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Rating: 
Summary: Good Solid Recommendations
Review: As a new financial advisor, I was looking for a step-by-step book to get me going in this business. This book's two halves showed me what is involved in both the "Getting" and the "Keeping" business of managing people's expectations. The third section is on running a business.In the "Getting" clients sections, the chapters are short but packed with useful information. They contain many sample letters, conversations, and approaches, both positive and negative - based on the 10 years of experiences of Dan's company "Marketing Solutions". He works with Financial Advisors to improve their business, so it stands to reason he knows from experience what works and what doesn't. I like this as "Why reinvent the wheel" - just follow what works... In the "Keeping" clients section, the chapters are even shorter, 3 - 5 pages each. The message here is to continue to provide value to your existing clients so they don't leave. Again, there are many sample letters and options showing what works well and what works even better. In summary, the central message and lesson to "getting" and "keeping", is that a successful Financial Advisor business is built on the trusting relationship you can develop with people, which they say will lead to more sales/commissions than the agressive Salesman out to pitch the latest product. This means your efforts often have little short term benefit (income!) but it will pay off down the road as your practice grows. Advisors short on time and cash will probably cringe at the costs this book suggests are necessary, initially and ongoing basis. I felt the upper limit on the number of clients/income is the hours you must invest nurturing the relationship. Can you imagine keeping up to date by personally phoning, mailing and meeting with 300 friends? 1000 friends? I personally believe consumers these days see through the free seminars, lunches, golf games, newsletters etc that a new advisor bombards them with, as nothing more than an elaborate, lengthy sales pitch. The book carefully treads the line here, helping you NOT to appear to be selling when mailing letters for seminars, surveys, articles of interest. The last section "Implementing" is very concise, telling you how to build and run an efficient business office, with the usual planning and control techniques : time management, business planning, goals etc. My book contained a CD-ROM disk with PDF files of all the recommended letters, surveys etc - a nice to have value to the book. The book is masterfully crafted and edited. I would recommend it to other new advisors looking for a good, solid outline of what is required in this business. Since I am a new advisor, I don't know yet what is missing or could be improved.
DaveZ
Rating:
Summary: Good Solid Recommendations
Review: As a new financial advisor, I was looking for a step-by-step book to get me going in this business. This book's two halves showed me what is involved in both the "Getting" and the "Keeping" business of managing people's expectations. The third section is on running a business. In the "Getting" clients sections, the chapters are short but packed with useful information. They contain many sample letters, conversations, and approaches, both positive and negative - based on the 10 years of experiences of Dan's company "Marketing Solutions". He works with Financial Advisors to improve their business, so it stands to reason he knows from experience what works and what doesn't. I like this as "Why reinvent the wheel" - just follow what works... In the "Keeping" clients section, the chapters are even shorter, 3 - 5 pages each. The message here is to continue to provide value to your existing clients so they don't leave. Again, there are many sample letters and options showing what works well and what works even better. In summary, the central message and lesson to "getting" and "keeping", is that a successful Financial Advisor business is built on the trusting relationship you can develop with people, which they say will lead to more sales/commissions than the agressive Salesman out to pitch the latest product. This means your efforts often have little short term benefit (income!) but it will pay off down the road as your practice grows. Advisors short on time and cash will probably cringe at the costs this book suggests are necessary, initially and ongoing basis. I felt the upper limit on the number of clients/income is the hours you must invest nurturing the relationship. Can you imagine keeping up to date by personally phoning, mailing and meeting with 300 friends? 1000 friends? I personally believe consumers these days see through the free seminars, lunches, golf games, newsletters etc that a new advisor bombards them with, as nothing more than an elaborate, lengthy sales pitch. The book carefully treads the line here, helping you NOT to appear to be selling when mailing letters for seminars, surveys, articles of interest. The last section "Implementing" is very concise, telling you how to build and run an efficient business office, with the usual planning and control techniques : time management, business planning, goals etc. My book contained a CD-ROM disk with PDF files of all the recommended letters, surveys etc - a nice to have value to the book. The book is masterfully crafted and edited. I would recommend it to other new advisors looking for a good, solid outline of what is required in this business. Since I am a new advisor, I don't know yet what is missing or could be improved.
DaveZ
Rating:
Summary: Useful
Review: Dan Richard helps you understand the evolving consumer, describing ways to attract new clients and how you can develop a trusting relationship. The book also talks about maximizing client referrals, doing bussiness with people you know and running effective seminars
Rating:
Summary: Useful
Review: Dan Richard helps you understand the evolving consumer, describing ways to attract new clients and how you can develop a trusting relationship. The book also talks about maximizing client referrals, doing bussiness with people you know and running effective seminars
Rating: 
Summary: What a book!
Review: I read this book from cover to cover and dog eared nearly every page. Dan Richards thoroughly covers topics such as: target marketing, prospecting, putting the customer first, getting referrals, conducting evaluations of your service, networking, managing a large client base and even firing difficult clients; and of course, everything in between. There are so many magnificent and expertly covered ideas in this book, you might feel overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety after finishing the book. Never fear, Richards touches on how you can implement many of the ideas in his book one or a few at a time without going overboard. I will advise that this book is geared more towards the advisor with a year or more in the business (e.g. it does not cover cold calling), however, novices will pick up many ideas that will be useful in dealing with clients from the outset and in growing a practice effortlessly. As an aside but also important, the central tenet of this book is similar to the ideas covered in Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Both are highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: What a book!
Review: I read this book from cover to cover and dog eared nearly every page. Dan Richards thoroughly covers topics such as: target marketing, prospecting, putting the customer first, getting referrals, conducting evaluations of your service, networking, managing a large client base and even firing difficult clients; and of course, everything in between. There are so many magnificent and expertly covered ideas in this book, you might feel overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety after finishing the book. Never fear, Richards touches on how you can implement many of the ideas in his book one or a few at a time without going overboard. I will advise that this book is geared more towards the advisor with a year or more in the business (e.g. it does not cover cold calling), however, novices will pick up many ideas that will be useful in dealing with clients from the outset and in growing a practice effortlessly. As an aside but also important, the central tenet of this book is similar to the ideas covered in Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Both are highly recommended.
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