Thanks so much for all your lovely responses.

There were different responses such as

• Process or Method of reaching prospects effectively
• Negativity in media about distributors/advisors
• Do it Yourself Pitches by different people
• Not Enough Prospecting Done
• Lack of Strategy /Process
• Trying to be everything to everyone
• I had to leave other good responses out.

While all of the above are valuable,  the weakest link was missed out in those responses. This is because it is invisible to most practitioners until it hits them.

The weakest link in your business is that you do not have 100% of your client’s assets.

Let me explain with 2 scenarios.

a. You have 25% of your client assets.
b. You do not really know what the client truly has except for the investments done through you.

In scenario (a), assume the other 75% is with 2 other professionals. This means there is competition for the client’s account. This is a recipe for distraction and constant comparison. The client has a sub optimal portfolio, but he is unaware about this. He will compare your monthly report cards with that of others. Chances are you will lose this account at some point of time. If you have not so far (because the other 2 are incompetent), great but think about what happens when someone with a far superior value proposition comes.

Hoping that competition will not be tougher or better is being naïve.

Think and answer this question.

Have you ever lost clients (really important for the firm) because they consolidated their assets with someone else?

The firms that operate in Scenario (b) are following the strategy called “Hope”. In fact, they do not even see this as an issue.

This is a real problem and the risk that many simply ignore or do not factor.

How are you addressing this in your firm?

P.S.The winners for the responses are Soorashree Chaphekhar from Pune and Ajay Shekhawat from Indore. They both get a 30 minute session to ask me anything. Thank you everyone for taking the time out to respond.