client focus

Flashy Clues and Second Opinions
photo shows one hand with white skin pointing to a piece of paper that another hand with white skin is signing with a pen

If you’ll forgive my language, I believe the way to “revolutionize” the financial services industry is quite simple: you just cut the crap.

The pushy peddlers of old aren’t entirely gone, and it reminds me to come back to the basics. Clients first. If you’re better off, I’m better off. Grow the buckets.

I recently met a person, well into the retirement years, who escaped some real damage by listening to their guts on a financial proposition. The peddler who almost got to them reminded me of the antics of a character I met as a young man starting out in the life insurance business, long ago.

This classic peddler fit every stereotype of the master salesman of the last century. Big pinkie ring, Cadillac, flashy suits. His motto? “Dazzle them with diamonds, baffle them with bull….”

It didn’t matter if you needed what he was selling or not. The question was, could he make a buck by tricking you into buying it?

The sales abuses are just as real today. Can you imagine tying up money for 10 years when you are retired, facing a huge penalty if you do want your money out, and getting mediocre returns just so a peddler can get a big insurance commission? It happens.

The bad news is, the obvious signs like pinkie rings and flashy suits are gone, replaced by a sea of nice websites with family pictures and flowery talk about your best interests and the peddler’s degrees and designations. The good news: you can always get a second opinion.

I’m in business to talk all day. If someone you know needs a second opinion, I’d love to talk to them. Here to help as I can.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Flashy Clues and Second Opinions – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text can be found at https://www.228Main.com/.

The Gong Show, Seminar Edition

© Can Stock Photo / dutourdumonde

I spend most of my days working with you or for you on your investments and planning. A few days each year are spent at seminars and conferences, working to get better at working with you or for you.

It is great to find a new perspective or idea or tool that helps us with our work, especially delivered by an inspired and inspiring speaker. But sometimes things we see and hear are just not a good fit for our values and philosophies. The last seminar I attended had much that was helpful.

But the part that was not helpful was interesting. Reflecting on it, it had to do with a mismatch in philosophy.

One of the speakers was a consultant for a coaching outfit, one that works with financial advisors to help them grow their businesses. After the preliminaries, he began his presentation by asking attendees to visualize how much money they wanted to make, three years down the road, encouraging our ambitions. And then, write that number down in the notebook provided. Next, how many millions in client assets did we want, three years hence? Write that down.

Thinking about the future and setting goals is a familiar and valuable exercise. But it was what came next that made me think of The Gong Show.

(One of the first reality TV talent shows, The Gong Show featured amateur acts appearing before a panel of celebrity judges. A judge could end an audition by striking a loud gong.)

The next topic after the money exercise was about the importance of being client-focused. Before many words were said about how vital it is to be centered on clients, I heard the gong in my head and thought, “Too late. You already established that you are focused on money, not clients.”

We concluded long ago that the better off you are, the better off we are likely to be, down the road. So when I walk in the door of 228 Main each morning I think, “What can we do to grow the buckets?” Of course, that’s not the only thing. We also work on helping you use your resources in your real life, to spend well. It is all part of being better off. Our business objective is to improve your outcomes.

The better off you are, the better off we are likely to be. My income is a byproduct of how well or poorly we help you become better off. That fits the definition of client focus a lot more closely than having your results be a leftover effect of how much money I want to make.

There were other things in that seminar presentation that struck me as off, but if I had a gong I would not have heard them.

Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email us or call.