Practice Management
40
For Advisor Use Only
March/April
2014
these resources outside of the workshops to help them
achieve their goals. The 20-point system, for example, is
designed to help advisors focus on and hold themselves
accountable for specific revenue-generating activities.
Communication skills.
Additional workshop elements
give junior advisors the opportunity to hone their public
speaking skills. Throughout the year, junior advisors are
required to deliver presentations on their progress, as well as
on focused learning subjects, such as a personal development
topic or a specific rainmaking activity. Presentation topics
might include:
•
Powerful Questions
•
Active Listening
•
Storytelling Skills and Techniques
•
Asking for Referrals and Introduction
•
Strategic Networking
•
Forming Relationships
•
Building Confidence
•
The Assumptive Close
•
Advocating Solutions
The development of scripts that answer questions a prospect
may ask is an important step in preparing junior advisors
for conducting client meetings. Through a process in
which participants define their ideal client, they also learn
the valuable skill of how to turn away those who do not
meet the profile.
Peer support.
During and between workshops, junior
advisors have the ability to leverage their peer groups and
best practices shared by senior advisors during panel
discussions. Senior advisors receive direction for delivering
feedback to their junior associates most effectively; they
also have the opportunity to practice this with their own
junior associates, as well as with other junior associates in
the program.
Developing Your Own Program
Participation in the Junior/Senior Advisor Intensive requires
a deep commitment by everyone involved. For those who
are not able to participate in a formal group program such
as this, a Sample Advisor Training Outline is available
on COMMunity Link
®
; go to My Practice > Practice
For some advisors, succession and continuity planning overlap; the successor for retirement purposes is also prepared
to step in if an unplanned event occurs. For others, the two are distinct and separate plans. Here, we will focus on
continuity planning—specifically, how prepared are Commonwealth advisors for a transition of their practices due to
death or disability?
The Challenge
Commonwealth advisors are, on average, 52 years old. Eventually, most of these advisors will choose to retire, at
which point they will want to both maximize the value of their practice and ensure the retention of clients by their
successor. In the meantime, however, there’s a critical element to consider: the continuity of the advisors’ businesses
in the event that they pass away or become disabled.
Confronting their mortality is a psychological hurdle many advisors have difficulty overcoming. Industry-wide, advisors
delay coming to terms with this reality and don’t take the steps to put an actionable continuity plan in place. Even if
an advisor doesn’t delay, identifying a continuity partner with the capacity, scale, and expertise to buy a practice on
short notice and provide seamless service to clients can be a challenge.
“There are countless benefits to having
multiple mentors, especially those who
have had such a wide range of experience.
The program provided an atmosphere that
allowed all the mentees the opportunity to
absorb the wisdom of not only their own
mentor, but of those who have had a high
degree of success.”
— Jeffrey Reynolds, Financial Council, Inc.
(junior advisor to Bill Leeb)
Continued >
