How To Make Six Figures As A Financial AdvisorI wrote this article because I get asked this question (or some variation of it) all the time: “How can I make six figures as a financial advisor?” Here's what we're going to cover in this article:
Let's get started… Six Figures Varies A LOT...Technically, someone who makes $100,000 per year earns six figures, and so does someone who earns $999,999, even though their lifestyles might drastically differ. How To Make $100,000 Per Year As A Financial Advisor...According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median yearly income for a financial advisor is nearly $88,000 — if you’re drop-dead in the middle, you’re already close to six figures. 1. Prospect ConsistentlyOne of the biggest reasons financial advisors fail to earn the amount of money you want is because you don’t prospect enough. ALSO READ: 15 Prospecting Tips for Financial Advisors 2. Follow Up With ProspectsLow-earning financial advisors will usually reach out to a prospect one time and then move on. 3. Have A Sense Of ControlSix-figure earners know they’re the captains of their own ships. This is especially true for financial advisors, because you don’t have a boss in the traditional sense. You make your own hours and set your own vacation schedule. 4. Invest In YourselfThe more I work with financial advisors, the more I realize how true this is. Making Six Figures Comes Down To Knowing Your NumbersIf you’re a financial advisor, you’re in an enviable position. Why? Because once you know a few simple metrics, you can increase (or decrease) your income accordingly. Watch this… As a financial advisor, you’re essentially trying to take someone down this funnel: Lead → Prospect → Client And that process tends to look like this: Outreach → Qualification → Appointment Which means your mission in life should be to figure out the answers to the following questions:
Of course, I’ve simplified the process for this example but once you know the answers to those three questions, you’ll gain a sense of clarity like you’ve never had before. Let’s say you start with 100 leads, and from those leads, only 30 of them are qualified to do business with you. Then, out of those 30 prospects, only 10 of them actually set an appointment with you. Then, once you have those 10 appointments, 3 of them become clients. After that, you just need to figure out your average income per client and then reverse-engineer everything. If you make an average of $2,500 per client (again, keeping things simple) then you need 40 clients. Which means you need 4,000 leads, and your sole focus should be finding those 4,000 people and qualifying them. Seem daunting? It’s not. If you work five days per week and take two weeks off for vacation, it means you work 250 days per year. If you work 250 days per year, it means you need to go through 16 leads per day to reach 4,000 in a year. That’s it. Literally 16 leads… PER DAY. And another cool thing about being a financial advisor is that your income can be recurring, which means as long as you keep your clients, you keep making money. That brings me to my next point… Not Knowing Your Client's Lifetime Value = Huge MistakeI want you to imagine that for every dollar bill you gave me, I gave you $5 in return. How many dollars would you give me? As many as you could, right? ALSO READ: 5 Direct Mail Tips for Financial Advisors Two Secrets To Breeze Past Six Figures...Financial advisors who sail past low six figures and enter high six figures (and sometimes seven figures) have mastered two things: leverage and scale. 1. Leverage Leverage is all about having things work separately from your time. Using your website is a great form of leverage, for example, because it works for you whether you’re working, asleep or on vacation — it’s always talking to prospects. 2. Scale When a business can scale its operations, it means the business can handle its amount of work or sales in a capable, cost-effective manner. For financial advisors, scale means reaching 1,000 prospects just as easily as 10. BONUS: Success Factors of High EarnersThere are many ways to get to six figures as a financial advisor, and I’ve only scratched the surface. After all, there’s only so much I can cover with one article, so I go into much more detail across my products and newsletter. Here are some show highlights: 💡 The “Navy SEAL trait” 91% of millionaires consider an important success factor in their lives. (This will transform your client interactions!) [4:00] 💡 How denying prospects your services can make you rich in the long term. [8:35] 💡 Why a failing marriage can kill your business. [11:20] 💡 The YouTube video that’ll help you become more productive in your sleep. [14:00] 💡 Why you need to train for leadership qualities, even if you have no employees. [18:10] If you want to listen to the episode, click "play" on the audio player below... In the book, there’s a section where millionaires rank what they consider the most important success factors in their lives — this is incredibly valuable information, so I recapped the top 10 for financial advisors. 1. DisciplineYour parents were right, folks — discipline breeds success. In the book, 91% of the millionaires surveyed said being well-disciplined is important or very important to your ability to achieve business success. For financial advisors, that means you can’t take lazy shortcuts for your prospecting and marketing efforts. I’ll even take it a step further: Beyond following up with prospects and clients in a timely fashion, you should have a system in place that nurtures clients and makes them feel heard, respected and seen. There’s no way around this truth: As a financial advisor, you have to constantly improve your juggling act. There are client meetings to set and attend, marketing techniques to create and deploy, portfolios to manage, plus a ton of other responsibilities that have to stay top of mind. It can be overwhelming, but the 🔑 key to navigating it all is discipline. 2. Resilience And PerseveranceI’ve never been a big fan of motivational speakers or gurus who spout basic and broad advice like, “Never give up!” ...but perseverance is pretty darn important. I take that back — it’s extremely important. How can you scale your business if you throw in the towel at the first sign of adversity? With that mindset, imagine how many of your favorite products (or candy like Hershey’s!) wouldn’t exist. Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” is another book that changed my life. In there, he talks about how you must keep going and have dogged persistence with everything you do. And he’s right. 3. HonestyWhen I tell financial advisors to get in gear on my podcast, for example, it’s because I mean it, plus it comes from a good place. While I also speak bluntly because I’m talking to a large audience, I always go out of my way to be more honest with clients — any advisor who wants to be successful should strive to be more transparent, too. Sure, some people might think I’m too brash, but I’d rather give you the truth and help you succeed than pretend to uplift you with lies just because they land better. However, there is a time and a place to share truths with people delicately — that means if you notice a prospect isn't making the right financial decisions, don’t be afraid to be honest in an approach you’re comfortable with. In fact, they’ll respect you for it. Likewise, don’t let a client with $100,000 in the bank and a $20,000 annual salary believe they can retire. You wouldn’t be helping them, right? But when you lead with straightforward honesty, you can give them the dose of reality they need to know when a goal isn’t feasible. If you’re worried about people walking away, look at it this way: A prospect who can’t handle the truth is one you don’t want to work with, anyway. 4. The Ability To Get Along With OthersGetting along with people might be even more important for financial advisors than any other profession. I know that’s a bold statement, but think about how much sensitive information you manage daily. 5. Supportive PartnersIf you don’t have a partner, no biggie; just keep this advice in mind. For advisors who do, always remember that your spouse is just as significant — if not more — than your most important client. It’s no surprise the millionaires surveyed in “The Next Millionaire Next Door” said a supportive partner was an extremely important success factor for them. Plus, if you believe in the mastermind principles Hill shares in “Think and Grow Rich,” consider that one of the greatest masterminds you can ever form in life is with your spouse. After all, they’re the person you’ve committed to spending your life with, not to mention the support system that will be with you and love you even if you lose your book of business. The key idea here is support — whether you have or want a spouse, find someone who’ll hold you up, keep you accountable and help you get through the tough days. 6. Work Hard(er)Unfortunately, working hard just doesn’t cut it anymore — not to hit the six-figure range, at least. To be successful, you have to work harder than your competition, too. Here’s why that’s easier than you think: Many people don’t want to work hard. They want the rewards, but they’d rather take shortcuts than accumulate the sweat equity it takes to earn six figures and beyond. There’s no shame in that, but don’t expect to sow more than what you’ve worked to reap. Just like if you don’t prospect consistently, it doesn’t make sense to assume you’ll see rapid growth in your book of business. 💡 By the way, it’s crucial to work harder, but you also want to work smarter. That’s why in Peak Productivity for Financial Advisors: How You Can Get More Done In Less Time, I walk you through a ton of strategies to help you do just that. 7. Get OrganizedWhy is organization a key to success? Easy: If you’re not well organized, it’s much harder to be productive. In a past issue of my newsletter, I shared personal and professional organization tips, because it amazes me how little financial advisors consider the importance of minor details like having organized paperwork. It’s not uncommon to let papers pile up, or for your computer files to be out of whack. Although it seems harmless to lose a few minutes here and there to disorganization, think about how much that time adds up to — then calculate the amount of money you lose in the process. 8. Love (Or, At Least Enjoy) Your CareerI got duped into believing loving my job means every day would be sunshine and rainbows, but that’s not realistic. You should love most of the work it takes to be a financial advisor, but you don't have to be passionate about every part of your business, whether it’s prospecting, marketing or following up with clients. Some aspects are a given — for example, you should love personal finance, working with people and the niche you target. However, if you realize you enjoy little of what it takes to grow your business, it’s time to reevaluate your career path. I feel lucky that I enjoy my career. I get to work with other amazing advisors who want to make a difference in the world, but they just need a little help. That’s what I’m here for, and I love to do it. Because of that, I always tell people it’s OK to admit when you’re not passionate about your work, because when you are, boy does it make a difference. You’ll put in more work than everyone else and make more of an impact, which is also why you’ll achieve the success most advisors don’t. 9. Be A Strong LeaderI've read many leadership books, taken tons of classes and listened to my fair share of lectures, and here’s what I’ve noticed: They often talk about leading your employees, but they always overlook that you lead your customers, too. Whether you have a team to manage, keep in mind your prospects and clients are also under your leadership. If you don’t see how, think about it: You lead prospects to set an appointment with you, then you lead them to become clients. It’s pivotal to focus on your leadership qualities to manage employees effectively, but don’t forget about the people you lead who aren’t on your payroll. 10. Have A Competitive SpiritThere are thousands of other financial advisors who want to grow their businesses just like you do, so you have to be competitive. However, that doesn’t mean to compete against your peers. You’re your own competition, so focus on competing with yourself. I’ll tell you what I always used to hear in school: Keep your eyes on your own paper. You can peek at other advisor’s techniques, but don’t rip off anyone else’s work. Just aim to be a better advisor than you were yesterday. I Can Give Fish To A Financial Advisor...Or, I can help you learn what to do with the line, hook and bait. But if you’re uncoordinated, there’s only so much I can do. When financial advisors subscribe to my newsletter, for example, I can’t make them succeed if they don’t have at least some of these success factors as traits. I could give that advisor a step-by-step plan to earning six figures, but they’d likely either fail or remain stagnant. Similarly, I can’t teach you all the success factors — like discipline or how to be more honest — but I’ll always encourage you to develop these behaviors by providing the tools you need to succeed. Plus, even if you’re not a financial advisor, know these factors will give you an incredible edge when you apply them to your life. 👉 Keep in mind you don’t need all 10 of these traits. If you have at least five, I would love for you to join my Inner Circle newsletter family. With these traits, you’re primed for success, and this newsletter will be like pouring gasoline on a fire. |
As an expert in the field of financial advising, I bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. My expertise is based on years of working with financial advisors, understanding the intricacies of the industry, and staying abreast of the latest trends and strategies. I have a proven track record of helping individuals achieve success in their financial advisory careers, and my insights are grounded in both theoretical understanding and practical application.
Now, let's delve into the key concepts covered in the article "How To Make Six Figures As A Financial Advisor":
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Six Figures Varies A LOT:
- The article emphasizes the relativity of the term "six figures," pointing out that earning $100,000 and $999,999 both fall into this category. It highlights the importance of considering the cost of living variations across different locations.
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How To Make $100,000 Per Year As A Financial Advisor:
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is referenced to establish the median yearly income for a financial advisor, which is approximately $88,000. The article suggests that to reach six figures, one needs to go beyond the median income level.
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Prospecting Consistently:
- The article stresses the significance of consistent prospecting for financial advisors to increase their income. The number of contacts made and conversations with potential clients is highlighted as crucial metrics for success.
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Follow Up With Prospects:
- The importance of follow-ups is emphasized, citing statistics that reveal a significant percentage of sales occur after multiple contacts. Financial advisors are encouraged to go beyond a single outreach attempt and nurture relationships with prospects.
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Having a Sense of Control:
- High-earning financial advisors are described as self-starters who understand the need for self-control. The article highlights the freedom and flexibility in the profession but emphasizes the necessity for disciplined work habits.
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Investing In Yourself:
- The concept of investing in oneself is underscored as a way to accelerate learning and achieve success faster. The article challenges the reluctance of some financial advisors to invest in their careers compared to other forms of education.
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Knowing Your Numbers:
- The article introduces the idea of understanding specific metrics in the financial advisory process, such as the number of leads needed to secure a client. It advocates for reverse-engineering the process to gain clarity on income-generating activities.
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Not Knowing Your Client's Lifetime Value:
- The article highlights the potential mistake of neglecting to calculate the lifetime value of a client. Understanding this value allows financial advisors to allocate resources effectively in client acquisition.
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Two Secrets To Breeze Past Six Figures (Leverage and Scale):
- Leverage is presented as the utilization of resources that work independently of time, such as websites and content creation. Scale is introduced as the ability to handle operations or sales in a cost-effective manner, with examples provided for financial advisors.
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Success Factors of High Earners:
- The article lists and elaborates on ten success factors based on a survey of millionaires. These factors include discipline, resilience, honesty, the ability to get along with others, supportive partners, hard work, organization, enjoying one's career, being a strong leader, and maintaining a competitive spirit.
In conclusion, the article provides a comprehensive guide for financial advisors aiming to reach six figures, covering aspects from prospecting and follow-ups to leveraging technology and understanding key success factors.