How Does Your Future Look? by Bill Bachrach As you go to work each day, does a vision of the future inspire you? Do you imagine yourself in a certain model of car, type of home, or style of life? If you are like most financial professionals, you do have a future in mind for yourself. As a Trusted Advisor, no doubt yours includes a clear picture of the kind of client relationships you'll enjoy and the commitments people will make to you. Simply knowing what you desire takes you halfway there. What does it take to get you even further down the road? In the last chapter of his book, The Acorn Principle: Discover, Explore, and Grow the Seeds of your Greatest Potential (St. Martin's Press, 1998), author Jim Cathcart counsels, "The future you see defines the person you'll be."I've also heard him say that it defines the person you must be. In other words, our vision of tomorrow both instructs us today about how to behave and determines the results we'll get. You may recall the five outcomes I've identified for having high-trust relationships with clients. In light of Jim's advice, as a Trusted Advisor, you might ask, Who do I have to become to have clients who . . . 1. Hire me on the spot to create a written financial strategy? 2. Give me all their money? 3. Implement the strategies I recommend? 4. Fire any other advisors and work only with me? 5. Do all my prospecting and marketing for me by making excellent referrals? One or all of these five objectives may or may not sound attainable to you. However, I can tell you that they are achieved--and often--by people who can answer the key question above. Who do I have to become? If you are finding yourself feeling skeptical even of the question, there's nothing wrong with that. The last time I conducted The Values-Based Selling Academy, I had the pleasure of meeting a very bright guy who was having a hard time believing he could conduct a first interview so effective that someone would hire him and pay the fee for a written plan. Yet there were so many other people in the program who were already living this reality that he decided to set aside his skepticism. He chose to believe it was possible so he could see if it was. So he followed the interview process we teach at the Academy, and--voìla!--he got the result: someone wrote him a check for a financial plan on the spot after an hour-long interview. This sharp gentleman helps me make two points: 1) you don't have to believe the future you see for yourself is inevitable, only possible, and 2) if you seek out the training and experiences you know you need, they will lead you to the future you desire. Mastering the client interview is a cornerstone to achieving these five objectives, but not the only factor. Who must you become to have the future you see? I can provide you with the lion's share of the answer, though you may need to do some soul-searching to tailor the response to yourself. At a minimum, you must become effective in: 1. the client interview; 2. gathering the factual information you'll need to write excellent financial plans; 3. organizing information and presenting plans in a way that is appealing and useful; 4. using your resources, whether provided by your company or an outside resource, for legal, tax, and product/technical proficiency; 5. holding your clients accountable to implement the strategies you recommend to help them achieve their goals and fulfill their values; 6. getting clients to improve the habits that move them forward (e.g., saving more, risking less or more, eliminating debt, allocating assets differently); 7. reporting clients' progress toward goals; and 8. advising people on the whole picture of their assets, not just those held with you. These answers are based on a big-picture view of the financial services industry. It's clear--based on the obvious trends and the subtle distinctions pointed out by a number of industry futurists--that our industry has no place for the incompetent or mediocre. It's reasonable to expect that in the next few years, those who have at least three years' experience but are earning less than about $100,000 a year will be replaced by the computer or self-service in the near future. You may think that income is an inappropriate measure of competence, and I agree that it's not absolute. But it's hard to imagine that someone in our industry, given all the training, information, and resources available, wouldn't be providing enough value to clients for his or her annual personal income to exceed $100,000. If you have a few years' experience yet haven't figured out how to earn six figures, I'm willing to go out on a limb: You are probably incompetent, close-minded, or lazy. The future is coming, ready or not. Financial product salespeople will continue to feel the squeeze of declining commissions and pressure from the Internet. Trusted Advisors, however, who have mastered the skills above, will always be in demand. If you're not prepared, then you're in luck: today, more than ever before, there are tools and systems and courses and seminars to help you succeed at the highest levels of client loyalty and personal income. The salesperson merely asks, What can I do to make the sale? The Trusted Advisor considers, Who must I become to realize the future I envision? Don't be a salesperson; be a Trusted Advisor. Bill Bachrach is the San Diego based author of the best selling, industry-specific book Values-Based Selling; The Art of Building High Trust Client Relationshipsô, and High-Trust Leadership; A Proven System for Developing an Organization of High-Performance Financial Professionalsô. He is a top-rated speaker and is considered by many top producers to be the financial service industry's foremost interview skills coach. His one-year top-producer Trusted Advisor Coach program starts every January and is limited to 30 financial professionals. His 3-day Values-Based Selling ô Academy is open to everyone. Bill has spoken 3 times at the MDRT Annual Meeting, 5 times at the IAFP National Convention and virtually hundreds of recognition and national conferences for just about every major firm and association in our industry. For formation about his speaking services, The Trusted Advisor Coachô program, 3-Day Academy, or to order his results-oriented books and Learning Systems contact Bachrach & Associates, Inc. at 800-347-3707 or visit their website: www.BachrachVBS.com. Request your free audio tape of Bill Bachrach "live" via www.bachrachvbs.com.