19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must read for Financial Advisors, July 31, 2005
This review is from: Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice (Hardcover)
This book is an excellent book for someone who has financial planning practice for a few years like myself. A rookie could read it and get some basics from the book. A veteran could definitely implement the ideas from Ron to really grow his or her practice.
I agree with so much that Ron says in the book. Ron has been one of the most successful financial advisors in the business and his strategies for success are great.
He breaks the book apart into a few different areas. The first part focuses on do you really have passion for this business. He gives you some tips on how to figure this out for yourself. For myself, I really love this business, and I wish I had started doing this many years ago. I love learning how to get better in my field. For example, I absolutely loved studying for CFP and now I enjoy the continuing education that I take to keep my CFP certification. The CE helps me get better which assist my clients even more.
The next part is really for someone who is independent or has more flexibility with staffing within a wirehouse. This part focuses on getting the right people on your team and removing the wrong people from your team quickly.
The next part focuses on managing your growing practice. As one grows, one needs systems to keep client satisfaction in check. I look forward to implement ideas from this section as I continue to grow my practice.
The next section is on time management. The best item from here is at the end of each day to list the top six things you have to do the next day in order of importance. Then, do them. I have tried this before and will try this again. This is difficult because so many fires come up everyday. But, it is important to make sure you get the major items done every day. That is, you must put the big rocks in the jar before you put in the little rocks. If you do it the other way, you will never have space for all your big rocks.
The next section focused on marketing and focusing the clients more on your services. I think this is critical. This business has become almost a commodity business; however, the big differentiator is personal service. This is probably the most important item on which I focus. If I am able to exceed my clients' expectations, they will in return refer me to their friends.
He also has a great section on referrals. He has a great script to let clients know upfront that you will expect referrals from them. I also like that he suggests doing client seminars and encouraging them to bring guests. This is better than just having prospect seminars in which you don't if people are just there for the free dinner.
The last section talks about focusing your activities on doing items you enjoy. I enjoy golfing, so I do golfing events for my clients and prospects. Ron likes wine, so he does wine tastings. Ron does suggest that you be very good at the hobby before you have these events. Unfortunately, I am not that good at golf, but I have fun playing and so do my clients and prospects.
It is great to read a well-written book from a top producer like Ron Carson who really shares his success strategies for this business. If you are looking for some methods of growing your business and you are willing to implement some new ideas, I would highly encourage you to read this book.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good stuff., September 19, 2005
This review is from: Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice (Hardcover)
I purchased this book along with 8 Success Strategies of Top Producing advisors. I found this to be the better of the two. It does, however, depend on what you're looking for. This book has some good exercises for soul searching and discovering your own personal mission & vision. Certainly, there were not many very new concepts but the presentation was quite good. The book helped to validate what I already knew: I desperately need to systematize my office. The book gives some pretty good advice on how to systematize as well as some other good tidbits. Any one good idea from any of these books is worth the price and this one has more than enough. As an added bonus this book actually helped me to understand my relationship with my dad and why he is the way he is. NOT something you'd expect from a book like this. Weird, eh? The one thing I find is that these authors all seem to agree that we should hold elaborate client thank you events that double as referral generating events for us. Perhaps it's because I can't afford to hold them, but I think these kinds of things would come off as really smarmy, possibly greasy, and almost certainly, spendthrifty. I can't help but believe that throwing hugely lavish dinners, taking clients on Alaskan cruises etc, would make my clients wonder "just how much is this guy charging me to be able to afford all this?" And if he just got a statement that his portfolio is down?....
Nevertheless, a good book providing many ideas that I am in the process of implementing.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Building your own Financial Planning practice, November 9, 2007
This review is from: Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice (Hardcover)
There are a lot of different books out there written by owners of different financial service firms but of all the books I've seen this book is by far the best. The advice may seem simple but it is highly effective. We have already referred to this book many times within the practice I work to help design processes that have simplified the way we do things. The advice on how to attract new clients makes so much sense yet is so simple. You don't need to spend a fortune attracting new clients, just do what Ron recommends and you too will see your practice grow. When it comes down to it, it's all about providing excellent service and earning your clients trust. The advice on finding your own true meaning has been very helpful to us when it came time to lay our marketing plan down on paper.
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