Customer Reviews

Building Your Multi-Million Dollar Practice: 8 Success Strategies of Top Producing Advisors

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Write a book marketed towards struggling financial advisors which is just a commercial for your registered/trademarked strategies and coaching services. The authors should have given the book away rather than trying to disguise their services as a way to build a multi million dollar advisory business. Neither author has any experience as financial advisor. There are better books written by actual advisors in the business.

This book is aimed directly at the stockbroker, financial planner, insurance agent or anyone else in the financial services industry who makes their living by selling financial products. Katherine and Peter Vessenes have been coaches and consultants to the financial service industry with more than forty years of experience between them. They have worked with, consulted to, learned from many of the industries superstars who are earning more than $1 million per year.

They have carefully reduced what they have learned into eight 'prosperity factors.' These are given and defined and further illustrated by reporting the improvement that each factor has given in at least one true to life incident.

In this book they have distilled their whole consulting approach, their teaching seminars into writing. They have included more than 30 sample forms/documents that the superstars have used.

This is one of the few books aimed specifically at this industry, it has specific industry tips that you won't find anywhere else.

It states everything you yourself know needs to be done, but have got too caught up running the business, rather than working on the business. Well worth the money and more importantly the time spent reading it.

As a financial adviser in a difficult environment, I turned to this highly rated book for some new ideas. I was very disappointed.

First, the Vessenes, I quickly found out they are targeting the already million dollar producer. Their goal is to get you from 1 million to multimillion. This book is targeted to the already highly successful adviser they refer to as the "superstar". The ideas and concepts for the most part are either very basic and/or totally unrealistic. For example,one of Katherine's first "principals" is : if you want to increase your income see more people. Wow! That's really helpful. How do you do that Katherine? So they tell you:

They cite marketing ideas from their clients they help. The ideas are not theirs. For example, a marketing idea they stole from a client was to have a radio show with and annual estimate cost of $270,000. Other ideas are seminars, niche market and drip marketing ... hardly new or original. Another pathetic marketing idea is to host lavish dinner parties and hire celebs as a draw. Another idea was to hire golf pros and give free lessons to prospects. They spend minimal time on building relationships and trust.

They go on to say that the adviser should delegate EVERYTHING" including client service and spend all day closing. I have spent a considerable amount of time "holding my clients hands" during the meltdown. The underlying theme of hiring people to do everything is unrealistic and impractical. Further, it takes a big budget to do that in addition to the $500k annual marketing budget hiring celebs, golf pros and hosting lavish dinner events. Totally unrealistic for the average adviser.

The other annoying aspect of this book was the constant push toward using their trademarked systems like the "no sell sell" , "kolbe" and hiring them as consultants. Finally, they provide marketing letter that I would be embarassed to send out to clients and prospects.

The ultimate question I have for the authors is: if your ideas are so great why are you not implementing them in your own multimillion dollar practice? KV was an adviser for 4 years in the 1980's. And that is hardly time to build a book. Times have changed Katherine.

Do not waste your time on this book.

Katherine and Peter Vessenes have a unique perspective on how to build a top financial services practice today. With the current emphasis on efficiency in the workplace, the Vessenes take this to another level for financial professionals. The combination of practical and theoretical suggestions make this a must read for any financial professional who wants to supercharge their practice. This reader found the numerous stories of practitioners around the country of particular interest. It would be even more helpful if the authors would divulge who the stories referenced rather than using imaginary names. Despite this, the book was very well written with various sections authored by one or the other of the Vessenes. Their insight into the financial services industry is very refreshing.

Like many books that promise to "take you to the next level" this one is just slightly disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the book is pretty darn good but not jammed with all kinds of breakthrough ideas that nobody's ever presented before (as some reviewers claim). The book focuses on building a team atmosphere and moving away from a business that is based solely on one person; "the star". The book talks about the "No Sell-Sale"TM that is supposed to help you transform prospects into clients seamlessly. It's not bad but it's not great either. It pretty much reminds me of the training I received as an entry level life insurance salesperson. The key to the system is to generate referrals and the book has some good advice on the subject. The book does provide a vast appendix filled with template letters and flowcharts. It seems like I'm being a little harsh so let me finish by saying that I would still recommend this book to any financial advisor. There are plenty of ideas to warrant the very small purchase price. In fact you'd have to be pretty high on yourself not to get some great stuff out of this effort.

I almost feel guilty paying only $19.80 for a book this good. Read the first chapter and you'll make that back and oh so much more. Simply put, Peter and Katherine have written a dynamite book. Their 8 Success Strategies are ones that every financial advisor need to know.

If you enjoy reading their monthly columns in the popular financial magazines each month, then you're in for a real treat. If you want this year to be much better than last year, order your copy today!

I work with financial advisors for a living and I have seen some that are successful and many that are not. This book will help any advisor who is struggling to take off, or any advisor looking to take their business to another level. The book is full of practical advice that you can use immediately. Don't kick yourself tomorrow for not buying this book today!

I have been a producing rep for 20 years. I, like a lot of other advisors Iknow, have build successful practices, but terrible business models.

I read all of the positive and negative reviews about this book before purchasing it. I thought that the small purchase price was worth the price of admission....evein if I only got one good idea out of it.

This book, which is a mini-coaching program, is like a lot of other books/coaching programs available. If you refuse to first be humble with self examination and discovery, it will be a waste of your time and money.

However, if you are wanting to take your business to another level and truly examine how you run your day-to-day....then it is a great book.

I would highly recommend it if you are serious about improving your 'business'.

Not only has Building your Multi-Million-Dollar Practice offered fabulous advice to financial advisors (and if you follow the 8 Strategies, you should be successful), it also distills down for ANY small service business the things they need to do to stay in business. I often tell my clients to read this book and substitute in Small Business for Financial Advisor. Many of the tips offered in the book, like how to hire employees, how to let your customers know they are valued, and how to market your services are valuable to any small business.

Even so, the perspective of this book is truly from knowledgeable authors who have vast experience working in and running a practice. I have read the book myself numerous times, have it all marked up, tabbed and more. I use this book as a Bible for running my management consulting practice, and I highly recommend it as excellent reading for any business trying to get their processes in place.