Our friends in the media need their catnip. Tell your clients that at the first sign of a pullback, the press will be howling. All media depend on advertising dollars to stay alive. Advertisers are attracted to large circulation numbers. Therefore newspapers will print what sells. And bad news sells. They are waiting to blare out the bad news.

As you go about mastering your craft, have your priorities in order. I am convinced that the number one priority in the Financial Services industry is the need to be an effective communicator. If you don’t learn to communicate and communicate well, every other aspect of your business will suffer. How could you possible forge a successful relationship without effectively communicating your thoughts?

An Advisor I know recently lost a client she could ill afford to lose. She wisely lamented that she will never again put herself in that position. I suggest that if you are not willing to fire your best client, your book is top heavy.

Never take a good month or a good quarter, or even a good year for granted. You can depend upon the fact that no matter how well things are going, there is a slump lurking out there somewhere. When you’re at your best, take the time to write down or record exactly what it is you are doing to be so successful. Store those notes away. Then when the inevitable day comes that you can’t open an account no matter how hard you try, pull those notes out and review them. Think back to when you were on top of your game and go there again. That has worked for me on more than one occasion. I urge you to try it.

The whole world loves a storyteller. You really don’t need more than a few sales ideas and stories to succeed in this business. Learn a few really good stories and tell them over and over again. The more success you have with these stories, the more you’ll be tempted to stop telling them. The more successful we become, the further we get away from the basics that made us successful in the first place. Don’t fall into that trap.