How to Find Success As a Financial Advisor
In the coming years, due to a changing financial landscape (primarily due to the influence of globalization), financial advising looks like it will only build more success. Curious how to build success as a financial advisor? Here are a few tips to get you started.
Learn Your Trade
There’s a temptation to jump right into financial advising when you first feel ready for the position, but it’s recommended to bide your time and wait for the right opportunity. A person who sets up their own firm has to be sure that they’re able to do the job to the highest possible standards. If you jump into the game too soon, you may not be able to do this.
Instead, you should continue learning your trade-in an existing financial advisory firm first. While there you can learn everything possible through the firm, then go on your own way.
Find a Niche
There are some business models where it’s advisable to offer as much as you possibly can. Amazon works because they sell everything, rather than offering a curated list of items for purchase. When it comes to financial advisory services, it’s essential to provide something specific, rather than general.
People don’t mess around when it comes to their money. They want to know that they’re working with the best. As such, you’ll need to discover your niche, and dive deep into that topic. You could work in a field of tax, or retirement planning, family financial services, or anything else. When people need help with that specific type of issue, they’ll know where they need to turn.
Working With Your Customers
It’s always worthwhile looking at the issues that customers have had with the financial advisors that they didn’t like. Understanding these problems can help you to avoid making the same mistakes with your own firm. One of the more common complaints is that the financial advisory was too distant. They’d be hard to pin down, or vague in the details. Worst of all, they wouldn’t listen to the wishes of the client.
If you’re going to build a successful business, it’s important to remember that customer retention must be high. If your clients trust that you’ll always be there for them and that you’ll listen to what they have to say, you’ll have a happy client base.
Drumming Up Business
It’s all good and well offering a high level of service, but you’ll need to make sure that people know about your business if you’re going to have success. As such, you must be taking steps that’ll help clients to find you.
There are multiple ways to do this, including soliciting reviews and testimonials, marketing locally, and using digital methods that’ll result in leads for financial advisors. Pay particular attention to your reviews. As we said earlier, people want to trust that they’re working with the best, and that means that bad reviews can be even more damaging than they are to other businesses.
Open to Learning
To enjoy long-term success, you must stay open to learning about your industry. If there’s one thing that clients don’t like — and which causes unnecessary risks — its arrogance.
If you’re aware that you don’t know everything, and that things are going to change over the years, you’ll have the right attitude. Some people never want to say, “I don’t know,” but not admitting that fact doesn’t mean that you suddenly know what you’re talking about — it just puts you into a dangerous position. There are always things to learn from people and experiences.
Take Care of Yourself
Finally, be sure to look after yourself. There is pressure in being a financial advisor, and you’ll find it much easier to manage that stress — and perform at your best — if you’re feeling energetic, and physically and mentally healthy. Be sure to build in exercise, eating well, and meditation into your day. It’ll help you to deliver your best work, in subtly powerful ways.
Alyson Pittman is a contributing writer for WBD and a JR marketing associate for Excite Creative Studios, an Atlanta-based creative agency.
Alyson graduated from Kennesaw State University with a Bachelors of Business Administration and a concentration in Marketing. She was in multiple organizations at KSU where she held leadership positions. As a part of the Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority, Alyson held the Social Coordinator position and planned/promoted large events.
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