Industry news and views from Panacea and our partners.
John Dashfield, Dashfield Coaching & Development Ltd_
Taming your advice monster
If you are an adviser then surely your job is to give advice, right?
My favourite Warren Buffett quote
Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time and one of the worlds wealthiest individuals.
Working ONLY with wonderful clients the two essential questions
The very first stage of a new client relationship is connecting with someone. They may get in touch with you. You may get in touch with them.
Financial planning is NOT simply about your clients goals
Do you want to significantly improve your client outcomes from your next client meeting?
Get paid not to stop
How it looks to me is that a significant element of the financial services business still believes that the value for clients is all in the transaction. Why else would advice be offered for free?
What will make 2020 your best year yet?
What will make 2020 your best year yet? This seems like a worthwhile question to give some thought to and yet the answer may be somewhat different to what many people imagine. We are living in a world where we seem to be constantly on the treadmill of getting things done. After all, who isnt busy these days? Most of us are rushing around keeping the plates spinning, our devices are like a child are tugging at us for constant attention and yet how much happier are we for it? Would accomplishing twice as much make you twice as happy?
Turning clients away - is it good for business?
Towards the end of last year, I was privileged to be invited along to a focus group for a financial planning client of mine.
What are clients really paying for?
Patsy Rodenburg is one of the world's leading acting and voice coaches, having worked with famous names including Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Day-Lewis and many others. She has also very successfully taken her work into the business environment, helping people to operate from what she calls second circle.
How to raise your fees (and have clients willingly pay them)
Going back over ten years to the early days of my coaching business I remember walking along Piccadilly one day, on the way to see a client one day and, quite by chance, I bumped into my friend Jamie who is also a business and corporate coach.
The power of asking more questions and making fewer assumptions
We probably all like to think of ourselves as reasonably open-minded and that we do not make assumptions or jump to conclusions about other people especially where our clients and potential are concerned.
How to keep your client relationships fresh and inspiring
If you asked your clients to rate your review meetings with them on a scale of 1 - 10 (for quality of experience and impact), how do you think would they rate them? Would they give a 10 out of 10 - the meetings are always fresh, inspiring and never fail to touch upon something highly important to your client? Despite knowing each other well you are always able to deeply engage your client.
To succeed you must believe in yourself really?
It is so easy to think we have things figured out in life and without someone to robustly challenge our assumptions we just continue to think them at times to our cost. This is one of the reasons coaching is so powerful. You have someone totally on your side and yet, at the same time, they will call you out.
What it really takes to conduct exceptional client conversations
The quality of your client conversations is the most important part of the relationship you build with them because they form the foundation of everything else that follows. You could think of it like this...
Selling your services - one thing most experts don't know
Most businesses providing expert professional services - financial advisory practices being one example - think that clients are buying expertise and professional knowledge. This is why there is so much emphasis on products, technical know-how and qualifications. But is this what clients are really buying? Knowing what you are doing is extremely important but very few clients are able to evaluate the quality of your advice, are they? And here is the thing...
The power of an incisive question
I was recently listening to someone telling the story of how they had begun a new and exciting phase of their life by starting a small business.
How to stop sabotaging your own success
Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. An enlightened business leader was teaching a group of new entrepreneurs about increasing their level of success, and he wanted to demonstrate what it is that really gets in the way. He had a glass of water on his desk at the front of the room and he went over and picked it up. Some of the class immediately thought he was going to do the Is the glass half empty or half full? routine.
Attention financial planners! Dont miss
Creating deep client engagement (without the fear of making mistakes or losing clients!)The new 6 session webinar-based programme begins on 10th January 2019
Great people skills in an instant!
Well over 20 years ago, back when I was an adviser, I had a brilliant yet unintended lesson from a far more experienced adviser.
Why advisers shouldn't avoid challenging their clients
Although the term 'sales' can have negative connotations these days, if you are providing a professional service then engaging new clients and re-engaging existing ones is often an important part of your business. So, what can give you a significant advantage?
Finding your life's purpose
I was an enthusiastic devourer of self-help and personal development material for well over twenty years, although I have now been in healthy recovery for nearly seven years now. During my addiction I always noticed how much material there is on finding your life's purpose. Have you ever noticed this?
The key to doing transformational client work you go first
A couple of years ago I attended a conference in Oslo and one of my memories is of Dr. Aaron Turner make a particularly powerful point. Aaron shared a story about a time he was holidaying in Hawaii with his family. They were spending some time on the beach and he was standing in the sea enjoying the warm water. Even though the water was only knee deep he said he remembered a little voice in his head telling him You should get out now. But he ignored it.
The 4 keys to getting into your clients world
Getting deep into the world of your client is the only way you can get to understand them and what they want and put yourself in a position to deliver beyond their expectations. This is far easier than many people seem to make it. What is the starting point?
The Ill be happy when trap
One of lifes illusions is that the attainment of a particular goal, whatever that may be, will provide us with the happiness, fulfilment and peace of mind that we want. It is an easy trap to fall into.
Trains, planes and?
Have phones at work become the new smoking in the workplace? A walk into any office, anywhere in the UK, will make clear that attention to the job in the workplace during working hours is being jeopardised by the use of mobile phones.
The most effective sales programme of all
I recently met up for coffee with a friend who runs a business networking group. At one point our conversation drifted on to some of her members and what business they were in. She was telling me about one particular member who had a business teaching people how to sell.
The Client-centred Financial Adviser The ultimate guide to high-trust, high profit relationships and a thriving practice
The Client-Centred Financial Adviser Audio book
The problem with positive thinking
As is the way, the first few weeks of the New Year has seen papers, magazines and social media platforms brimming with articles, ideas and tips from the latest Guru telling us how to be healthier, slimmer and happier.
A crucial key to effortless influence
Jacques Prevert (this could easily be mis-spelt!), a French poet, once walked by a blind beggar who had a sign next to him that read
Selling your services are you pushing or pulling?
At a time when consumers have more choice, are more demanding and less tolerant of being placed under any kind of negative pressure it has never been more important to up your game in terms of the way you present your services the future of your business may depend upon it!
My favourite Einstein quote and why it matters
There arent that many true bona fide geniuses, past or present, but Albert Einstein was certainly in that category.
The three levels of value creation
If you dont like change, youre going to like irrelevance even less. General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army The primary function of a business is to create value and I would imagine that everyone would agree that it is vitally important that our clients experience the highest value possible from what we can do for them.
The invisible variable
Life is full of variables. In business there are many variables that we have no control over whatsoever, for example, the economy, legislation and the markets we operate in. Then we have the internal variables of our business, our product or service, pricing, how we choose to deliver it, who we do business with. These are things we can determine and have control over.
The impact factor
"What can I change or add to my product or service that will make this even more attractive, and compelling and irresistible?" 100 ways to create wealth by Steve Chandler and Sam Beckford
What can we learn from doctors who get sued?
Would you like to build even stronger, more productive relationships with your clients and deliver more value than ever before?
Qualified financial planner but holding back?
Just recently I had lunch with an adviser friend of mine and he revealed to me that despite becoming a certified financial planner five years ago, regularly attending meetings and events for planners and wanting to only offer a financial planning service he is not actually doing it. He said that he was still only doing product based transactional business the same way he always had for fifteen plus years.
Selling your services - are you pushing or pulling?
At a time when consumers have more choice, are more demanding and less tolerant of being placed under any kind of negative pressure it has never been more important to up your game in terms of the way you present your services - the future of your business may depend upon it!