6 Things You Might Be Doing To Piss Off Advisors

We picked up a comment left on a story at Ignites.com that caught our eye.

The Ignites article was titled: Wholesaler Mistakes That Irk Advisors Most (link requires subscription).

The comment appears to have been posted by a Financial Advisor.

He writes:

“Issues that separate the Bad from the Good [wholesalers]:

1. Believes he or she is a practice management expert or advisor to advisors.

2. Always says they will do something but never do.

3. Does not know the answer but shoots from the hip.

4. Can’t describe an investment idea or sell it in a way that your average client can understand.

5. Does not listen.

6. Goes from office to office throwing up the same story.

There is enough of this going on out there to where you really appreciate an experienced wholesaler who is dedicated to his or her craft.”

Our thoughts:

“Believes he or she is a practice management expert or advisor to advisors” – We spend our days working with some of the very best wholesalers on the planet and the best earn the right to deliver practice management guidance, though which they can become advisors to advisors.

The key is they know how to walk the talk.

It’s one thing to pronounce yourself the expert and then fall flat.

It’s quite another to bring a demonstrated set of programs, processes and protocols that have yielded quantifiable success to the advisors that you serve.

You damn well can be an expert and an advisor’s advisor – you just have to earn your stripes to get there.

“Always says they will do something but never do” – Why is this even on this advisors list?

Does it really need to be said for the 1 billionth time that over promising and under delivering are as injurious to your practice as a product that blows up in the advisors face?

Do the wholesaler culprits of this crime really believe that saying something will be done and not following through is productive?

Remember that you have control of two things:

• what you promise
• when you say it will be done

Great wholesalers are mindful of both parts of the equation and consistently deliver on both.

“Does not know the answer but shoots from the hip” – What is it that prevents a wholesaler from saying this phrase: “I don’t know”?

Is it fear of rejection?

Is it fear of appearing dumb?

Is their ego just too large to allow that utterance?

If you are tempted, ever, to bullshit your way through a question let this reinforcement stop you in your tracks:

THERE IS NO GOOD THAT EVER COMES FROM MAKING UP THE ANSWER.

Get over the ego, the fear and the insecurity and just say, “What a great question – I don’t have the answer but I know exactly who does”.

“Can’t describe an investment idea or sell it in a way that your average client can understand” – Great wholesalers have ability to simplify complex concepts.

The thing is that too many wholesalers don’t take the extra time to give the advisor that dumbed down pitch.

The wholesaler is too absorbed in fund/annuity/REIT/insurance/LTC-speak.

Fact is your advisor may not even follow the highbrow explanation and will be too proud to ask for clarification.

Then they will sell another firm’s product.

“Does not listen” – Look, I’m guilty.

You’re guilty.

The advisor is guilty.

Do you ever find yourself falling into any of these habits? (source: listening.og)

1. Interrupting the speaker.
2. Not looking at the speaker.
3. Rushing the speaker and making him feel that he’s wasting the listener’s time.
4. Showing interest in something other than the conversation.
5. Getting ahead of the speaker and finishing her thoughts.
6. Not responding to the speaker’s requests.
7. Saying, “Yes, but . . .,” as if the listener has made up his mind.
8. Topping the speaker’s story with “That reminds me. . .” or “That’s nothing, let me tell you about. . .”
9. Forgetting what was talked about previously.
10. Asking too many questions about details.

Real listening takes dedicated energy and effort.

And it’s something you need to work on – diligently.

Try this: (source: listening.og)

• Give good attention to the speaker by looking the speaker in the eye.
• Paraphrase the speaker to ensure understanding of the speaker’s message.
• Ask clarifying questions.
• Relate accurate information back to the advisor, which shows that you’re listening to and remembering what they had said.
• Listen with an open mind by not becoming emotional or defensive.

“Goes from office to office throwing up the same story” – We interviewed COIs for an article in I Carry The Bag® magazine and a Merrill Lynch complex manager had the same complaint.

He offered that:

• wholesalers need to work hard to stay original and fresh
• with great wholesalers you can’t tell the size of their territory [because their stories and attitudes never give away the fact that this might be the 100th time this month they’ve pitched the concept/idea].

That means that they are not sitting down and spewing a canned story that they have repeated 100 times.

Crafting your story takes work.

Reinventing it take more work.

Work that the average wholesaler doesn’t wish to do.

The one sentence in the advisor’s comments that leaps off the page is:

There is enough of this going on out there to where you really appreciate an experienced wholesaler who is dedicated to his or her craft.

The door is wide open for the diligent, dependable, intelligent, interpretive, thoughtful, and creative [here are 34 more adjectives] wholesaler.

The rest will continue to bob aimlessly in the great sea of sameness.

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