A 24-year-old adviser in one of our Certainty Advice firms, engaged a $12,000 new advice client last week.
The striking aspect of this engagement was that the 24-year-old adviser is still in her professional year.
Technically unqualified?
Yes.
Compliant?
Yes.
Repeatable?
Yes.
The future?
Probably.
Importantly, this 24-year-old is a ‘gun’.
She is smart, hard-working, funny, considerate, collaborative, and an exceptional supporter of her team and clients.
Straight from Uni, she has been with the firm for over two years.
Why is advice her profession?
The deep and broad impact it creates for clients.
IMPACT
How did she ‘close’ a $12,000 prospect?
Like most new business, the prospective new couple was a referral from an existing ideal client.
Endorsement alone however is not a sustainable business model.
There always must be specific value.
The 24-year-old did not perform the 1st Chair role in the prospective client’s initial discovery meeting. She performed a strong 2nd Chair role having worked hard to build her Discovery meeting skills alongside the firm’s principal.
It was during their post-discovery de-brief that the principal knew this was going to be the breakthrough for her up-and-coming adviser to take control and run an engagement meeting as 1st Chair.
Excited and undaunted the 24-year-old drove the development of the firm’s Terms of Engagement which documents the process of value the couple looks for will be best achieved.
Importantly, the firm’s terms of engagement make no specific product or strategy recommendations.
Recommendations, statements of advice and detailing strategies will be forthcoming after the client agrees to go ahead and start payments.
After some role plays of frequently-asked-tough engagement questions, and a joint review of final engagement documents by both principal and the 24-year-old, the engagement meeting proceeded.
The engagement meeting wasn’t totally the 24-year-old.
She started and ended the meeting, controlled most of the flow, presented the fee section and fielded nearly all the questions.
Towards the end when the couple asked who would be ‘looking after them’, the 24-year-old responded with something like ‘we all will, as everyone here will understand why you are engaging and the value you seek, but currently, I will be overseeing the team’s efforts.’
The meeting ended in just an hour, with prospects saying they would like some time to consider the approach.
They sent the 24-year-old an email three days later saying they would like to proceed.
LESSONS
What are the lessons?
Of course – hire ‘guns’.
Particularly female ones as they are ridiculously under-represented.
Secondly, reduce dependency.
The industry’s common ‘corner-store’ model of dependency on one or two key individuals will prolong it as an industry full of ‘experts’ rather than a profession full of ‘teams’.
Thirdly, start every conversation with an unwavering focus on what the client values before any ‘value’ delivered by an advisory team.
Lastly, place greater urgency on team development than the development of client’s plans.
This means exposing up-and-coming team members to the firm’s best clients rather than ‘earning their credentials’ by focusing on the legacy base whose expectations are aligned with propositions and fees from a different era.
As our greatest challenges are often within, this also potentially means some ‘experienced’ advisers getting out of the way of the up-and-coming talent.
Oh yeah, of course – be compliant.
But understand, the industry’s product origins mean it will continue to enforce ridiculous technical documents on confused clients for some time yet.
Is this 24-year-old the future of advice?
What do you reckon?
Photo credit: Shutterstock_2200726639
ABOUT JIM STACKPOOL
Since 1989, Jim has influenced, coached, and consulted financial advice and accounting firms across Australia. His training firm, Certainty Advice Group, skills comprehensive advisory teams to price and deliver valuable, methodical, non-person-dependent advice relationships with their clients. He has built a collaborative community of firms aligned to his firm’s comprehensive advice model – Certainty Advice – Australia’s only Certification Mark accredited by ACCC and IP Australia for impartial financial advice. He presents at conferences, has judged professional advice awards, written industry white papers, chaired practice management curriculum for tertiary institutions, and authored four books on financial advice – his latest being What Price Value.