Far too many financial advisors equate their potential business success with their mastery of financial services and products. A great many tend to define their prospective business success by their understanding of markets and their skills at managing assets. For a smaller percentage, their ability to deliver other financial products, such as life insurance, an their wealth planning expertise is part of the rationale for their future business accomplishments.
The reality, however, is a very different. Technical capabilities do not automatically convert into business success. Being a technical wizard will not inherently make you very successful. It is necessary for you to adroitly position your expertise to the appropriate audiences: Wealthy prospects, clients and other professionals.
A critical question is, “Besides yourself, who knows just how good you are?” When the “right” other people are aware of your expertise, you are likely to excel. In most cases, this means you are a thought leader.
There is no question that becoming a thought leader can enable you to build an exceptional financial advisory practice. However, there are four categories of financial advisors, and only one of them is what you want to be:
Talented Expert: You want to be a talented expert. You have a high level of expertise coupled with a strong professional brand. You are as adept as any of your competitors and the “right people”—the wealthy and centers of influence—know who you are and what you are capable of doing extremely well.
You can do a sensational job for the wealthy, and your talents and abilities are recognized, significantly increasing your ability to cultivate the affluent. You are professionally very capable and you are a thought leader.
Hidden Talent: What happens if you truly have a high level of expertise but lack a meaningful professional brand? You are not well recognized for your knowledge and capabilities. If this is the case, you are a hidden talent.
Most financial advisors, as well as other types of professionals, are hidden talents. They constitute the great majority of capable professionals. As a hidden talent, you can and would do a great job for affluent clients if given the opportunity. The complication is that you are just not getting many of these opportunities.
Being an unknown expert might provide a satisfactory living, but it does relatively little if your goal is to build a very successful financial advisory practice. Becoming a thought leader will transition you from being a hidden talent to a talented expert.
Incompetent: Financial advisors lacking in expertise or a professional brand are defined as incompetents. These financial professionals can usually scrounge out a living or slightly better, but it is unlikely they will accomplish very much. Their ability to source new business is dreadfully limited.
Incompetent Expert: Financial advisors with a very solid and attractive professional brand among the wealthy and centers of influence, but with limited expertise, are defined as incompetent experts.
The fact that they are not very capable is not a deterrent, in the short term, to their ability to generate a lot of new business and the economic success that comes with it. However, over the long term, their lack of real expertise becomes apparent. Consequently, they are very likely to eventually implode or, at best, fade away.
Provided you are technically adept, being a thought leader is nearly always the vital element that enables you to source new, high-quality affluent clients and generate new business from wealthy clients and from centers of influence. And, most any financial advisor can become a thought leader.
Russ Alan Prince, president of R.A. Prince & Associates, is a consultant to family offices, the ultra-wealthy and select professionals.
