| |
Matt Oechsli
|
Kansas City: "It seems as though the affluent
prefer working with a team rather than a single advisor," said Jack.
"I'm curious about your thoughts on teams because I'm seriously
considering teaming up with someone in the office."
Today, approximately 50 percent of financial advisors are involved in
some sort of team arrangement, and the rest are very curious about it.
Nearly every time I talk about our affluent or team research, some sole
practitioner tells me he is considering either joining an existing team
or hooking up with another advisor and forming a team. I often find
myself voicing caution.
Teams are easy to form, but it's another thing all together to make that
team function optimally. The most common mistake advisors make is
forming a team without doing the proper homework.
Warren Buffet has a knack for simplifying complex issues. When it comes
to working with someone, he has three requirements: integrity, work
ethic, and competency relative to the job. Buffet considers these
essential elements for a successful working relationship and says they
are not teachable. If one of the elements is lacking, trouble will
surface at some point.
Our research into elite teams is in synch with Mr. Buffet's assessment.
This first step in team building--choosing the right partners--is
crucial to the team's success. We have developed a checklist for
advisors to follow when selecting the members of a team. This checklist
can be used by an advisor who is considering forming a team or joining
an existing team, or by a team that is running into internal challenges.
I began to share these with Jack and I could see his eyes glaze over
well before I was finished. My advice to him was to go slowly and use
our Team Forming Checklist before taking any drastic steps.
Whenever advisors are considering forming a team, there tends to be both
excitement and anxiety. People are cautiously optimistic. Individual
roles and responsibilities are unclear, and team members are often
guarded in their interactions. You have to get the right people on
board, for the right reasons, with the right work ethic, the right
integrity (total), the right core competencies, and a compatible goal
focus - both business and personal. It's no wonder so many teams blow
through this critical stage of development.
Because of space constraints, the following is a sampling of our Team
Forming Checklist (8 of 15 items) we use to help advisors take the
proper steps at this stage. This should provide you with an idea of what
is involved as it's here that most would-be teams fail to exercise
proper due-diligence. If you're interested in the entire Team Forming
Checklist, you can access a version through our FREE
download center.
Forming Checklist (8 of 15 Criteria)
1.Trust. You need a 360-degree circle of trust, meaning you must
have complete trust in your partner(s), and they must have complete
trust in you. This integrity component is essential to a team's
long-term success.
2.Compatibility. Although trust is essential, you also must be
able to get along in a high-pressure business environment. This is not
the same thing as enjoying each other's company socially. The following
graph is taken from our 2007 and 2009 studies on financial teams. We
asked these teams, "How important is it for team members to share common
values for work effort, work quality and client service?" As you can see
quite clearly, what teams consider extremely important is not always
connected with their day-to-day reality. That said, 96 percent of teams
found these shared values to be "very" to "extremely" important. And
yet, few truly take this into consideration when forming a team.
3.Work Ethic. Whenever one partner perceives that he or she is
working harder than the other, resentment surfaces that will ultimately
lead to conflict and could destroy the team. Everyone must agree on the
desired work ethic prior to forming the team.
4.Competency. This should go without saying, but all team
members must be fully capable of performing well in their areas of
expertise. History is a fairly good indicator. For instance, if a
partner has acquired very few clients over the past 12 months, he or she
will probably struggle in marketing the team - a.k.a., Rainmaking.
**You'll notice that we have incorporated Warren Buffets three
essential criteria.**
5.Comprehensive Business Plan. Each partner must agree on the
team's vision -the long-range goals, ideal client, number of ideal
clients, assets, revenue, services provided, etc. This is essential for
creating a "critical path" that the team will follow as it grows.
6.Clear and Unified Goals. Each partner has to buy-in to annual
team goals, meaning they must subjugate personal goals to the collective
goals.
7.Clear Roles and Responsibilities. Every team member should
have a clear role and delegated areas of responsibility prior to
forming.
8.Partner Contribution Clarity. Each partner should have a clear
understanding of his/her individual contribution to the team's annual
goals. Procedures should be in place for making partner compensation
adjustments if one partner…
- Exceeds Individual Contribution Targets, or
- Falls Behind Individual Contribution Targets.
It doesn't take long to realize that, done properly, putting together
the right team requires a lot of work, which is why some steps are
frequently skipped. This is a mistake that you must avoid. If you
determine that your team is stuck in its quest for becoming an elite
team, you might want to revisit this Forming stage; using our checklist
would be a worthwhile exercise. If you are interested in the complete
Team Forming Checklist, visit our FREE
download center.
Advisors can no longer take shortcuts if they expect to have success
with today's affluent investor. Forming a team will only give Jack an
advantage if he can develop it into an elite team.
*parts of this article are excerpted from Matt Oechsli's latest book
Elite Financial Teams: The 17% Solution.
Once again, we want to thank all of you who have emailed comments and
questions to us. We will continue to do our best to answer each one.
If you have any topic suggestions or special requests, please contact
Rich Santos, publisher of Registered Rep. and Trust &
Estates magazines, at rich.santos@penton.com.
|
|
|
advertisement
LPL Financial offers unprecedented benefits for financial
advisors, such as group health insurance, reduced transaction fees, a
deferred compensation plan, unbiased research, superior technology and
more. LPL Financial is the broker/dealer of choice for more than 11,000
advisors. Visit joinlpl.com.
Member FINRA/SIPC
|
advertisement
At Ameriprise, we believe clients and advisors deserve more,
and more is what we offer. Become part of a nationwide family of
financial professionals backed by a stable FORTUNE 500® company with
the financial strength, visionary leadership and resources you need. Learn more.
|
advertisement
Build your book of business and your career with
Registered Rep.'s Business Builder
Registered Rep.'s Business Builder is the one-stop toolkit
for growing your business pipeline and achieving your career development
goals. We’ve scoured the marketplace to form exclusive partnerships
with best-of-breed providers and have leveraged our position in the
industry to offer many of these services at reduced rates. Learn
more.
|
|
|
