Financial Planning is not a 9-6 job, your after office hours are inseparable from your office hours. Your day is usually too long and hectic. Your job as a financial advisor is much more than managing investment portfolios or closing sales. You at times compromise your personal commitments in order to meet your business demands. We have made an effort to help you better organize your routine and simplify your day. We have featured certain points which you may integrate in your schedule and make your lives easier.

You must maintain a diary or a software which shall include all your business details, work in pipeline, status on leads, etc. We have laid down a routine for your entire day, you may alter the time and activities according to your business requirements and convenience:

As a planner you can make the most of your mornings.

7 AM: Checking your e mail, whatsapp and sms shall form a part of your morning ablutions. Check if anything is urgent and respond accordingly.

9 AM: Start with planning for your entire day. You shall refer your diary for anything that shall be carried forward from the previous day. Check your calender for any client meetings. Pen down everything, client meetings, phone calls to be made, following up, meetings with NJ Sales Team, seminars, etc.

10 AM: Start calling people and fix up meetings, respond to all queries, follow up with leads, respond to missed calls or any important messages. Write down if you can't get through any call, you can call them back later. Making cold calls will also be more fruitful, since people are more responsive in the mornings.

11 AM: You shall work on removing any operational backlogs so that you can proceed smoothly. If you have a team, meet them in the morning, review their work, look into their problems and delegate responsibilities.

12 AM: You shall start executing your routine tasks, meeting new clients, meeting prospective clients, meeting NJ salespersons, etc. Before execution, you should however, keep in mind that you should be prepared for these tasks. Eg, before meeting a client, you should have all the questions and the flow of conversation framed in your mind.

2 PM: You must develop the practice of a mid day review. It will help track your progress, if your day is going as per your plan. If not, it'll guide you to be back on track.

Lunch

You may continue with your routine tasks post lunch as well. You must also include the following activities in your day

2 – 4 PM: Since your afternoon's are relatively less engaged. You can exploit this time for more passive and vital exercises.

• You shall review your client's portfolios and figure out if any modifications or additions are required.
• Work on devising strategies to enhance your business, new client meetings, technological upgrades, marketing strategies, plan for seminars, kiosks, etc.
• You should never stop learning. You should acquaint yourself with all the upcoming financial products and study their pros and cons. Grab the latest money magazines, or websites and read articles related to your business. An advisor is expected to know more than the investor and regular education will enable you to stand up to expectations.
• You shall also prepare for your evening meetings during this time.

5 – 7 PM: Most of your clients must be free by now, and they'll have time for you. You shall meet new and existing clients for new business or with the view to build relationships. See if there are any customer queries and try solving them on a daily basis. Before calling it a day, you should write down the important minutes of the day, so that you can start your next day by following up on them. Make a habit of writing client queries, the commitments you made to people, the meetings you scheduled, any relevant article or information you came across, any event or seminar that you scheduled, etc. in your diary everyday. This will help you remain much more organized.

Though, we have laid down an ideal routine but every new day in an advisor's life is as thrilling as never. Some meetings get canceled, some new meetings unexpectedly pop up, some meetings just last forever, some meetings get rescheduled. Your wife might need you for 2 hours during the day. Traffic is insane, your car breaks down and many other instances jumbles up your day and things don't go as per plan. But you can include these tips in your schedule to the extent possible and organize your business better.

We often talk about customer relationship management, and propagate the importance of keeping the client at the center. It is indeed extremely important to be sensitive towards your client needs, to listen to your client, to display care and maintain a personal touch with your client. Wishing your client on his birthday, anniversary, festivals can help you build your relation with the client on a more than professional level. Sending them the latest industry updates or calling them for communicating an important news, or about new financial products will build confidence and trust in your clients, that you are there for them always. But at times, the advisor in the process of maintaining personal touch, goes overboard. We start to annoy the client, and the worst part is we are not even aware of this fact. And the lack of knowledge that we are actually annoying the client can be fatal for our business, because who would want to work with a person who is constantly nudging him and irritating him.

So today's article is not the usual what to do rather it's about What not to do and Where to stop. We are restricting this article only to the boundaries you need to stay in, in the process of cultivating Personal Touch with your client.

Understand what the client wants: Do you all remember an Ad from IDFC which shows a man walk into a bank to open an account. He tells the banker "mujhe aapke bank me account kholna hai", and the banker replies "mujhe pata hai! Kyunki hum samajhte hain aapko, hum samajhte hai rishton ki ahmiyat ko" Again the poor customer tries to talk and gives his documents "ye mere documents hai". The banker takes the documents and goes on... "humko pata hai aapke sapne kitne maiyne rakhte hain... aapke aj ke sath hum khade hain, kal, aaj aur kal". And then the client loses his cool, he gets up and go.

The banker just lost the client. Why? Because the client was in no mood to listen to a lecture on relationships, he was clear that he wanted to open an account without wasting much time and when the banker started getting on his nerves, he got annoyed and preferred to leave.

This Ad is a reminder for our advisors, that in most cases our speech on relationships work, but in others it may work otherwise. So, when you meet a client, gauge his preferences, his situation, he might have extended his lunch break by half an hour just to meet you and do a tax saving investment, because he is almost near his deadline of submitting his proofs. So what he is expecting from you is a quick brush up on the available products, a small financial performance comparison, and a genuine advice. A speech on relationships won't be welcome at this point of time.

Your Good Morning and Good Night messages can be annoying: Yes, we do advise to "Keep in Touch" but there is a limit to it. You get annoyed but you cannot disown your relatives and friends, so max what you do is put these groups on silent. But remember, a financial advisor is neither a friend nor family, in the initial stages at least. So, remember if your client is reading but not responding to your "Keep in Touch" messages, take it as a hint, he is not liking it, so restrict your messages to festivals, anniversaries and important financial updates only.

How do I know what's the limit?

So, the answer to this is you need to build the ability to study human behaviour. Study the client's reactions: Study your client's body language, his expressions. When a smile on his lips transforms into a frown on his forehead, or a response to your 15 minute speech is a "hmmmm", this indicates he is being turned off, so you need to stop right then. Give him some space, let him talk, understand this is not the right moment, may be your relationship building would take some more time, you may need another ice breaker.

Study his responses: Carefully review his response to your messages, e-mails or calls, then decide how you have to proceed. If your client reciprocates to your Good Morning's with a Good Morning and a smiley, when he appreciates your calls and is all ears to you, this means you are going in the right direction, your technique is working here, but remember there are limits here too, don't try to intrude in his personal life too much. On the other hand, another client of yours is not responding to your wishes, and is irritated to the extent that he doesn't even bother to call you back when he misses your call, you must realize that your dedication towards maintaining Personal Touch is not working here. You really need to give him space and restrict your touch to work only.

So, the bottomline is maintaining Personal Touch with your clients is essential to build a connection and trust. But then there is a limit to how much a seer wishes to see. Understand the client, his preferences, his openness to relationships and then draw a customized relationship line for every client. Also react as per the situation, sometimes a social butterfly may also not be in a mood or doesn't have the time to eat the side dish, they may be interested in the main course only. So you need to know when you have to offer the soup, the starters and the sides along with the main course.

A financial advisor's most important skill is to ability to win the client's confidence. Many seemingly less qualified and 'technically' skilled advisors are successful thanks to this fact. Experience also shows that success in the practice is directly proportional to the enhanced management quality of client relationships. Simply put, the better you manage your relationships with clients, the more successful you will be. And holding the client's confidence is at the heart of it.

Luckily, the skills needed to effectively manage clients has little to do with your 'personality' or 'charisma' or even your sales pitch. Rather, it has more to do with some of your basic attitudes, principles and practices, which, if consistently applied will help you win your client's appreciation and loyalty. Talking of effective client management, we list here a few commonly observed mistakes which we should do well to avoid ....

Common Mistakes:

1. Choosing the wrong client:
   We would likely meet only a few 'perfect' clients over many years of practice. If we aim for perfection, our work is more likely to stagnate and ultimately sink. But we do have every right and indeed we may feel even obligated to carefully choose whom we decide to accept as clients.

   We should find clients who are serious about managing their money and are willing to listen and understand our financial advice. Acceptable clients should also be willing to follow our advice, with adequate level of reasoning. Your client should be one whose expectations are reasonable and which can be matched by your services /skills. There is no point in acquiring a client on promises which you yourself are not 100% sure of. If these basic premises are not satisfied, a client may not be right for you irrespective of his net-worth. Having the right set of clients can help you practice at your optimum level, freeing time & resources with less stress and with good amount of work satisfaction.

   Some quick pointers...

   • Avoid clients whose needs are different to your core expertise /skills
   • Avoid clients who are unwilling to follow your advice /recommendations
   • Avoid clients who have unreasonable expectations in performance or servicing
   • Avoid clients if you are too busy to give adequate attention to
2. Being self-focused rather than being client-focused
   One of the common mistakes which advisors do is to focus too much on their technical and academic knowledge for solving client's problems. We tend to think that we will best win the client's trust by impressing him/her with our knowledge, degrees and expertise. We naively think that the client will put their affairs in our hands if we convince them of our expertise.

   Well, it doesn't quite work that way. To win trust of any person, it should be both earned and deserved. We need to park our ego and be genuinely helpful and interested in their affairs and problems. We should be sincere in our attitude and ethics to help the clients realise their goals, keeping their interests first. No cosmetics can work here as the clients are smart enough to see through such artificial makeup.

   We also usually see the client's problem with our own prism of experience and knowledge – not realising that this prism can be biased and unfit for the client's situation. We should start with a clean slate for every client and believe that the client and their problems are unique. We should avoid fitting our standard solutions to multiple clients and instead work our solutions starting at the client's problems first.

   Some quick pointers:

   • Talk less of yourself but listen more about the client
   • Be genuine in keeping client's interest first
   • Do not standardise solutions and treat every client & situation as unique
3. Failing to Understand Client
   Imagine a batsman walking out to bat against Sohaib Akhtar without wearing proper safety gear. Seems impossible right? As financial advisors, we also need to properly assess the pitch, the opposition, the target, the field, etc. before playing the game. We must proceed to propose any solution/advice to client's problems only after undertaking proper diagnosis and assessment as needed. And for doing so, a proper understanding of the client is very essential. This would involve understanding the risk tolerance level and the degree of financial awareness and patience he may hold. Note that these are two different things. We also would need to understand the client's family obligations, life goals, financial situation and so on to propose a solution that can meaningfully impact the client's life. Understanding of the client's expectations from you is also important for you to work to his/her satisfaction.

   Some quick pointers:

   • Be respectful and patient to client's level of knowledge & belief systems
   • Try to get as much relevant information as possible before planning
   • Keep yourself in the client's shoes while designing financial plans
4. Pleasing clients during wrong times
   We may want tasty snacks but what we really 'need' are veggies. Clients too want to here all good news but they 'need' to be told of the bad news. As 'financial doctors', it is better to tell them the truth – sooner than later. For financial advisors, it is also our ethical and moral responsibility to show the true picture to clients. While counseling our clients, we owe them factual, objective and measured explanation and analysis of the good as well as the bad.

   Clients must know the advantages & disadvantages /weaknesses of products, asset classes. They mush appreciate the potential gains as well as the risks and all the potential outcomes that could be possible. Only with proper awareness, will they be in situation to take the right decisions. Doing so will also relieve you of any fear of unwanted outcomes in future. Facing a client who has not been foretold or warned or updated of a bad news is often much difficult than doing the right thing in the first place.

   Some pointers:

   • Always share both the good and the bad sides of any decision and possible outcomes
   • Always communicate with clients of any good or bad developments backed with proper explanations
   • Never hide bad news and keep conscience clear
5. Failing to Confirm /Document
   We all tend to remember the good things rather than bad ones. We are more likely to also remember less of commitments made by us than those made to us. Being Indians, we also habitually remember the lower figures of any costs, fees or rates quoted to us. As financial advisors we see that clients often remember the upper end of expected returns more rather than the lower end. To our profession, this is a challenge since we have to protect ourselves with this natural instinct of 'convenient remembrance'.

   Thus, first to protect ourselves and second to make it clear to clients, we should adopt a practice of confirming all advice and assessments with the clients, preferably in any documented format. It is better to properly record the thought /reasons behind any advice and decision taken at any point of time with clear description of the good & bad outcomes. Needless to say, these records can be greatly helpful in managing your client expectations in future. In absence of it, you may be forced to accept that 'client is always right', harming the good works done by you. If any dispute may arise, you will pat yourself a hundred times for having proper records. You may also never loose a good client for reasons of any misunderstanding /wrong communication /dispute and so on.

   Some pointers:

   • Record advice /decisions with proper reasons and expected range of outcomes
   • Share records so that the client also feels committed to take action on his part
   • Be a better professional and manage client in light of historic records
6. Accepting unwanted client behaviour
   Respectful, compassionate, empathetic and patient service to your clients should be your aim. However, in return, it is most reasonable that you and your team too be treated with respect, consideration and with professional courtesy. A client-Advisor relationship can take any shape but it should not be allowed to degrade to a Master-Servant kind of relationship. Regardless of how careful one can be while selecting clients, one will occasionally encounter clients who are simply impossible to please. Once we start pleasing such clients and accepting their behaviour, it goes only down-hill from there, to the limits of your patience and capacity.

   Such clients must be dealt in a polite, professional manner and given an opportunity to change. We say this for the reason that your time and efforts are far more valuable to other clients who truly value and need you rather than those who don't. Second, handling such clients will only lead to the inevitable result of a sour, frustrating relationship which you could do very well without.

   Some pointers:

   • Keep your dignity, professional identity intact and command respect
   • Identify abusing clients early and learn to handle or change them
   • Learn to say No smartly and before it is too late
   • Always respect your clients and your team, especially in front of clients, to not leave any scope for disrespect by any person

Conclusion:
We have tried in this article to implicitly lay stress on the idea that effective management of client relationship is not so much a matter of standard processes or tactics but of your principles and values. When we depend solely on processes and tactics in client management, they can be argued and contested by anyone. But when we approach our clients based on our set of principles & values it is far harder to argue on same. Your principles, beliefs and values can be very effective tools for your practice. We hope that this article encourages you to think on this lines and then find countless ways of adopting your principles and values in client management activities. The above list of mistakes is just the beginning point.

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For the 21^st Century Indian Women, Sky is only the limit. Gone are the days when our ladies lived inside their veils and most of their lives were spent taking care of the house. Times have changed, our women are educated, ambitious and are ready to align their shoulders with men in all fields. Although women have moved out, are working and are contributing to the upliftment of standard of living of their families, yet they have not given up the primary job of managing the house. Taking care of the family, raising kids in itself is not an easy task. And our women handle both without complain, and thus they are also often called Goddess Durga of modern times. While the Goddess had ten hands, our ladies multitask with just two hands.

Many women find it difficult to manage everything, and many have to quit their jobs, fulfilling their unbroken commitment towards their families or because their husbands are relocating and they have to follow. Some women may simply want to be self employed and working 10-7 in a Corporate is just not our cup of tea. Deep within we know we don't want to spend our free time watching the daily soaps, or going for kitty parties, we want financial independence, we yearn the satisfaction of contributing something to our families and the society.

Financial Advisory Profession can help you appease your craving for financial independence and your desire for earning the recognition and satisfaction you deserve. Financial Advisory can give you:

Money: Financial Advisory business can help you gain some serious bucks for yourself. In advisory business, there isn't any upper limit to the money that you can earn. Hard work and Returns are directly proportional here, the more you stretch, the more will be the number of zeros in your remuneration cheque.

Confidence: It is not just about money, financial advisory is a white collar job and is one of the most respected professions. Working and realizing your full potential, though will wear you out, but at the end of the day, when you look into the mirror, you'll be a more confident person everyday.

Heaps of Knowledge: Cooking, cleaning, washing are all very important chores and are an integral part of our living, as they are essential for living a hygienic and organised life, but the irony is they are not contributing much to our learning. Financial Advisors get to imbibe a plethora of knowledge, because you get to meet diverse people, you get to talk, share insights on various aspects which are financial or otherwise. Moreover, to explain your products and services, you need to know a lot, and you get to get a lot of education in the process. Each passing day makes you a wiser person.

Utilisation of time and Brain: A day is made of 24 hours minus the 8 hours of sleep, and we are left with 16 hours. Out of these 16 hours, even if you spend 8 hours on other commitments to yourself, or your family or to others, you are left with good 8 hours to yourself. You can kill these 8 hours by engaging in unproductive activities or you can utilize these 8 hours by working and becoming a more profound person. Choice is yours!

Spending your own money: When you go out of the house, your wallet has the money which was given to you by your husband or your father, for your personal expenses and for the monthly household expenses. Whenever you pass by a Luxury Spa outlet or a Swarovski store, you control the urge to splurge because you know it is someone else's hard earned money, or the money is limited or you may have to give an account of the expenses. But when it is your own hard earned money, cheat meals are allowed at times ;-).

Satisfaction of helping others: The job of a financial advisor is a noble job. Your clients are building their wealth because of your advise. You client's daughter will have a wedding of her dreams because you are there to advise him today. Your client will go for a world tour with his wife after his retirement because you are there to advise him today. Fulfillment of someone's goals will bring a smile of achievement on their face and a smile of satisfaction on yours.

Work Life Balance: Lastly and most importantly, financial advisory business helps you maintain an optimum work life balance. There aren't any fixed hours, you can work as per your ease. You don't have to ask for leaves and don't have to wait for Monday morning either to resume work.

So, for those women who want to do something big in life, Financial Advisory is just the right thing to do. So ladies wake up and do what you have always wanted to do.

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