how to build your business in a down market vestment advisors 7935 stone creek drive #120...

©Vestment Advisors Inc. 2005-2008 all rights reserved 1

How to Build Your How to Build Your Business in a Down Business in a Down

MarketMarket

Vestment Advisors7935 Stone Creek Drive #120Chanhassen, MN 55317(952) 401-1045www.vestmentadvisors.com

December 2, 2008December 2, 2008

Katherine Vessenes, J.D., CFP®, RFCPresident, Vestment Advisors

©Vestment Advisors Inc. 2005-2008 all rights reserved 2How to Build Your Business in a How to Build Your Business in a Down MarketDown Market

Katherine Vessenes

According to Dearborn Press, Katherine Vessenes is “America’s Leading Authority on Building the Multimillion-Dollar Practice.”

Entertaining and always full of practical suggestions to help advisors make their businesses more profitable with less effort, Katherine Vessenes knows how to keep an audience energized, involved and motivated to take action. Reviews consistently rate her among the top presenters at financial events.

Katherine takes topics that can often be complicated and boring--like compliance, practice management or marketing systems--and makes them easy to understand, yet lively and entertaining for the audience. Says Katherine, “I don’t feel like I have succeeded, unless each person gets a piece of information they can use to make their business more profitable and their life easier.”

The Creator of the No-Sell Sale™, Katherine uses her personal experiences as a top financial advisor and consultant to help her audiences achieve an easy, almost effortless sale. “We have a bumper-to-bumper approach for transforming a practice into a business. Her success with this system helped her become a well-known industry leader on making your practice more profitable, attracting more clients, and staying out of trouble at the same time.

Katherine is also a nationally known expert on the legal, ethical and compliance issues facing financial advisors. She is fond of saying: “I have never seen a compliance regulation that we couldn’t turn into an marketing advantage.”

After getting her securities, RIA and insurance licenses in 1984, Katherine left personal financial planning in 1989 to become Vice President and Officer of the IDS Mutual Fund Group (now Ameriprise) where she was legal counsel to Gerald Ford, and other Fortune 20 CEOs. Later she created two ethics programs for advisors with American Express, in conjunction with the ICFP. She has also served on the CFP® Board of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and for two years consulted with a large broker/dealer on standardizing her “No-Sell Sale” system across their sales force.

In addition to running her own business, Katherine is an attorney, popular industry consultant and has authored three books: Protecting Your Practice, The Compliance and Liability Handbook, and the just released: Building Your Multimillion-Dollar Practice, which she co-authored with her husband and business partner, Peter Vessenes.

“Katherine Vessenes is America’s best known authority on the legal, ethical and compliance issues facing financial advisors.” Bloomberg


Introduction

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Introduction


1. The worst things you can do now: Ignore clients Go dormant Not have a good script in mind Have a bad attitude


Some simple steps you can take to keep clients happy and get new business:


1. For existing clients, I recommend a six step process:

1. Call them! Use a script



2. The Saturday Morning Open House Call, email and send written invitations Make sure to tell everyone you will be offering coffee

and doughnut, homemade brownie (whatever will appeal to your clients).

Let them know you will be available to answer and questions they may have about their accounts

First come, first serve. You will be available from 8 am to 2 pm. You will be offering this every week until the clients

don’t come any more!



3. Educational Meeting Once again, call, email and send out written invitations to

a weeknight or a Saturday breakfast, that is entitled Market Briefing. How we got here, where we are going and our thought on your financial future.

The keys to focus on:1. Honest Information2. An up beat attitude - that is fair and balanced3. What clients can expect4. The importance of updating their financial plans5. Getting them into your office



3. Educational Meeting (Continued) This is a great time to prospect for new clients. So

tell every client, that you will save them 4 extra tickets if they would like to bring a friend along.

Example Make sure to get everyone’s name and address so

that you can follow- up after the meeting. I would block out at least one day just to make calls. Use script



4. Emails Send out at least one a week During severe market down falls, you

could send them out every 3 days



5. Client Advisory Board



6. Client Survey


2. Go after orphan accounts

Script


3. Diffusing the Unhappy client

1. Get them into your office

2. Once they are in the office, follow script


4. Six things to remember when working with Unhappy Clients

1. This is not the time to make excuses2. Don’t get into blaming anyone, particularly the

client3. You have to remain calm4. Don’t get angry back5. Don’t offer any solutions - he who speaks first

loses6. Obviously, if they are looking for refunds or

restitution, you should say: You know, I have no say on those matters, but I would be happy to take it to my supervisor if you like. I can’t make any promises, but I can see what we can do


Summary

Vestment AdvisorsVestment Advisors7935 Stone Creek Drive, Suite 120Chanhassen, MN 55317(952) 401-1045 office(952) 470-7989 faxwww.vestmentadvisors.com

http://www.invest-store.com/vestmentadvisors/ Katherine VessenesJ.D., CFP®, RFCPresident, Vestment Advisors

how to build your business in a down market vestment advisors 7935 stone creek drive #120...

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