Unlimited Prospects

Most financial advisors regardless of their tenure in the business, believe that they don't have enough prospects. They devise all manner of schemes to identify new ones including mailings, seminars, and the old favorite, cold calling. While these techniques do work in varying degrees and some people become quite proficient in their chosen method, they are missing out on an obvious, yet much over looked opportunity. I should also mention that the aforementioned methods are inconsistent in producing prospects that fit the desired client profile of the advisor.

Unless you have just landed on the planet, most people have a fairly large network of friends and acquaintances. My experience is that when asked, most advisors can identify between one hundred and fifty and three hundred names. I'm not suggested that you embark on a campaign of selling all your friends. If you do, they won't be friends for much longer. What I am suggesting is that these people represent an enormous opportunity for the professional advisor.

Being a successful financial advisor is no longer about processing the most transactions. The future, and for that matter, the present, is all about relationships and the prudent management of assets to achieve a client's financial objectives. Serious investors are only going to give you their serious money when they trust you. Their trust is based on and earned through a relationship and it takes time to develop a relationship and earn someone's trust. So the methods of mailings, seminars, cold calls and the like, do get you in front of people, but that just gets you to the starting line. Now you have to start the process of developing a relationship and earning trust.

Now lets come back to your network of acquaintances and friends. These people make up your universe and they already know you and trust you. While some may become a client at some point, the enormous opportunity they represent is that they have a history with you, they know what you are like and they can, with the correct guidance, identify people who would be suited to work with you and who would appreciate you for who you are. Your universe already has a relationship with you, now you must take that relationship to a new level of understanding.

I am a very visual person and I invite you to map out your universe. The visual impact of the exercise you are about to complete is nothing short of awesome! I have done this universe map myself and most of my clients have done it too, and they are always amazed at the possibilities that are uncovered and identified. I encourage you to take the time to do this. When you first sit down to do this you should be able to identify one hundred people. You may put the map away for a few days, however you will continue to think of people that you know but had not thought of the first time. Stick with it, keep digging and building your universe map with names.

The instructions follow.

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