get there, I set a great big scary goal to make about £240,000 a year, which is what it took at the time to qualify. Back then, however, that was about five times more than I was making. I was barely scraping by with the business costing me more than I was making. Qualifying for Top of the Table seemed out of reach, but I took it step by step and day by day.
I broke down £240,000 into smaller amounts so it seemed more manageable. Now I could visualize £20,000 a month, which is £5,000 a week, £1,000 a day, or £500 in the morning and £500 in the afternoon — and bingo, you’re there. If I could achieve that each and every day, qualifying for Top of the Table would be easy.
Except I was a one-person operation and already quite busy. I wondered, how on earth I was going to find time to make £500 in the morning and another £500 in the afternoon. So, I found a coach to help me. He suggested I write down everything I did in a day — from ordering quotes to writing reports to making tea to calling clients and so forth. Of all those things I did, what was I best at? What I was best at would be my unique ability.
In addition, I reviewed the list of everything I did and determined what I was actually getting paid to do. My answer then was “everything” because I felt I must do all these little bits. They’re all cogs in the wheel to make it work. If you’re truthful, however, your answer isn’t “everything.” Was my unique ability making tea or writing reports? Did that really pay my bills? When I thought about it, what I was getting paid to do was see clients, give advice, ask for referrals and create solutions. Everything else could become somebody else’s job, and I needed to create the infrastructure that allowed me to focus on what I was best at and got paid to do.
The importance of teamwork
To start putting that infrastructure in place, I hired someone to work 20 hours a week. It didn’t cost me a lot. In fact, in many ways, it cost me nothing. It was the best investment I ever made because it gave me 20 hours a week of more time for me to do what I do best. That 20 hours allowed me to do more prospecting, see more people, spend more time face to face and my sales went up. In 12 months, my sales went up six times.
Today, I have a bigger team, which allows me to spend my day having conversations with clients. I probably have between two to three conversations a day, generally three days a week. And I continue to qualify for Top of the Table because my team schedules and confirms my appointments, sends pre-meeting packs to new clients, writes reports, conducts research and carries out all those things needed to make a practice run.
Doing what I’m best at and delegating the rest to an incredible team took me to the Top of the Table, and it’s how I remain there.
Karl Hartey, of Hartey Wealth Management of Oswestry, England, has 21 Top of the Table qualifications and has been an MDRT member since 1995.
See more from Karl Hartey in the following videos:
- Learn a strategy for showing value and attracting clients
- How to boost your happiness by restarting your business
- Selecting clients you want through seminars
- Learn how to thrive without commissions
Watch more videos about how to run a successful business.
Always give best service to clients. Meeting or connected to them