A process for assessing your clients

As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you’re not measuring. There are many different dimensions you can evaluate as a financial advisor. The most effective and in-depth way to measure my performance and success as a financial advisor is not what you might think. Part of what I measure is also an assessment of my clients.

You may say it’s obvious: You measure how well you’re doing by how many people you meet, cases you close, revenue you bring in and so forth. Yes, that’s one side of business, but there’s more to what we do as financial advisors than just numbers. There are people and creating the type of environment you want to work in every day. Are you meeting the right people for the type of business you want, and how do you determine that?

 Apart from qualifying the usual needs and means, ask yourself the following:

• Do you like your clients?
• Do they like you?
• Do they share common values with you?
• Do they give you repeat business?
• Do they give you referrals?
• Are they your ideal clients?

These questions will help you narrow down the characteristics of your ideal client so that you can work more effectively and achieve higher levels of growth satisfaction.

Shift your thinking from Who can I close today? to Who can I help today? Instead of Who can I get a referral from today?, shift to Who can I care more for today? Move from How much do I need to hit my sales target today? to Whose lives can I impact today?

Asking yourself these questions and shifting your thinking will improve your productivity and satisfaction at work as well as create better client relationships.