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Community Discussions
The experiences, insights and returns of the growing Certainty Advice community.
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Monday 13th February - Probing Skills
Starting Discovery Meetings with new or existing clients needs the skills of positioning, controlling, listening and then probing - this session workshops the approach
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60Min | CS45
Lesson Content
Lesson Content
Probing with Certainty
16 min | CS45
Quality advice relationships are built upon quality questions. Quality questions are deep questions that explore deep and broad aspects of what clients value. Certainty Advice questions are designed to be efficient, focused and lead to valuable relationships in the shortest period of time. Knowing what to probe, what not to, what to probe when, and what questions not to ask are all covered in this session on Valuable Probing
Monday 6th February - Starting Discovery Meetings
Starting Discovery Meetings with new or existing clients needs the skills of positioning, controlling, listening and then probing - this session workshops the approach
Expand
60Min | CS44
Lesson Content
Lesson Content
Monday 16th January - Positioning Skills
Positioning Skills for Discovery Meetings to keep conversations focused on what your client and you really want
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60Min | CS43
Lesson Content
Lesson Content
16/01/2023 Session Recording
13min |
A shortened 13min version of the live Positioning Skills Webinar
Probing Skills
Probing is one of the four core skills when using Certainty Maps. This skilling session dives into the theory behind good probing, the types of probes and you'll hear common probes, when not to probe as well as pace yourself through the session's case studies and assignments at your own learning pace.
15 min | CS42
Lesson Content
Lesson Content
Hopes/Plans for 2022
15 min | CAR187
From 'hot' Warrnambool to sticky Gold Coast and beyond the Certainty Community of firms share their hopes, plans and focus for 2022 - a key theme is 'quality' of business with a focus on the right opportunities. We also share 2022 Leadership tools for each adviser, their team, their clients, and their alliances.
2022 Breakthroughs
13 min | CAR186
Breakthroughs drive sustainable growth. This session highlights the breakthroughs planned in 2022 for Certainty Advice teams. I also present what I believe are key trends to consider in every advisory firm's 2022 planning. 2022 is going to be financial advice's best year yet.
2022 Planning - 2021 Biggest Insights
17 min |
Insights are significant learning experiences that make an impact and accelerate change because they allow us to leapfrog the planned steps having heard the experience of others on similar paths to similar objectives. The 2021 Insights are in the areas of Covid, Leadership, Us, Structures, Compliance and Value. Nearly all of these areas are important for the advisory teams business planning for 2022.
2022 Business Benchmarks for Greater Certainty
17 min | CAR184
Benchmarks provide relativity for planning and performance management, provided the benchmarks are relevant. As firm's grow along their growth cycle, benchmarks can provide important 'signposts' guiding growth. However at crucial stages some benchmarks are more important and relevant than others. This session shares relevant Client, Productivity and Growth Benchmarks, but also includes from "Breakthrough" Benchmarks that will help accelerate firms into the new era of team-based financial advisory firms.
2022 Planning - Aligning Team Careers Plans & Business Plans
12 min | CAR183
Advisory teams are the most valuable asset for every advisory firm. For firms in the business of building a business that consistently delivers great advice, the formalisation of team careers, team management and growth is crucial. But too often the planning for clients and the administration involved every day becomes a higher priority. This session shares crucial thinking and tools to help every firm, regardless of size, bring greater formality and process to building the firm's most important asset - the team.
Articulating Value - is it about Money, or Advice or Planning?
13 min | CAR182
Consistently, specifically and methodically articulating the value of advice is crucial for initial and ongoing engagements with Advice Clients. For Certainty Advice where value is what the client seeks rather than what an adviser provides, advisory teams need to be aware the 'shift' in support for client value to be realised. This Roundtable discusses how firms using Certainty Advice are articulating and positioning their advice on the three advisory roles or money, advice and planning.
Outsourcing With Certainty
14 min | CAR181
Outsourcing will grow from predominantly an administrative functionality to a management function. This will allow increasing numbers of our teams to deliver the value clients seek, while ensuring teams are not over-worked, that profits are achieved and careers objectives being met. This session shares the thinking, the benchmarks and core functions not to outsource for advisory firms of the future.
Building/Merging Clients Advice Bases
15 min | CAR180
We advise proceed with caution when considering a merger or acquisition of an advice client base. This session highlights the different generations of advisory firms which is an important framework to segment any acquisition/merger effort. The key is productivity growth, not activity growth. Too often mergers are not driven by better serving clients best interests or driven by a focus on more activity. In these fast-changing times this session highlights some of the key steps to make these opportunities work.
Outgrowing Advice Clients
15 min | CAR179
A challenge of great advice firms is the growth of client bases. In the old financial planning days clients will often placed in 'quiet' status while firms still earned a small return until client's needed additional advice. Those days are gone if not going. How do advice firms manage the clients they might be outgrowing today?
How Your Advice Grid will Power Your Price Committee
15 min | CAR178
Shifting from a Fees-For-Service pricing methodology based upon products, hours or range of services to a Value-For_Money pricing methodology based upon value, Advice Grids provide the vital management in four key areas of business growth - this Roundtable facilitates discussions and presents the models to support Advice Grids.
Inducting New Team Members - 1st Day/2nd Chair
14 min | CAR177
In the future team members will leverage rather than repeat the careers of founders - what's this mean? A lot - particularly when understood against the fundamental shift in value away from product performance to path performance - how people are progressing rather than how products are preforming. This session shares some tools, thinking and models to assist every firm's transition to best induct team members for the fast emerging era of advice.
Selling Once, Twice, Three Times
15 min | CAR176
Why do some advisers sell the same thing three times? The financial plan, the plan's implementation and the on-going fees? How can advisers switch this to just selling once - the advisory relationship? Key to advisory teams offering comprehensive advice is to ensure their 'worth' in the client's mind is not aligned to a plan or it's implementation of estimated on-going fees, worth needs to be based on something far more important to each client.
Quoting Prior Discovery
13 min | CAR175
When asked about price prior understanding value being sought, advisers need to become educators. Pricing on value for people's life choices is different to pricing on product for people's product choices - the differences need to be explained. This session provides the frameworks that Certainty Advisory teams have effectively used to explain their approach with respect and quickly.
Different Financial Languages
12 min | CAR174
It is important to talk the client's "language" when advising them with Certainty. Russ Alan Prince introduced me to his High-Net-Worth Psychology nearly 20 years ago. I believe the tools and approach he presents is applicable for many clients with complexity. This session highlights Russ' nine financial personalities and the driving 'context' that underpins their unique financial world.
Lessons from Lost Opportunities
12min | CAR173
We learn our best lessons the hard way - when we don't expect them. In this session, the Certainty Advice community discusses some of those opportunities that were lost. What was missing, what happened, what changes have been made, what skills were missing are all discussed. Learning from the lessons of others is core to our Certainty Community especially when trying to deliver the best interests of our prospects and clients.
Firm growth with SME advice
12 min | CAR172
Advising SMEs is a growth area for firms implementing Certainty Advice. In this session, Justin joins Jim to discuss how after three months of using Certainty Advice his firm secured their first SME client for a $40k fee for six months. Hear how he made his first steps to better understand your own opportunities in the fast-developing SME marketplace.
Screen Clients with Certainty
12 min | CAR171
Once advice propositions are proven (usually 12 months), team productivity is vital for healthy growth and ability to deliver best interests of clients. While every enquiry deserves equal respect, they do not all deserve equal service. How do Certainty Advisory team effectively screen clients respectfully and effectively. What are the benchmarks, models and approaches? This session provides the insights.
Engaging new clients with Certainty
13 min | CAR170
When pricing and engaging on worth and value rather than products with specific recommendations, what is the required to produce quality and effective engagement documents with efficiency. In this session the Certainty Advice community share their insights how their advisory teams are engaging their new prospects.
Fixed and Variable Pricing with Certainty
13 min | CAR169
Scoping comprehensive advice requires a specific and methodical approach to pricing. Scope changes all the time, making scope management a consistent management requirement. This session outlines the approach both for quoting scope, when to use fixed and when to use variable quotes, but more importantly shares a practical monthly team-based scope management approach.
Repositioning with Certainty Forum
14 min | CAR168
Why don't good clients re-engage? Is it price? Is it positioning? Is it both? This Certainty Forum discusses important differences when re-engaging as a Certainty Adviser. It's less about being seen as a 'technical' expert and more about positioning with a valuable on-going relationship - but how? This session explores the options.
Lesson Content
Lesson Content
Certainty Breakthrough: Pitching to My First Certainty Client
24 min | BREAK01
This is our first Certainty Breakthrough session. Featuring Mandy Newman from Sunshine Coast, she shared her steps, her preparation, her Discovery Meeting and how she built her engagement documentation and presented her first Certainty Advice fee.
Discovery Scorecards - Your Path to Mastering Valuable Relationships
17 min | DNA21
This session shares our very latest guidelines on what we believe are the skills and competencies for effective, valuable client Discovery Meetings. This is the heart of Certainty Advice - the consistent, methodical understanding among the whole advisory team of why Certainty Clients will pay for, follow and come back for your firm's advice.
New Engagement Frameworks
18 min | DNA19
This session covers our new Engagement Meeting Frameworks. We have re-worked the Nine Fundamental Elements of an Engagement Meeting, and we have improved the design of future Advice Maps and Advice Paths. This is all about making a stronger focus on the value clients seek while prompting for clients to ask questions because the Certainty Engagement Approach is so different to most client's experiences.
Advising SMEs with Certainty
17 min | DNA18
SMEs represent a significant opportunity for Certainty Advice firms. There are often a number of SMEs in a client base already which provide ideal opportunities to test and develop valuable advice solutions for existing clients and referral points for future expansion. There are two significant pitfalls and differences when working with SMEs compared to personal clients as well.
Releasing Clients
44 min | DNA17
Releasing clients is tough. The reasons most advisers become advisers is to help people so the concept that clients need to be released seems contrary to original objectives. It's about managing capacity. Old thinking was 'just hire more people' but that ignores how fast the marketplace is adapting. This webinar shares the options, the models and some frameworks to assist in the tough but necessary approach to release clients when it is in the client's best interests to do so.
Re-Engaging Certainty Clients with Certainty
40 min | DNA16
Re-Engaging Certainty Clients is different to common review meetings. Why clients re-engage, continue to take advice and pay for advice is less about 'what' advisers do during the year and more about 'why' it matters to clients year on year. This session shares six different elements of the re-engagement framework where mastery of your own unique re-engagement 'artwork' is crucial.
Minimum Pricing
45 min | DNA15
Managing Minimum Fees for work built upon value needs different thinking and approach when compared to managing minimums for work based upon hourly rates or products provided. As clients set the value and fees when pricing on value, advisory firms need to manage their minimums directly with clients. But how? This session outlines and briefly demonstrates the models and principles that are required to better master the use of minimums for firms delivering value.
Price Modelling
41 min | DNA14
Price Modelling is integral to building productive, profitable and efficient price precedents. Beware the devil in the details as you and your team use the Price Modelling spreadsheets to collaboratively determine, assess and ensure the firm's pricing will ensure growth, profits without dependency while delivering the value each client seeks.
Introducing Discovery Flows - The flowcharts for better Discovery Meetings
27 min | DNA13
Introducing our new Discovery Flows - Each client is different, each member of a client couple is different, our team members are different, so how best to make your Discovery Meetings as consistent and methodical as possible considering all the differences? That's why we have created Discovery Flows. Building upon the Discovery Frameworks, these Discovery Flows now provide the pathways.
Building Term of Engagement Documents in 30 Minutes
32 min | DNA12
Building Terms of Engagement Documents in 30 minutes is all about making your quality engagement document in a commercial, methodical, specific and consistent approach. It's not about cutting corners, it's about building systems, people and an approach with the right preparation, right balance of precedents and skilled advisory skills to engage the majority of new and existing clients in a timely manner.
The four common mistakes made in Certainty Engagement Meetings
45 min | DNA11
Like Discovery Meetings, the Certainty Engagement Meeting approach is different. When discussions are focussed the client's value, rather than the advisers expertise, the skills required, the frameworks required are also a little different - this session highlights how we recommend these meetings are conducted.
Two Chairs in Discovery Meetings
47 min | DNA10
Building a firm that delivers advice is different to delivering advice. The use of two chairs in the crucial engagement and re-engagement meetings is vital to reduce dependency on key individuals while building strength in the firms engagement approach that clients fully trust.
Tools for the tough Discovery
51 min | DNA09
The toughest client meetings teach us the most. This session shares the key tools to identify what clients value, to maintain meeting momentum, to position the meeting context and understand the importance of silence. With proper focus and mindset, the toughest meetings will always produce great outcomes.
How to price value
52 min | DNA08
Pricing on value is a significant paradigm shift for every advisory firm. This session presents three core pricing models for advisory teams to initially experiment and subsequently master their own approach to unconflicted pricing based purely upon the value each client perceives they are receiving.
The Most Important Advisory Meeting - The Debrief
44 min | DNA07
The Certainty De-Brief Meeting, the most important meeting firms can conduct. This internal twenty minute meeting immediately after each clients significant annual meeting provides the structure to consistently, specifically and methodically gage price and manage every Certainty client.
Go To Whoa Webinar - From Discovery to (Re) Engagement
1 hr 33 min | WHOA02
This webinar explains everything we know about engaging (remotely) and valuably for firms delivering comprehensive advice. The webinar has 3 segments - Discovering the Value - Constructing the Engagement - Engaging on Value
How to keep Certainty Clients on Track – Using Certainty Advice Paths
42 min | DNA06
Advice Path represents what the best possible path forward for a client looks like in terms of time, processes and outcomes in graphical form. This session covers how to build, present and keep client's financial lives on track using their own unique Certainty Advice Path.
How to Build, Present and Manage Your Clients Financial Lives on a Single Page - Advice Mapping
44 min | DNA05
A picture paints a thousand words. An Advice Map provides an instantaneous picture of the significant elements of a clients financial life. It has become the 'go-to' document for many Certainty Clients. This session covers how to build, present and manage client's lives using their own unique Certainty Advice Map.
How to Handle Questions & Objections to your fees
49 min | DNA04
There is only one way to handle fee objections - with a focus on the client value. This session shares the common fee objections experienced by Certainty Advisers. It also provides valuable insights on what not to do when explaining your fee.
Curating Long Term Client Value - Managing their Complexities
45 min | DNA03
Clients seek advice when they face complexities they cannot solve. Understanding how to identify each complexity and address them is core to providing valuable Certainty Advice.