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When
Advisors Lose their Mojo
by Norm Trainor
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The following is
based on one of The Covenant Group's clients, Art Gold. All of the names and telling
details have been changed to preserve client privacy.
Over a year ago, Ron Ebdon came to me with a challenge - he'd lost his enjoyment
of the business and he wanted me to help him find it again.
Ron was fifty and had been an advisor for almost twenty years. He had been generating
over $500,000 in revenue for a number of years, but by the time he came to see me
he was expecting to fall short of that target for the current year. He was frightened
by the downward slide and wasn't optimistic that he could reverse the trend.
When I asked Ron what the problem was he told me there were probably a number of
factors involved - tough markets, a couple of big cases he'd worked on for months
that he never landed, a reliable assistant who'd recently left him. But what bothered
him the most was that he no longer woke up in the morning excited about the challenges
ahead.
"I used to enjoy coming into the office," he said. "Even if I knew
there were problems to deal with - a setback on a big case, a client with a service
issue - I got a kick out of rising to the challenge. In fact, I think I thrived under
the pressure. But I haven't felt that way in months."
"What came first, Ron," I asked, "the setbacks in your business or
your change of heart?"
Ron thought about my question for a few moments. "You know," he said, "I
haven't really thought about that question. I know I was devastated to lose those
big cases. I'd worked so hard on them for so long, and if I'd gotten them, they would
have more than made my year. I probably would have been closer to $750,000 in revenue
for the year. And losing Barb, my assistant, really got to me. My clients loved her,
and I knew she was going to be hard to replace."
"In hindsight, do you think you could have closed those big cases if you'd done
something differently?"
Ron pondered my question again then said, "Yeah, I think so."
"Specifically?"
"I think I probably put more pressure on my prospects than I normally do. My
usual approach is to be very objective - to make it clear that it's their choice
whether or not to implement my suggested solution. I'm there to put together some
options, provide expertise - but it's their choice. But I'm having more trouble doing
that. I find myself getting impatient and frustrated, and I would guess my prospects
and clients are sensing that."
"And how about Barb? Do you know why she left?"
"I think she wanted a change. She'd been with me for years."
"Would you say the change in your behavior was a factor in Barb's decision?"
"Possibly."
"Ron," I said, "you said something earlier that I think is significant
- you used to be excited by the challenges in your business. But obviously, your
recent challenges - the lost cases, Barb leaving - are things that have drained you,
rather than energized you. So, it's not the circumstances that matter, but your response
to those circumstances that makes the difference. For some reason, your ability to
respond in a positive way to outside factors has changed. Furthermore, your negative
behavior is only making it worse by creating more challenges. A couple of years ago,
you might have won the cases you recently lost. And perhaps, if your attitude to
your business was more positive, Barb might not have left. But now challenging circumstances
are compounding. It's a vicious cycle. And one we have to break."
Ron nodded. "I'd like to snap out of it, I just don't know how."
I asked Ron if he knew why his behavior had changed.
"I don't really know. It's kind of insidious. On one of those large cases I
was sitting with the prospect and his accountant who was asking me some questions
about my proposal. I remember getting frustrated by their questions, even though
they were questions I was used to dealing with. Small things like this started to
get to me. I was losing my patience and temper much more easily."
"Was there anything around that time that you can point to as a trigger for
your impatience and frustration?"
Ron shook his head, then added parenthetically, "Only my fiftieth birthday."
Ron didn't put much significance in the mention of his birthday, but I actually thought
we were on to something.
I asked Ron why he'd chosen to become an advisor.
"My uncle was in the business, and I'd always looked up to him. He'd done very
well financially. He sold his business and retired in his early fifties. He was my
inspiration for becoming an advisor."
"Is retiring something you'd like to be able to do in the next few years?"
Ron laughed. "I wish. I've got my family and my business to support. After I
take care of all my obligations, I'm not left with much to sock away. Unless I can
find a way to take my business to another level, I'm looking at another fifteen long
years at least."
"Ron, a couple of years ago, I worked with an advisor who'd had a serious breakdown.
He'd just turned forty, and the year before he'd generated $850,000. To a lot of
people he was a success. But he was miserable. He was seeing both a therapist and
me and was trying to get to the bottom of his mental state. One of the things that
came out in his therapy sessions and in the work we did together was the fact that
as a young man he'd promised himself he was going to make a million dollars a year
by the time he was forty. He was close, but not close enough - and the difference
was devastating to him. I've worked with so many advisors who've experienced something
similar c to one degree or another. It's a common problem for advisors, because many
of them are in their middle age. And that's when we tend to, often subconsciously,
reckon with the expectations we had for our lives. The reality is, that for most
of us, the ideals or illusions we forged in our youth don't usually play out as we
approach midlife. And when we get there, we have to recalibrate - we have to learn
to accept where we are and set new goals, goals that are ambitious but achievable,
goals that are based in reality, not on wishful thinking.
"Ron, I believe your fiftieth birthday triggered a reckoning in which you measured
yourself against your uncle, whose life you wanted to emulate. Unfortunately, you
didn't score yourself well. You started to feel the pressure to measure up. And ironically,
that pressure forced you to jeopardize cases that might have helped you approach
a level of success you'd have been happy with."
Ron agreed with my analysis and seemed relieved to have an answer for the way he
was feeling. We worked together over the next few months creating a plan for Ron's
future that he could get excited about. He began looking forward, rather than backward,
and his attitude changed. He recently reached his fiscal year-end and was thrilled
to report that his revenue was close to $700,000 - he was on target for selling the
business and retiring by the time he was sixty, a goal that inspired and excited
him.
Lessons learned
Ron learned that he'd lost the enjoyment he used to get from his business because
he hadn't measured up to the subconscious goals he'd set for himself twenty years
earlier. Disappointment is a common problem for advisors and can wreak havoc on a
thriving business. Advisors who feel like they've failed themselves tend to jeopardize
their success by expressing their impatience and frustration around prospects, clients
and the people they work with. In Ron's case, his fiftieth birthday was the trigger
that caused him to start comparing himself to the uncle who'd inspired him to go
into the business. The trigger isn't always an obvious milestone, such as a birthday;
it could be anything that incites you to reckon your current situation with the dreams
and often wishful thinking of your youth. Ron learned that the solution to his problems
lay in accepting where he was and looking forward, rather than backward. Once he
created new goals for himself, goals that were based on twenty years experience rather
than mere hope, he began to get excited about his future and again looked forward
to meeting the challenges ahead.
Norm Trainor
is the author of The 8 Best Practices of High-Performing Salespeople,
a speaker and principal of The Covenant Group, a company that specializes in helping
advisors build their practices. The Covenant group has worked with many of the world's
largest financial institutions, including such firms as Swiss RE, CGNU in Hungary,
Guardian, BMO and Clarica, helping their management and advisors create and sustain
high performance by adopting a systems approach to practice development. The Covenant
Group's proprietary practice development system, The 8 Best Practices of High-Performing
Advisors Program, has been adopted by organizations around the world and
is a leader in the industry. For further information, visit The Covenant Group's
Web site at www.covenantgroup.com or email info@covenantgroup.com or call The Covenant Group
at 416-304-1766.
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