Best Practice Advice Archives

Give yourself a better chance of having prospects engage you

by Tony Vidler There is one simple thing that advisers should do to improve the probability that prospects will engage you: Talk about the outcomes you create for clients rather than talking jargon. In engagement letters and scope of service documents, as well as in advertising brochures or online, too many advisers list their expertise […]

One tactic to make people remember your message…in just another moment…

by Tony Vidler Ever wondered why infomercials or news broadcasts come up with lines like this: “XYZ Corporation closed its doors on customers today leaving 10,000 without the products they had paid for already…more on that shortly.” The “more on that shortly” part creates intrigue of course….but the reason why TV stations do this is […]

Practice Growth Requires Leadership More Than Management

by Tony Vidler The most frequent thing I see that prevents great practice growth and holds advisers back from developing their dream business is a lack of vision. I don’t mean “vision” in the namby-pamby buzz-word sense of having a beautiful set of words on a plaque on a wall that nobody really cares about. […]

How to take the “R” out of FREE Advice

by Tony Vidler Traditionally the financial services sector has been almost entirely remunerated via commission, and many advisers are still grappling with the basic question of how to make the transition – even if only in their minds – from working solely on commissions to charging clients directly for advice and/or service. Consumers perceived […]

Nobody Believes Your Advice Is Actually Impartial AND Free

by Tony Vidler The problem with “FREE” is nobody believes that whatever you are offering is actually free. It might seem free in terms of there being no invoice or obvious price tag, but that doesn’t mean it is “free” does it? Consumers today are alert, have a world of information in their pocket […]

How To Get Buy-In From Clients To Full Advice

by Tony Vidler Clients often want advisers to deal with just one element of financial planning…their current “burning issue” that triggered the need for advice to begin with. Getting them to engage in full advice can be tough and they need to understand what you CAN do for them, and where your knowledge and skills […]

How do you know your financial advice is suitable?

by Tony Vidler Knowing that your financial advice is suitable for a client is something that every professional adviser is willing to attest to, but proving it when challenged can be incredibly dificult. Advisers are increasingly being challenged and therefore seeking assurance that their practices are robust and will withstand such scrutiny. Whether that scrutiny […]

You fix financial worries…so why not market that?

by Tony Vidler It seems pretty much everyone has financial worries. “Investors spend 475 hours a year worrying about money” apparently. Well I bet the people who don’t have enough to be considered “investors” spend a heck of a lot more time than that worrying about money….but still, this is about 20 days each […]

A Statement Of Advice should be a “statement”

by Tony Vidler When it comes to providing advice in writing to a client there is undoubtedly unnecessary complexity usually. In fact the proverbial “Statement Of Advice” has become anything but a “statement”. It generally takes the form of a tome… And a “tome is a scholarly work…usually large, heavy and laborious in its detail“. […]

Being clear about what matters most actually matters most

by Tony Vidler Sometimes contracts just don’t provide clarity for the people who work for you. And being clear about what matters for them matters more than just about anything else when it comes to getting the best from your people. When you are running a professional services business there is one thing you […]

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