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August 25, 2020 at 09:24 AM
Unless you’re brand new as a financial advisor, you’ve likely had one or more windfalls. One might have made your month. Another could have made your year.
Occasionally, you will hear of a windfall that makes a career. Perhaps yours.
Here are two that made careers.
A phone call to an advisor, “I want you to meet my new wife.”
This call led to a transfer of 83 accounts. The sucking sound was so loud that the CEO of the national firm jumped into the corporate jet and flew to Texas to try to save the client. Too late.
The second career-maker was from a young man with a $40,000 account.
He borrowed enough money to live for a year. He spent that year writing some computer code that is part of the data management systems for cloud computing.
He’s now adding about $40 million a year to his investment accounts.
How Do Windfalls Happen?
In the context of your practice, a windfall is a substantial asset that suddenly moves or becomes cash.
Whether you get it is luck, right? Well, maybe not.
Consider these philosophical gems:
“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” Seneca, Stoic philosopher, 1st Century AD
“I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.” Oprah Winfrey, modern philosopher
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” Abraham Lincoln
“We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.” Thomas Edison
Let’s assume these sages are correct. Opportunity, luck if you will, requires preparation.
Be Prepared: The Essentials
In my opinion, based on coaching thousands of advisors over decades in this industry, preparation is four things.
It is creating and sustaining the trusted advisor relationship with every client. This alone can direct an “out of the blue” windfall to you.
To increase your odds, have detailed knowledge of every asset which could re-materialize into an opportunity.
The first step in acquiring this knowledge is to find and catalog these assets. “The ‘How’ of Windfall Prospecting” on my website truly is the “how to” you are going to need (and can be downloaded).
Finally, engage with your biggest competitor.
“Hold on Bill,” you say. “How am I supposed to engage my biggest competitor?
