Instead, thank people for the behaviour that leads to the result. ‘Thank you for being engaged in the process and placing your trust in me’. ‘Thank you for sharing your hopes and dreams with me.’

Don’t waste the opportunity.

Let’s say that you have an advisor who sells $10 million of your funds every year without fail. And since he is one of your top advisors, you support him in whatever way you can to keep bringing in that $10 million. Great work!

Well, not really.

You see, your job as a wholesaler should not be to focus on what an advisor sold last year and trying to get that again. Your job is to help the advisor sell more than last year (I’m guessing your objectives went up over last year, right?). And that takes an entirely different attitude, a different approach and in fact means taking a lot more risk than just thanking them for their business and hoping that steak dinner keeps them loyal.

It takes being willing to ‘positively challenge’ your advisors. It means being willing to risk some part of the $10 million to get to $20 million. It means understanding your advisors, their business and their clients in a much deeper way. It means going beyond wholesaling funds or products, and becoming a true peer to your advisors.

Are you up for it?

All lies.

This is the ‘china egg’ – it is a pretty and fragile thing, but to find out what is in it, you have to crack it open. You have to destroy the china egg to find out what is inside. You have to actually work on the case and try to close it to really find out what’s inside. And the risk is that you may find out the china egg is empty. And then what do you get to walk around with to show everyone?

Don’t focus on protecting your china eggs. Focus instead on finding more of them and cracking them as fast as you can.

The journeymen advisor devises a brilliant recommendation for a client, covers all the bases, reduces all the risks, and gives the client the best shot possible to reach their lifetime goals.  Delivers it to the client as advice. Client may or may not act on it, regardless of if they ‘know’ it is the right thing to do. ‘To know and not act is to not really know at all’,  and all that stuff.

The great advisor does it differently. She focusses on ensuring the client sees how big the problems are. She lets them ‘feel the pain’ of the problem without a ready solution. She checks again and again to ensure the client is so uncomfortable with their current situation that, given a reasonable solution, they will act. And if the client does not act, she walks away and never talks to that client again.

One of my favourite industry stories is of the advisor who tried to sell life insurance to a married couple with children and did not make the sale. As he left the house, he went to the children and apologised. “Why are you apologising to them?’, asked the parents. “Because if I had done my job, and helped you see how important this insurance is for them, I wouldn’t be leaving this house knowing that I’m leaving them at risk.”

The second capital is Financial Capital. This is the sum of your realised future income your earn off of investments – when your money is working for you. Starts at zero, grows as you save, and your investments/business grow. Hopefully never goes to zero again as long as you live.

The third capital is Social Capital.  This is the sum of all the money you give to others. Divided into non-directed (like taxes) and directed (like charitable giving and eventually your estate). We try to reduce the non-directed as much as possible.

The fourth capital is the most important – Happiness Capital. This is what all the other capitals are there to fund, and to try and maximise. It sounds fuzzy, but this is what clients want to you to help them fund and grow.

Do you look at them and think, “Gee, I think he might need what I am selling. I hope he does.” When they raise and objection, do you think, “Oh well, guess I’ll try someone else.”

Or do you feel, “I’m happy I met this person. He needs me, he just doesn’t know it yet.”. When they raise an objection, do you feel, “Great! Another opportunity to prove how much he needs me!”

Most are of the former type. Very few are of the latter. Who do you think is more successful? Better yet, who do you want to be?

Clients are those folks that truly listen to your advice, and act upon it. While they may have moments of doubt caused by external forces (markets, other people’s experiences and stories, the media), they ultimately trust you and will let you keep them from making mistakes due to fear and greed. Only advisors can truly have clients (this extends beyond financial services into any business – my wife just bought a bike from a guy who really is an advisor in the truest sense – and she’ll buy her next one from him as well).

Customers are people who like you and buy from you, but their decision is based more on familiarity or accessibility. You are a comfortable and convenient choice. If you happen to run the only bike shop in town, and people can’t get to another bike shop, they buy from you when they want a bike. Their relationship with you is more fragile that you have with clients. When things become difficult, or a new option enters the market, customers may migrate away from you. Salespeople and craftsmen have customers.

Consumers have no loyalty other than maximizing benefit at a low price. They identify what they need, and shop for the lowest price (something the internet makes really easy).  As long as you maintain value at a low-cost, you are OK. Once either factor changes, consumers go elsewhere. This is the world of dollar stores. No room for advise here – it costs too much. This is the domain of order-takers and self-serve options.

Clients are rare and worth their weight in gold. Customers are good, but take a lot of work to maintain. Consumers are plentiful, but you will need to be a discounter who is not much more than a prospecting machine to grow your income at all.

Who do you want to do business with, and what are you doing to attract them?

On the other hand, focusing your effort of discovering what they value puts you in their world, and follows the path of least resistance to get them to a better place for them. I’ve seen the interaction between and advisor who values a simple and straight-forward approach with a wholesaler who believes everyone has to look at the complexity and learn certain things before acting. Clash of value and need, and never ends pretty.

Take a look at how you approach people you are trying to help. think about what they might need, find out what they value, and close the gap between them.

Mediocrity by Committee: You come up with a great idea called the light bulb. Before you can put your idea out there, it needs to be reviewed to reduce any risks. Legal looks at your light bulb and says, “Is this glass?”.  ”Yep. Lets the light get out”. “But glass is dangerous if it breaks.”  ”Well, under common use, the chance of it being broken is low.” “But glass is breakable, correct?” “Sure, but..” “OK. We will let you put this out there. Just remove the glass.” “It doesn’t work without the glass!” “Not our issue. Obviously you didn’t design it well.”

Complexity by Piecemeal: Reset. Light bulb again. This time, someone says, “Oh, you know what would make that better? A dab of blue paint.” “What for?” “People like blue” “OK, I guess.”. Next person comes along and says, “Oh, if you are putting that out there, we should get this big glop of clay on there” “Why?” “Well, it needs to get out there too, so while people are looking at it, they’ll see this, too.” Next person adds a sticker. Next adds some wadded-up gum.Sooner or later, so much stuff has been added that the light can no longer be seen.

Who is it that decides to go another year without buying the insurance they need, leaving themselves open to ruin if the bad thing happens?

Who continues spending at an unsustainable level, whether that means living on debt, taking more out of their investments than their accounts can bear?

Now, I did say ‘may be’.  Sometimes, it is their financial advisor who is to blame. Sometimes, their advisor lets his own fear add to his client’s and moves them in and out of the market at the wrong time. Sometimes, it is their advisor who does not even look at insurance as an option and let’s their lack of understanding or belief affect the client’s decision to do the right thing. Sometimes their advisor is not willing to be the ‘bearer of bad news’, and tell the client they need to practice discipline now for the good of their financial future.

If you have clients with financial plans under threat, who is to blame?