Best Practice Advice Archives - Page 5 of 10

Client Focus or Compliance Focus?

by Tony Vidler I support a compliance focus 100% ….but I support a client focus 100% too. All too often it is impossible to achieve 100% for both simultaneously though. Where does a professional compromise? Or does one not compromise? I think this picture captures the challenge of delivering compliant “best […]

Creating a Value-Based Pricing Engagement

by Tony Vidler Amongst all the debate about adviser remuneration there is little being said about value-based pricing and yet it is a concept which is most likely to match the clients perception of value with the professional’s desire to avoid conflicted models or time-based billing. It is simply setting a price based upon […]

Scope Creep: The Number 1 Problem In Fixed Fee Advice

by Tony Vidler “Scope Creep” is the killer for the Holy Grail of professional services business models: fixed fee advice. That ideal model which so many aspire to is having clients who agree to ongoing fixed fees, and the practice income just rolls in month after month. Fixed fee advice being delivered on […]

Make your professional designations mean something to clients

by Tony Vidler Why aren’t more financial advisers using their professional designations and qualifications better? There is no doubt that there has been an increasing proportion of advisers pursuing professional designations, and an increasing number of niche choices in doing so, and there are more advisers with more acronyms than ever before. Do […]

How To Make More Effective Advice Recommendations

by Tony Vidler If we can make more effective advice recommendations we increase comprehension and engagement and shorten the implementation timeframe. That’s good for everyone involved in the process. More people will follow our advice, we help more people get the outcomes they are looking for, and business is better for everyone. So […]

Professionals Have, And Use, Processes

by Tony Vidler True professionals don’t just HAVE processes, they have processes they use everywhere in their work. All the time. Professionals are in fact process-driven. We need to learn from those professions where the outcome of a poor day on the job is literally life or death. That isn’t generally the case […]

The Customer Is NOT King; The Customer Is Not Always Right

by Tony Vidler The mantra of “customer is king” is rubbish. The customer is not always right, and the customer is definitely not the stakeholder who provides permission to practice. Yet we keep hearing that the customer is king from marketers and interest groups as if it were a commandment. A King or […]

How to introduce a “Guarantee” into your fees

by Tony Vidler It has been proven repeatedly that providing a guarantee in your fees for prospective clients certainly helps them decide to engage – and it is not a difficult thing to do, even though “guarantee” is a dangerous word for financial advisers. Financial advice fees can seem to be enormously expensive […]

Re-think what you THINK you know about clients

by Tony Vidler Is it time for financial advisers to re-think what they think they know about clients? Insurance is sold, it isn’t bought, right? People don’t value advice, right? Really? I know from personal experience – both as an adviser and a coach working with advisers – that clients […]

Who is paying who for financial advice?

by Tony Vidler Who is paying who for financial advice will become the biggest question in consumers minds as the industry stakeholders continually and very publicly debate fees, commissions and conflicts of interest in financial services. For many advisers yet to experience it, full transparency on costs and fees is good for business. […]

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