There is a natural hesitation when it comes to meeting someone new. It’s not always easy to walk into a roomful of strangers. But that’s exactly what a sales person does figuratively every day. We spend our careers meeting strangers. If you feel you could be better at meeting new people, let me suggest an exercise that will get you beyond any doubt and hesitation. Just spend one day introducing yourself to strangers. It’s fun, it’s a bit zany and it’s a great exercise. The fear will be gone.

If you look into the toolkit of a successful Financial Advisor, you will find client acquisition skills, selling skills and organizational skills. These are the basic skills of our business and it is up to all of us to master them.

Isn’t it interesting that your wealthiest clients don’t live where they are supposed to? They are supposed to live in the richest part of town. Warren Buffett is not supposed to live in Omaha. He’s supposed to live in a 30,000 square foot home in Montecito overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Somebody better tell him. In forty years of prospecting, I have found an absolute truth. When people are in a poor financial situation, they are not going to tell anybody. They’ll struggle to pay that big mortgage rather than admit an adjustment is necessary. Don’t be misled when you are prospecting. There is often no money where you think there should be.

I was re-reading The Millionaire Next Door the other day. Among many great points, Tom Stanley points out two things which often conspire to keep America’s wealthy business owner from achieving total financial independence. Those two things are taxes and a lack of financial sophistication. There are many fabulously wealthy people out there who lack financial acumen. Don’t assume they know more than you do. They need your advice!

If your production slips, don’t blame others. I have found over my career that when my sales were down, my number of prospects in the pipeline was down. I simply hadn’t generated enough leads. That’s hard to blame on someone else. Accept the responsibility and fix things. And the fix is simple. The worse things get, the harder you work.