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Commonwealth Mentors: John Raybould
— John Reid
Mentoring is an important extension of the hiring process because it often provides a way to promote career development.
It’s not limited to the advisor/employee relationship, however; many successful mentoring relationships exist between
advisors. Over the past year, we have featured Commonwealth advisors who, by sharing their stories and methods,
have mentored other advisors looking to grow their practices.
This month, we introduce
John Raybould
of Sterling Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah. Coming
off of 23.9-percent business growth in 2012, John has focused on continuing that growth throughout
2013 and into the New Year.
Looking back, John notes that 2008 was the year his firm’s growth truly took off. Ironically, he didn’t
begin 2008 looking to add clients; rather, he wanted to continue improving the client experience
through service. Through focused client conversations, John ensured that any referrals he received
were ideal clients who would help define the future of his practice.
“I have aligned myself with very dynamic individuals,” John explains. “My thought was to not only work with profitable
clients but great people who make my day enjoyable. By defining what an ideal client looks like to me, often beyond
revenue, I have clients who understand value and are quick to thank me and provide the right referrals.”
John is clear in describing to clients who is a good prospective client and who may not be. In order to fully articulate
his vision of an ideal client, John sometimes found himself role-playing with clients, which made him more confident
having similar conversations with his clients’ friends and family. Having straightforward discussions up front has helped
John reinforce the value of the client relationships while filtering out prospect meetings that may be less than ideal.
In the early stages of his career, John says, the lack of a framework for client referrals and underpriced fees were
shortcomings. “Two things have helped me,” he notes. “The first is the pricing of my services. If everybody thinks
you’re charging the right price, then you’re too cheap. I’ve followed the rule that if less than 10 percent of your
customers are telling you you’re charging too much, you’re not charging enough.
“The second is the delegation of services. For example, I am not interested in simply being my clients’ investment
manager. In fact, I’m not very good at it, so I delegate that role. When I found success, I realized there were certain
things that I don’t do well. Realizing this got me to where I am a little bit quicker.”
John also encourages a focus on the process of wealth management, not just the result: “My clients understand it’s a
process and not an event,” he says. “Accumulation to distribution is a long-term process that needs to be understood
as such or else there is an outcome bias. This focus makes people more rational in their decision-making. Making the
right decisions to solve problems for clients also means helping the client to make the right decisions. There’s mutual
accountability—success cannot be determined entirely by me.”
John backs up his process with a systematic program based on cash flowmodels to depict retirement goals for clients.
Clients understand that there are a variety of factors that will determine their success in reaching their financial goals,
not just one thing. They recognize that the work John and his team do throughout the course of the process adds
tremendous value to their lives.
John Reid is an associate consultant in Practice Management. He is available at x9862 or at
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