professional practices Archives

customer service pays for financial advisors

Professional Service: There’s extra money in going the extra mile with your service

by Tony Vidler Often advisers forget how valuable the service bit is in their “professional service” business. Everyone has heard some story about how a business did well from going the extra mile for a customer…but rarely do you hear about a professional services business that has a standing process for going the extra […]

R.I.P. To Some Accepted Wisdom For Growing A Practice

by Tony Vidler In good times growing a practice is difficult enough and one of the methods has become conventional wisdom – but that doesn’t mean it is right in these days of fundamental and structural change for the industry. The concept of a professional firm requiring 3 distinctly different roles of a Finder, […]

I sell…You sell…We ALL sell. Or should do…

by Tony Vidler I am a professional. I am a salesman. These two things are not contradictory. We all sell stuff. It seems like I’m selling my time these days…sometimes a product….sometimes it is just selling concepts and possibilities. Mostly it is selling behavioural change & fixing other peoples’ problems though. But I sell. […]

To fix repeated problems, you need a process!

by Tony Vidler For financial advisory firms the word “process” has become synonymous with “best practice advice”, but good process is so much more than just a compliant and well-documented series of advice documents. Process cures problems. Process is what builds franchise businesses. Process is what creates turnkey operations that are highly valued […]

Why Your Staff Fail You

by Tony Vidler It isn’t terribly unusual to find advisers taking on staff and being disappointed reasonably quickly, as the staff fail to deliver quite what the adviser expected or was hoping for…. So why do your people fail you? I don’t believe they do usually….I think we fail them. Let’s […]

The 3 Elements To Hiring An Adviser Successfully

by Tony Vidler Hiring an adviser to join the team is one of the biggest (and most expensive) steps that any adviser takes in growing their practice. It is expensive in financial terms, in time, and most importantly in energy and stress. Getting it right is soooooo hard….and getting it wrong happens so […]

The Financial Advice Profession: Are we there yet?

by Tony Vidler The incessant debate about whether financial advice can be called a profession or whether it is an “industry” keeps rolling along and mostly the debate is within the industry. Those who are not financial advisers don’t debate it because the answer is fairly clear to them I am guessing….after all; if it […]

Let’s be honest with our honesty

by Tony Vidler Disclosure is back on the regulatory agenda again, and the rules will undoubtedly be changing yet again. There is no doubt in my mind that disclosure of costs, fees and conflicts enhances trust and professional credibility. However, there is also no doubt in mind that disclosure can be taken so far that […]

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