W. Lloyd Williams

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Filtering by Tag: practice management

Five questions to ask before you buy a book (of business)

I was recently interviewed by Fiona Collie for an article she wrote titled "Five Questions to Ask Before You Buy" for Investment Executive website. The article discussed several important questions to ask first.

One of the biggest hinderances to successful purchases is the incompatibilty of the new advisor with the new clients, because of the personality differences between the two advisors. I encourage my clients to always have the other advisor do a DISC analysis to confirm compatible personalities. Otherwise, the buyer may discover months later that the assets they thought they were purchasing have disappeared. For more information on the DISC analysis see the link here.

Managing Client's Fear

Ever wished you could understand your clients' fears regarding the markets and their investments? The book The Science of Fear helps you understand the root of fear and will prepare you to better manage your own concerns and your clients' fears as the markets volatility makes remaining calm difficult. This is a must read for advisors wanting to protect their practice and clients from the irrational fears that cause bad decisions. Highly recommended.

Checklist Manifesto

Studies now show that checklists actually improve the quality of deliverable service. What was once the tool of pilots and astronauts is now used by surgeons, hospitals, and money managers to improve there execution and delivery of value. The book Checklist Manifesto details the value of using checklists. This is a great summer read. Highly recommended.

Procedural checklists are an important part of every successful practice and I recommend them for all my coaching clients. The following are several links to important checklists you may find of value:

Pipeline Process - checklist for developing a relationship with a prospect in the financial service industry

Operations Manual - checklist procedures for running a financial service practice

RoadMap for Change - weekly task list to accomplish your most important dreams

Improve your practice by reading Checklist Manifesto and create a bullet-proof practice.

Weekly Team Meeting

The team will only buy into a vision they create. If the boss does all the planning, they will have to do all the work. Ask the team to identify the three biggest changes that need to happen to make the team more successful. Say nothing and do not critique their choice.

Then ask them to identify the next action necessary to make each of the three changes a reality and have someone other than the boss be resonsible for completing the action in the next seven days.

You may suggest they block off time on their calendar to accomplish the task. Assign one task for each of the three changes. Then sch the meeting for the next week.

Tell each person assigned a task to come to the meeting prepared to answer two questions. 1. was the task accomplished? yes or no 2. what is the next task that needs to be done to move the project closer to completion.

This should take 5-15 minutes of your weekly meeting. The rest of the meeting can be used for each department or team member to explain what is on their plate for the week.

The purpose of the meeting is to focus the team on the most important tasks and make sure everyone knows what the team workload looks like.