My personal office is a nice size but not big enough for a separate round conference table. I do have a separate conference room which offers a good setting with no distractions; however, it includes a 10 foot conference room table with 10 chairs around it. Any suggestions as to how I should address that?

Article ID: 223

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

It’s not imperative to do this immediately, but as soon as you can make it work, sell your desk and replace it with a round table. Work at this round table when you don’t have clients in your office and when you do have clients transition to your client meeting workspace.

For many years my “desk” has been a medium size oval dining room table. It works great.

In the meantime, use the end of the conference table in the conference room you described.

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Can you describe what a typical deliverables team looks like?

Say that I want my Ideal Clients to pay me $5000 per year, ideally where does that income come from? Planning fees, AUM, insurance sales?

It has been just over 12 months since I bought a client base of neglected clients. Over the holidays I have had time to consider where I am at in the context of Values-Based Financial Planning™. The situation is that I am still struggling with the question of who do I offer a Financial Road Map® to. I feel I must offer an appointment to these acquired clients to discuss their current accounts (whatever they may have), I can’t extract any value from them or increased revenue from them otherwise. I cannot ignore them and only offer an appointment to those who want a Financial Road Map® which is what I took from Bill’s response to a question last year. The initial contact with them is effectively a cold call given the neglect they had by the previous adviser, therefore impossible to offer a Financial Road Map® as no trust or relationship is in existence. The apathy and attitude towards an adviser from the majority of these people made it such that my assistant’s success in getting people in to just review what they had was less than anticipated. I could count maybe 10 appointments over 3 months he arranged and at a guess I know of three that cancelled or didn’t show up. In the context of the ‘Ideal Client,’ I am seriously questioning whether I presently have a client base of the wrong type of people to be able to afford the service and to be able to mentally connect to the philosophy required to be an Ideal Client. If this is the case, then where do I get an Ideal Client from??? In speaking with Shane Hatch he mentioned that in his experience the person would probably need to have at least $500K in investible funds to be able to afford the program. And I would tend to agree to an extent. This would rule out every one of the clients I purchased. I am thinking that the process I use may have to change to something as follows: 1. Invite each client in to review what they have and discuss this. This allows them to meet and maybe gain some trust and I can get a feel for them and their position. 2. After reviewing what they have, offer two options, to provide advice on what they have or anything else I pick up during the meeting, or, if I think warranted, offer a further appointment to undertake a Financial Road Map®. In the discussion offering the Financial Road Map® I explain what my business is about and they get a feel for what I do and not the perception of just being an ‘investment’ or ‘insurance’ adviser. The end result is that I get a win either way and re-engage with them. I have some competing interests at play here that is difficult to work around. Firstly I have lost a lot more clients than budgeted for in the first 12 months (in fact a lot had cancelled before sale) and expected income is well below what was purchased. So I am trying to maintain this income or increase it any way possible by any amount to make the loan I have a worthwhile exercise. This is competing with wanting to deal with more engaged clients that want a meaningful advice relationship that is comprehensive in nature; those that have some money and the ability to make changes and can pay for service. Can you give some advice as to how I deal with these people and secondly how I source Ideal Client if this isn't the solution I thought it was?

Should I schedule/conduct Financial Road Map® meetings with Non-Ideal Clients that won’t be able to afford our service and become Ideal Clients? I am trying to reconcile different comments regarding Non-Ideal Clients and Financial Road Map® meetings with Non-Ideal Clients • Jeff (& Tom Moore) – do a road map with ALL existing clients • Bill Bachrach 24/7 website – answer to a question – there are some existing clients you shouldn’t conduct Financial Road Map® meetings with • Rick Barrera – “Non-Ideal Clients will Steal Your Ideal Life….and prolong your journey…” Disengage as quickly as possible. I entered Ideal Life Evaluation Program and Committed Advisor Program with the approach that I will do what I am told to do and not question things (Tom M. and Peter’s O's advice). I am just having a difficult time reconciling; soaking up resources for a little more short term profit, getting FRM meeting experience, giving the gift of a Financial Road Map® to Non-Ideal Clients, Non-Ideal Clients potential referrals (although there would be a disincentive for them to refer where it would shorten their tenure as a client?), letting Non-Ideal Clients know what we are doing... We could add one deliverable and increase revenue but I am finding that my deliverables team is already stretched (it will get better with experience) with Implementation meetings, Progress Update meetings...we only have 14 Ideal Clients so we will be able to handle a lot more Ideal Clients work load once we gain efficiency and better time management. Although I think the time management by my Deliverables Team (in-house) has been fairly good - it seems to be more an issue of efficiency with new system and reports. I think it would be fun to do these road maps and an easy way to fill up some Client Acquisition time. While this may be easier than other Client Acquisition activities I don’t want to take the easy way out. Lastly, I think there is something to momentum and keeping busy on PRODUCTIVE Client Acquisition activities, I just want to make sure this is productive/the best use of my time.

I feel like I have been doing all of the planning and goal setting for my clients. I don't see any other way to invest their money unless their financial home is in order. Since this is already in my practice how do I go back to existing clients and say I am charging a fee to do what I’m suppose to do as a financial advisor?

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