Spend Time at Your Client's Company
You learn what kind of environment they work in, what their daily schedule is like, how their employees interact, what the travel and time demands are, and get a feel for the kinds of services that they need. --Anne Bedinger
Serving all the needs of new [small business owner] clients is far more difficult than identifying prospects, however. For Anne Bedinger, associate vice president of investments at Raymond James & Associates in Orlando, Fla., the process sometimes starts with spending time at the company itself, to better understand what actually happens within its walls. "You learn what kind of environment they work in, what their daily schedule is like, how their employees interact, what the travel and time demands are, and get a feel for the kinds of services that they need," she explains. Even then, it can take time for clients to be able and willing to work with a financial planner. "Maybe a year, maybe five years," cautions Smith Barney's Bidwell. "This does not happen overnight."
-Anne Bedinger, associate vice president of investments at Raymond James & Associates in Orlando, Fla., in Serving Small Business Owners
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