One of the monumental challenges advisors face in this business is making enough time for clients, prospects, administrative functions, and everything else that needs to get done. So, without any doubt, an advisor’s most valuable resource is their time.
As an advisor, your time is worth $25 a minute. (Yes, you read that right.) For every minute you work, you could be making $25. But only when you are meeting with clients and qualified prospects. That is the monetary value of your time.
We came to this figure after several time management studies, seeing what successful advisors do with the time they have. And more importantly, we discovered what they don’t do with their time.
If your time is only worth that much when you are meeting with and talking to interested, qualified clients and prospects, what do you think happens to derail that?
I will give you a hint… It has to do with delegation. Your production ceiling is created by the non-sales tasks you are doing yourself. These cost you time which in turn can cost you money.
So, the first thing we tell any advisor who is looking to break through their production ceiling is this:
DELEGATE ALL NON-SALES, NON-ADVICE DUTIES TO YOUR STAFF.
And the second thing we tell them is this:
ENSURE YOUR TEAM PROTECTS YOUR TIME.
By study, interruptions can take as many as 23 minutes to refocus and return to a normal workflow. That means for every interruption you lose $575 just trying to refocus, nevermind the cost of the time the interruption takes for itself. OUCH. To that end, interruptions need to be rare, which makes it your team’s job to protect your time.
So, how can you avoid unnecessary interruptions to ensure you meet the $25-a-minute baseline?
What should you cover in your daily planning session?
Look at your appointments for the next business day. Get any documents or reports sent to your team to collect and make available. Is there anything you can do for that particular meeting to make the experience great for the person you are meeting with? If so, get it prepared. This ensures nothing is left to last minute and sets the tone for a great meeting.
Scan through the list each day; you will find some inspiration on occasion. Maybe you read a report from your favorite economist the night before that would be perfect for that prospect with heavy exposure to senior loan funds. You might even, after scanning through, remember to update a couple on the last steps needed to bring in that opportunity.
Look for things you can do to add to their client experience. Maybe you see a name you haven’t personally spoken to in a while (sign of a good team). You could include them in some of your proactive call time today. You might see a name or two where you get an idea of a “Wow” gift you could send as a “thinking about you” note.
Every advisor should spend at least 20% of their day in proactive work. That could be rainmaking or better client experience work. Either way, take this time to plan activities that help further your business.
How often in the last couple weeks have you left for the day feeling like you were really busy, but can’t think through what it was you actually accomplished? If it has happened at all, it is probably because you don’t have a list you can check off. So, as part of your daily planning, write down several things that need to be done.
There is something powerful about checking things off. It removes that feeling of doing a lot but getting nothing done.
The hardest part of doing your daily planning is making it a habit. If you can push yourself to do it for three weeks straight, you will see and feel the benefit, especially when your $25-a-minute salary starts to show up in your paycheck.
Matt Hicken is the Sr. VP of Consulting at Bill Good Marketing. For over 21 years Matt has worked in the Financial Services industry not only coaching advisors all across the United States and Canada, but has implemented them himself while working in the industry growing a half billion dollar team.
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