In today’s chaotic financial environment, where people in general are feeling unsafe to take risks, a successful advisor needs more than the usual toolkit of sales and business skills to survive.

The number one business survival skill… is not sales, marketing, financial or time management. It isn’t emotional intelligence or customer service. And, it’s not social media savvy.

“Learning is not compulsory. . . neither is survival.” Dr. W. Edwards Deming

You may recall Deming as the father of quality improvement, which helped transform Japan from a struggling post-war economy to its current position of global economic leadership.

The ability to adapt quickly is never more important than during times of upheaval.

How one financial advisor doubled his GDC production by  learning “how to learn”:

At $200,000 in GDCs,  James already had a pretty good handle on his sales, marketing and operational functions.

However, Jame’s former strategies were not producing the numbers he needed to hit his goal. He scheduled a strategy session with me to  help him think through ideas to yield his $400,000 GDC target.

Jame’s main challenges:

• His high net worth boomer clients were reacting negatively to his investment suggestions.
• His “fact finder” process was not working as well as before with prospects.
• Networking events were producing fewer and fewer quality leads.
• He was exhausted by increased demands from “ needy” clients.
• He didn’t know how to conduct liability insurance risk discussions with his physician clients

After working together James realized he needed to learn more about what his clients really needed from him, that was different than what he had previously offered.

Five keys to learning

Here is what James learned to improve his results:

1)Be curious. As successful business owners, our rapid-fire responses and solutions help us succeed, sometimes get in the way of the truly brilliant idea waiting for an opening. James realized one of his blind spots was his opinion that he “should already know” what to do or say based on his experience.
When clients expressed frustration with their investment losses, James found himself defending his position. James saw that if he could allow himself to “not know” a little longer than usual, he could have a more productive conversation with an upset client, and have a better chance of retaining him.
Demonstrating curiosity while maintaining credibility takes learning and practice. James and I worked to help him have more skillful conversations with boomer clients. 

2) Listen completely without being distracted. Through our sessions, James’s realized his tendency to “multi-task” was causing him to miss some questions his prospects wanted to know, but were afraid to ask. He found that he was relying too much on the structured fact-finder. James learned to improve his use of the fact-finder to have the conversation his prospects really wanted to have with him.

 3) Be open to new perspectives.  It takes a conscious decision to really be open so you don’t automatically dismiss someone else’s ideas.  James realized he had ignored some of the suggested methods for building relationships in his networking groups. James committed to learn one of the strategies to attract more referrals.

4) Demonstrate respect for a teacher. In martial arts, the student is required to “surrender” to the master, or sensei. The purpose of this is to consciously allow to be taught. James realized he needed new tools to deal with the “neediness” of his clients, and so far, had not decided to trust any of the teachers he had met. His lack of trust related to some incompetent sales trainers he had experienced.
 After brainstorming several qualified teacher candidates, James opted to join a small study group I was facilitating where he could actively learn and practice difficult client conversations, in a safe and respectful peer environment.

5)Learn to ask for help. One of the biggest mistakes adults make that stops them from learning is to refuse to ask for help. James realized this blind spot wasn’t working for him now, and so we worked to help him learn to ask for help within his network.

Here are the tangible results that helped James reach his $400,000 GDC goal:

• He increased his referrals from formally angry clients who appreciated him for not giving them boiler-plate responses
• He doubled his fact-finder close rates with new prospects.
• He tripled his referrals by better using his networking time.
• His where he generated more ideal client referrals as a result of being invited to speak at a physician symposium about liability risk management.

The bottom line: learning how to learn pays off ! How good are YOUR survival skills? Click here if you would like to receive a complementary strategy session.