It's Time to Declare a Major

You’re a Financial Advisor, or a Financial Consultant, or a Registered Representative, or Senior Vice President of Investments, all of which presumably mean that you get paid to give advice to clients about their finances. I talk to hundreds of Advisors a week. Some are now thriving and bringing in tons of new assets. Some are simply glad to still be in business. Most, however, are just getting by with the clients that they have and have no idea of how to grow. I was told by a Branch Manager at one of the major firms that 52% of the Advisors at his firm had not opened up a single new account through the first three quarters of 2009. At all of the major firms, the focus is on bringing in new money, opening up substantive households. The Advisor is told to open up new accounts, and incented to do so, but how much real training is given to actually help and train the Advisor to do so? (That’s not a rhetorical question; I really want to know). I see the problem as being two-fold: First, it is the rare Advisor who can truly articulate what he or she is really good at. Are you the fixed income specialist, the super stock picker/portfolio manager, the best financial planner? Are you part of a team that does all of the above? It’s time to declare a major and then market yourself as that person. I’m a Headhunter for salespeople and managers in the financial services industry. Yet, every day I get resumes and inquiries from all sorts of folks who say they have done their homework about me and my firm and want my help. Sorry, I do not place operations specialists in plumbing and electrical supply chain logistics. I cannot be all things to all job seekers and all hiring authorities. Likewise, the best Financial Advisors are niched; they appeal to a certain type of client, by product or size or occupation or geography, or some combination of these factors, and then they look to dominate that space. They prune out the clients and prospects that do not fit the basic plan. The second problem is the branding of the firms themselves. It’s hard to advertise as a corporation that you are good at managing money when you almost went out of business for mismanaging your own money. The best Advisors are marketing themselves as the experts; the Firms behind them are just providing the resources so they can do that well. And you can get those resources at many different places.