Practice your play-calling for the next market correction

Every adviser needs to be prepared for the next correction. Now, I'm not one of those people who's going to be able to tell you when the next correction will happen. If I was, I would probably be making a lot more money than I'm making right now. Most of the advisers I coach say they have no idea when the next market downturn will be, but that they know it is going to happen at some point. There will be a correction, and you will have to take action. Are you prepared? What are you going to say? As a professional adviser, you need to practice. You need to practice for the big game; the big game is the next market downturn. Do you have scripts written out ahead of time for different levels of market decline? Having scripts allows you to practice, which will remove some of the emotion when you need to make these calls. It will also give you clear and succinct talking points so you can update and tell your clients the plan. Have you ever seen a professional quarterback during a potentially game-winning play? Why do they seem so cool? Practice. They have rehearsed those scenarios hundreds of times. Why don't you? I cannot stress enough how important it is to role-play this over and over again so it comes across as second nature. You will be more prepared; you will be more confident; you will retain more clients; and you will get more referrals because of it. Here's a great example. You've role-played for a moderate market correction. You know exactly what you're going to say. You know exactly who you need to call and how this is going to affect those clients. Within 48 hours of a major correction, you have called clients, told them your plan of action and how it helps them. Later in the week, your client is out to dinner with their friends. The market is going to come up in conversation, especially if they're retired. Their friends say, “Gosh, what are you going to do about this market decline? Aren't you scared?” Your client says, “My adviser's doing this, that and the other thing. He called me this morning. Has your adviser called you?” It is a perfect referral scenario and truly shows proactive customer service. Proactive customer service is only for those advisers who are prepared and have contingency plans in place so they can respond as needed for the next market downturn. Write your scripts for varying levels of correction. Make sure you have a list of everybody you need to call immediately when the stuff hits the fan, and be prepared — because that's the way successful advisers prosper. Matt Halloran is president and founder of Top Advisor Coaching.