Successful Succession: Why You Really DO Need a Plan

If you are in the business of dispensing financial advice and/or managing wealth for high net worth individuals, you are likely familiar with the statistics showing that this is a greying industry. Cerulli research suggests that the average age of financial advisers is 50.9 years and 43 percent of all advisers in the U.S. are […]

Prospecting: Uncover and Develop New Business

Looking at sunshine through the blinds

Guest post by John Naples, Encore Consulting Group WHEN I FIRST STARTED in sales, one of the first skills I learned was how to uncover new selling opportunities. I was part of a sales organization that placed high value on cold calling, and expected the salesperson to master appointment setting both over the telephone and by […]

Discovering: Identify Needs, Wants, and Pain Areas

Guest post by John Naples, Encore Consulting Group WHEN I FIRST STARTED in sales, I was as green as they come. I entered the field directly after graduating from college and went to work for Lanier Worldwide in the highly competitive telecommunications industry. I was trained to hit the streets in San Diego’s Mission Valley and […]

Streamlining Your Advisory Firm – From Fire Drill to Efficient

There is so much to do in an advisory firm –following the markets and keeping up on economic developments, responding to client inquiries or preparing for client meetings and events, hiring and developing employees, working on the marketing message, ensuring technology is up-to-date… Lots to do and, most weeks, seemingly little time to do it […]

Why Empathy Matters: Being More Empathetic at Work Can Help Reduce Work-Related Stress

In the last two decades, increasing numbers of news articles, reports, surveys and studies confirm what most of us already knew: For the majority of American employees, work = stress. 80% of employees are stressed at work due to at least one factor; Almost half of them confess that they don’t know how to manage […]

Matching Styles: How Adopting a New Boss’s Behavioral Style Can Help Employees Succeed

As a rule, it is worrisome when a new boss comes on the scene, especially if you were comfortable working under the former one. You could have been doing a good job, but then you get a boss that is very different from you or from your previous manager. All of a sudden what you […]

Good Selling = Good Relating

In business, just as in real life, good relationships matter. It’s a simple truth that a lot of businesspeople tend to forget. Many place a high premium on networking and fail to give proper care to the relationships that they have already created. While networking can certainly help build awareness and make new sales, the […]

Effective Communication and How to Get What You Want From People

If you want something, sometimes the best approach is to ask for it. We ask customers to buy our products; we ask potential investors to put their trust – and money – into our ideas; we ask for salary increases and promotions; we raise complaints, etc. Some people just ask naturally but in many cases […]

Part 2. Major Time Wasters: What Managers Can Do to Enhance Employee Productivity

Time at work can be wasted in so many different ways. While some employees end up wasting time due to boredom or job dissatisfaction, others have simply never learned how to cope effectively with their workload and obligations. In Part 1 of Major Time Wasters, we discussed some of the common ways in which employees […]

On the Importance of Prioritizing and Defining a Desired Outcome

Every day multiple things require our attention: projects that are due, recent developments in the office, last-minute changes, unexpected calls and emails from colleagues, bosses and clients, and the list goes on. A constant flood of information, requests, updates and demands doesn’t stop and wait for us to catch a breath, regroup and brace ourselves […]