Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
I have a great group of people working with me in my firm. They are engaged, involved and attentive to our clients. I don’t have the team problems you often write about; we don’t have the interpersonal conflicts and difficulties others seem to experience.
However, lately everyone is a bit worn out. Once the virtual scene came upon us, we had twice weekly calls. We would connect on Monday mornings and on Friday afternoons to sync up and figure out what’s happening. Now about half of our 13 people show up regularly. Others will say they have a conflict or have a client issue they have to attend to.
I didn’t think much about it until recently one of my confidants in the firm told me that people are avoiding coming on screen. She said, “They are worn out on life.” I asked her what this meant, and she talked about those with smaller children, the number of clients who we need to do virtual face-to-face with and the long days everyone is putting in.
I sympathize with this. After this election, the concern about the markets and tax implications, the frustration with the rising coronavirus cases and the potential impact on the economy and so on I’m not sleeping too well myself at night. But people cannot just opt out of participating in the business.
I get that we are all tired, but our clients don’t care. They are tired too and they are expecting us to do whatever is needed to care for their financial situation.
Do I institute consequences for not coming to these meetings? Do I insist no client calls are planned during this time? Do I cancel the meetings altogether and run the risk of missing something important? I am stuck.
S.M.
Dear S.M.,
Has there ever been a time in any of our careers where the population is as collectively tired and worn out as it is now? One would think that abandoning hours spent commuting, and traveling would give us all more time to rest and recharge but, from all accounts, it seems like it is the opposite. People are not taking vacation or even days off. They are working longer hours – it is easy to do when your desk is right around the corner from your bed and the kitchen!
You are right to step back and question the best approach to continuing to run your firm in a virtual world while attending to both the needs of clients and employees. That’s the crux of the question – how does everyone get what they need?
You have an opportunity to brainstorm this with your group. Instead of allowing he proverbial elephant in the room to be there and considering consequences, or new approaches, that may or may not work, have a general conversation with your team. Acknowledge the reality of the situation and the need to balance all sides of the equation and ask your team to consider alternatives.
For example, you could:
- Do shorter meetings, or have one per week instead of two;
- Use a system like Slack (www.slack.com), where you have more frequent communications throughout the day;
- Have meetings that include different subsets of people – maybe all 13 do not need to be at these meetings and you could do smaller ones with someone responsible for a report-back;
- Add fun to your meetings – could people come to talk about the work, but then share something they are doing to de-stress or find fun throughout the day? It could be as simple as a good joke they heard or an insight they have learned; or
- Rotate who runs the meetings and prepares the agenda to keep them new and fresh.
These are some of the possibilities, and your team will likely have more. This is a great chance to pull them together, talk about what you are all experiencing and then work together to solve it.
Dear Bev,
One of my advisors tells me he does not have capacity in this virtual environment to find new business and serve clients well. Apparently, according to him, it takes all of his energy to get through the day doing what’s required for servicing and responding to clients. Can this be true? Should we stop prospecting or expecting new revenue to come in because we are virtual? What if this goes on for one or two more years? This advisor is 62-years old. How do I respond?
J.R.
Dear J.R.,
Many advisors are struggling to figure out how to implement sales techniques alongside their client servicing and investment duties in this virtual world. The need for planning becomes so much more important – scheduling time each day to consider where to focus, who to talk with, how to have a conversation about new introductions or meeting a center of influence.
As my other reader above asked about being “tired,” I find that many advisors are getting worn down doing everything virtually and most don’t love selling. It is the human condition, the easiest thing to put to the side is what we hate doing. If I get worn down, I’m certainly not going to have the energy to focus on what I don’t like.
I’m not sure if you added your advisor’s age because you are concerned he is a bit too old to change? I’ve seen advisors of all ages and all backgrounds be able to sell effectively but it does take focus.
Work with him on his time management. Could you help him to schedule differently so that he frees up some time each week to focus on new revenue? Could you coach him a bit to have more effective virtual conversations? Could you check-in with him and offer to role play for upcoming meetings?
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 