Expert Advice to Grow Your Business

Emails that aren't sent to you directly (i.e., you are copied on them) are usually for information purposes only. Try to acknowledge that role and delegate the responsibility of the action to the intended recipient. --Cara Brook

Have you ever wondered how some people find time to vacation, work out, coach little league, or simply relax?  Do they have more money?  Do they have more help?  What's their secret?  Their secret is simply having learned the art of prioritizing, delegation, setting expectations and how to effectivley use the word "No." Unfortunately for many of us, this is easier said than done.  So let's take a common time waster and break it down: Email. I often have people tell me that they are surpised how fast the hours go and how little work gets accomplished while they're corresponding via email. 

1.  Try shutting down the email application for an hour or two (or at least turn off the email notification noise/icon).  Many of us feel a sense of urgency to check our email when a new message is delivered.  Eliminating this distraction will allow you to focus on the work in front of you.
2.  Designate certain times during the day in which you will read and respond to emails.  If you are managing a staff who needs your input on a regular basis, set expectations by sharing your strategy for addressing email.
3.  When reading and responding, try to prioritize and address the most important emails right away.  Eliminate the urge to procrastinate.  Saving an action item until later will only create a backlog of deliverables.
4.  Emails that aren't sent to you directly (i.e., you are copied on them) are usually for information purposes only.  Try to acknowledge that role and delegate the responsibility of the action to the intended recipient.

-Cara Brook in AdvisorMax expert forum "Improve Your Time Management Skills."
*Be sure to check out Cara Brook's upcoming AdvisorMax coaching session "The Secrets of Time Management."

"You owe me" breeds resentment and contempt for the adviser once the client becomes aware of what the underlying message means. --Michael B. Horwitz, Ph.D., CFP

Come-On: Adviser alludes to a past recommendation that worked out well for the client in the context of a new recommendation of questionable merit. "Remember how we got you out of that IPO before it bombed? This new closed-end mutual fund my firm is offering will permit you to participate in the growth of that sector without the risk of owning one or two stocks." For a client, the implicit message is, "You owe me a favor for all I've done for you."

Put-Off: "This recommendation wouldn't pass a merit test, so I'm just going to coerce you subtly into going along with me." In fact, "You owe me" breeds resentment and contempt for the adviser once the client becomes aware of what the underlying message means. Assuming the client retains the adviser, the relationship may be poisoned by a swelling chorus of "You owe me's" perpetuated by both parties.

Because come-ons can readily turn into put-offs, financial advisers should try to present themselves in ways that facilitate mutual respect instead. The best face advisers can present to clients usually combines a genuine, natural approach with sensitivity to how their clients are feeling and relating.

-Michael B. Horwitz, Ph.D., CFP, owns Life Strategies Financial Planning, in Put-Offs and Come-Ons

With six months’ worth of data, a financial advisor can review business objectives, assess new clients, and determine whether she’s on target, ahead of her goals or behind, and why. --John Nersesian

Typically, financial advisors develop a business plan in December or January, John Nersesian says. Waiting until the new year to review it won’t do any good, he maintains. “It’s like doing tax planning on April 14th,” he says. At that point, you’re just reporting results rather than making any meaningful midterm correction. But, with six months’ worth of data, a financial advisor can review business objectives, assess new clients, and determine whether she’s on target, ahead of her goals or behind, and why, Nersesian explains. If need be, changes can be made now to salvage any lackluster results.

-John Nersesian, managing director of wealth management services for Nuveen Investments in Chicago, in Build Your Business While Everyone Else Is on the Beach

With so much of their energy focused on prospecting, advisers often overlook the other route for growing their practices: acquiring additional assets from their current clients.  --John Bowen Jr.

With so much of their energy focused on prospecting, advisers often overlook the other route for growing their practices: acquiring additional assets from their current clients. This can be much more effective for two compelling reasons:

-It's far easier to get additional assets than it is to get new clients. Prospecting is expensive and time-consuming, with no guarantee of success. Asking for additional assets from existing clients costs nothing, takes only a few minutes and has a high probability of success.

-Asset capture offers great potential for growing your business. We recently identified 41 advisers who had received no additional assets from their wealthy clients in the previous two years. After receiving training in the asset-capture process, every single adviser in the group added new assets from existing clients, increasing their total assets under management from 15% to a high of 256%.

-John Bowen Jr., founder and chief executive officer of CEG Worldwide, in Just Ask!

Always take the opportunity to follow up. Many writers appreciate getting a clear, concise and on-point recap they can pull from directly for their article. --Marie Swift

Savvy advisors know that getting their name in print is one of the most important ways to boost their visibility and credibility. A few well-placed quotes in a national magazine and getting ink in local publications can make your phone ring. Client retention and strategic relationships with centers of influence both improve when you are highly visible within your community and niche markets...Here are some ways to ingratiate yourself and actively promote good relations.

-Be available. When a journalist calls you, make yourself extra available to help with useful information or to meet deadlines.
-Send a thank-you/recap email. Always take the opportunity to follow up. Many writers appreciate getting a clear, concise and on-point recap they can pull from directly for their article. Often, you can find something more to say that you wish you'd said in the initial interview.

-Marie Swift, marketing communications consultant and public relations coach, in 12 Media Don'ts

Make sure your creative materials sent to prospects play on the trade-offs between saving on fees and making potentially costly investment errors, as well as stressing your policy of full disclosure regarding fees.  --George H. Walper Jr. and Catherine S. McBreen

Price is only one factor that affluent investors consider important. But it is indeed a factor, so discuss fees with prospects and clients while also building value in products and services offered. Consider offering some flexibility to your clients. Specifically, allow clients to choose between either paying fees as already defined, or some combination of a fixed and performance-based fee structure. When investors participate in determining their "personalized" fee structures, they tend to be more at ease with the idea. One option to attract self-directed investors is to offer a fully performance-based fee structure.

Make sure your creative materials sent to prospects play on the trade-offs between saving on fees and making potentially costly investment errors, as well as stressing your policy of full disclosure regarding fees. Specifically, suggest that the cost of not using expert advisors in today's complex financial markets is usually more than the fees charged for the services. Bear in mind, your client's perception of the value of your services will be determined partly by his or her grasp on the fees. And generating a good return on their investment does not relieve you of the fees discussion.

-George H. Walper Jr. and Catherine S. McBreen are president and managing director, respectively, of Spectrem Group, in What We're Talking About When We Talk About Fees

Both professional athletes and lottery winners come into large amounts of money quickly, and aren’t necessarily savvy about managing it.  --Michael W. Boone

Develop a Specialization...Any Specialization.
Experience working with high-net-worth clients is a good start, but entertainers have special needs, says Fishman. "They tend to look for people who have credibility in the marketplace," he says. Build expertise with up-and-coming clients; say, a regional theater troupe or college athlete. Less obvious specialties may also hold value for celebrity clients. Michael W. Boone, founder of MW Boone and Associates in Bellevue, Wash., says he was referred to several professional athletes thanks to his work with lottery winners--both groups come into large amounts of money quickly, and aren’t necessarily savvy about managing it.

-Michael W. Boone, founder of MW Boone and Associates in Bellevue, Wash., in Landing Celebrity Clients

As my assets grew, time to do plans declined and the revenue mix flipped. --Neal Van Zutphen

Neal Van Zutphen, Vice President of Delta Ventures Financial Counsel, Inc., chose the team approach to support the continued growth of his business through referrals. After working with a fee-for-service consultancy, Van Zutphen went independent in 1994, and five years later was managing more than $10 million in assets. Most of his revenue came from financial planning and retainer fees to support the financial plans. "As my assets grew, time to do plans declined and the revenue mix flipped," explains Van Zutphen. "Instead of 80 percent planning fees, 20 percent advisory fees, it became 80 percent advisory fees, 20 percent planning fees."

Realizing his ability to service his clients was limited, he merged his practice with Charles Autrey, a veteran investment advisor, to form Delta Ventures in 1999. Today, Van Zutphen handles the planning side, while Autrey is the firm’s senior portfolio manager. Not only do they each benefit from referrals that the other brings into the practice, but clients also get a wider range of services from one resource.

-Neal Van Zutphen, vice president of Delta Ventures Financial Counsel, Inc., in 6 Strategies for Developing a Referral-Only Practice

Change the paint color from insane asylum white to something inviting, rich, and warm, like camel, deep green, or even navy.  --Katherine Vessenes

My recommendations about how to improve the reception area? Clean the place up! Change the paint color from insane asylum white to something inviting, rich, and warm, like camel, deep green, or even navy. Order some better quality furniture. Make sure that all of the lighting is bright and cheery. Provide some decent reading material for clients. Once in place, these improvements would push the score to a solid, mediocre, Lake Wobegon five.

-Katherine Vessenes, in The Model Client Experience

Attorneys and financial advisers are both facing the same problem today--how to find new clients.

Those planners who cultivate attorneys, CPAs, and others have a bigger book of business and more assets under administration. "There is no question that our close relationships with attorneys has been part of the reason for our continuing growth," Bob Kreitler says. In return, financial advisers should be prepared to provide referrals back to the attorney. "Referrals are a two-way street," Russell Achzet notes. "Attorneys and financial advisers are both facing the same problem today--how to find new clients. Attorneys and financial advisers can have all the skills in the world, but they mean nothing if they are not sitting in front of clients."

-Russell Achzet, CFP, president, and CEO of AM&M Financial Services in Pittsford, N.Y., in Your Friend the Lawyer

By designing programs designed specifically for business owners and executives, you'll become a valued resource for CEO group leaders.  --John J. Bowen Jr.

Leaders of CEO groups want to deliver high-quality services. You'll be able to add great value to a CEO group leader by delivering great content. Many groups have regularly scheduled educational events with outside speakers invited in for one-to three-hour presentations. By designing programs designed specifically for business owners and executives, you'll become a valued resource for CEO group leaders. In fact, some extremely successful advisers have built great businesses just from these kinds of workshops.

-John J. Bowen Jr., president and CEO of CEG Worldwide, in A Tack Worth Taking

When someone in our private client group asks if we can help one of their relatives, we don't ask about account size. --Michael Chasnoff

Adding a client's children to the client base may occur even if the children have modest assets. "When someone in our private client group asks if we can help one of their relatives, we don't ask about account size," notes Michael Chasnoff, chairman of Truepoint Capital, a wealth management firm in Cincinnati. "We do ask the other person to sign an engagement letter with us, but we will waive our minimum fee requirements. Usually, we charge the son or daughter the same low rate that the parents are paying, as a percentage of assets under management. We treat the children as separate clients, though, with specialized reporting for their assets." In this model, then, clients' youngsters are raised to think of Joe or Joan Planner as the source of their financial advice. As the next generation becomes economically self-sustaining, they eventually morph from add-ons to stand-alone clients.

-Michael Chasnoff, chairman of Truepoint Capital, a wealth management firm in Cincinnati, in Relative Strength

Wear something like a Hawaiian shirt, or an interesting piece of jewelry, fun sunglasses—something that gets people to talk to you.  --Paula Harris

"I always try to wear something that’s a conversation starter, especially at a summertime event," says Paula Harris, co-founder of WH Cornerstone Investments in Duxbury, Mass. "Wear something like a Hawaiian shirt, or an interesting piece of jewelry, fun sunglasses—something that gets people to talk to you," suggests Harris, who is also the founder of the South Shore of Boston chapter of the Downtown Women’s Club, which brings women together to create networks. So don't be afraid to wear something unique.

-Paula Harris, co-founder of WH Cornerstone Investments in Duxbury, Mass., in Summertime Networking Know-How

Listen without interrupting and acknowledge the client's feelings. When the client has said his or her piece, make eye contact and say, "What can we do to go forward?"  --Bryce Sanders

Few clients say, "I'm unhappy and I'm putting you on notice." Instead, they don't return calls, ignore your advice or complain frequently. Worse, they announce that a nephew or other third party must approve all your recommendations. What can you do? Invite the client to a nice, neutral location, such as a restaurant. After getting settled say, "Things haven't been good lately." The client will usually respond by bringing up everything bothering him or her. Listen without interrupting and acknowledge the client's feelings. When the client has said his or her piece, make eye contact and say, "What can we do to go forward?" It's difficult to end a relationship when you demonstrate sincere concern.

Here's another example. Say you have a client couple, and the wife is your regular contact. You and she get along well, but you sense that the husband may not be satisfied. To address the issue head-on, call the husband at home and ask for a meeting. When you all get together, pay concerted attention to the husband. Conclude by promising to provide the information to make knowledgeable decisions. This strategy can reduce tension and save the relationship.

-Bryce Sanders, president of Perceptive Business Solutions, in Client Retention

The phrase, "take a few moments" is very effective because, in today's fast-paced world, where everyone perceives themselves as being too busy, that kind of language assures them their valuable time will not be taken up any more than necessary.  --Bob Burg