The One Decision That Separates 6-Figure from 7-Figure Advisors

Nick [00:00:00] It goes back to that old ad age. It needs to be a violent yes or it's a no. And so I think about that in your practice, what, however, you're looking at growth, where you're looking through acquisition, whether you're looking to niche and down and really leaning into marketing, adding value to your particular client set. I'm continually reminded how many ways to win there are in this industry as a financial advisor. The basics are the basics. It's about adding value to people, understanding, sharing with them what you do, educating people on the opportunities that they have, and helping them along the way, creating deep relationships.

Nick But as you get to get into it, there's real complexities of like what ways you can win. But the great thing is that there's many ways, and the key thing there to remember is that you've gotta pick away. I reflected my day just yesterday and look back at my calendar. I a glance over there right now. I think about the conversations I had with my clients.

Nick Some prospects, recording some content and thinking about how do I win, how do advisors win? Many different ways. one advisor is bringing, support staff into the team, but also has, joint work partners [00:01:00] to expand, like utilize the book that's already there. Thinking about the leverage that he needs to create, not from him, but the other people around him.

Nick So it can be the four wins, right? So a win for him, win for that, other advisor or other team member, win for the clients, and essentially making the great good better. So four, four wins. Now look at. Set a team call that I had,with, with the owner, the lead advisor and the COO, thinking about how would we structure the team, the challenges we are having around doing the advisory reviews in a and tight timeline, going on a sprint, how that pops up and how we can win there and leading out to their top clients and thinking about how can we look at all the educators we work with and address it from a school district point of view rather than an individual educator or individual school point of view.

Nick And then it comes to. A company that, or a firm that's been built up over the last 40 years in a very specific part of the country, which has tons of depth of relationship. And now we're into a G two, situation in that. And it's a coming together to understanding where's, what's the impact [00:02:00] of the lead advisor plus the junior people that are coming in as well, and so on and so forth through today.

Nick And one real distinct place that, I got to yesterday was, Looking at the book of business that this particular advisor had, and then he had a couple of different opportunities, strategic partners, joint work scattered across the city here, but a core group of his own clients that he primarily got through networking and an actual market over the years.

Nick And so for him, he saw lots of different pieces of opportunity. And it never really struck it like the lightning in the bowl because what he hadn't done was gone and really figure out which one of those was what he really wanted. He looked at conversations and his double-edged sword was the fact that he was very good at making these, networking connections and being around people.

Nick and so there was seemingly lots of opportunities, but the challenge was, which one did he really want? It goes back to that old ad age. It needs [00:03:00] to be a violent yes or it's a no. And so I think about that in your practice, what, however, you're looking at growth, where you're looking through acquisition, whether you're looking to niche and down and really leaning into marketing, adding value to your particular client set.

Nick Maybe it's just a case of I've got lots and lots of clients and I just need to be really clear about going back to my segmentation and understanding who my platinum clients are, who are they really? And maybe take a rough cut of what that is and reset and say, what do I, how do I wanna serve these clients?

Nick Something else that popped up yesterday as well. Is Wow. Like if the market is a little bit nervous, like how do I'm worried I might be getting 6, 7, 10, 20 calls a day for clients coming in and asking me questions about where that market might be. So the question then becomes, all right, let's be not proactive reactively.

Nick And what I mean by that is, so something you see coming, it's a higher standard to go, alright, I'm gonna do something about that before it becomes a problem. Versus waiting for the call and then dealing with the call. So I call that reactively proactive. We wanna think strategically, one step [00:04:00] up from that to say, regardless of what might be coming for right now, any in the medium term, how do I want to think about where my clients are and how do I wanna serve them on a continuous basis?

Nick So my platinum clients, how many times a year do I wanna see them? Maybe there's a standard and maybe there's some flexibility 'cause they are platinum clients. But am I taking it forward to them? And they are, they really clear that I do wanna see him once a quarter, especially where they particularly might be right now.

Nick And I do wanna see him maybe once in person in that time and just to find what it is. And I do wanna share it with them or reiterate my philosophy around market movements. And we won't contact you if there's a blip in the market. Right. and. Being really clear about what they can expect from you. And that will really let you front run any of that reactive type reach outs that they may do to you and really allow you to focus on the things that are most important and for them also.

Nick And what that does is it also gives them more certainty in you because you're thinking through it and you've got that clarity up front. So many ways to win in this business. Just be clear about what [00:05:00] for you is the way that you wanna win. And it doesn't have to be like that forever, but be clear about what it is you wanna focus on right now and make sure that you are ruthless with your time as you focus into that.