For as long as I’ve been a professional I’ve heard that a person’s attitude makes a difference.  You’ve probably heard all the cute sayings about attitude – “Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude”, Attitude is Everything”, “The Only Thing You Can Control is Your Attitude”.  Every sales manager talks about attitude.  Every leader talks about attitude.  Every entrepreneur hears about attitude.

Let’s face it.  No one is against having a positive attitude.  It’s kind of like mom and apple pie.  There’s nothing to be against.  But anyone who has worked with me knows that I don’t go with the crowd.  I tend to be an independent thinker and as such, often see things differently than others.  Over my professional career, I’ve been a student of human nature, and one of the areas I make note of is attitude.

Attitude has an interesting dynamic around it.  I’ve observed, for instance, that people with a positive attitude tend to hang out together and people with a negative attitude also hang out together.  Of course, each group tends to support the views of each other person within their group.  The positive people see themselves as optimistic and forward thinking.  The negative people see themselves as realists.  Additionally, each group tends to view the other group somewhat unfavorably.  The people in the positive group tend to look at the negative group as complainers, while the negative group tends to view the positive group as naïve, unrealistic, and/or overly “cheery”.  I guess it’s a matter of your perspective.  Each group feels they have an accurate view of reality – or more precisely, THE accurate view of reality.

One thing I’m sure of in life is that a person’s perspective determines their reality.  And here is where these two groups begin to differ.  I’ve noticed very different behaviors from people depending on their attitude.  You see, attitude not only determines how a person sees things, but also affects their consequent actions as well.  Our attitude determines our perspective, which in turn determines our reality.  How does attitude and perspective affect our reality?  Let me share a story as an example of how this happens.  A number of years ago I had a friend who became focused on the potential problems surrounding the change of the millennium (Y2K).  As he began to “research” the topic, the foretelling of upcoming disasters became his reality.  In fact, the more he listened to radio talk shows the more he accepted their topics as “reality”.  The more articles he read on the subject the more he accepted the writings as “reality”.  The more websites he visited about Y2K, the more he accepted their perspectives as “reality”.  By the time the end of December came around, he had stockpiled water and food, and was pleading with me to move up to the mountains to escape the impending terrorist attacks, falling planes, food shortages, crashing cars, and lack of water.  January 1, 2000 came and went without incident.  He never spoke to me again.

Obviously none of us are worried about Y2K any longer, but this story underlines how our attitude definitely affects how we conduct ourselves and our life.  Our attitude creates our reality.  But be clear, it’s OUR reality, not THE reality.  I’ve observed that positive people tend to view challenges as speed bumps while negative people see them as obstacles standing in the way of success.  Positive folks often face the same challenges as negative folks, except that negative people have their thoughts and energies focused on the problems and the consequences of the problems, while the positive people focus their thoughts and energies on succeeding despite the problems.  I’ve observed that negative people often adopt a defeatist mindset, taking on the role of a victim, while positive people often adopt a solution-oriented mindset and set about creating their own opportunities.  Consequently, I’ve come to understand that having a positive attitude indeed makes a significant difference not only in a person’s level of success, but also in their enjoyment of their life.  It even determines whether they succeed at all.

But here’s the unusual thing… NO ONE VIEWS HIMSELF OR HERSELF AS A NEGATIVE PERSON!

People who are negative view themselves as “realistic”.  (Wait a minute…  isn’t “reality” a matter of perspective?)  So the challenge is to determine whether you’re a “negative” person.

Here are some guidelines:

• If you feel that your course in life and business is determined by others, then you need to adjust your attitude so you can shift your reality.
• If you feel that the cards are often stacked against you, then you need to adjust your attitude so you can change your reality.
• If you feel that your company, manager, agents, and/or clients don’t support you, then you need to adjust your attitude so you can change your reality.

We each have the ability and power to literally change our reality.

How does one turn a negative attitude into a positive one?  The same way someone with a positive attitude maintains it.  You need to eliminate the negative inputs, influences, and factors in your life and introduce positive ones.  We’re bombarded with messages throughout the day and night.  Some of them are good and some of them are just plain bad for you.  We get “messages” from family, friends, co-workers, radio, newspaper, TV, music, the internet, billboards, books, magazines, and any number of other sources.  If YOU don’t decide what goes into your head, then someone else will.  You need to take control of what you feed your mind.  Here are some tips on how to adjust and maintain your attitude:

Eliminate the Negatives

• Stop reading the newspaper
• Stop watching TV news
• Stop seeking the negative on the internet
• Stop hanging around negative people

Introduce Positives

• Start hanging around positive people
• Start reading motivational or inspirational books – biographies, personal growth, success principles, etc.
• Start listening to CD’s – motivational, personal growth, uplifting music, etc.

Does attitude really count? Can attitude really change your reality?  I guess it depends on your perspective…

When I first meet an advisor, I scrutinize the process he or she uses for prospective client meeting; it usual follows a familiar pattern:
•    The advisor meets the prospective client and they exchange pleasantries.
•    Then the advisor launches into a diagnostic process; he or she asks questions and takes notes on a legal pad.
•    The advisor shifts gears and begins his or her presentation, overwhelming the prospective client with information about his or her investment philosophy, competencies and credentials.
•    Toward the end of the process, the advisor tests a few trial closes to see if the prospect is ready to buy.
•    Finally, the advisor comes to the moment-of-truth and asks the prospective client to take action.

After listening to the advisor describe his or her process, I ask this simple question: “who views it as an accomplishment when a prospective client comes on board and becomes an actual client? Are you celebrating because you’ve closed them or are they excited because they’ve qualified to work with you?”
When you sell to someone, there is often a sense of anticlimax for the new client and perhaps even a chance that they are feeling some degree of buyer’s remorse. The advisor cannot be the only one who gets excited when a new relationship is formed; the client has to have a sense of accomplishment too.

This is one reason that we suggest turning your prospective client process upside down. Instead of pushing prospective clients into making a decision, you can empower them. Our time-tested, up-front approach has been proven to attract new clients. It combines the use of an agenda with a process that highlights the importance of a relationship based on “fit,” rather than one based on pressure and urgency.

When a prospective client approaches your office for the first time, two emotions are front and center: anticipation and apprehension. The anticipation stems from the person’s curiosity about you. It is possible, for example, that the prospective client is meeting with you because someone spoke highly of you and recommended your services. Keep in mind, every prospective client you meet already has a financial advisor, and is probably meeting with you because he or she is to some degree disillusioned with that advisor. As a result, the prospect is seeking an alternative. At the same time, he or she is apprehensive, fearing change, fearing the unknown and fearing the expected “sell.” People are “sold” to each and every day. Consequently, they put up walls when they are in a selling encounter. It’s a natural defense mechanism.

Don’t Meet Their Expectations
Most prospective clients walk into a meeting bracing for a presentation in which you strongly promote your products and services. If they assume that your ultimate goal — your “hidden agenda” — is to sell them something, why feed that expectation?
Instead, you can do something completely unexpected. When you meet with a prospective client, shake hands, exchange pleasantries, then sit down and slide a printed agenda across the table for him or her to examine. Then launch into the formal segment of the meeting with a personalized version of this opening statement:

Mr./Mrs. Prospective Client, let me begin by saying how much I appreciate you taking the time to be here today. I know your time is valuable and my goal is to ensure that you feel this meeting was a wise investment. Now, I know you are here primarily to assess my financial planning credentials and approach, and to get to know more about my firm. I will share this information with you during this initial meeting. I also wanted to meet with you to determine if we will have good chemistry over the lifetime of our potential relationship. Therefore, because a relationship like this is important for both of us, no one will be making any commitments today. At the end of our meeting, I’ll be getting together with my team to discuss your situation, and we’ll discuss our compatibility. We’ll then call you in 48 hours to let you know if we think we’d be a good fit for you. You can take some time to decide if there is a fit as well. Is that fair?

A statement like this is a refreshing departure from the usual “sell” tone of a first meeting. And it has positive results. You will immediately see the prospective client’s body language change. Tension and apprehension will melt away when he or she realizes that this is not a typical selling encounter. The prospect was probably expecting the usual selling process, where the meeting builds to the point at which the prospect is asked to “buy” something. Imagine how much better your potential client will feel when you instead highlight the importance of “buying into” a meaningful relationship. You will instantly disarm and impress. After all, stewardship is more attractive and persuasive than salesmanship.

Using an agenda at these meetings is essential, because it instantly gives the prospective client a tangible track to follow and it eliminates any fear that you will introduce unwelcome surprises. An agenda is an outline with the prospective client’s name on the top and a series of bullets which highlight the main topics that you will discuss at the meeting, things like: “My approach” and “What’s important to you?” It gives the clients a feeling of certainty. The agenda also benefits you, because it establishes where the meeting will go next, so you can actually listen to the prospective client. The agenda also makes it easy for you to explain some of the abstract financial planning concepts, because it provides specific talking points. Remember, you are in the knowledge for profit business. You think for a living. You aren’t selling “stuff”; you are promoting the promise of a comfortable future insulated from external circumstances.
You need all the help you can get to demystify what you do; after all, it’s not what you say that matters, it’s what the prospective client hears and internalizes.

Is There a Fit?
The most important bullet point on the agenda is the last one, which should always be “Is there a fit?”
When you get to this point in the meeting, you simply thank the prospective client for attending, and remind him or her that you will now meet with your team. Also confirm that you will contact him or her in 48 hours. At this point, one of two things will happen. In some cases, the prospect will thank you and tell you they look forward to hearing from you. More often than not, however, the prospective client will try to close you; they will try to convince you that you should take action right now. I’m not making this up.
Because of your forthright and disarming process, the prospective client will have developed a high degree of self-motivation and predisposition. He or she will likely say to you, “I don’t need to think about it. I’m confident that there is a good fit and I’m prepared to move forward right now.”
So how should you respond to this statement? We tell advisors to say this:
Mr./Mrs. Prospective Client, I appreciate your enthusiasm. However, if that is how you feel, it won’t change in 48 hours. This is important, so take your time. And I’d still like to discuss it with my team.
Ultimately, you live by the rules you set. If you cave in to the client’s request to move ahead immediately, then your entire meeting structure becomes nothing more than a tactic, a gimmick, and you seriously undermine your integrity.
There is only one situation in which I would suggest that you could make an exception: if a great client has referred the prospective client to you, and if the prospective perfectly meets your Ideal Client Criteria based on Assets, Attitude and Advocacy, you can consider making the exception. If you do so, be sure to make it clear that this is an exception. Otherwise, delay instant gratification and stick with the process. This process empowers a prospective client to come to his or her own conclusions, and to feel great about coming on board with you.
Furthermore, you are fast tracking the process of turning a new client into an advocate who is competitor-proof and predisposed to referring other prospective clients to you. It’s funny, when I conduct seminars on this topic, invariably there will be an advisor in the room who has worked with us in the past and has adopted our approach. Like clockwork, when I finish talking, the advisor will stand up and say, “He’s right, this really works!”
To that, I respond by saying, “It works because it’s right.”

According to Wikipedia, The Pareto Principal also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.”

Pareto Systems gives you the tools to focus your energy and time on the 20% of your clients that are creating 80% of your revenue.

It is my experience that one of the biggest challenges financial advisors face is they get caught up in investing eighty percent of their time looking after C & D clients and again, receiving twenty percent of their income.

I believe that some financial advisors are suffering from The Unmet Needs Disease and this is what keeps them locked into over servicing C & D clients.

Unmet needs reside in the subconscious mind and it is pretty easy to get hypnotized by these unmet needs given that one is on auto pilot in their subconscious mind most of the time.

Let’s take the unmet need of approval as an example. If one has an unmet need they will have limiting beliefs of “I am not good enough” along with the limiting emotions of anxiety and fear.

These unmet needs run deep and rather than challenge oneself and get out of the comfort zone and risk getting rejected, one will sabotage themselves and take the easy way out because it is a lot easier to do the same old thing and over and over again, unconsciously working with C & D clients expecting to get ones’ unmet needs met along with a different result.

This is compounded because the laws of attraction are absolute and one will attract whatever they are emotionalizing and thinking about.

Whether you want to accept it our not, the limiting beliefs of “I am not good enough” along with the limiting emotions of anxiety and fear will attract the results that you want to avoid the most.

The constant and never ending circle of C & D clients that one can never seem to be able to satisfy. What is worse, this leaves little time to service the A & B clients, and A & B clients tend to leave when the financial advisor is distracted by C & D clients.

Some of the more common unmet needs are approval, control, recognition, safety and worthiness and they can be a blessing and a curse.

These needs, like a grain of sand in an oyster provide the irritation and motivation to propel one to become a beautiful pearl after twenty five to thirty years in that an individual has taken massive action to educate himself and prospect a lot of client opportunities and thus one has become successful.

The only challenge is one cannot meet an unmet need outside of oneself through clients, designations, education, money, staff … there always seems like there is something missing.

You must learn to meet the unmet need from within which will allow you to let go of the addiction to trying to get your unmet needs of approval, control, recognition, safety and worthiness through your C & D clients.

This will make it effortless to implement your Pareto Systems and provide better service to A & B clients.

When unmet needs are met, one becomes more attractive and referable because they are not struggling to try to meet their unmet needs met from outside of themselves.

Clients and referrals want to work with them!

Go to http://www.leadingadvisor.com to receive the first three chapters of my new book entitled; Curing The Unmet Needs Disease – How To Thrive in Business By Meeting Your Unmet Needs ~ Financial Advisor Edition.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

Simon Reilly

For Immediate Release

March 1, 2009

Pareto Systems Creates Lifeline for Financial Advisors

British Columbia, Canada. In response to the current harsh climate where many Financial Advisors are struggling to maintain their practice, Pareto Systems has launched a short-term intensive coaching program that addresses the most vital aspects of a Financial Advisor’s client relationships. Pareto Systems is so confident about the value of this initiative that they offer a full money back guarantee.

We know that current market conditions are unprecedented in our lifetime. According to Bloomberg.com, 76% of clients are looking for a new advisor. 40 to 60% of advisors may leave the industry by the end of 2009. How can you survive and thrive through these critical times?

The Financial Advisor’s Survival Kit is a consulting program designed to position a financial advisor and their team to systematically take advantage of current market conditions, solidify existing client relationships, and attract a steady stream of quality and qualified referrals.

In as little as 5 weeks, we will provide you with the knowledge and confidence to:

1. Retain your existing clients and have them thrilled with the service you provide.
2. Communicate with your clients better than you ever have before.
3. Position referrals as a service to your clients, rather than as a favor to you.
4. Create a steady stream of qualified referrals from your best clients.
5. The Program is delivered by five (5) 45-minute personal telephone consultation sessions with the Pareto Systems Implementation Consultant.

The Pareto System Consultants are masters at working with individuals and teams to develop specific strategies to best serve you. The satisfaction guarantee says it all.

Don’t delay, you can get started with your first session as early as next week.

Term: 5 X 45 minute sessions
Fee for a Single Advisor: $ 995.00
Unconditional Guarantee: 100% Money Back - You will be satisfied!

For more information, call Tammy Smith at 1.877.677.4585

Naturally, the revenue of your business should grow year after year, but that does not mean that the number of relationships you manage must increase too. In fact, when it comes to relationships, the goal is not to see how large your client-base can reach, but rather how small it can remain. Many entrepreneurs tend to hit a plateau because they subscribe to the precept that you must continually “grow or perish” in order to succeed and maximize bottom line profits. “Right sizing” is a critical step in moving to the next level. I can’t begin to tell you how many thought-for-profit entrepreneurs I’ve witnessed benefit enormously from taking a proverbial step back.

As a general rule, 20% of any business’ clients generate 80% of the revenue. The question you should ask yourself is this: do you invest 80% of your time on those 20%?

Getting Started: Client Classification & the Ideal Client Profile

The first action to take in right sizing your practice is to classify your clients. Through this process, you will create an ideal client profile which will allow you to identify the type of future clients that you wish to work with. I encourage you to create a detailed client classification by using the Triple-A approach.

In this model, AAA clients are the best-rated clients, performing exceptionally in the following three criteria: Assets, Attitude, and Advocacy. AAA clients meet asset criteria, have positive attitudes that are most enjoyable to work with, and frequently work as advocates who widely recommend your services.

AA clients are almost, but not quite, at the AAA level. These clients have sufficient assets to be an A level client, but also seem pleased with your service and have a good attitude. However, for whatever reason, AA clients are not sending introductions your way. The goal with an AA client is to encourage them to reach the AAA level by offering superb client service. At the same time, it is also important to show AA clients how to introduce others into your ‘exclusive club.’ This often takes time and patience, but the results are well worth it.

An A designation denotes a client that you know has A-level assets, but who is simply a ‘customer,’ and not yet a true client. It is crucial to demonstrate to A clients that you are a superior professional who they can trust. The good news is that these clients are typically the best prospects since they are already partially committed to your services; therefore, you don’t have to start from scratch in winning them over as clients. The remaining classes of clients (B, C, D etc.) don’t have immediate potential but are not to be entirely overlooked.

You’re Not Firing them, You’re Respectfully Disassociating

The next step in the right sizing process is to call the clients on your list. When speaking to each client, it is essential that you are forthright and rational:

Up until recently, I’ve been trying to be all things to all people, and over time, I found myself becoming a generalist. Going forward, I’ve decided to become a specialist who strives to be all things to some people. I know my capacity, and in order to offer superior service, I have to make some changes to my practice. Part of that includes using an ideal client profile that reflects the type of client who is a good fit for my team and me. (Outline AAA). Based on this profile and our history together, I feel that going forward there probably isn’t a good fit. However as a value added service, I have identified someone who I feel would be a better fit for you.

The point of right sizing is to build a clientele made up exclusively of clients you want to work with, because these are the clients who will become raving fans and sing your praises to their friends, family and associates. These clients are the key to building a successful, profitable practice. Remember, it’s more important to reach people who count, than to count the people you reach.

By Duncan MacPherson

Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Pareto Systems and Pareto Platform