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(June 27, 2003) Arguably one of the most popular breakout seminars at the Million Dollar Round Table annual meeting belonged to Toronto-based industry consultant Norm Trainor, whose “eight best practices” session attracted 1,600 delegates, 100 of whom had to sit on the floor. The 32-year veteran advisor told Advisor.ca after his presentation that advisors’ biggest concern was how to successfully run their practices like a business.
Success in the insurance industry, especially during the longest bear market in recent memory, requires more than just innovation, motivation and planning, Trainor noted, adding that advisors need to build controlled momentum into their practice.
To create the right momentum and growth for your practice, Trainor suggested the following “best practices,” used by the world’s top advisors:
1. Develop and utilize a business plan. “All the high-performing salespeople I have met have used and continue to use a planning process,” Trainor said. “In contrast, most of the low-performing salespeople I know spend more time planning their vacations than planning their careers.”
2. Know your client. “I continue to run into advisors who, during their first interview with a prospect, ask the question, ‘Can you tell me about your business?'” he explained. “In today’s market, that question is the kiss of death. Top advisors would never ask that question — they know the answer already. The high net worth market is peopled with wealthy business owners and high-powered executives. These people are looking years into the future, preparing for and solving issues that will ensure their organizations thrive five, 10, 15 years from now. You have to speak their language. Raise issues with them that are essentially related to strategy, either in their business or life. Ask provocative questions and they will talk.”
3. Understand how people make decisions. “People will typically make decisions almost entirely on emotion,” Trainor told Advisor.ca. “Top advisors are able to zero in on what matters most to each individual prospect and help them talk about their fears about financial products and get clients back on board with products right for them.”
4. Help your prospects and clients buy. Top advisors know that people hate to be sold, but love to buy. “If you see yourself as a salesperson, you are at centre stage,” he explained to the audience. “If you see your client as a buyer, they are centre stage. The focus should be on the client. Advisors get caught up in their own agenda. Advisors need to be constantly reminded to be client-centric and be sure the product meets the client’s desired end result.”
5. Create “client capital.” Client capital is the true value of an advisor’s business. “This cannot be found on a balance sheet,” Trainor explained. “Capital includes the depth of the relationship which is best measured by the number of products the client buys. It also includes breadth, which is measured by the number of people they refer to you, and it includes loyalty, measured by how much they call you during significant life events.”
6. Obtain introductions. Don’t bother with referrals. Instead, get introductions, Trainor suggests. What’s the difference? “In an introduction, the client provides the leverage,” he explains. “The client is the one who actually makes the appointment allowing you to hitchhike on the credibility the nominator has with the nominee. In a referral, you may have a lot of background information about that individual, but you have to make the appointment. When you get an introduction, your success ratio is much higher.”
7. Delegate. Average-performing advisors get bogged down in $20 to $40 an hour activities when they should be working on $500 an hour activities. Every minute they spend on a low value activity is costing them momentum. “It’s difficult to find the profit formula for your business when you are working below your capacity,” Trainor said. “Top advisors optimize their talents and skills by constantly working at their optimum capacity, delegating lower value activities to employees and technology.”
8. Utilize resources. Top advisors leverage the time, talents and skills of consultants, suppliers and other professionals to optimize their efficiency. For example, Trainor said, choosing the best contact management system helped one of his clients run a more profitable and effective practice.
These practices are expanded in Trainor’s book The Eight Best Practices of High Performing Salespeople (John Wiley & Sons).
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Filed by Sheila Avari, Advisor’s Edge, savari@rmpublishing.com.
(06/27/03)