Be an Advocate and ...a Good listener

Be an Advocate... and a Good Listener

This is what I call being an advocate. The premise behind it is that most of the people we are interviewing who are finalists will have at least one other opportunity to be a financial advisor in the industry, to make a decision between us and the other firm. To separate ourselves, we congratulate the candidate and tell them (it's important to use this specific language here the following:

"No matter what happens, I consider this a victory because, regardless, you are going to be an advisor somewhere, and this industry needs great people like you who can make a difference in clients' lives."

Of course, we say this only if we truly believe that person will be great. You have to be sincere.
I discovered this strategy somewhat by accident, by asking questions....
Typically, eight weeks after a new advisor comes aboard, I take him out to breakfast or lunch solely to celebrate their first rough part of the career, the end of their probationary period with us.
My only agenda is to find out why they decided to come on with this firm. By that time, they're comfortable with us and the firm, willing to let their hair down a little bit.

So at the breakfast, I say, "You've been here eight weeks. What are your initial thoughts?"
Second, I ask them, "Why did you decide to join our organization? You had a lot of other opportunities."

These are people who are making a career change, etc. It's important, though, that I also ask the new advisor a third question:

"Going through our process, where was it that you were frustrated or confused?
Where could we improve?"
During one of these breakfasts, one of my new advisors told me, "Ed, it was neck and neck with you and another firm. When you said you considered this a victory because I was joining this industry, I realized that you were genuinely interested in me and my success. The other firm, meanwhile, was telling me why I should pick them over everyone else. So I knew this was where I wanted to be."

Ed Deutschlander, CLF CLU
VP of Corporate Development
North Star Resource Group
Securian Financial Network
Minneapolis, MN

Cassandra Lee Simpson
Southwest Recruiting Director
North Star Resource Group
Securian Financial Network
Tucson, AZ


Richaard Wong RFP, ChLP, FChFP Best Practices, Training & Development
33/F, AIG Tower, 1 Connaught Road Central Hong Kong Tel: +852 2832 6762 Fax: + 852 2572 1792 Richaard-kl.wong@aig.com
“Leadership by the Compass not the Clock” – Dr. Covey


Check out previous articles at: http://regleaders.blogspot.com/

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