Camp Connelly is designed specifically for you - the Financial Advisor. With more than forty years in the business Don Connelly has done it all. Now, he’s sharing his wisdom, insight and experience with you. Learn to overcome objections, stay motivated and win clients efficiently and effectively.
About Don Connelly
About Camp Connelly
Why Join?
|
May 2009
Sales Idea: Buy And Hold Is Dead. Right?
The dream. I had this dream the other night. In my dream, I was a Financial Advisor with a good practice and a good life. At least my business card said I was a Financial Advisor. Truth be told, I was an asset gatherer and an account opener as much as I was a Financial Advisor. Gathering assets is not easy, by the way. I had worked very hard to get where I was in life. Sure my family sometimes treated me like a meal ticket, but I didn?t mind. The steering wheel was in my hands and I was creating my own future.
Creating my client base. I wasn't from money in my dream, so I built up my practice with a surfeit of sweat equity. I worked days, nights and weekends. Everybody I met was a potential client. And, boy, did I get clients. Some clients I met socially or through my kids' sports and youth activities. Some I got because they attended a seminar I conducted. Some I got as the result of being introduced by other clients. Many, if not most, I met by accident. Some I even called on the phone without actually knowing them. It took me a lot of time and a lot of work to get where I was, and I was always on the lookout for new clients. It was so hard to get clients that I never wanted to lose any once I got them.
The risk was duly noted. For the most part, my clients were down-to-earth, primarily passive folks with modest goals. They wanted to make sure their kids got through college; they wanted to pay their taxes, of course, but they didn't want to pay more than necessary; and they wanted to retire comfortably. They chose me to help them achieve their goals because they liked me. They also trusted me and they felt the products I offered were right for them. I convinced them we would invest only in quality products, we would reinvest any and all proceeds, and we would hold on through the worst of times. I was their advisor, but I was also their big brother.
I created financial roadmaps for all of them and explained time and again that making money by investing it involves risk of loss. The loss might be large at times and it might be small at times. But occasional loss there would be. Successful investing is not a science. There is always a little bit of luck involved. And there is always the threat of loss. Loss is unavoidable. The burden on me was to create more gain than loss; to be right more than I was wrong. And make no mistake. Having to be right a lot is a burden.
It was strange. In my dream, my clients listened to me, but they didn't hear me. They nodded their heads as if they got me loud and clear. But they didn't get me. Rather than getting me, they relied on me to make sure everything worked out. And they relied on their own luck, the luck that is doled out to everyone lucky enough to live in America. They were full of that oddly American confidence that things would work out okay. After all, I'm investing in America, right? In America, the straw never breaks the camel's back.
The catastrophe. It sounds odd, but I remember thinking in my dream that I was in a little bit over my head. I had product knowledge, but it wasn't that 'take the rifle apart and put it back together' knowledge that a soldier has. The men and women with that kind of knowledge weren't selling the stuff. They were sequestered in office buildings in big cities like Boston, New York and Chicago. They spent their days analyzing markets, managing money and predicting trends. Other folks spent their days packaging up those trends, forecasts and predictions. I spent my days selling those packages. You know how I told you that my clients depended upon me to keep them out of the ditch? Well, I depended on those guys to keep me out of the ditch.
I also remember thinking that this better not be a nightmare. I was walking that fine line of mandatory capital appreciation and I was walking it with other people's money. And these weren't just any old people. These were my friends and neighbors. To ski on the edge is one thing. To ski too fast is something altogether different.
And then came the part that makes you promise God you'll do whatever He wants if He just gets you out of this one. Somebody flicked on the kitchen light on Wall Street and the roaches ran for cover. The more scandal, bloat and greed the media uncovered, the more prices collapsed. Not only that! All those products from all those people I trusted collapsed. I'm not going to bore you (or maybe horrify you) with the details. Suffice it to say that years upon years upon years of gains were snuffed out in a mere few months. Chaos was rampant and the noise was terrible. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared away, my clients had lost nearly forty percent of their fortunes. And they were all standing there, staring at me. They weren't looking at the guys who had been managing their money. They weren't looking at the guys who had packaged the stuff. They were looking at me. It was awful. They are such nice folks. And I had hurt them. They are naïve and they believed in me. And I had hurt them. Oh, God, get me out of this. I'll do anything!
And then a miracle occurred. I was back in the training room where I first learned the business. I was all alone, the only person in the room. The door opened and a stranger walked in. For some reason, he was dressed like a character from the 1930's.
Please log in to continue reading
Sign in to be part of the miracle
|
|
© 2008 Don Connelly + Associates, LLC. 941.346.1166
All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Contact.
|
Now Available as RSS Feed
