Wow, another year has flown by! I hope you had a successful year, gained more clients, made the time to get to know your existing clients even better and had more fun. This is the time of the year to make sure you reach out by phone or in person to your clients and wish them a happy and healthy holiday season. As much as we like to send cards, I believe a personal hello is much more valuable and appreciated. It’s also an ideal time to send a gift to your top 20% of your clients. It doesn’t have to be large or expensive to have the greatest impact. It truly is the thought that counts. One of my favorite gifts to send is a subscription from www.magazines.com for a fraction of the price you’d pay at the newsstand. You should know what your clients enjoy doing for pleasure. Travel? Gardening? Cooking? Yoga? Photography? A subscription for the year may cost $25.00 but every time that magazine shows up, they are thinking of YOU and not the other one or two financial advisors they have a relationship with.
One of the most treasured ideas I’ve ever seen from my best clients is a photo of the advisor and client from a client event. It refreshes the memory of how much fun they had at the event. I DO hope you are hosting client events for your top clients. Your top 20% generate 80% of your revenue and the client events show how much you appreciate them and the referrals they send to you each year. This is an ideal time to thank the clients that have giving you personal introductions to a friend or associate that was in need of a great advisor and trusted YOU to help them reach their financial goals. The 10 Tips for Successful Client Events is in my book (The Best Practices of Successful Financial Advisors) and on my website. If you need a copy of the 10 Tips, feel welcome to call or email me.
Finally, take a close look back at 2015. What worked and what didn’t? What brought you closer to your goals and what was a time-suck? This is the time to make changes for 2016. Did you succeed with your Referral program? Did you gain as many new clients as you planned for? If not, now is the time to improve your script for asking for personal introductions and referrals. Call me or one of your favorite value-added wholesalers to give you successful ideas to gain more quality clients in 2016. On a personal note, did you take better care of yourself and your health? Many older folks will tell you that it doesn’t matter how much money you have if your health goes. You’ll never “find” the time to exercise or eat healthier. You’ll need to MAKE the time each day to implement this into your life. That advice goes for family-time also. Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to have a life. I’ve yet to see a gravestone that reads, “He worked more hours than his competition.” Don’t take life so seriously, none of us get out alive anyway. Play more and share more time with your family and friends. Life is short, so I encourage you to make the most of. We are going to be dead a lot longer than we will be alive.
By the way, if you are looking for more Holiday gift ideas, be sure you look at Laura Virili’s link on LinkedIn or with the link I’ve attached here. This is by far the Best list I’ve ever seen for gift ideas and of course all within the financial limits of compliance.