3 More Keys to Being a Successful Financial Advisor
Succeeding as a financial advisor is not something that happens by accident. A financial advisor can hook up with the best independent securities brokerage in the local area and still fail to reach established business goals. Likewise, an advisor can connect with a brand-new broker-dealer start up and enjoy immense success from day one. You see, it is less about the brokerage and more about applying proven strategies that separate the successful from the unsuccessful.
In our previous blog post, we introduced readers to three of the keys to succeeding as a financial advisor. In this post, we offer three more. If you are willing to employ all six of them, you should be just fine moving forward. Please do not hesitate to talk to members of the Western International Securities team if you have questions.
Strive to Maintain Objectivity
One of the worst things a financial advisor can do is to allow his or her judgment to be clouded by subjective investments that earn the highest commissions. Doing so gives clients the impression that advisors only want to sell what earns them the most money. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
There is a certain level of fiduciary responsibility that comes with being a financial advisor irrespective of the broker-dealer one is connected to. That fiduciary responsibility includes maintaining an attitude of objectivity. Learning to present objective viewpoints gains the trust of clients while at the same time opening the advisor’s eyes to new investment opportunities.
Strive to Know Your Clients
Defining one’s target market is one of the fundamentals of starting a career as a financial advisor. But let us take that one step further. It’s not enough just to define your target market; you also have to strive to know your clients as best you can. The more you know about them and their needs, the better you can advise them on their investments.
Getting to know your clients involves learning what their needs are. It means understanding their risk aversion, their goals for the future, and the kinds of problems they typically face on their journey of investing and financial growth. Above all, striving to know your clients means embracing the reality that each one of them is a unique individual. The minute a financial advisor starts treating all clients the same is the minute trouble begins.
Embrace the Concept of Continual Learning
Last among our key strategies of successful financial advisors is the idea of embracing the concept of continual learning. If there is one career choice that can never remain static in knowledge acquisition, it is a career in financial services. Everything in our industry is prone to constant change and evolution affected by everything from economic conditions to politics to the clients we serve.
The financial advisor who is always willing to learn is one who is also looking for innovative ways to succeed. Successful financial advisors are voracious readers and researchers. They take the time to research and investigate industry news and trends. They make it a point to learn how technology can make them better at what they do.
Western International Securities is an independent broker-dealer offering a full range of services to our financial advisors. We can help you succeed whether you are brand-new to the industry or you have been around for a while. Please contact us for more information about our services. As to our keys to being a successful financial advisor, we encourage you to employ them in your own career. You can succeed if you’re willing to do the right kinds of things.
