Takeaways from Magellan Momentum 2022 (Part 1) – 5 Traits of the Most Successful Advisors
As many of you are aware, Magellan just hosted our top producer summit, last week, called Momentum. We certainly appreciate everyone who joined us and we are looking forward to that event growing and getting better each and every year as we add new top producers and continue to grow with the ones who have been great partners for us over the years.
Although we had a lot of fun celebrating all of the successes from 2021, we also had tremendous business meetings where I found myself in the back of the room vigorously taking notes trying to keep up with all of the amazing information and insights being shared by each and every speaker on stage so that I could come back and share with all of you. So for the next week or so, I am going to break down and share with everyone the most important takeaways I had from this event in the hopes that they will also allow you to jumpstart your “Momentum” in 2022 and beyond!
Our very first speaker was none other than the Chief Distribution Officer at Foundations Investment Advisors, Dan Biagini. Dan shared his insight on what 5 traits all of our top advisors had in common. They went as follows:
They Compete on Value
The biggest companies in the world are spending millions of dollars to create awareness of their products and market their brand. What the company reaps from this expenditure can make or break it. Your company brand is more than the products or services that you sell. It is what you stand for. Your company logo, products, website, or marketing campaigns may change with time, but your brand value must always remain the consistent.
Where most advisors miss the mark on value proposition is they make the mistake in thinking that value proposition is about them. When in contrast, they should be thinking about their clients because it is about them. Stop flexing about your personal numbers and start talking about the experience that people actually have as your client!
The service you provide is a commodity but the feelings about the service are what make you valuable.
They Build a Culture
If 2021 taught us anything, it’s that nurturing your firm’s culture and putting greater emphasis on collaboration are more important tools than ever for elevating your practice. Focusing on these areas can bring tangible benefits to your client relationships, and that’s increasingly important in a wealth industry where the need to deliver superior value to clients is now omnipresent.
No matter the size of your firm, whether it is two people or 10, everyone performs better when they feel part of the business.
· Is work done in silos? Are you sharing what works and what doesn’t on a regular, planful basis?
· Are the right people doing the right tasks based on their strengths and what they enjoy doing? If this is true, the service they deliver will be at its best, too.
· Do you take time to celebrate or share “wins”?
· Do you talk about work-life harmony and/or find tangible ways to encourage it? Whether it’s remote arrangements, early closing on Friday during the summer, or a volunteer day for community support, look for ways to be kind to yourself and your colleagues and allow for life enrichment.
Your practice’s culture is something that you get to develop to be uniquely yours and it is something that cannot be taken away.
They Eliminate Roadblocks
This one is really super simple but requires some thought on your part. What I want to do here is share some incredible examples of companies who have figured out how to eliminate the roadblocks for clients to do business with them so that you can internalize and figure out how to add things like these to your practice
1. Amazon – If you haven’t ever purchased something from Amazon (I find that hard to believe 😊) you might not know what Im going to refer to here but, if you have, you will notice that there are two options for purchasing that item.
a. Add To Cart – “I need to ask my wife/husband before I buy”
b. Buy Now – “I’ll ask for forgiveness later”
As you can see, Amazon removed a major roadblock for consumers by adding option B
2. Bomb Bomb – Many Financial Advisors are familiar with this video email delivery service. They eliminated a roadblock for advisors by giving them a way to send a video email that doesn’t direct the recipient to a separate playback service. The video plays right in the email window making the ease of access a top priority
Think about what you can do to help a client avoid as many barriers or roadblocks that would stop them from doing business with you and create a better experience overall.
They Know Their Numbers
Do NOT do another seminar or radio show until you read this email. Here's the deal. All the normal numbers are important like:
· What percentage of prospects that meet with you become clients?
· What is your average case size?
· What is the ROI on each of your marketing funnels individually?
Honestly, your numbers should go so much deeper than that.
· How does your response rate different from this restaurant or that one?
· How does your response rate differ from the seminar topic on the invitation?
· What marketing funnel tends to give you the highest net-worth people?
· How does that affect your closing ratio?
· What percentage of your revenue comes from Seminars? Radio? TV?
There is so much valuable information at your finger-tips, but you have to take the time to tap into it and use it in your business. I know, it’s not easy and takes time. Because of this, a lot of producers fail to do it altogether.
I know, I’ve heard it all...”marketing isn’t working like it used to”...”results aren’t worth the cost”, and so on. No matter what you are telling yourself, none of that is the truth unless you really know your numbers.
They Implement
Is it possible you are limiting your own success due to beliefs that you have adopted?
What excuses are you telling yourself? Are they really a problem, or just serving as a mental barrier and preventing you from taking the action you want and need?
I’ve heard it all…
· My market is too small and people don’t respond to my marketing like in other areas
· My market is over-saturated and way too competitive
· My clients don’t have as much money as they do in other areas
· We don’t have as strong of products in our area, it’s much harder to sell
“If only, this wasn’t a problem, I could take more action and do more business…”
Successful advisors abolish these limitations that they put on themselves and give themselves permission to take more action to overcome these barriers. The barriers are only getting in the way, creating fear for them, and holding them back. They take good ideas and direction and they run with it!
Obviously successful financial advisors can encompass a wide array of character traits. We’ve found these five traits of successful financial advisors above to be particularly important to the most lucrative Magellan producers that we work with. Stay tuned for part 2 and beyond, I’m excited to share the week we had with all of you!
-Trent Martin