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Financial advisors can reach the highest level of success in their field and become elite advisors who serve fewer, wealthier clients very well, according to John Bowen, CEO and founder of San Martin, California-based advisor coaching firm CEG Worldwide.
"There are three levers of success" and nine "accelerators" to help achieve that, he said Wednesday during a conference session at TD Ameritrade's National LINC 2020 conference in Orlando, Florida. Those drivers include clarity of intent — the ability to remain "very deliberate, no matter what's happening in the market" or any other external forces at play, he told attendees.
The second driver of success is the ability to provide a "world-class client experience" in which the advisor has "differentiated" himself or herself from the many rivals in the market, he noted. And the third lever is having a "wealthy client pipeline" in which the advisor is "no longer concerned where that next wealthy client is coming from," he said.
He went on to list the nine accelerators that advisors can use as a checklist to assess where they are on their journey to become elite advisors. First up were three key accelerators that work hand-in-hand with clarity of intention: Having a "destination pathway" in which you are clear about what you want to achieve; having a business model that can achieve the results you want; and being able to identify the clients you want to "be a hero to," he noted.
Next up were three accelerators tied to providing clients with a world-class experience. They are: Providing a unique value promise in which you have differentiated yourself from the competition; client-centered discovery in which you are able to emotionally connect with prospective clients as you discover the gap between where they are now and where they want to go in the future; and having a professional network in which you work with other professionals to deliver your wealth management experience, he said.
And the three accelerators that he said work hand-in-hand with achieving a wealthy client pipeline are: Positioning oneself as a talented expert — the "go-to advisor" in your community; being able to provide "economic glue" that motivates influential people to work with you on a long-term basis; and having best-client partnerships in which other professionals regularly introduce you to their best clients.
