Wholesalers, Want to Flourish in the Future? It’s Time to Change Your Mindset with Randy Pennington

There is nothing permanent except change. ~Heraclitus

DOL equals change.

Money market reform equals change.

Political elections equal change.

Over the course of our careers we will encounter innumerable changes – to our companies, our products, our clients and personal lives.

What’s most important is how we cope with that change

Randy Pennington is an award-winning author, speaker, and leading authority on helping organizations achieve positive results in a world of accelerating change. He founded Pennington Performance Group to help organizations and their leaders build trust, act with integrity, make sense of change, and create a culture committed to results, relationships, and responsibility.

His latest book is Make Change Work: Staying Nimble, Relevant, and Engaged in a World of Constant Change.

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Want to Flourish in the Future? It’s Time to Change Your Mindset

You can’t influence — much less control — many of the variables that affect your future. You can’t control what the government does or what the economy does. There is one thing, however, that is totally within your control. Your mindset, the perspective and thinking through which you view the world, creates the lens that guides your choices, actions, and results.

A Mindset for the Future

If you are successful in wholesaling today, you know how to exceed expectations for flawless execution and service. You know and understand your clients, prospects, and competitors. You have mastered the current technology and learned how to thrive in the existing regulatory environment.

What about the future?

Change has never changed faster nor been more disruptive than it is today. The DOL regulatory change that you and your advisor colleagues face is just one example. If you are successful today, you know how to succeed in a world that will soon cease to exist.

Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil said that the technological progress made during the entire 20th century is equivalent to 20 years of progress at our current rate of change. He predicts that we’ll experience the next 20 years of progress (at today’s rate of speed) in the next 14 years. We’ll achieve that again in the following seven years.

Combine the exponential increase in the rate of change with increasing customer demands, geopolitical uncertainty, governmental regulations, and new competitors and you get a world that requires a new mindset to flourish.

A nimble mindset is the best tool you can have in your bag to help your advisor colleagues and yourself succeed. That mindset enables you quickly pivot and adapt to the changing world and client expectations around you while remaining disciplined and focused on flawless execution today. It isn’t an easy change to make. Here are four strategies to help:

1. Drive out fear. Herb Kelleher, Chairman of Southwest Airlines once said that he had successfully predicted “eleven of the last three recessions.” In other words, living in a perpetual state of positive paranoia isn’t a bad thing. It helps you stay focused on managing risk and reward. Fear, on the other hand, makes you focus on your own immediate well-being at the expense of the long-term. You drive out fear with your clients by relying on the strength of your relationship and past performance to assure them that you have their back. You minimize fear for yourself by preparation and planning for the future.
2. Scan continuously. The scariest change on the horizon is the one that you never see coming until it is too late. Become a student of your business and the potential impact of the world around you. Emulate the laser scanner eyes of science fiction robots – moving from object to object in search of relevant data and information and then locking your full attention on that input until it is addressed or dismissed. Don’t be distracted by irrelevant information or pulled into conjecture that isn’t based on fact. Your goal is to recognize subtle changes before they have presented themselves to everyone.
3. Question critically. Things are not always they appear on the surface. A nimble mindset requires you to dig deeper when you see a potential threat or opportunity.

The following three questions will help:

• What are the best case, worst case, and most likely case scenarios for how this will play out?
• What is the scope of the impact? Is it a major problem? Does it create a substantial opportunity? What does it mean for your long-term success and the long-term success of your clients?
• What is the time frame and course of action required? What will happen if you wait for additional information? What is the course of action that will result in the fewest or most controllable unintended consequences?

4. Lead through change – don’t manage it. Every sale is, in essence, an exercise in leading someone through change. It doesn’t matter if you are selling yourself, a new advisor client, or a current client who is considering another option. You must create urgency for action by focusing on the crisis or opportunity. You must connect with others where they are by involving them in decisions, and you must recognize that the resistance you see or feel is an opportunity to address a fear or concern. An unconfident wholesaler trying to make a sale is an uncomfortable thing to watch. A confident one is a master at leading change with themselves and others.

Adopting a nimble mindset doesn’t that you will never be wrong. When that happens, pivot and correct your mistakes. Uncertainty, upheaval, and rapid change are the new normal. The best wholesalers will seize the opportunity to take their business to the next level of success. If you don’t adjust your mindset, you will never adjust your behavior, performance, and ultimately, results.

Written by Randy Pennington