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The insights you'll gain from a client advisory board will improve your practice, increase client satisfaction, uncover new opportunities, and drive referral business.

How will you improve your practice and strengthen business opportunities this year? How are you planning to "up your game"? As we enter 2025, creating a Client Advisory Board is the perfect way to engage clients, discover new needs, uncover gaps, and improve existing services. Organizing a Client Advisory Board is a powerful strategy for client engagement and strategic planning. While these meetings may validate things you already know, they will often also bring unexpected insights. Sometimes, the information can be important essential, and jarring. While this article will discuss why you should create a Client Advisory Board, we'll follow up with more tactile articles to help you get the most from these meetings and provide guidance to help implement change.

Consider these top 5 reasons for creating an advisory board now:

1. Learn what makes you different from the competition

When I helped advisors assemble their advisory boards, I always suggested including some clients who had previous advisor relationships. Then you can ask, "Why did you switch from your previous advisor to me?" or "What did I offer that the others didn't?". Learning about your competitive environment will improve your business development and client service efforts.

2. Learn about how to talk to clients

In some instances, I found myself using jargon only to observe glassy eyes in the recipients of my babble. Oops. Other times, I noticed I was very casual with friends and family, hoping I might be able to help. Use your advisory board to help you balance out your professional expertise with your great relationship attributes. Ask your advisory board, "How would you describe me and what I do to your friends?" Use this information to learn how to relate and talk with your clients and prospects.

3. Accumulate testimonials and stories to tell others

The path to deep, trusted professional relationships is through stories. When talking about your favorite professionals and advisors, you probably don't even know you're sharing a story. Encourage your advisory board to share positive stories about how you have helped them. Listen carefully and use these powerful stories to tell others how you made a significant difference in your client's lives.

4. Develop ambassadors for your practice

As you accumulate your testimonials and stories, you can incorporate these into your business development efforts. In addition, you can share them with your advisory board, who will now be armed with how to talk about you with their friends.

5. You will learn if you need to calibrate your practice

The biggest lesson I learned from my advisory board was that I was delivering way more than my clients wanted. I would provide and go through reports at a higher frequency than most clients desired. The advisory board is critical to help you learn how to calibrate your practice to deliver the appropriate services to each defined segment of your practice. Sometimes, over-servicing can work against you. Stopping the delivery of undesired services can free you to focus on growth or accomplish other desired goals.

Many advisors make the mistake of writing their strategic plans based solely on what they think should be improved. Please take the opportunity in the new year to pull together some of your best clients and ask them what improvements they would most value. Having that conversation is one of the most effective ways to help you get more clients like them.

Enthusiastically yours,

Grant Hicks and Jeff Thorsteinson
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

How about your goals for your practice in 2024? Our Practice management resources  

Comprehensive Practice Management checklist

https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/

Sample: Comprehensive Financial Advisor Practice Management benchmarking

Key data and KPI's Key Performance indicators. Do want a sample benchmarking report to help you understand how to get the edge on your practice and your competition? 

 https://benchmark.getresponsepages.com/ 

Discover your potential blind spots:

• Do you have a proven written process for finding and acquiring more ideal clients? 
• How satisfied are your ideal clients? What do your clients really think? 
• What are the most successful practice management strategies to help you manage and build your financial advisor practice and team?

We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation

For elite practice management resources to manage and grow your business
Tel 778-628-3165

Email jeffthorsteinson@hotmail.com To book a NO obligation appointment with me to discuss practice management or coaching click the following link https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm and let’s talk 

Grant at grant@ghicks.com or click on the link to set up a no-obligation 20-minute discussion https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

Advisor Practice management combined clients manage over $8 billion AUM and earn over $80 million annually. 

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Are you confident in identifying with your ideal client profile?

If you want to discuss adapting to a fully client-centric advice model, call Jeff Thorsteinson for a free, no-obligation discussion about creating winning relationships with prospects and clients.

Our Practice Management resources - Comprehensive Practice Management checklist

https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/

Updated Technology Checklist for Financial Advisors 

This checklist is five years' worth of research on the best processes elite financial advisors and their teams implement to acquire and service ideal clients while running an efficient practice. 

https://technology-checklist.getresponsepages.com/ 

We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk

Jeff Thorsteinson

www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

For elite practice management resources to manage and grow your business 

Tel 778-628-3165 

Email jeffthorsteinson@hotmail.com

To book a NO obligation appointment with me to discuss practice management or coaching click the following link  https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm and let’s talk. Get a copy of our “ 21 page comprehensive practice management checklist”   

https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/  or join our blog  https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/blog 

Connect with me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeffthorsteinson

Take our Marketing course https://advisorpracticemanagement.thinkific.com/courses/marketing

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation by contacting Jeff at  jeffthorsteinson@hotmail.com regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

Jeff Thorsteinson and Advisor Practice Management's combined financial advisor clients manage over 8 billion AUM, and earn over $80 million dollars combined! 

Enthusiastically yours,

Jeff Thorsteinson
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

PS Where do you want your financial practice to be at the end of 2025? AUM, Revenue, and time off? 

STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY The information contained in this email message and any attachments may be confidential and is intended for the use of the addressee(s) only. If you are not an intended recipient, please: (1) notify me immediately by replying to this message; (2) do not use, disseminate, distribute or reproduce any part of the message or any attachment; and (3) destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.

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Grant Hicks,

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Grant Hicks
Advisor Practice Management
http://advisorpracticemanagement.com