The Advisor Playbook Quotes

“professionals who think for a living.”
― Duncan MacPherson, The Advisor Playbook: Regain Liberation and Order in your Personal and Professional Life

“To give you an example of a referral process template in a more general sense, let’s look at a fictional financial advisor using the S.O.N.A.R. process a concept adapted from the book How to Get Your Competition Fired by Randy Schwantz. The process follows five steps as you speak with an existing client and keys off the Contrast Principle, with a focus on positioning that encourages the client to suggest they refer you to a friend, rather than you asking for a referral.”
― Duncan MacPherson, The Advisor Playbook: Regain Liberation and Order in your Personal and Professional Life

“Advisors ask me what it takes to be referable. My response is simple: It all comes down to trust. Clients and strategic partners have to trust that endorsing you will reflect positively on them in turn, but what does that mean, and how can you predictably and methodically create trust? Let’s revisit the foundation of refer-ability, summed up in the four Cs.: Credentials – Your skills as a professional advisor in terms of your judgment and the solutions you provide give you the credibility needed to foster trust. Consistency – People crave consistency and your professional deployment of best practices helps you meet and exceed the expectations you set for your clients. Chemistry – The rapport you develop using F.O.R.M., as well as your sincere and holistic interest in your clients’ lives, creates comfort and chemistry. Congruency – Doing what you say you will and conducting yourself as a professional consultant rather than as a salesperson means that you can attract rather than having to chase new business. Many elite advisors who deploy the Four C’s are still underwhelmed with the quality and quantity of referrals they see. The reason is simple - while they have laid down a foundation for refer-ability, they still find themselves in the red-zone but not in the Promised Land. The last piece of the puzzle is to create awareness for the concept of referrals in their on-going Communication (the fifth C) with their clients and rain-makers. Just because you are referable due to your professional conduct, that doesn’t mean that it will occur to your clients that they should introduce a friend to you. You have to continually communicate your value to them so that they make the connection.”
― Duncan MacPherson, The Advisor Playbook: Regain Liberation and Order in your Personal and Professional Life

“I see professional advisors cold-call perfect strangers rather than do a call rotation for existing clients. I see advisors do prospecting seminars rather than a client advisory council or client appreciation event, and I see advisors run advertising campaigns rather than network with existing strategic allies and other professional influencers. “Spray and pray” marketing strategies are flawed on so many levels. Why, then, do so many advisors still attempt them? The reason for this is simple; nurturing existing relationships and other tried and true strategies can be boring and rarely results in instant gratification. Too many advisors want to find the next “new idea”, something with some “sizzle”, and, as a result, are continually searching for and dabbling with concepts that ultimately have minimal impact. It’s not unlike investing. How many times have you seen someone try to hit a home-run with a high-risk investment opportunity rather than stick with a methodical long-term approach? It’s not just money that compounds. As I’ve said before, discipline compounds, too. You have to be patient and let your efforts gather momentum. Too many advisors get themselves into the proverbial “Red Zone” and, rather than stick to the plan and see it through, they self-sabotage by abandoning the fundamentals and trying something new. Neglect also compounds. If we neglect our existing relationships it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be lured away and we’ll have to throw our own Hail Mary. Don’t deviate from your process. Identify the most fundamentally sound and proven trust-building activities, stick with them and tune out all the other noise. It’s much more effective to strengthen and nurture existing relationships over the long haul, rather than perpetually trying to start new ones. The prospecting treadmill is draining and you are building a business that is chaotic and unfocused. Relationships are proprietary and are a big part of the equity that you are building in your business.”
― Duncan MacPherson, The Advisor Playbook: Regain Liberation and Order in your Personal and Professional Life

“I suggest that you approach each call with the goal of being interested rather than trying to be interesting. You aren’t calling to sell something or be the bearer of profound news or insight. You are just touching base and asking good questions. This”
― Duncan MacPherson, The Advisor Playbook: Regain Liberation and Order in your Personal and Professional Life

“You know there are some people who resent your fees. That is sometimes due to the fact that you weren’t forthright about your fees and they became aware of them later. You have to own that so that you never have a client calling you asking “My accountant just informed me that I paid you $70,000 in fees last year. Is that accurate?”
― Duncan MacPherson, The Advisor Playbook: Regain Liberation and Order in your Personal and Professional Life