Get Coached Now! by Ed Morrow, CLU, ChFC, CFP, RFC

Great athletes thrive on coaching - because the job of the coach is not to perform, but to help the athletes identify and make those small adjustments that are the difference between victory and defeat. For financial advisors, coaching often represents the difference between modest performance and success - or perhaps between success and maximum over-achievement.

The founder of the U.S. financial planning institutions, Loren Dunton, observed in his book Ten Percent Secret, "If you could only become 10% more effective in several categories the result will be a 100% improvement in total results!"

The role of the coach is to observe where those 10% improvements can be obtained and gently prompt the athlete/advisor towards making the improvement. Sometimes these adjustments are major, but often they are minor. However, minor adjustments often yield major results!

After the great golfer Ben Hogan was nearly killed in a car accident he strove to return to gold level championship play. But his shots were no longer straight, and he was constantly in the rough. He knew the correction should be made in his stance - to move his right foot back. But when he did so, his drives over-compensated and ended up on the other side of the fairway. And so he sought out an experienced golf pro who watched the problem and his unsuccessful adjustment attempts. Same results: Correct stance, off to the right. Adjusted stance, off to the left. The golf pro approached the famed golf tournament winner and said, "Mr. Hogan take your regular stance addressing the ball. Do not move your feet from the correct position. Now, think you have moved your right foot back. Wiggle your right foot. Feel it in its new position! Feel how this new position will drive the ball straight. Now hit the ball"

Hogan swung and the ball went straight as an arrow down the fairway. Again and again he took the stance, but only thought about the revised location of his right foot. Hogan went on to win many tournaments, making just a mental adjustment, which was all he required.

Does this mean that financial advisors need only to make small mental adjustments? No! Often they need to move their feet, shift their hands, dip their shoulder or use a different club. But how to decide which, adjustments or new clubs are required? Do you need a new marketing approach, a seminar package, a brochure, referral procedure, telephone approach or referral technique?

Could you benefit from a coach? Could those ten percent adjustments double your income? The answer is probably, "Yes." But who should be your coach? There are many options, and a multitude of coaches. In fact, there may be multiple options for you: coaching groups, personal contact, small affinity classes, or individual coaching by phone.

Where are the major weaknesses in your practice? This is a difficult question to confront, because your ego wants to say, "There are none!" And yet you know that a 100% or more enhancement is quite achievable. Perhaps we can narrow your coaching search....

Perhaps you are primarily an insurance producer. You have been distressed at every conference to see others with higher production. You desperately need to become the one recognized as the company leader, the one to reach new production heights. Despite increasing your sales, steady reductions in commission rates has leveled your income. You’re still making a good living, but you see victory getting further away.

Perhaps you have been migrating from insurance to financial planning, but no one seems to believe you have made the changeover. You are uncomfortable asking prospects and clients to pay a fee - and yet you know you deserve it. You aren’t establishing the level of trust in your prospects that is essential in securing the initial engagement. As example, you recently met with an affluent couple, described your services, which really fit their needs, but they deferred a decision, and did not start with you....

However, suppose you and your office are flooded with paper: files, folders, magazines, reports, account statements. You are awash in papers, while you had foreseen your career as one involved in solving people problems. Your schedule always seems out of control and every Friday you feel qualms at leaving so much "stuff" undone. You can’t even make a "top 10 list" because it takes three sheets of paper.

Perhaps, technology has you in its grasp. Your network often fails. Files and documents are always in the wrong place - and you can’t find them. Your friends always seem be able to do things with their computer that you cannot, even if you fully understand the technique! What’s more, you deeply suspect you are falling even further behind. You need to have more justifiable pride in the quality of the reports and analysis you deliver to your clients.

Suppose that your service to existing clients is always highly regarded. Clients love you, and they love your services. But you are not adding a reasonable number of the right type of new clients. Your gross income is not accelerating faster than your overhead - and the squeeze is affecting your personal spendable income and savings. You are like a powerful airplane that has somehow reached the "stall altitude.

Or perhaps your problem is not a matter of success or acquiring new clients, but that of being publicly recognized in your community. You might need a media advocate to help you achieve the recognition you deserve. You’re a top-notch financial advisor - not a media darling! You don’t know about press releases, media kits, guest appearances and how to be frequently quoted in local media. And, yet, you know that harnessing the power of the media could propel you to new heights.

Self-awareness of the problem is the first step. An old comic strip character, Pogo, stated it very clearly, "We have met the enemy, and he is us!" It is not outside affluences or circumstances that are the problem, it is you that are not addressing the ball effectively.

Often a coach simply helps you see yourself more clearly. Or the coach notes the weak spot in your practice and helps you identify and activate the solution. Very frequently those who coach financial advisors can not only identify the problem, they can tell you where the correction tools can be obtained. An experienced financial advisor coach can share with you the moves that have propelled others to greatness.

Are you a candidate for coaching? The best way to determine this is for you to complete a rather basic coaching self-evaluation.

What type of coach fits your situation best? Who is available with the right experience and talent to help you? You can receive a review, and also order a copy of "Personal Coaching for Financial Advisors" by visiting www.financialsoftware.com. If you are interested in Ed Morrow’s Personal Coaching, you may call for an initial no obligation 30 minute evaluation at 513 424 1656 ext 14. This 10% awareness might lead to a 100% enhancement!

Ed Morrow is the author of: How to Computerize your Financial Planning Practice, published by the College for Financial Planning, the Complete Millennium Preparation Guide and Personal Coaching for Financial Advisors. He is developer of the Text Library System, a Client Relationship Management program used by 3,000 planning firms. Ed is a frequent speaker on practice management and technology to such organizations as: FPA, NAIFA, MDRT, IARFC, AICPA and SFSP. The FPA recently distributed 35,000 copies of an audio CD with his presentation on Coaching for Financial Advisors. He is the Executive Editor of Financial Services Advisor and publisher of the IARFC Register and is a frequent consultant and speaker for broker/dealers and insurance companies. Ed has held leadership positions with nearly all the financial planning associations and is currently president of the International Association of Registered Financial Advisors.

For further information you may contact him at: Financial Planning Consultants, Financial Planning Building, P.O. Box 42430, Middletown, OH 45042-0430, phone 513 424-1656 or email to: edm@FinancialSoftware.com.