Has this happened to you?
You’ve spent years of hard work, wracking your brain to become the financial planner you want to be, and then you find most people just don’t care about financial planning.
And you wonder: how is that possible?
Perhaps your service is lacking something important. It needs one vital ingredient to really stand out.
A clear reason why you’re in business.
It’s practically a financial planning commandment.
Thou shalt obey the compliance officer.
And even if those words have never been etched into stone, it’s still rock-solid advice. After all, if you DON’T follow their advice, your financial planning career will be doomed. Forever.
Knowing this, you take compliance seriously.
You read what they publish.
You study for their exams.
You tweak every process until it’s perfect.
But does this help you? I mean, does this help you to move forward?
If you’re honest, you can’t help but feel mortified at the prospect of staying hopelessly trapped in the compliance officer’s rules.
You want to break out. You want to escape. You want to do it your way.
Can I be straight with you?
What most financial planners claim about the importance of financial goals is totally wrong.
It’s overly simplified, it’s just a marketing-term, or interpreted the wrong way.
Over the last 17 years I have been in the industry, I’ve served hundreds of people, had 1,000+ client-conversations, and I’ve experienced firsthand the (un)importance of financial goals.
And a lot of stuff that planners say or write about financial goals … it just isn’t true.
The irony?
Clients.
That’s what you want, don’t you?
And naturally, you want more for your financial planning service.
You network. You advertise. You spend lots of time on social media. You pay for social media. You pay for SEO. Heck, you even pay for radio or television time.
It’s costing lots and lots of time and money.
And sometimes it feels as if you’re pumping water down a leaky pipe.
In that situation, what’s the smarter move – pumping more water, or fixing the leak?
What are you afraid of?
Are you afraid of the digital revolution? Are you afraid of the ongoing innovations in our financial planning business? Are you afraid you can’t keep up? Are you afraid your client doesn’t recognize the value you deliver? Are you afraid you will not have a reason to exist?
There’s no need to.
After all, that’s the dream, right?
We want to quit our jobs, spend more time with our families, and finally have time to do the “real” work. We want our financial planning to help people, to inspire them, to change them from the inside out.
It’s a modest dream, a dream that deserves to come true, and yet a part of you might be wondering …
Will it?
5 Levels of Financial Planning – What’s Your Level?
“Am I getting better?”
It may be the most important question you can ask yourself as a financial planner. If you’ve never thought to ask it before, go ahead and do it now. And be honest.
Are you a better financial planner than you were three months ago? A year ago? Three years ago?
If the answer is “No” (or even “Yes, but not much”) then you might face a serious problem.
How to Be Smart in a World of Ignorant Financial Planners
Can I be painfully honest with you for a moment? Can I say something that will quite likely make you mad?
Prepare to be shocked.
Here’s a great story.
A few days ago I visited our local pastor. He’s like the ideal grandfather. Old, old-fashioned, always a friendly smile.
Can you picture it?
I didn’t expect to learn how to overcome my prospect’s objections during this short visit.
But when he started talking, I was blown away.
Imagine that your prospects didn’t hesitate, not even for one second, to pay your price. That it would be – in fact – a no-brainer.
Don’t believe that’s possible? Then stop here.
However, if you don’t want to leave money on the table and if you don’t want to miss my free gift at the end of this article, you might want to keep reading.