Maximizing Your Success In 2021 Begins Now

This year, 2020, will be remembered as one of the most unexpected and unusual years in history. Dramatic shifts in the stock market and high volatility has left many investors understandably very concerned and cautious. With a presidential election and still no complete answer to the COVID-19 concerns, 2021 should prove to be just as interesting.

Financial professionals have always had to adjust to their clients’ needs, but for many, the pandemic brought widespread use of new ways of delivering service, without sacrificing personal care and connection.

Savvy advisers know that to maximize their success next year, they need to begin now—not when 2021 is already in full swing. Now is the time to focus on reviewing three key aspects of your financial planning practice—your client services, client acquisition strategies and business efficiencies.

Review Your Client Services
Exceptional client service is absolutely paramount to any successful business. As a financial adviser your number one priority is to service clients. Top advisers exceed their clients’ expectations. Give your practice a boost by confirming your client service platform is up to par. Find the areas that could use improvement. Some good questions to ask yourself are:

  • How frequently did you meet with your clients?
  • Did this work well for you and them?
  • Do you feel you provided your clients “referable” service?
  • Did you offer additional services like online educational workshops?
  • Did you provide comprehensive planning including tax, estate, retirement and protection planning?
  • Do you really offer more value than other financial professionals? If not, why didn’t you?

Determine what specific services you can strengthen or add and make it a goal to raise your bar for client service satisfaction in 2021.

Make Client Acquisition a Priority
An entire 12-month marketing and communication calendar of meaningful content and messaging is key to having a productive growth year. Top advisers are developing their 2021 calendar now. Just adding content that has not resulted in new business will not work. Meaningful content is not needed daily or even weekly. You are not replacing the news channel. You need a frequency that is proven and works.

Academy of Preferred Financial Advisors members had exceptional success delivering key content that included monthly mailings, reports and educational events. Your calendar should be the cornerstone of your client retention and acquisition process. Prospects should be included in all your mailings and clients should be aware that they can invite friends, colleagues and family members to events (including online workshops and webinars). Your content needs to resonate.

I talked with an adviser who isn’t in our program who posts content every three days and is thrilled that they get over 30 likes per post. I also spoke with an adviser in our program who said that more than 25 of their clients offered names to share our eight-page, year-end tax report with, which has led to four discovery meetings and two new clients with over $600,000, with possibly more to come. Both were excited about their achievements. What outcome are you looking for?

After you determine your focus, take the next step—clean up your prospect list. Are there names that have been on your list for a lengthy amount of time that should be removed? Are there new prospects who should be added? Do you have accurate contact information for everyone on that list? Preparing these things today will help ensure the process next year will be smooth and productive.

Maximize Your Business Efficiencies

Successful practices re-evaluate their business and create an annual operating plan. Conducting an evaluation of what worked well and what could be improved will help you streamline your business. Written standard operating procedures (SOPs) are the best way to help run a practice like a well-oiled machine throughout the year. During their annual evaluation, top practices review and update their written SOPs. This helps keep the team accountable and sets the entire office up for optimal productivity and success. If you need to strengthen your SOPs, then consider joining a program that has a track record of helping advisers reach the goals they’ve set.

In closing, top practices do not procrastinate! Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” Top practices are focused on becoming scalable, consistent and growth-oriented for 2021. The tail end of the year can be hectic with personal and family obligations. However, dedicating some time now will help you maximize success and have an exceptional year.

Make 2021 your best year. The choice is yours.

Ken Unger is a 40-year industry leader and the founder of the Academy of Preferred Financial Advisors. He is a coach for top advisers and for more than 20 years, his Exclusive Coaching Program has helped some the industry’s best practices. To learn more visit www.theAPFA.com, listen to the Five Star Tips Podcast or email us at info@theapfa.com.