Most people think the secret to success is passion. They’re wrong. Use the real “secret” to maximize your interactions with clients.

• Identify groups of clients with similar hobbies and interests.
• Look for relevant articles of special interest to mail to the people in these groups.
• Gather and prepare everything you need (like envelopes, compliments slips, and business cards) to eliminate the temptation to procrastinate and get these articles copied and mailed, even when you’re tired at the end of the day.

Transcript

Most people think the secret to success is passion. They’re wrong.

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I hear it all the time from advisors I have the opportunity to work with Ash Brokerage. They say, “I’ve just got to get passionate and get it done!” But being passionate only gets us so far. It’s the getting-it-done part that trips us up, and that involves building habits. That involves committing to taking care of the mundane steps, and that’s where the challenge lies.

I know when I was swimming, at 4:30 in the morning when my alarm clock went off, if I was to think about what the weather was like, if I heard rain outside, I know I was going to give myself the opportunity to procrastinate for another five minutes, and then the chances are I’d sleep in. I had to nullify that temptation, and I did that simply by building a routine, creating a habit. Every night before that morning session came, my bag was packed. I knew exactly where my car keys were. Once that alarm went off, I was on autopilot. I wasn’t going to have to think about it or rationalize how I was feeling. Take the feelings out of it.

So when you have been talking with clients all day long, and you would love to connect with them and send them a hard copy of a helpful piece of information, don’t rely on yourself feeling like doing that at four in the afternoon. Instead, automate the process. Here’s how you do that: simply have a compliments slip already paperclipped to an envelope, with your business card ready to go, just like I do. Why? Because I’m not going to give myself the chance to procrastinate. I’ve built a habit of doing this, and you want to too, because the information that you’re going to mail to your clients is going to be super helpful for them. It’s going to endear you more to them and let them see they’re top of mind.

So, to do this most effectively,

1. Group your clients. Get them into groups of people who share certain hobbies or have certain interests.


2. Look for information to send them. Look for articles to hard copy and then mail to those people.


3. Do it! Create your system: have your envelopes all ready, have your business card ready to roll, your compliments slip ready to write on. Then, come 4:00 PM, you’re going to feel great about sending out five of these touches each day.

You do that for five days a week, and you will have connected with 25 people! You haven’t had to overthink it. You’ve got your system set. You’ve got your habit formed. Don’t leave it up to just feeling passionate about it. Build the steps you need to follow so you really maximize the passion you feel about taking care of that particular challenge.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.

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