Female advisors are a boon to the financial services industry. Their ability to communicate, provide sound guidance, and build trusting relationships with their clients has opened the eyes of the industry leaders. While female recruitment is on the rise, female advisors success continues to lag behind their male counterparts; recruiting is not enough. To leverage the strengths of women and increase their success rates, the industry must provide women with an environment, business model, and tools designed specifically to leverage their feminine strengths.
Women Advisors must integrate not adapt to the industry in order to succeed. While Barron’s highlights the hundreds of women who have found success, there are thousands in their wake struggling to fulfill even their own standard of success. Many of the industry’s top female advisors had the courage and tenacity to carve out their own niche, design their own model for success and integrate that model into the male dominated industry without losing sight as to who they are as women, unfortunately this is rarely the case. The traditional business model more often than not undermines the women advisors ability to succeed.
What works for men doesn’t always work for women. Let’s face it, the industry was designed by men to help male advisors capture the male client; while this approach has been effective for centuries, it’s not exactly conducive to the female advisor, not to mention the female client. With few, if any, other models or training available, the majority of female advisors have diligently incorporated this more traditional approach to their business with less than stellar success. Not only does their progress suffer, but this process has eroded their confidence causing them to question their abilities and future in the industry.
The growing force of female clients is forcing a change in the industry, changes that are more synergistic with the style of the female advisor. Prospecting, selling, and closing is quickly being replaced with a new approach: creating a paradigm shift in the financial services arena. In todays environment, prospects and clients want financial advisors to stop prospecting and start building relationships based on trust. They no longer want to be sold a product, but prefer to be inspired to consider other options for their financial future. Closing the deal is now about motivating the client to take action that is good for them. This is the new paradigm and a new approach to building a successful financial advisory practice that fits hand and glove with the strengths of the female advisor.
When you give female advisors what they need, their business will flourish. I have seen this happen time and time again. When you provide female advisors with a more feminine business model, practical tools, and ideas designed around what works for women, their productivity can increase dramatically. After personally coaching hundreds of Female Advisors the pattern has become quite clear,
“Robin, a Financial Advisor with a major wirehouse, came to me after receiving a 90 day performance warning from her firm. In 1 year Robin had doubled her production and within two years left the firm to open her own independent financial practice. Robin runs a thriving practice today.”
“Nadine, an independent Advisor in partnership with a Male Advisor, reached out to me after struggling to succeed. By adapting to her partners business model, she had lost tremendous confidence in her ability to succeed. His style was contrary to her approach as a woman; as a result, her ability to attract high net worth clients was failing. But after less than 3 months of coaching with a woman, she rebuilt her own business model, left the partnership, and today her new practice is on fire.”
When women develop their own unique model for success, they are better able to integrate their methods into the more male environment maintaining their confidence, drive, and fueling their burning desire to succeed.
Women want more than just mentorship programs and women only workshops.
Women need a consistent community that provides the model, the tools, and the inspiration to succeed. They need a network that understands how women think and that encourages women to use their strengths, talents, and intuition to generate the success they want and deserve.
Adri Miller-Heckman, leading women’s expert, offers bold and edgy coaching and tools for female advisors looking to leverage their unique strengths and accomplish more with their practice. Adri combines her experience as an advisor, trainer, and personal coach to give every woman advisor the insider secrets to achieving success the women’s way.
