What Are The Next Steps With New Clients As A Financial Advisor?

If you’re excited about the career path as a financial advisor, you might have the burning question of what you will do once you hear the first “yes” from your prospect.

Adding new clients, especially those first few clients, to your practice, is such a rewarding feeling but what follows is the most vital part.

At Consolidated Planning, failure as a financial advisor will not be due to a lack of resources or internal communications. Our senior leaders personally carve out time to check in on you. Just like you will have regularly scheduled check-ins or touchpoints with your clients, we will do the same for you.

Putting proven habits into place from day one and utilizing resources available to you will support the longevity of your advisor-client relationships.

Habits To Follow Once You Add A New Financial Advising Client

#1 Add Your Client Into The Customer Relationship Management System

While this might sound simple, it’s surprisingly an overlooked step. At Consolidated Planning you will have access to our CRM which easily integrates with Office 365. This tool will help you better leverage vital client information in a new way.

We’ve all heard the saying, garbage in, garbage out.

By regularly and accurately utilizing your CRM, you will build stronger relationships. CRM’s typically host a variety of information from the little details to the big picture. Tracking birthdays, milestones, the diversity of your client’s products, and full client history, helps you deliver personalized service to each client.

As your practice grows, you will thank yourself for putting in the extra effort upfront.

#2 Schedule Check-Ins With Your Clients

As a consumer yourself, think about the last time you or a family member heard from their financial advisor. Was it a few weeks ago, a few months ago, a year ago?

As one financial advisor with many clients, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with how to best keep up with your clients and their expectations. One way you can deliver a high level of customer service to your clients is by staying top of mind.

What does this mean?

This means constantly evaluating the next opportunity for communication with your clients and scheduling it on your activity log. Some of these opportunities include:

• Annual reviews
• Quarterly meetings
• Life events (new job, relocating, marriage, divorce, growing family)
• A birthday call or email
• + any other areas you see fit for your client

There is always a chance that a client is pleased with just their annual review, but you always give them additional chances to express any concerns they may have.

The devil is in the details and details as a financial advisor make all the difference in retaining your clients.

#3 Maintain The Client-Advisor Relationship

Securing a new client is only half the battle. Maintaining your client relationships needs to be an ongoing step in your process. The CRM provides support in storing and organizing your client data, but it’s up to you to follow through.

So, what can you do before and after every client meeting to maintain the relationship?

After each client meeting, spend a few minutes documenting your discussion. Was there something your client emphasized, personal information they shared, or anything else you deem relevant to the relationship? Jot it down so these before and after habits come full circle.

• Mention of an upcoming trip
• Up-sizing or down-sizing a home
• Long-term goals
• Short-term goals
• Concerns about the market

Before each client meeting, schedule 15 minutes on your calendar to review what was discussed at the previous meeting. You never want to walk into a meeting unprepared and this is one way to ensure you have your client top of mind, delivering the personal experience they expect with you as their financial advisor.

Onboarding Your New Clients As A Financial Advisor

As a financial advisor at Consolidated Planning, you are not expected to know or do it all. We often say, who not how. Rather than how do I onboard my new clients, ask who can help me onboard my new clients.

Both The Advisor Performance Group (APG) and The New Business Hub (NBH), are dedicated to helping you onboard your new clients, from the paperwork to plan implementation. They are an extension of you, intending to deliver the best-laid plans for success.

Advisor Performance Group

With the data and information gathered during your client meeting, you will start entering this information in an internal online form for The Advisor Performance Group.

Your information must be accurate and as robust as possible to help APG do their job well. The APG team will take the information you provided, input the data into The Living Balance Sheet®, and begin planning. Based on what your client is trying to achieve, APG will analyze the data, crunch the numbers, and provide illustrations for your future meetings.

Next, you will have a consultation with a team member from the Advisor Performance Group. This consultation is a sit-down meeting to review and coach you through plan and coverage options, best suggestions, potential issues, and opportunities for the client.

How will you benefit from this?

Especially as a new financial advisor, this takes the guesswork out of your next client meeting. You’ll have not only the competence but the confidence while sitting at the table with your client – knowing that you had expert input into the best options based on where they are currently at and where they would like to go moving forward.

The New Business Hub

The data and information you collect in your client meetings will also be shared with the New Business Hub team. The New Business Hub processes new business paperwork for you and your clients, including life and disability applications and investment solutions.

Say goodbye to the days of paperwork pile up! 

This team is highly transactional, so you don’t have to be. Rather than spending time processing paperwork, you can continue to focus on building new relationships and maintaining current ones.

How Will You Retain Clients As A Financial Advisor?

If you are wondering what’s beyond starting your career as a financial advisor, this is it – the ability to retain your clients. The longevity of the client-advisor relationship starts from day one.

In addition to the CRM, the Advisor Performance Group, and the New Business Hub, you will also benefit from internal check-ins with more senior leaders. Following suggested habits and utilizing free resources provided by Consolidated Planning helps position you and your clients for long-term success. While you work for yourself as a financial advisor, you will not work by yourself.

Remember, ultimately people choose to work with you because they like you and trust that you will do right by them. This is why financial advisors at Consolidated Planning lead with people and not products.

If you’re ready to explore how you will find your clients, reach out to our recruiting team to start the conversation.

 

2022-147782  Exp. 12/24