Supernova Consulting Group

Playboy Representative on Campus

I walked into the crowded freshman dorm and introduced myself as Playboy's representative on campus. I said," I am taking orders for subscriptions to Playboy for 12, 24 or  36 months". I signed up the entire dorm. As a freshman who needed money, I knew I had hit a gold mine, and I worked it very hard. Following my success at school, I decided that I would sell Readers Digest door to door to housewives. Well, I learned a good lesson that summer. Not all magazines are created equal. I sold one to my Mom. Not one after that.

In the early 80's, when I was managing for ML in Chicago, we were offering money-market accounts paying 22%. They were selling like Playboys to freshman boys. The FA's didn't want to sell them because they didn't get paid. Dan Tulley said, "Sell them to anyone who wants one", so we did.  Later, those assets  became the fuel for the booming equities of the 90's. Was it the best thing for them? No. They should have bought 14%, Zero-coupon, 30-year treasuries; but they wouldn't, because they were convinced interest rates were rising. The Playboy and the money market fund were, at the time, the "product of least resistance".

Then, as now, there is always a POLR( Product of Least Resistance). What is it today?  You tell me.  What should you do with the POLR? As a new FA, you must grow your practice. Knowing what the market wants and is willing to act on immediately will shorten your sales cycle. First rule, of course, as in medicine, is to do no harm. When looking at a high-yielding, preferred, or whatever the POLR is today, remember Rule #1.  As you gain the trust and confidence of your client, steer them away from the POLR to the product that will meet their needs over the long term. As you educate, entertain and retain your clients, always remember that your clients are driven by emotion. Your job is to balance that emotion with logic and help them to make better choices.

New Year Resolutions-Be happy

As we turn the page to 2008, what comes to mind but New Year Resolutions. Many make them but few keep them. Why? Phychologically there are several reasons. One is that they are not our own. They are what someone else thinks would be best for us. Second, they are too ambitious. Too hard to achieve, so we give up easily. Finally they are usually stated in the negative. For example: "I will lose 20 lbs. in the next 3 months". Instead, try stating it as something you own, that is reasonable, achievable, in the positive and in the present. For example: "I am very happy with all the energy I have since I now weigh 175lbs. Because of my conditioning program I will get to see my daughters children get married". Now you have something that connects you to something that is really important to you. Not to someone else. It is stated in the present and is positive. How does this idea of New Year Resolutions translate to the FA Supernova practice? As you put together your business plan for the new year you may want to review your practices physical condition. Are you as lean and mean as you need to be in order to defend your practice against new competition and attract new business from old competitors. Has your practice gotten a bit blotted. No matter how disciplined you are by your Min/Max, unqualified people slip into the practice. What might a resolution look like that would get your practice back on tract. "I have a lean and profitable practice based on high quality service and exceptional results for a qualified clientele of 100 that likes, respects, trusts, and pays me."  What does a typical Min/Max look like? We focus on what we want vs what we don't want. For me I know that based on the Supernova model the most clients that a Supernova FA can have is 100. Your Max# may be different , but it must be something that you can reasonably service. Set too high a number and you will be frustrated and quit  your goal. Your minimum should be whatever it takes to reach your goals, deliver exceptional service and love your practice. For example, I personnally decided in 1973 in my practice that it was critical to make myself happy in order to keep my attitude positive. Therefore all of my clients had to pay me my minimum, like me, trust me, and listenen to me. I knew even then that my attitude was critical to not only the growth of my practice but also the retention of my clients. My clients sensed it when I was down. Everyone wants a leader,coach that is always positive even in the face of real challenges. Cool under fire and always constructive. Great leaders and coaches surround themselves with highly qualified, positive and talented people. Why should your clientele be any different. That is your team and you are the coach. Their results are your results. Pick a bunch of negative losers, no matter what their wealth and you have a losing team that will make your life miserable. On the other hand pick a talented team of positive wealthy people and you'll have fabulous business always ending with a smile. Harder to build but worth it. Try it you'l like it.

Rob....

High Quality Service and the Holiday Crush

Can high quality service go hand in hand with retail sales Holiday sales. The answer is yes. In the right stores and you  pay for it. Just go shopping at Costco vs Sears vs Nordstroms. Now compare that experience of in retail to your experience in Financial Services . Full Service vs discount vs no service. What is that service guarantee at your full service firm? At your discount and no service firm. Does it exist? The biggest problem with retail service is expectations? You go to Sears you expect courteous informed salespeople. What do you get? Nothing. You can't find anyone to help you. When you do find them they are stressed out by having to handle too many clients. Cost cutting at Sears has stressed the retail sales staff and is ruining their brand. When you go to Cosco you get what you expect. Low prices and warehouse service. Low expectations that are usually exceeded. What about Nordstrom? High expectations matched by high quality experience. The results of both Costco and Nordstrom  create both a happy sales force and happy clients. Where do Financial Services fit into this mix. Clients are generally happy with Schwab due to low expectations that are exceeded What about full service firms. High expectations by the client without a clear service model= disappointment on both sides. A client came to a full service firm with $1000 and was asked by  his FA what his expectations were for service and contact. He responded "I really only want to be called once..ah..ahh..week". This is Sears's problem. High expectations low margins and low service. FA's better establish a minimum profit margin and and a minimum level of service. Buy a copy of my book, The Supernova Advisor" and find a service model that will work for your business.

Original Eight Steps to Success

Supernova originated with The Eight Steps to Success. During the early 90's Merrill Lynch was in the midst of a major focus on asset gathering and it was working. I sat with Jon Spafford in Indianapolis,IN talking about a creative strategy that was revolutionary at the time. He called it Automate, Elevate and Annuitize. As he explained his plan, the firms strategy became clear and doable. He believed heartily in asset gathering, but he knew it had a downside risk. Too many accounts and a reduction in service. His strategy seemed to solve the problem. What was this strategy? Automate= use of technology to assist the Financial Advisors to automate their contact process. All customer contact for Jon became appointments, even the phone calls. He called the phone appointments AT&Ters. He had regularly scheduled appointments with every client every quarter. Ten years later this is more relevant than ever. As your clients time and attention have become shorter, playing phone tag seems even crazier. Arrange all important calls as AT&Ters. Respect your clients and their time and make your life simpler. Be like other professionals and do all important work by appointment.

Stan O'Neal, Right guy at the right time at Merrill Lynch

  Now that everyone has thrown Merrill Lynch's former CEO Stan O'Neal down the stairs and under the bus for not better managing the risk at Merrill Lynch, lets give Caesar his due. Stan came along at a time of crisis for Merrill Lynch and put the company back on the road to success. Coming out of the roaring 90's Merrill was bloated and unprepared for the recession pre and post 9/11. Stan taught us to do more with less. He said " Cut costs across the board. Do more with less". We could not even replace employees when one left. We were forced to figure it out. We really had to do everything possible to maintain and grow our best Financial Advisors and our most valuable clients. The 80/20 rule became critical to our future so everyone was paying attention. We put together a process to better serve the top 20%.  We shed many of those that were not paying the bills to the Client Services Department which Stan supported. We had breakthrough moments as FA's realized with more time and attention, their clients were giving them more business and more referrals. The business model we called Supernova took shape in that crisis environment, honed by the heat of necessity. A Supernova is a New Star which shrinks down to it's core and then with a burst of energy grows to 10 times it's original size and heat. A true Super Star. Our Fa's were shrinking their businesses down to their core and then exploding to 2 or 3 times their original size with no more support. This was a true productivity breakthrough. Stan loved it. Merrill Lynch's story of this breakthrough is told in the new book by Rob Knapp, called "The Supernova Advisor ", John Wiley & Sons

The Invisible Bridge

My first Blog is to introduce my new book titled The Supernova Advisor. This is the work of over 3 years in the making. I am finishing it up now and will publish it December 4th by John Wiley&Sons. Getting it down on paper and getting fedback was critical. We now have a team of three working every week to move it along. I have brought in a larger group of readers who are now beginning to give me feedback.

The book is written to help people in the financial services business to reach significantly higher levels of performance through a process of revolutionary practice management strategies which we call Supernova

More to come....