Financial advice: Only for the rich?

Advisers often hear stories about huge deals written for ultra-wealthy clients. As a result, some financial advisors believe, mistakenly, that they should focus their sales efforts exclusively on the rich.

There are no shortcuts in our industry. Unless you are very lucky or extremely well-connected, you have to put in the hard yards to earn the right to work in the wealthy markets.

I speak from experience. Today I am fortunate to count listed-company managing directors and some of South Africa’s most influential and powerful people among my clients. But I did not start there.

Back to basics

It took me ten years of hard, repetitive work before I was firmly established.

During that time, I stuck rigidly to the basics: I prospected religiously, saw four people per day, four days a week, every week and gave every prospect and client my full attention and best efforts.

I realised that if, as a financial advisor, you ignore the ordinary man or woman, you not only pass up on immediate sales opportunities but also on the opportunity to invest in that person’s future potential.

The simple fact is there is no-one who does not need solid, qualified financial advice. Financial advisors who are young in this business and who want to be successful have no option but to see everyone they possibly can, and to do a top-notch job for every single person they see.

There is no other way.

Grow with your clients

Over the years I have grown with my clients. Many small prospects have become major clients and extremely valuable centres of influence.

For example, soon after I started my insurance career, a client asked me to meet with her son, a young corporate attorney. He was certainly not a rich client, but I did the best job I possibly could. He was happy and we developed an ongoing relationship. Over the years I continued to advise him and made adjustments to his portfolio regularly, as his personal and professional circumstances changed. Professionally, we grew together.

Today, that once-young, ordinary attorney is the head of one of South Africa’s largest public companies - and he is still my client. Other financial advisors have unsuccessfully tried to gain his business, but we have a history and mutual trust that goes way back to the time when he was an ‘everyday man’. He has been a significant contributor to my success, both directly as a client and indirectly as a centre of influence.

And he is only one of many examples why financial advisors should not ignore the ordinary men and women. The ordinary young man employed as a plumber today could, 10 or 20 years down the road, be the owner of successful business with partners, employees and big contracts. And even if he is not, if you have served him well, he may refer you to his boss who would be all of those things.

Selling yourself

Joe or Jill Client doesn’t really buy an insurance or investment product: they ‘buy the advisor’. The way to become successful in our business, and to retain and grow with our clients, is to always do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.

It really is as simple as that.

Stephen Fish, a Liberty Life Executive Financial Consultant, is one of the industry’s top producers. He originally qualified and worked as a civil engineer. Even though he loved the job, he intensely disliked the lack of recognition, the 80 hour week and not being in control of his own destiny.

So 18-odd years ago, at age 28, he took the plunge and joined Liberty.

 Today, he has a well-established client-base and just one regret: that he did not make the move five years earlier.