Why do some financial planners seem to effortlessly find clients whilst others experience growing their practice as a constant struggle?
What is the best prospecting advice for financial planners looking for new clients?
There is no doubt that building a financial planning practice takes time, effort, and focused attention. The same is true for most things worth doing in life. Yet it is also easy to waste a lot of time and energy.
*Have you ever struggled trying to find the ‘right’ way?
*Have you ever held back waiting for the ‘right’ time to do something?
*Do you believe there is a silver bullet, and you are missing a trick in some way?
I have fallen for all of these traps in the past.
So, what must shift to experience more lift and less drag in growing your financial planning practice?
Some years ago, I participated in an intense 6-month coaching certification programme. One of the requirements for receiving the certification was to engage a certain number paying clients.
As I already had a well-established practice this was no problem for me but several people on the programme had never found a client or charged money for coaching before. The thought of having to do this struck the fear of God into some of them, so much so that they approached the people who ran the course about it.
Was there a way they could avoid this part of the programme and still get their certification, they asked?
The reply they got was this:
“Whatever fear you have about finding paying clients you have to find a way to get over it.”
Financial planner prospecting advice
One of the biggest traps of all is the question “How?”. When people begin to feel stuck and bereft of ideas this is often their go-to question.
“How do I find clients?”
It seems a legitimate question, but it is a misunderstanding of the problem.
Why?
Because it is one of those silver bullets. It assumes that vital information is missing and if we only knew ‘how’ then the problem would be solved, and we could relax.
What people never factor in because they are simply unaware of it is the significance of their state of mind.
What kind of world do you think you live in?
Albert Einstein said, “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”
What tends to happen when we feel afraid and insecure?
Fear creates the illusion of being disconnected from what we want. When we are caught up in insecure thoughts and feelings, we experience a narrowing of our vision both physically and mentally. We lose 50% of our strength. Preoccupation with the ‘self’ consumes a huge amount of energy, but not in a useful, generative way.
Opportunity, the lifeblood of building a practice, is something we see, or do not see, depending entirely upon our state of mind.
If we continue to go looking outside of ourselves for the ‘how’, then all we are doing is perpetuating the illusion and reinforcing our insecurities.
What does make you highly effective at prospecting?
Let me return to the story of the coaching programme and the people who were so afraid.
After being informed they must complete the task they all found the clients they needed and got their certification. I have seen a similar thing happen with adviser’s time after time.
What shifted?
As soon as they knew they were not going get ‘let off’ finding clients their thoughts changed. Instead of being consumed with worry and doing nothing they got into engaged action.
What is the best prospecting advice for financial planners?
Nothing is accomplished by thinking about it.
Yet something special begins to happen when you let go of the outcome and get into engaged action. You feel more alive, inspiration flows, you see opportunity, and happily act upon it because it is not about you.
P.S. People do all sorts of things to avoid engaged action and these are just more traps. You can read why ‘busy is the new stupid’ by clicking here.
