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The Client-centred Blog

Welcome to The Client Centred Blog; Free content that shares a fresh approach to thriving as a financial professional in a rapidly changing environment.

This blog has its foundation in a new understanding of the human mind that gives you the ultimate platform for creating better results, thriving under any circumstances and living the life you want.     

I invite you to explore the materials, reflect upon how it relates to you and your business and enjoy the benefits.

Why financial planners should ditch the need to impress
Do you ever catch yourself trying to prove your value to a client or potential client? If so, you’re not alone because most of us have done this. It’s easy to slip into “impress mode” and this is especially in the sales process. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t work....
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Client meetings: why speak from your heart and not just your head?
If you were forced to do just one activity in your business and had to relinquish all else, what would that one activity be? In my experience most advisers would say: “Spending my time meeting with clients.” Is this true for you?
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Top 10 coaching books for financial planners
If you are doing genuine financial planning where you are helping your client identify and accomplish their goals and live the life they want then coaching them is a necessity. After all, life is full of distractions and people come off track all the time. For example, people can lose...
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Five steps financial planners can take to becoming an exceptional listener
Being an exceptional listener is one of the most effective and reliable ways to build or deepen any relationship. It also makes you different from most other people. In her book, ‘Time to think’Certainly not at the level which you can have a profound impact on people and take the...
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Why challenging your financial planning clients is great for business
The key difference between a transactional financial adviser a ‘Trusted adviser’ is how the adviser is positioned in the mind of the client. As a ‘Trusted Adviser’ you are someone a client turns to for your valued input, advice, opinion, help with key decisions, and possibly coaching. A good description...
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Should you take notes in a financial planning meeting?
What is the right approach to note taking in financial planning meetings? This is a question that often comes up in my coaching programmes with financial planners. So, let’s take a closer look.
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Client meeting not going well? Here’s what to do
Have you ever been in a client meeting and sensed that it’s not going well? If you have you wouldn’t be alone. In fact, I am sure it happens to all of us occasionally. This article shares what to do if you are ever in this situation.
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What is the true value of a financial adviser in turbulent times?
The last thing that brought our minds into sharp focus of how unforeseen event can change our lives was covid. That was until Donald Trump imposed trade tariffs. The result being that the world’s stock markets have fallen sharply and may fall further still. As a financial professional you are...
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Too much information: Give clients only what they need (not everything you have)
How clients feel is hugely important to how they receive information. If they are overwhelmed of fearful for instance, it’s likely that meetings will go poorly. On the other hand, if the client feels relaxed and calm, generally meetings will be successful.
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The importance of honesty in client relationships
Building a thriving practice, based on making a bigger difference to clients has many aspects to it. One of the most fundamental is that client relationships are based on truth. It can feel uncomfortable (at first) to share your truth with clients and allow them to do the same with...
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The 8 keys to inspiring financial planning meetings every time!
There are specific and predictable keys that result in inspiring financial planning meetings every time. And by paying attention and making consistent progress with each key, you are: 1. No longer leaving the quality of your meetings to chance. 2. Raising the bar to an exceptionally high level. In this...
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How to ask powerful financial planning questions
Asking great financial planning questions is the foundation of creating a highly compelling plan for your client. When your client can clearly see that their financial plan is going to be an essential part of getting what they most want then why wouldn’t they be excited about it?
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What are great clients really paying for?
A while back I read a long article in the financial press about choosing a financial adviser. From what was written it seemed that much of the industry continues to see advice as a commodity and under values the potential impact of the human element.  To quote directly from the...
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The importance of context in client conversations
The context in which a conversation takes place really matters. Without it, conversations can feel misaligned, confusing, or even conflicting.  
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Highly effective rapport building for financial planners
A deep rapport with your client is the foundation for a productive, profitable, and long-lasting relationship. Therefore, being highly effective at quickly building and maintaining a deep rapport is an essential skill for financial planners.
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Stop guessing and start listening: How assumptions can switch off clients
When are you planning to retire? This seems like a perfectly reasonable questions for a financial planner to ask a client, right? Yet is it perfectly reasonable?
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Seven ways to become effortless to do business with
One of the keys to creating a thriving practice is to make it effortless for clients to say ‘Yes’ to doing business with you. People do not enjoy saying ‘No’. They really want to say ‘Yes’ because they want their decisions and their life to be easy.
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The power of the pause: why silence in conversations matters
How comfortable are you with silence? The reason I ask is because we are culturally conditioned to leave very small gaps when we speak to each other. 
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The right way to set financial planning goals
In this article, you are going to discover how to help your clients set financial planning goals, the right way. You are also going to learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy goals and how this makes a massive difference to your client’s level of motivation, inspiration, and enjoyment of...
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A simple financial planning questions formula
Effective, heartfelt communication is a natural consequence of a free and present state of mind. This is why trying to use techniques so often diminishes the potential rather than improving it. Questions are a great example. Trying to memorise a question or a series of questions will more than likely...
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Real financial planning – is it just about the money?
Real financial planning – is it just about the money? What is the value (to a client) of a financial planning relationship? Far too many financial advisers and planners seem to assume that a client’s primary interest is in financial products, investments, and getting a better return on their money....
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What two things are clients REALLY buying?
What if what you think you’re selling, isn’t what you’re actually selling. Watch the video in my latest blog post to discover how knowing the true outcome of your work, will help you engage more deeply and fully with your clients.
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How to start a financial planning conversation
When starting a financial planning client relationship, do not make the opening conversation about you. Whilst they may or may not want to know more about you, it communicates to the client that their problems, thoughts and feelings are not the most important thing to the adviser.
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The importance of empathy in financial planning
One of the most important aspects of successful financial planning is the feeling of human connection between you and your client. Without that feeling of human connection the financial planning process is more likely to fail to come to life and be meaningful.
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Are your financial planning conversations too nice?
Why can it be a mistake to make your financial planning conversations too nice? This article explore why creating tension in a conversation is being of service to your client.
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The courage to ask essential financial planning questions
Financial planning and advice are often triggered by an event. That event may have already happened, be about to happen, or may be some way out into the future.  Find out how you can connect with your client better by finding out about their feeling around a significant life event.
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Will your financial plan pass the ‘so what’ test?
Imagine that you have gone through the discovery process with your client and your next meeting is to present your carefully crafted financial plan. You want the meeting to be a success and have the client be enthusiastic about your recommendations. So, how can you give yourself the highest and best...
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The truth about trust building for financial planners
Everyone knows that absolute trust is at the core of a successful relationship between a financial planner and a client. But where does real trust come from? And how do you create absolute trust quickly and reliably?
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Top ten essential inter-personal skills for financial planners
Is technical ability a guarantee of a successful and prosperous career as a financial planner?  The answer is ‘no’ because being a successful practitioner is just as much about people as it is a technical role. So, in this article I am looking at my top ten essential inter-personal skills...
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The amazing power of questions
As a financial planner or adviser people come to you for your knowledge and expertise. Yet, first and foremost, you must create a context for advice so that when it is provided, people successfully implement it and get the outcome they want. The only way I have found of creating...
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Financial Planner? Are you selling drills or holes?
In my career as a financial adviser the training and qualification process was all about pensions, investments, insurances, tax, markets, trusts, risk, and so on. So, in the beginning this is what I talked to people about because this is what I thought you did. It did not occur to...
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How to get more financial planning referrals
Would you like to generate more high quality financial planning referrals?
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Why financial planning clients are paying for leadership
Why do clients seek out professional help from a financial planner or adviser? Specific reasons are many, but fundamentally it comes down to only two things: 1. They have a problem to solve 2. They want to feel better  This is how value is created and this article explores a...
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Your social self verses your professional self
Finances are a challenging subject for many people, perhaps most. So, for someone to seek out a financial planner or advisers help is a big deal. Yet just because someone receives good financial advice does this mean they will automatically be successful in achieving what they want?
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When is your financial advisory client ready for deeper conversations?
Do you want to have deeper conversations with your clients but concerned about whether they are ready? If so, you are not alone. A typical scenario is that a financial adviser has a transactional relationship with a client and wants to shift to a financial planning relationship.
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Listening is a super power
Perhaps the most underrated skill for a financial planner or adviser is listening. Is there anything more important? I appreciate that you need to know what you are talking about. Yet this is a given, isn’t it?
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The importance of relaxing your financial planning client
One of my financial planner clients made an astute observation when he said: “It takes a lot of courage for a client to meet with a financial planner.” He understands that when he first meets with a new client, or even an existing one, they may have a lot on...
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How to have a great first conversation 
The first conversation you have with a potential client sets the tone for everything that comes afterwards. Therefore, it is essential to make it a great conversation, meaning that the person feels listened to, understood, and completely trusts you.
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The power of creating client agreements
This article is about a powerful, proven way you can add significant value to all your client relationships. So, let me share with you a recent experience of the process in action. I have just spent three days in London as part of the AJC Coaching Career School.
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Financial planner? Stop trying to prove your value
Do you ever concern yourself with trying to prove your value to a client or potential client? If so, you would be far from alone.  It can be tempting to try and be impressive and this can be especially true in the sales process. Yet it is also destructive.  So,...
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Why slow down your financial planning conversations?
This article is about slowing down your financial planning conversations. But what does this mean and what makes it worth doing? Slowing down your conversations does not mean speaking slower or dragging out a conversation for no reason. That would make no sense. It is about creating significantly more value...
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Why is a client’s well-being at the core of financial planning?
Just recently I read an article in Professional Adviser about how financial advisers see financial well-being in relation to financial planning (according to a study by Standard Life). The research showed that 71% of advisers view supporting financial well-being as a secondary part of their business in comparison with financial...
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How to make your financial planning meetings better than ever
Do you want to conduct outstandingly good financial planning meetings? This seems exceptionally important to me because the quality of the meetings you conduct are the foundation of building a thriving, profitable, and sustainable practice. This article is about the number one way to achieve consistent and continual improvement of...
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Deep rapport and why it matters
Rapport is an essential element in creating strong, productive and lasting client relationships. It is also a highly significant factor in not only the provision of financial planning and advice, but also whether your client follows it. Below is a link to an audio recording (18m39s) where I take a...
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The 12 client-centred mind shifts – part 2
You almost certainly have clients that are worried about their finances, what might happen in future, and if they are doing the right things. We are living in challenging times. Some advisers avoid their clients at times like this. They don’t want to tell them their investments have gone down...
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The most powerful two word financial planning question
This articles shares a two-word financial question that can significantly increase the value of financial planning for a client. It is also be great for opening up new business opportunities too. So, let me share how I was inspired to write this post.
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Top 10 ways to capture and keep your financial planning client’s attention
To make financial planning meaningful and a good investment for your client it requires them to be fully engaged and do their best thinking in your meetings. Yet we also live in a society where an ever-increasing number of things are competing for our attention. People have shorter and shorter...
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How to run magical financial planning review meetings – every time
When a client relationship is new it will feel fresh, engaging, and there will often be a lot to do. You are getting to know your client, they are getting to know you, and important issues are being dealt with. But how do you keep financial planning review meetings fresh,...
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A simple guide to influencing financial planning clients
Do you want to become more effective at influencing financial planning clients? In this simple guide I explore one of the most crucial factors of influence you can apply immediately for better results.
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One of the best financial planning questions and how to use it
Often, the best financial planning questions are the ones that help a client to open up and think more deeply. Why is this important? Because the impact of your financial planning and advice is directly correlated to quality of the information you gather from your client.
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4 ways to create massive value financial planning meetings
What do clients want most of all? Do you want to create massive value financial planning meetings at every opportunity? One of the challenges in any long-term financial planning relationship is keeping it fresh, inspiring, and avoiding it becoming stale. In this article I explore how value is created and...
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How to do a brilliant financial planning fact find
Doing a brilliant financial planning fact find underpins everything that you do for a client. It is what differentiates you from other financial planners and is a golden opportunity to build exceptional relationships and provide massive value. But there are also two very different elements to fact finding.
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The hidden secret to high-impact financial planning meetings
Do you want to have your financial planning meetings be high-impact, high-engagement experiences for both your clients and you? Of course! We all want this, don’t we?
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5 steps financial planners can take to becoming a better listener
As a financial planner what value is there in becoming a better listener? Is it worth your time, effort, and focus to improve? This article explores the value of deep listening and 5 practical steps you can take to immediately become a better listener.
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Asking essential financial planning questions: the ones that no one else thinks to ask
This article looks at an important aspect of asking financial planning questions that often get neglected. Often, financial advice is triggered when something happens or is going to happens in a client’s life. For instance, the sale of a business, divorce, or an upcoming retirement.
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How financial planners can build instant trust with clients
As a financial planner building instant trust with clients is one of the biggest obstacles you will need to overcome. This article looks at a different yet highly effective approach.
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What is the most important financial planning question of all?
Do you want to have greater impact with your clients, create more value, and escape the diminishing world of transactional financial advice? If so, there is an important financial planning question.
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Presenting your clients financial plan – the key to success
Will your presentation pass the 'so-what' test? You have gathered all the information you need from your client, carefully created their financial plan, and are now ready to present it. How do you ensure it is a highly effective and successful meeting? This process actually begins long before the meeting...
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Great people skills – in an instant!
Is it possible to have great people skills in an instant?
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Are your financial planning conversations too friendly?
What is the difference between a financial advisory conversation and a financial planning conversation?
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Should Financial Planners stop talking about retirement?
Why should financial planners choose their language carefully in their financial planning conversations with clients?
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Understanding your client’s world – key number 1
Financial Advice is so often delivered in very unimaginative ways that has little difference to how the majority of practitioners deliver it.
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What they don’t teach you at financial planning school
There are some key skills a financial planner should exhibit if they want to be successful, skills that aren’t necessarily taught during financial planning qualification process… 
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How to have bigger impact with clients
How much impact am I having? This is a great question to reflect upon when it comes to your client relationships. Whether you have just met someone new or have been working with someone for a decade or longer the amount of impact we are having in that person’s life...
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The two styles of selling and why one of them is toxic
Although you could fill a small library with books on selling it seems to me that there are two distinct styles. You could call these pushing and pulling and here is how they contrast. Pushing is based upon trying to persuade, convince or entice someone into buying a product or...
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Who are the financial advisers of the future?
Going back to when I became a self-employed financial adviser in 1991 it was a sales role. I had my one week of training and then was expected to go out and make money immediately. This is why the attrition rate was so appallingly low. Oh, how things have changed!…
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Do you want highly motivated clients?
Do you want clients that are…? *highly motivated to work with you. *highly motivated to follow through on the tasks that you need them to do. *highly motivated to take the actions necessary to achieve their goals. Rather than these being qualities that some people have, and others do not…
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Do you love what you do?
Going back a while I was invited to speak at an event for advisers at The Etihad stadium in Manchester. I spoke about creating better client engagement through being curious about what it is that clients want from life rather than just focusing on products and investments…
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Getting out of your own way
I was recently in conversation with a client and he said to me that the next month at work was going to be difficult. So, I asked him why he thought that and he explained that several staff were due to be away on training and this was going to...
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The one thing that will help your financial planning business prosper
How do I get my financial advisory practice off the ground? How do I get more clients to notice my financial planning services? If you’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do from a marketing sense to entice new clients with no luck, it could be time to take...
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Shoulder Taps
The impact you can have on another human being has a lot to do with how much you realise you can impact them. How do you see your role as an adviser? You can operate at the level of arranging transactions, you can see yourself as providing a service or...
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Working ONLY with wonderful clients – the two essential questions
The very first stage of a new client relationship is connecting with someone. They may get in touch with you. You may get in touch with them. Whichever it is the next stage is that you invite them into a conversation. Conversations are the most important aspect of building your...
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Should you be coaching your clients?
Coaching happens within a conversation and strong powerful conversations are about being fully present, listening deeply and asking questions.
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The most-read blog posts of 2019
I was looking back over 2019's blog posts and I wanted to share the 5 most read with you again. You never know which ones are going to have the most reads and sometimes it can be a surprise. I enjoyed re-living the inspiration for each one and hope you...
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Get paid not to stop
How it looks to me is that a significant element of the financial services business still believes that the value for clients is all in the transaction. Why else would 'advice' be offered for free? Only this week I saw an advertisement from a product provider offering 'free advice'. The...
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Scripts – are they a help or a hindrance?
Going back several years I was once asked by the PFS to speak at the regional conferences on 'How to make an effective elevator pitch'. In case you don't know, an elevator pitch is a script you learn to describe your business. It is supposed to be clever, engaging and...
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Two emotions – which one do you operate from?
Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to come across and even get to train a couple of times with the great Steve Chandler. Steve has written over thirty books and is a world-famous success coach to high-achieving business people, CEO’s, best-selling authors and Fortune 500 companies. For me, Steve...
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What’s controlling your life?
Deepak Chopra said: “What you pay attention to grows. If your attention is attracted to negative situations and emotions, then they will grow in your awareness.” What he points out is that when we worry about things it doesn't improve the situation; it brings more of that thinking into our...
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This will skyrocket your ability to influence
We live in a world that talks far too much and listens far too little. People love to tell other people their opinions, ideas or just what happens to be on their mind. It seems that most people want to be interesting rather than interested. As a professional person, being...
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The invisible side of client engagement
Client engagement seems to be a bit of a buzz term at the moment and yet what it is and how you achieve it is still widely misunderstood. Ultimately, advancing technology will see to it that face to face advice must offer more than a purely transactional, product-based service if...
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What are (great) clients really paying for?
Patsy Rodenburg is one of the world's leading acting and voice coaches, having worked with many famous names including Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Day-Lewis and many others. She has also very successfully taken her work into the business environment, helping people to operate from what she calls second circle....
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What it really takes to conduct exceptional client conversations
The quality of your client conversations is the most important part of the relationship you build with them because they form the foundation of everything else that follows. You could think of it like this… Poor conversations = poor (or no!) relationshipAverage conversations = average relationshipsExceptional conversations = exceptional relationships...
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Getting clients to come to you
If you are building your practice then having an increasing number of people seeking you out and wanting to work with you is the ideal situation. What could be better than having great conversations with interested people and hearing them say the magic words... 'So, where do we go from...
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Getting into your client’s world – key number 1
One of the most important things you can do for your business is going 'above and beyond' to create value for your clients. Professional services are so often delivered in very unimaginative ways that have little difference to how the majority of practitioners deliver them. So, the ability to deeply...
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The 4 keys to getting into your clients world
Getting deep into the world of your client is the only way you can get to understand them and what they want, and put yourself in a position to deliver beyond their expectations. This is actually far easier than many people seem to make it. What is the starting point?...
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Trust – what builds it and what destroys it?
Trust is often thought of in terms of behaviours - do trustworthy behaviours and people will trust you. Also, in financial services many people believe that technical mastery is something that builds trust. The idea being that if you have qualifications and professional designations, then this leads to higher trust....
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The key to doing transformational client work – you go first
A couple of years ago I attended a conference in Oslo and one of my memories is of Dr. Aaron Turner make a particularly powerful point. Aaron shared a story about a time he was holidaying in Hawaii with his family. They were spending some time on the beach and...
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The Power Of Vulnerability
As a financial practitioner it is easy to only talk to your clients about products, investments and financial matters. Why? Because it is comfortable for you. It is where you feel safe. It is what you know about. But this isn’t where the real juice in the relationship is –...
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No pressure selling and influence part 2
“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” Sydney Banks Being a powerful influencer is a vital aspect of your role with clients and yet it is something that advisers can be uncomfortable with. In part 1 of this...
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No pressure selling and influence part 1
“This is what it means to serve: improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world.” Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others Being an effective influencer and confidently selling your services are essential skills if you want to build a thriving practice based upon...
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The more present you are, the more presence you have
A few years ago I read a book called 'Clients Forever' by Doug Carter. He very wisely points out that real value is created when clients have a revelation, an 'ah-ha' moment or an insight. This is when they see something new or differently and this is important because people...
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Good advice is useless without leadership
There is a famous story about a woman visiting Gandhi with her young son. She and her son had travelled a long way and when they eventually got their chance to speak with him he asked how he could help and the woman said "My son eats far too much...
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Qualified Financial Planner – but holding back?
About 18 months ago I published an article titled 'Qualified Financial Planner - but holding back?'. The inspiration for the piece was actually a friend of mine who's an adviser. He had work really hard to get his financial planning qualifications and yet he wasn't putting into practice any of...
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Sell the experience, not the concept
Several years ago I learned from master coach Steve Chandler his 'Eighteen fearless disciplines' for creating clients. He calls them disciplines because you actually have to practice them rather than just know the idea. The first of these disciplines is 'Sell the experience, not the concept' and it can transform...
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What can we learn from doctors who get sued?
Would you like to build even stronger, more productive relationships with your clients and deliver more value than ever before? Although technical knowledge seems to have taken precedence over everything else for advisers in recent years, what use is it if an adviser is not able to combine what they...
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Qualified financial planner – but holding back?
Just recently I had lunch with an adviser friend of mine and he revealed to me that despite becoming a certified financial planner five years ago, regularly attending meetings and events for planners and wanting to only offer a financial planning service he is not actually doing it. He said...
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The real problem with fee charging (and it is never about the money)
Fees and fee charging are now a fact of life for financial professionals and yet it seems to be an area that creates far more challenges than is necessary. Common questions that come up for advisers are: What to charge for? What to actually charge? How to charge? When to...
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Do you want more of the right clients?
An area that many advisers seem to find challenging is finding and engaging enough of the right clients. Naturally, there is a great deal of information and advice available in this area, however, if you feel you have diligently tried to find out what to do and yet continue to...
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Stay in the world of your client
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to come across and even get to train a couple of times with the great Steve Chandler. Steve has written over thirty books and is a world famous success coach to high-achieving business people, CEO's, best-selling authors and Fortune 500 companies. For me,...
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The inner game of trust
          Many people experience a great deal of insecurity around money and feel apprehensive when faced with talking about the future. Therefore, engaging the services of a financial adviser is not something that most people will take lightly. From an advisers perspective gaining sufficient trust to...
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Get off the safe ground
“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.” Paulo Coelho As a financial practitioner it is easy to only talk to your clients about products, investments and financial matters. Why? Because it is comfortable for you. It...
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John Dashfield spent 14 years as a self-employed adviser. Since 2006 he has been a coach, mentor and author helping advisers create transformations in their business and personal lives.

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