Archive for March, 2011

Next week I’m flying to Tampa, Florida to present a full day workshop called “The Keys to the Ladies Room”. The workshop is being hosted by Response Mail Express a direct marketing company who is committed to helping financial advisors tap into the lucrative female market.  RME (Response Mail Express) is giving me free rein in creating the program; I think they are in for a bit of a surprise.

In order to help financial advisors better understand how to approach and connect with the female market I want them to experience what women want.  Think about the movie with Mel Gibson, What Women Want, it’s almost like I will be handing each of them a box filled with items used frequently by women.  Ok so they won’t have to wax their legs or try on panty hose but they will feel almost as uncomfortable with the process.

I especially love my opening presentation, I love incorporating something totally out of character for a professional in financial services. Just about every workshop you attend is basically the same old scenario with the same agenda with perhaps one unique presentation that just wets your whistle.  My workshop next week will do a lot more than wet their whistle.  The advisors that attend will leave totally excited about their new venture, with not just the tools but a new business model that will make their practice female friendly.  My only real question is will they keep their “Pink” journals on their desk in view for all to see?

I am a big believer in the Law of Attraction but yesterday I saw it in reverse.  Yesterday I had a funny experience that highlighted the power of how your thoughts can drive action.  I am a firm believer in God and the law of attraction, every day I make a conscious effort to focus my thoughts NOT on my goals and objectives but to be receptive to all that God and the Universe have in store for me. I allow myself to feel gratitude and abundance rather than quantify it.  These positive thoughts have had a tremendous impact on my business. But yesterday I saw it in reverse!

Next week I will be in a studio being interviewed on video. I was told by the producers that the background is green therefore I should wear colors that don’t clash, dark blues, grey’s blacks, NO white or greens.    So needless to say I had a reason to go shopping.  The funny thing was in every store I entered all I saw was green and white.  Where normally I may never have noticed the greens and whites  (we all know white makes you look bigger J) that was all I saw when I walked into a store. 

In my phone discussion with the producer, my brain latched on to what NOT to look for and that was all it did focus on.  It took incredible effort to search out the blacks and blues.  It was CRAZY and it lasted all day in every store.  Needless to say I never found what I needed and will have to go back out again today Ughhhhh. 

But today I’m going to do something different, in my mind I’m going to visualize the colors I want, create pictures in my head with the colors I want creating visions that make me feel good.  This will be a fun little experiment to see how that Law of Distraction can be changed into the Law of Attraction!  Wish me luck…

I have to say I am quite impressed. More male advisors have purchased my new seminar Savvy Women Invest on Purpose than female advisors!  While I have preached the value and benefits of targeting the female market I rarely encounter a male advisor who is really recognizing the time is now.  What is interesting is that many of the male advisors recognize that the more they reach out to the female client the more they will attract the male client as well. 

The reality is most men WANT their wives engaged in the financial affairs they just don’t know how to get them interested. A prime example of this was when my client Haly hosted her first Savvy Women event. Before the event began her first response call to her invitation was from a man with over $900,000. He called to say he saw her invitation and has been wanting his wife to become more involved. He then said “We have about $900,000 we want to rollover, can we come in and see you?” Now THAT is a great testimonial.

I work with so many female advisors who are quite passionate about targeting the female client yet even they are a bit nervous about painting themselves into a corner. The fear is that if they create their compelling message based on the female market they will miss out on all the other male client opportunities. This can’t be further from the truth. 

As you share your title, focus and compelling message all of which is geared towards attracting more female clients all you have to do is ask the man you are speaking with “Mr. Smith how involved is your wife?  What will happen when you pass and she is left managing all the money?  Wouldn’t you like her more engaged and feeling more confident about making financial decisions?”

” Well that’s what I do!”

As a female financial advisor you are an entrepreneur. You are creating something from nothing, you provide the marketing, admin, servicing as well as investment management. You have developed every aspect of your business based on what you believe will help you to succeed. If you are truly acting like an entrepreneur the following message will resonate with you as it did with me.

Today my daughter Broghan who is studying abroad shared her notes from her international business class. Odds are this describes you, too:

Entrepreneurs:

• Capable of recognizing a business opportunity and able to act on it
• Often excessively confident…. optimistic
• Strongly attached to their firm or practice
• Highly motivated
• Highly tolerant of risk
• Open to help from “angels”
• Combining effectual and cause reasoning
• Eventually “growing pains” are not uncommon.

What I found most important was the last part about “growing pains”. As a financial advisor you will have ups and downs, recognizing that these moments of frustration, anxiety and concern about your progress is actually part of the process and important to your success. Don’t let the “growing pains” discourage you, recognize them as a “tipping point” moving you to a more successful phase of your business.

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I really love my clients. Right now I have the best group of Financial Advisors who are really committed to growing their practice and getting results. Most of my clients are women with a few men sprinkled in and they ALL appreciate my unique and personal approach to helping them succeed but this hasn’t always been the case.

Just as with a financial advisor we all have our ideal clients, those that we love to work with, who are receptive to our ideas and we look forward to speaking to. When you are working with your ideal client it really becomes a win/win, they get the best of you, making recommendations for them knowing you really care about them and you get the satisfaction of knowing they really appreciate what you are doing for them. Feeling appreciated is HUGE.

So why isn’t it always like this?  Because it’s hard to turn down revenues. I mean really when you get someone on the phone that you really don’t connect with but then they say OK let’s do business it’s hard to turn them down (we have all been there). I have to admit there are times when I have had a client that I really didn’t want to connect with. If they were on my calendar for that day it seemed to put a damper on ALL my calls. I just didn’t look forward to the day of coaching all because of one client. You don’t realize how much all this negative energy impedes your ability to grow your practice.

So what would happen if you turned them away? What would you really lose? Yes, you would deny yourself some immediate revenues but that’s about it and while you are enjoying these new revenues you will become less effective at what you do allowing negative thoughts and feelings to invade your practice. This doesn’t happen right away and you may not even notice it until one day you look at your schedule and realize “Boy do I wish this client would quit”. Now it’s even MORE difficult to let them go.

Just the other day I had a former client want to sign back up, my immediate thought was ‘Ughh, I do not look forward to working with him’, he was a challenge before and I knew he would be again. I shared this with my husband and he said “But Adri it’s business, how can you turn down business?” On the one hand I knew I did not want to and should not work with this client but on the other hand I kept hearing my husband’s voice. So instead of just accepting this client back into my practice I challenged this client to identify what they want to accomplish. Call it divine intervention but this client emailed back and said they had decided to go another direction, whew! Not exactly direct but I got the results I was looking for and as a result I’m loving my business EVERY day of the week.

Next time you meet with a prospect that you really don’t connect with instead of asking yourself what would you lose perhaps the real question should be what would you gain?