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What would the game of basketball be without the shot clock?
The shot clock was a rule that came about because teams would waste time once they got a lead. The team with the ball gets 24 seconds to take a shot or their opponents get the ball. The shot clock is what makes basketball exciting.
Advisors need a shot clock to keep their sales and marketing efforts on point. What if advisors followed a shot clock – with 24 hours instead of 24 seconds? Every 24 hours, you have to get a new prospect in the pipeline or your competitor gets a shot at them.
Challenge yourself to operate under this assumption: No matter what, you have to throw a shot up every 24 hours before the buzzer goes off.
How the shot clock changed my life
I remember the days before I had kids. Show up to work, chit chat and meet for Antonio for a long lunch. We had so much time, we could walk to our destination instead of taking the subway.
That worked until I had my first of three babies. I paid as much last year in daycare for my kids as it would have cost to put them through college. These places have cutesy-wootsy names like Little Bundles of Joy Daycare (in reality it should be Petri Dish Daycare). They’re supposed to spread knowledge but all they spread is germs.
As I surrender my Chase Sapphire card, I can’t help but ask the receptionist at the pediatrician’s office, “By the way, do you treat adults here as well because I’m about to have a heart attack over this bill.”
They gave me a green lollipop and an Elmo sticker.
But here’s what I’ve realized. We all have the same number of minutes in the day. The difference is how we spend it. It’s pretty amazing what you can do when you operate with higher awareness of time. There’s a saying that if you want something done quickly you should ask the person with the least amount of time to do it. This is the truth.
I always find it a bit ironic when I’m talking to someone who complains about how they have no time. My three children are ages four and under, and I run a business. When they get sick or there is a snow day, I have to take the whole day off. I have less free time to devote to my work than most people.
I’ve learned to play by the shot clock in order to survive. As a result, I’m constantly one of the first families at school every day (even earlier those with fewer kids), rarely if ever do I miss a deadline for my clients and it’s been years since I’ve paid a bill late.
Following a shot clock is vital for an entrepreneur because you can’t score if you don’t shoot. If you don’t score then you can’t win, and if you’re not winning then you can’t help yourself or anyone else.
Here are some ways I operate that have helped me create (not consume) time so that I can get my shot up every day and win for myself and my clients.
A day in the life of a shot taker
My motto: Put your own sales first.
Yes, all you advisors say that the clients’ best interests come first. I’m not dissuading you from following the fiduciary oath or to engage in improprieties. What I’m saying is that your priority should be scoring a basket and the clients’ needs are a close second.
How can you put your own needs ahead of the client? What profanity!
Your ability to best serve your clients depends highly on your practice’s profitability. It’s the old adage that you can’t take care of anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself first. I know that if I don’t shoot enough baskets to score, then one day I am going to have to tell my clients that something they value, something they have come to depend on, is no longer available to them.
As an example, I begin every day by asking myself, “What am I going to do today to shoot the ball? Who do I need to reach?” And then unless I have a dire situation to resolve for a client, I quickly shoot the ball. Very often people put sales last because sales is not fun.
Put the sales call first and get the hard part of your day over.
I then quickly move to servicing my clients. Administrative tasks that are not directly tied to the flow of revenue (e.g. filing for a DBA name) are pushed to end of the day as much as possible. This isn’t how it goes all the time but for the most part this is the schedule I follow, and it’s served me well.
Use drop-in visits
Bring some cookies or a coffee mug with your logo on it, and stop on the floors above and below the one where you have a meeting.
I once went on a sales call in a large office complex. It was a long trip for me, so I made use of my free time before the meeting by visiting a company next door to where I was meeting. I knew nothing about the company but I walked in and said, “Hi, I’m Sara. I have a meeting with Joe next door and wanted to drop in and say hello. Do you know who is in charge of sales and marketing here?”
Well, the manager just happened to be free at that moment. We had a meeting and it turned into a viable prospect. Some people will be put off by drop-in visits, but many will respect your courage.
Prospect on your commute
The commute home is the best time for you to catch the really successful people who have no time during the day to talk to vendors. Use car time from 5:15 to 6:30PM to fire off those phone calls. Line them up and sink them one by one.
Read the news after work
I’m sure I’m going to hear about this on APViewpoint from advisors who insist that it is imperative for them to be glued to CNBC. The news is a huge time waster. Unless you’re day trading it can be put off until after work.
The media has a job and that is to tear you away from what you are doing so that they get you to click. Dramatizing things is a measure they will take.
Constantly refine your ability to create more time
One of my clients once remarked that he had no time, to which I responded, “Make a list of the five things that are wasting the most time. Then right next to it write three ways you can solve the problem.”
People who do this constantly will create time for themselves.
Reduce in-person meetings
It wasn’t until I was forced to work from home and operate a virtual business that I realized how much time I had wasted in my life commuting to meaningless in-person meetings. Now I opt for Skype or Google Hangout and find that most of the time it works just as well. Even for my NYC clients, I’ve only met them in person one or two times.
Then there’s the question of if the meeting is necessary at all. Ask yourself that first. Can this be accomplished in two minutes over the phone instead?
Stop your addiction to your phone
Have you ever called someone who picks up and says, “Can’t talk, call you back later”, before you even have a second to speak?
Human beings have such a weird addiction to the cell phone.
Try putting your cell phone in your desk drawer for the first 57 minutes of every hour. Then take it out and check your message, satisfy your phone addiction, and put it back for the next 57.
Check social media on a schedule
As addictive as the phone can be, social media are equally as destructive if not controlled. I am on social media all day long and that is because I am watching my clients’ accounts. But if I weren’t I would set up a schedule of checking social media at 8 AM, 12 M, and 5 PM for five minutes each.
Talk less
I once knew a man who was a successful executive at a big bank making $3MM a year in salary. He told me that he removed the chairs in his office to send the message to anyone who came by to make the conversation quick. A little extreme but it’s worthwhile to consider how much time you are consuming in meetings or on the phone.
Is it possible to say things with fewer words? Start chopping.
Pay electronically
A few months ago I decided to go paperless as much as humanly possible in my business. I can’t stand there in line at the ATM with three kids under four years old. You can imagine the trouble my squirming kids create.
Some people, despite my openness to electronic payment, prefer to send paper checks. More time consuming and in the worst case the check gets lost (yes it does happen fairly regularly).
Sara’s upshot
I would never say I’m a perfect example…but I operate with a constant focus on putting sales first in spite of extreme scarcity of free time. Control of your time is something we can all improve upon and is vital for advisors who want to sustain a competitive advantage and win for themselves and their clients.
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Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in quantitative finance.
Read more articles by Sara Grillo
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
