Performing at your highest level is difficult to do over and over again. It’s not your talent that fluctuates.  You may alter and upgrade your game plan and knowledge level, but at the end of the day true high-level performance seems to be driven by something other than talent alone. I believe winning at the highest level, closing the biggest or the most sales, is based on the energy you bring – with all other factors being reasonably similar.

Energy? Like the stuff you buy in the can under names like Red Bull? Unfortunately, they don’t sell this kind of energy in a can. This energy is a combination of both passion and confidence. When we’re playing our “A” game, we typically bring our talent, knowledge, passion and confidence to work together. The talent and knowledge are there to some consistent degree. We know what we know, that doesn’t change. The passion and confidence are what come and go, weighing heavily on our performance. Yet we spend far more time typically on all the other things, and when it’s “Game Time” the most important element, energy, is often dissipated by distraction.

This weekend I watched my son’s hockey team compete in a tournament in St. Louis. On Saturday afternoon they played a game and were absolutely dominated 1-11. They looked like they were playing in the wrong level in the tournament. It wasn’t a fair fight. They couldn’t move the puck from one end to the other to even get more than a few scoring opportunities. The coach told them he had never coached a team like this. It was a disaster! Then they played a game in the evening against an equally strong team as earlier. My son’s team came with the same players, same talent level, same skill and knowledge level of the game. But they were a totally different team. They brought fight, passion, and confidence that they knew they were better than they looked earlier. They were quiet before the game. No fist pumping or chest pounding. Quiet. And they went out and dominated this team 6-1.  They were NOT the same team. Passing was on, shooting was accurate, and goaltending was impossibly on.

Do you ever come with everything but the quiet energy to win? The boys in the first game on Saturday wanted to win. But they didn’t play like it.

Are you mentally prepared to:

•    Leave a powerful voicemail message?
•    Make a compelling follow up prospect call?
•    Be memorable when meeting people at a business function?
•    Close a sale with a potential ideal client?
•    Conduct your best meeting with a top client?

Most of the energy comes in preparation, reviewing the importance of the task at hand, and the ability to remove distractions. It’s about bringing the best you to the table.  It isn’t that we want to perform poorly, but sometimes we do. And it is not about what we know – it is about what we bring. The energy makes all of the difference.

I just want to be done hearing about  – and living – this recession. All of the analogies, comparisons, sound bites, and talk. Most of the firms I know are getting down to business, marketing and focusing on their target market of prospects. But it is true that the recession is still here and there continues to be stories of businesses folding or becoming unrecognizable in terms of staff, clients and success. One of the most successful individuals I had the privilege to know was a top financial advisor for many years – one of the best in the nation. But the recession has been exceptionally hard on him. It causes a few conclusions and lessons: 1. Success is fleeting. 2. Change is necessary. 3. Testing new ideas is a critical task so that time/money is not wasted. 4. Having the right staff in place is critical in moving forward.

Ultimately, today we have to get more quantitative. If what we are doing is not getting tangible RESULTS, we have to make a change. Firms that have come through are doing a few things differently and better than ever before. Here are some of their smart and simple activities:

1.       Focusing on sales and marketing again in an inspired way. The most successful have become more aggressive in messaging their value and benefits and letting their target market know what they do so well. It is simply getting back to a daily focus on the core of what makes a business successful – more sales.

2.       Asking…”What’s the return on investment?” For instance, a seminar or event isn’t successful based on the number of attendees; it’s on the ultimate results and measurable outcomes (ie sales or referrals). Firms are getting increasingly quantitative – as if they were a publicly traded company – imagine that! Sounds simple, but setting a sales objective for everything you do, and reaching it is truly inspiring!

3.       Reorganizing your staff objectives. How is your staff performing? Add a significant, measurable performance element to compensation. You may like your employees personally, but if they cannot meet performance measures, or client survey results are not showing that they are making an impact, then they could be hurting more than helping. Find out who is not a team player. A feud internally can cause significant issues that project onto your clients and prospects on behalf of your staff. And that is never good.

It is simple, but requires focus, strategy and motivation to make some small and large changes. Smart changes. Changes you probably should have made long ago.

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

Should you be afraid of social media and the changes and consequences it may bring to your business? It opens your business to the scrutiny of the masses, making you instantly accessible and requires a consistent watch. It depends who you are and what business you are in, but in some cases social media can be a little unsettling. Does that mean we should avoid it? Cross our fingers that it blows over as a passing trend? Well, here are some of the more memorable comments I have heard from financial advisors over just the past several weeks about this topic:

1.    “It’s just another new technology and I really don’t want to learn anything new right now or have my staff wasting time on this.”  Translation: Prove to me social media is valuable and then I will consider venturing into this space.

2.    “My compliance department said I would be terminated if I used any social media, including LinkedIn.” Really?? Most compliance departments have rules set into place, but I had not heard of termination. Don’t risk it!

3.    “I don’t want to share so much with the whole world. My business and its clients should remain private.” Translation: The benefits don’t outweigh the potential for negative consequences.

Ultimately you have to do what is right for your business. There is certainly enough value in social media to make it a part of your business – even a small part.* But first, determine if you are hesitant because you feel out of your personal comfort zone, or if you actually believe there is no benefit to your business.

Social media is not a replacement for the face-to-face communication or your regular marketing. But devoting just one hour per week can be significant in enhancing the contacts you have already made as well as becoming a source for finding new ones. Set up a LinkedIn profile, create a Facebook fan page for your business and begin a blog.*  And, if you have compliance concerns, begin by focusing on your social media as a push not pull method for communication. You can push information out to be seen, but set up your social media sites so visitors will not be able to make any comments on your sites.

Statistics have proven outside of financial services that social media can make a difference in the acquisition of new clients. Within financial services, the same results are happening. Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC conducted a study Creating Growth: The Increased Use of Social Media by Independent Advisors (for the key findings, click on the article link), designed to measure advisors’ use of social media to attract business. The study found that social media does pay off in generating increased revenue or fees and helps in efforts to reach new prospects.

And finally, social media is free. Wouldn’t you use a free tool – for 1 hour per week – if it had the potential of attracting new clients and building your brand? And why oh why would you pass that up unless you have all of the business you already need.

*Consult with your compliance department first if you are a financial advisor.

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

When a client is upset with you…when your spouse is angry at you…when your teenager is ranting about some way you’ve wronged her again… it very often is not what it appears to be. Yet, in our attempt to minimize conflict, we immediately react to the outburst and attempt to fix the problem they describe. But often, the outburst is just the surface wound, there is much more beneath the surface that needs to be tended to first if we ever expect to properly repair the problem.

People get upset. We are not perfect, and sometimes our emotions take hold. These are facts of life.
But what I have learned from analyzing specific negative interactions between financial advisors and their clients is that a lot of the time, if not most of the time, when a client gets irrationally upset, the problem isn’t really the problem they are reacting to. It’s the series of things that lead up to it (it is the same with your spouse, by the way).

In one ugly situation, a top client of a financial advisor called the office incredibly angry that he wasn’t invited to an event held the night before featuring a money manager. The client was yelling, wanting to know why everyone else he knew had been invited (it was apparently the morning conversation at the diner he frequents for breakfast). The client insisted that this firm was losing his trust and confidence.  How could they not have invited him?!? Then he uttered the unthinkable, “I am taking my investments elsewhere!” And he did. Over an invitation snafu?

After an exit survey, it was discovered that the week before, he called about a question he had with his portfolio and no one called him back. And 2 weeks prior to that he called to say that he had a question about a statement he received and someone called him back, but did not know the answer. And the month before that he was in the office for a review of his accounts and the advisor did not even stop in to see him – a junior advisor handled his account review. He thought he was a valued client but every interaction was telling him otherwise.

So the real issue was NOT the event invitation. It was the series of confidence breakers that lead up to that incident. If someone is acting irrationally, there is often an underlying reason that really isn’t so irrational. And, understanding and committing to solving the real issue can actually be more powerful than doing things right all the time. So consider taking advantage of the fact that we’re not perfect, and look beyond the issue at hand.

Guest Blog from Anne Loehr, Generational Author, Speaker & Consultant

Is the average age of the clients in your book 65?

Are you willing to bet your business on it?

Successful financial advisors (FAs) always look for net new assets. But what happens when high net worth clients pass their reins to a younger successor?  More often than not, the successor will find a new FA and the CSA has to do an ACAT out, reducing the FA’s assets under management.

You don’t want this to happen to you!  And fortunately, it doesn’t have to — when you learn how to retain your assets through the generations.

You already know how to create deep relationships with your mature, established clients; that’s what makes you a high producing FA. In this post, I’m going to show you how to create deep client relationships with the younger generations, too.  This will allow you to maintain your assets as they are transmitted through the generations of a high net worth family.

It’s All About Relationships

Last week, I spoke at a lunch for high-producing FAs in Philadelphia.  During my program, I noticed that one man — let’s call him Phil — was nervously smoothing his tie whenever I talked about cross-generational selling strategies. When I asked him what was wrong, he said that he had just lost a $5 million dollar account. Phil had been working with this client, a successful doctor, for years. Unfortunately, the doctor died unexpectedly.

Phil went to the funeral and gave his condolences to the wife and grown children; he assumed that business would go on as usual. Within a few weeks, though, he was told that the son was moving the account to a competitor.

“I never saw it coming,” Phil said, shaking his head.  “I wish I had taken the time to create a succession plan with my client, years ago.”

Just Who Are These Generations?

To create deep relationships, it’s important to understand what shaped each generation. We all know there are different “generations” — but few of us can identify the three groups that dominate today’s workplace.  According to demographers, they are:

•    Baby Boomers — born between 1946 and 1960, this group is 82 million strong
•    Generation X —a smaller group at 59 million, with laser focus on results and benefits
•    Generation Y (or The Millennials) — The under-30s, a large cohort (80 million), that holds the key to how we’ll live and work tomorrow

Each of these generations was shaped by the unique political, technological and societal events that occurred during their formative years. Consequently, each generation has its own values, personality, language and buying habits.

Not surprisingly, each generation also has its own idea of “the perfect FA,” and its own goals for that relationship.

How Could This Information Have Helped Phil?

We can’t know how Phil’s client would have reacted to the idea of succession planning.  (After all, even doctors can be squeamish about facing their own mortality).

But we do know that — by discussing the future, and creating a multi-generational dialogue — Phil would have stood a much better chance of retaining this account when his client died.

Here are 4 tips to help you create succession plans that will keep your clients’ assets in-house, across several generations:

1. Do Your Homework

First, identify your client’s generation.  He or she may be a Baby Boomer, or a “Traditionalist” who fought in World War II.

Now find out who the successor is, and what generation they belong to:  Are they from nose-to-the-grindstone Gen X?  Or from environmentally-conscious Gen Y?  Are they a legacy-oriented Boomer?  Or a conserving Traditionalist?

The answer will give you a surprising level of insight into their priorities.

2. Meet the Successor — and Make It Social

Now it’s time to begin establishing a relationship with your client’s successor — and, even in today’s digital age, the strongest relationships grow from face-to-face interactions.

Based on your client’s and the successor’s interests, invite the family to an elegant dinner, or a show, or a casual community event.  Eventually you’ll want to have an multi-generational meeting that leads to a succession plan.  For now, though, plan to keep things strictly social; bonds of trust will develop with time.

3. Prepare to Meet with Both Client and Successor

Let’s imagine your client is Marie and her son, the successor, is Marc. You may need to meet Marc socially a few times, before he agrees to a financial business meeting. Marc may not be interested in learning about Marie’s financial details. Alternatively, Marie may not want Marc and the other children to know all her financial details. Family wealth can be challenging to discuss, so be patient and take your time before inviting Marc and Marie to an intergenerational financial meeting.

Once you’ve scheduled this multi-generational meeting, add one more task to your usual preparation:  Review your product offerings — and your client’s existing portfolio — in light of each generation’s values, priorities and investment time frame.

Ask yourself things like:  Will 36-year-old, Gen X Marc want to discuss retirement options?  And what’s most important to Marie, as a Baby Boomer who may be thinking about her legacy?

Write down and practice specific phrases, stories or value propositions that speak to each of these generations’ concerns. Be sure that you understand which argument or supporting evidence works best for each generation.

4. Hold the Intergenerational Financial Meeting

When you meet with Marie and Marc, areas to discuss will include assets, inheritance plans, timing, and long-term health care.

Even when presenting basic financial information, you may find it necessary to state things differently to each of them.  You may even need to make certain points twice — once, with regards to the concerns of Marie, and once with a focus on what’s most important to Marc.  By speaking to each generation on its own terms, you’ll build the trust and credibility that allows everyone to reach their goals.

Mastering a New Approach

Mastering these ideas may seem like a large mental shift, but you don’t have to do it all at once!  This week, take 15 minutes to learn about the generations. Next week, ask 2 of your clients about their successors.  By the end of 6 weeks, you’ll be far along in creating succession plans for your clients…   in building cross-generational relationships…   and in meeting your goal of retaining assets.

Ready to learn more about the generations? Feel free to contact Anne Loehr at anne@anneloehr.com for her generations ‘cheat sheet’, which will help you learn the key words to use with each generation.

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

What can Tiger Woods teach us about success? It’s not the obvious case study in what not to do. In business, success comes and goes. We can be successful for years, experiencing steady sales growth and profitability. But then one day, in seemingly one game-changing moment, everything can change. It is probably the biggest nightmare for a business owner, a salesperson, an employee – or anyone whose livelihood depends on others buying something we sell. I have talked with business owners who know exactly what their “moment” may be – from losing their biggest client to having a product recall. Even the biggest companies have their moments (think… leaky oil well).

Although Tiger Woods’ issues appear to be of his own making, many business-changing moments may be out of our control. And we can’t prepare for everything that may go wrong, but we can consider how to avoid the obvious ones.

However, it’s not fun or uplifting to talk about worst-case scenarios. And, many people I know live their lives focusing on the positive, not the dooms day possibilities. But maybe once a year, or once a month for some businesses, it’s a helpful exercise to bring awareness to some of the potential game changing negative moments that we know of, and plan for them never to happen.

What sells?   Build your Client Base with Experience Differentiation

Guest blog from Joseph Anzalone of Asset Marketing Systems

As independent business owners, it’s often enlightening to consider case studies and success stories from the business world, especially those from challenging industries that operate under volatile conditions.   Is anything more difficult than building and maintaining a successful and profitable airline?  Consider this:

Airline A is an established American icon, boasts a 75-year track record, and was founded during the golden days of American aviation, 1931.  It offers such amenities as first-class seating with free cocktails, upgraded economy seating for a reasonable price, and routes that bring their customers to virtually every major city in the world.   It has one of the industry’s best safety records.  Its reservation system is ultra-convenient because Airline A can be found on virtually all internet travel sites.  Finally, it has formed strategic partnerships with 15 other airlines around the world; as a result, its frequent-flyer program has been consistently ranked in the top three for customer satisfaction.

Airline B was founded in 1971, and for the first several years of its inception, it only offered routes in the state of Texas.  Since its expansion it offers routes to most major American metropolitan areas, but some are highly inconvenient.  Fly to Boston?  Sorry, you’ll have to go to Providence, RI instead, and drive 65 miles.  Fly to San Francisco?  Well…yes and no – you’ll have to go to Oakland first.  When you hold a ticket at Airline B’s gate, you don’t know where you’re going to sit, because there is no reserved seating.  If you’re lucky enough to hold a ticket in the first seating group, it’s best to arrive at the gate early to avoid waiting in a long line – most passengers are forced to stand in line an hour before takeoff to ensure a decent seat.  There is no first class seating.  Airline B’s reservation system does not interface with any internet travel sites.  You need to take the extra step of visiting their website to book your vacation.

Which airline would you rather fly? Before you answer, consider one more fact about both companies:  from 2002 to 2006, Airline A experienced the largest and longest bankruptcy restructuring in the industry’s history.  Airline B is one of the world’s most successful and profitable airlines, posting a profit for the 35th consecutive year in January 2008.

By now, you may have realized that Airline A is United, and Airline B is Southwest.  The reasons for their respective business struggles and successes are complex, but Southwest Airlines’ story will stand as a case study on how to acquire and maintain a client base by offering that which is different.

And it’s those differences that the consumer is buying.  Yes, Southwest’s fares are low, but discount branding alone is not enough to keep an airline in the sky (as the 2006 demise of Independence Air has demonstrated.)  Rather, it is Southwest’s fare service that is truly different.  It purposefully features one-way flight options and several fare selections for the same flight, encouraging the consumer to mix and match choices.   Southwest’s  flight crews often perform their own comedy routines during their FAA-required security briefing as each plane taxis toward the runway.  And Southwest made a conscious decision to focus its efforts on addressing those typical airline mishaps that most frustrate travelers- flight delays and lost baggage.   Southwest’s ground crew can turn around a flight in 20 minutes – a vast improvement over the industry average – and it offers special incentives to its ramp staff.   Conventional luxuries have been jettisoned: “To have opted for a first class, business class, or any form of luxury class seat would have been excess baggage; most people would prefer to do without it if it meant for cheaper ticket price.”

Clearly, the client has spoken, and it sounds something like this: “…just get me there on time, have my bag waiting, and make the flight go by a little faster.  I don’t need a reserved seat or an extra bag of chips.”

The case of Southwest has demonstrated two important facts useful to us:

1. We are in the service industry.  The client is paying for an experience, not the product we deliver, so we must do everything in our power to enhance that experience.
2. The client’s idea of what that experience should be may be different than ours – probably more different than we think, and perhaps easier to deliver.

Are these “lessons from the sky” relevant to the independent financial advisor?
Turn to your own company, particularly your own client base, and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who is my client?
2. What service do I deliver them?
3. Am I sure the results are what my client wants?
4. Is there a way I can deliver that service in a different way?

Examples of the power inherent in unique service delivery are well known: Disney, Lexus, Cirque du Soleil, Federal Express, eBay, and others have proven the case.  Indeed, the same effect can be achieved on the smallest scale.  We offer a basic, yet powerful, service – advice on retirement and income planning.  Our goal is to deliver that service in a powerfully different way.  As you consider your solutions, it may be wise to remember the following:

1. Don’t assume anything.  What your client wanted or needed in the past may be outdated.
2. Understand your client.  Use probing questions constantly.
3. Everyone is intrigued by the unique.  If you have something your competitor doesn’t, focus on that.  In that conversation, the competition becomes irrelevant.
4. Don’t be afraid of new ideas.  If you have a service concept that seems unusual, consider it anyway.
5. Study every point of contact- marketing, phone, in-person visit, follow-up, referral- and make each experience powerful and unique

What do your clients and prospects really want?  Perhaps it’s just something different.

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

If a picture of you appears on Facebook or somewhere else on the Internet, it is likely that just about anyone can see it if they search for you. Right now there is a Facebook application called Photo Finder, powered by Face.com. It uses facial recognition and social connections software to locate a photo of someone – even if it wasn’t identified by name (tagged). You want you and your business to be searchable, but are we becoming too searchable on the web?

According to the exceptionally insightful article in The New York Times Magazine, “The End of Forgetting,” by Jeffrey Rosen (July 25, 2010), as facial recognition software becomes more sophisticated, people will be able to find any picture of you located anywhere on the Internet. Someone could simply take a picture of you with a cell phone, plug the image into Google, and pull up all photos (whether identified or not) of you that are on the Internet. Yikes. What about that fun neighborhood party last weekend where a bunch of adults were swimming… yeah, better not put those on Facebook…

The lesson to takeaway from this is to remember that our public image and our reputation are not just in our hands to control.  Being a key player in your brand and your business means that you must use caution with your online presence. Make sure you know what is out there about you – pictures, reviews, and everything else.

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

When I was growing up, we wanted to avoid being someone with a “reputation.” Today, we want a reputation, but we need it to be positive. However, maintaining one’s reputation is getting harder and harder. As social media and social networking sites continue to flourish, the power of the individual voice is growing greatly. We have to protect our reputations, and have someone (it’s probably you) that is fully in charge of managing our online reputation. It may seem insignificant now, but new things on the horizon will make this a part of any businessperson’s life.

According to an article in The New York Times Magazine, “The End of Forgetting,” by Jeffrey Rosen (Sunday, July 25, 2010), in the near future, people will be rated on reputation (trustworthy, good parent, good insurance risk, etc), similar to the credit report rating services of today.

There are services now that can aggregate information about people from the Internet and social networks. Not your private information like social security or credit card information, but information that is readily available: the movies you like, books you read, search terms you use, blog posts you write, videos you post/watch on YouTube, and people you follow.  These reputation and trustworthy ratings could eventually be used to determine employability and other factors. And it can be incredibly positive or incredibly detrimental to your career.

There are services that can help. Check out Reputation Defender or other similar consulting services that, for a fee, will monitor your online reputation and help you remove inaccuracies, etc.
Although no one (absolutely no one!) is perfect, it may be best to keep the imperfections away from the web. Is what’s out there about you having an impact on your business?

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

I have several friends who recently found themselves in the market for a new job – and, fortunately, have successfully landed another job. Watching them through the process, I’ve concluded that finding a job in today’s job market can be like conquering a new frontier – and not just because the job market is flooded with stiff competition. The days of mailing in your resume and receiving a phone call to set up an interview are over. It’s actually very similar to the changes that have been happening in marketing your business. If you want someone to notice you, your business, or your product or service, you can’t do things the same old way. Today, searching for most everything from a new job to a new refrigerator begins – and sometimes ends – online.

Now you need much more than just an experience-filled resume, a cover letter and crossed fingers to land a great job. In order to get noticed, you need to think like a marketer. It requires looking at yourself as a brand that needs to literally grab attention.

Here are 3 quick tips I learned from my friends who went from under-employed to gainfully employed.

1. Networking and connecting is clearly the number one way to get the best job. People hire people they know. So, get to know more people. And, great networkers are capable of leaving something behind with everyone they encounter—a thought, a memory, or a connection. The key is to get face to face with a potential employer before, during and after the interview. They have to see for themselves why they NEED to hire you. Attend everything!

2. Forget the Traditional Resume. Try bucking the traditional resume format to include eye catching (but informative) headlines. This is one headline I saw used: “Responsible for a 20% Increase in Sales Over Past 5 Years.” Also make sure you speak in benefits and results. Put your picture on your resume. Turn your resume into your personal brochure filled with interesting reading for your prospective employer. Give them what they want to see, but stand out from the rest. What’s the downside?

3.    Use video. If you really want to capture the attention of a potential employer, record a quick video. Use it to get an interview or as a follow-up after an interview. Instead of just emailing a resume or a post-interview thank-you note, include a link to a video of you. Carefully script your response and record the quick message using a Flip video camera or even a web cam. Post it on YouTube or some other service and send a link for the video to your potential employer.

Standing out is the way to be heard above the competition – in marketing and in your job search. Good luck!