It’s that time of the year again. I’ve had several Financial Advisors come to me asking for help on their 2022 goal. Half of the people I talk to accomplish their goals and the other half don’t. I noticed some recurring themes in the way successful financial advisors do business, as well as for unsuccessful ones.
At first, I thought the differences were going to be gigantic. However, they’re as small as differences can be. It’s not the network or educational attainment that makes a financial advisor successful. It’s in how his day-to-day activities paint the whole picture of the year.
Considering you already have a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound goal for 2022, here are the 3 steps you should follow to make your goal happen.
1. Eliminate Friction
Our goal is to make it so there’s as little friction as possible to having a social experience.” – Mark Zuckerberg
What makes Facebook so successful is that it’s a delight to use. We may not find what we’re looking for on the platform but everything is undeniably easy. Humans are creatures of convenience. We are naturally drawn to things, people, activities, and experiences that are easy on us.
Selling insurance is a high friction business. It’s almost an infamous product, with portrayals in popular culture and household conversations. So your first job is to find the friction in the way you do business and eliminate as much of it as possible. Make doing business with you a delight for your clients. One thing you can do is automate your processes. There are free tools such as Google Documents, Google Sheets, and Google Forms that you can utilize to create a smooth sales system not only for your clients but also for you.
Not everything in the sales process is necessary, or at least not necessary for you to do. You cannot eliminate the friction for your clients if you yourself are experiencing a lot of friction. Friction for financial advisors is mainly due to administrative tasks and compliance requirements.
Successful financial advisors delegate administrative tasks, but how about compliance requirements? Only a few are aware that they can also delegate compliance-related paperwork at a very low cost. This is exactly what we can offer to you at XDT and Co. We want you to be able to focus on what you do best-selling, by providing you seamless service for your compliance requirements. If you want to know more about how we can work together, send me a message.
2. Eliminate Distractions
Distractions can take us in an exciting direction but most often borrow our attention briefly without much resistance and take their sweet time giving it back. Distractions lure us in with an easy escape and then trick us by stealing our attention.” – Tara Stiles
Being a financial advisor offers so much flexibility and freedom. This is one of the main appeals of the business. However, this is also the reason why financial advisors are easily distracted by other opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these are great opportunities for earning and learning. But ask yourself, “What is really my goal?”
Do you want to be a great financial advisor who provides helpful financial plans and products? Or do you just want to use the profession as a means to an end, which is to earn money? The latter is not bad, but you have to clarify it to yourself as early as now. Many financial advisors suffer from shiny object syndrome because their true goal is not to become successful in the industry.
Again, it’s not bad to have other goals but it should be clear before we even start working. If you know you’ll be open to other opportunities in 2022, include that in your plan so you’ll be proactively pursuing opportunities instead of just reacting to them. This way you can also prioritize and be prepared to distribute your resources (time, money, and energy) to your different activities.
It’s also not about shutting your doors from other opportunities if you want to be a successful financial advisor. I know several financial advisors who have put up a different business this year but they were also quick to delegate managing its operations.
Distractions are just products of unmanaged expectations. If you expect to be distracted, prepare for it and it won’t be a distraction anymore.
3. Replace What You Eliminated
“Habits are formed by the repetition of particular acts. They are strengthened by an increase in the number of repeated acts. Habits are also weakened or broken, and contrary habits are formed by the repetition of contrary acts.” – Mortimer Adler
Unless you etch your new habits into the center of the way you do your activities, you will just go back to your old ways year after year. You’ll be disappointed year after year. Replace friction with convenience. Replace distractions with focus.
The real challenge is that you will be fighting against friction and distractions almost on a daily basis in 2022. So how do you make sure that you keep winning, every single day? You can’t willpower your way through it.
An Indian guru once said that environment is stronger than willpower. Surround yourself with people who will help you reinforce your new habit of eliminating friction and distractions.
