7 Tips for New Financial Advisors
Whether you’re still working for your financial planner certifications or already have them — be it CFP (Certified Financial Planner), CPA (Certified Public Accountant), or others — the beginning of your journey as a financial advisor can be both exciting and terrifying.
As a financial advisor, your main job description is to help your client achieve their long-term and short-term financial goals, as well as help them make informed financial decisions.
The way you help them can take various forms, ranging from wealth management, estate planning, investment management, or standalone personal finance tasks — like creating a cash flow, budgeting, or giving them advice on their financial situation.
However, in the field, you’ll find out that the skills you learned from your certifications won’t necessarily help you climb the ladder. Like other careers out there, there are challenges you must overcome to earn the success you crave.
In this article, we’ll share some tips that we wish we had heard at the beginning of our career to fill in that gap.
Top Tips for New Financial Advisors
Listen Carefully
When you’re new, chances are you’re eager to prove yourself.
You might be tempted to talk about your achievements during the discovery meeting.
You want to show prospective clients that you’re capable, you have the know-how, and that they made the right choice coming to you. New financial advisors might end up trying to convince prospects they’re the right fit in various ways.
However, when prospects come to you, they come in with the assumption that you’re a full-fledged expert who’s earned that qualification. This is especially true if they’re the ones who set up the meeting.
Rather than talking about yourself and repeating what they already knew, you’re better off giving them more room to talk.
Your top priority is to make sure that you understand their financial situation and are able to help them alleviate their concerns. Guide the conversation by asking good questions and listening intently when they talk about their financial situation and the difficulties they’re experiencing.
Prepare a few key questions, know everything you need to gather from the conversation and let your curiosity dig deeper to find more of the “why” that allows you to find the real reason they’re coming to you.
Network, Network, Network
Like it or not, connections open doors. Successful financial advisors know that opportunities don’t just land on your lap. You need to look for them, and networking with the right people helps boost your chance of finding some.
Start growing your network now — even if you’re new to the field and don’t know a lot of people.
You can start growing your network by going to networking events and conferences, or even just frequenting social media such as LinkedIn to interact with professionals in your space or potential clients.
You don’t need to just know people within your industry or niche. You can always build a connection with people in an adjacent space — professionals who might serve the same people. Having a network in a complementary field helps you refer work to each other.
Invest in Continuous Learning
In this field, new laws and regulations are introduced all the time — old practices that used to be the gold standard decades ago get replaced as new ones emerge. And even things that used to be frowned upon may end up being more relevant after people tried them out.
It’s worth the time, money, and effort to stay on top of what’s happening in the financial industry and keep tabs on various financial markets and inventions, even if it’s not your target market.
For example, if you’re not in investment management, it won’t hurt to pay attention to commonly used investment strategies and the stock market. Who knows, maybe one day you want to branch out and in this case, take up the role of an investment advisor.
So keep an open mind, develop a sense of curiosity, and always strive to learn new things.
Connect with Clients
Connecting with your clients on a personal level sets you apart as a financial advisor.
With an increasingly digital society, it’s easy to forget that humans still thrive off of personal relationships.
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, clients often reached out to advisors because they were feeling stressed by the situation. This is a value that digital financial services — like the emerging robo-advisors — can’t always provide.
Make an effort to build an authentic relationship with your clients. Be personable and show that you sincerely care for them. Send birthday cards, holiday cards, or even handwritten thank-you notes to help maintain a good relationship.
While being skillful helps you stand out when people are evaluating your performance, these types of personal connections make people remember you.
It helps ensure that you’re top of mind when your clients run into a roadblock or are looking to send a referral for a friend looking for a reliable advisor.
Set Realistic Goals
Goals help you navigate your career. Without them, it’s difficult to know where you’re going and or where you currently are in your career.
They can serve as motivation during tough times, as well as a way to understand your business strategies — how to best market your services, what you should do in day-to-day dealings, and more.
To make sure that your goal doesn’t turn into another “I’ll do it later” resolution, you need to be sure it’s realistic and attainable.
You can use a goal-setting framework like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) to help you break your goals down into realistic action steps.
The more realistic and specific your goal is, the easier it will be to actually turn those goals into actions.
Break down your big goals and dreams into smaller, measurable action points—things that are tangible instead of abstract targets. For example, “make 10 outreach calls every day” is much easier to achieve and tangible than “grow my portfolio.”
Establish Your Niche
Being a successful generalist is possible — but you’ll also get there faster with a niche.
Having an established niche will help your marketing strategy immensely, which will help cement you as an authority in your chosen financial niche and bring in more new clients. In other words, be the “go-to” person that people will seek first when they need financial advice and financial planning.
If you have no clue where to start, you can begin by describing your ideal client—their demographics (such as age, gender, where they live, and what they do for a living) as well as psychographics.
Figuring out your “type” of client helps decide your marketing approach and strategy. The more familiar you are with the demographic, the easier for you to understand your client’s needs and motivations, and the easier it is to create strategies that resonate with your potential and new clients.
Let’s say you want to be the expert in retirement planning for SMB owners in Los Angeles. You can tailor your strategy, marketing, and the trends you need to keep up with according to this niche. Focus on engaging with LA-based clients, attend conferences where you can meet small business owners, and make sure that you keep up with the financial news that affects them as you broaden your knowledge.
That said, finding your niche is a bit of trial and error when you’re new. Sometimes you need to try out different projects to find one that matches well with your skill set.
Remember that you’re not locked into one niche — if you find that you’re better at or more interested in other niches, you can pivot whenever you want. The experience from your previous niche will not be wasted — even if you want to change it later on.
Utilize Your Website
For businesses these days, having a relevant website is the bare minimum to keep up an online presence. Oechsli finds that most investors under 45 years old prefer to search online first when they are looking to hire a financial advisor.
Instead of immediately asking trusted friends and relatives, this demographic prefers to do their own research first. One way or another, they’ll likely see your website before they set up a meeting—and that means your website will be their first impression of you.
That’s why it’s important for your website to be enticing: professional, regularly updated, and has relevant info—things that your potential clients would like to know, such as how to contact you, where you’re based, your specialization, and more. If they’re intrigued by your website, chances are they’ll be more inclined to contact you and book an appointment.
Grow as a Financial Advisor with Asset-Map
Stepping into a new role is scary — especially in a field as competitive as the financial industry.
Starting out with these tips earlier in your career can pay off in the long run. The tips we mention in this article can help you build a better habit for your career, and the authority-building pieces help to position yourself as an expert among your peers.
It might be overwhelming at first when you have to learn, build, manage clients, and run your advisory services at the same time. Take some pressure off of your shoulders and get support from the right tools to help you grow your career as a financial professional.
Asset-Map is a tool that grows with your needs as a financial advisor.
When you’re new, Asset-Map can help you present your fresh ideas to clients with simple and easy-to-use visual maps.
When you need to scale, you can use eye-catching and intuitive maps to establish your brand and stand out amongst the competition.
When you have hundreds of books at hand, Asset-Map helps you streamline your processes to make sure your clients are getting the easiest experience possible with you.
Schedule your demo today and learn more about how Asset-Map helps you during the beginning stages of your career.