By: Andy Klausner, Principal, AK Advisory Partners

It never ceases to amaze me that so many advisors are so willing to discount their fees – no questions asked – as a regular course of business. PriceMetrix conducted a study of advisors across North America, and the findings are based on data which includes the books of 15,000 advisors, 2.3 million investors, one million fee-based accounts and more than $850 billion in assets. A few of the findings of the study include:

• Discounted management fees are taking an average of $20,000 a year out of the pockets of financial advisors.
• The top 25% of advisors charge an average fee of 2.01% while those in the bottom quartile charge an average fee of 0.81%.

I find this last statistic very interesting indeed. To those who say that competition has increased and therefore fees must come down, I would counter with the question, do you want to be in the top 25% of advisors or the bottom quartile? Yes – competition has increased. But that does not necessarily mean that price is the only way to compete.

Successful advisors typically have the fee discussion with clients up-front, at the beginning of the conversation, as they describe their value-added proposition and unique perspective on the business. If the conversation is successful, discussions about discounts are quelled even before they begin. On the other hand, if the client brings up fees it’s probably too late.

The study also validates that point that once you have begun to discount, it’s very hard to end the precedent. According to PriceMetrix, only 5% of advisors increased their prices on existing fee-based account by more than 10 basis points in the years studied (2007-2010).

Few surgeons or attorneys to lower their fees – why should you? If you are confident in your ability to add value to your clients, then the fee discussion should be easy. In fact, turn the question around and ask the client “Would you want to do business with someone that has so little confidence in their ability to add value that they automatically offer a discount? If I help you define and reach your goals, the fee charged would be more than justified, wouldn’t it?”

Take control of the fee issue – and don’t discount you own worth! After all, if you don’t know your own value, you certainly can’t expect someone else to know it.

As I read every day about layoffs and an economy headed close to if not back into recession, I can’t help but feel like we’re back in 2008.

Are there mistakes that companies made then that they can avoid making now? The answer is yes – and that’s why I feel it’s important to issue this special edition.

Cost cutting has begun in many companies – and probably rightfully so. But there are right ways to cut costs and wrong ways. My intent here is to provide some perspective on this topic, with the hope that rational cost cutting takes place – reductions that will truly position companies for future success.

Global stock markets are in turmoil, confidence is eroding and layoffs are accelerating. That described the situation three years ago in the midst of the financial crisis. Add European debt problems, an increasingly dysfunctional government and continued high unemployment, and you have today’s reality.

Large financial services companies – such as UBS and AllianceBernstein – have already joined the layoff parade and I’m sure that there will be many more to follow. A recently released poll by FundFire indicates that a majority of asset and wealth management firms are in cost-cutting mode (both layoffs and otherwise).

It may become inevitable for you and your company to cut costs in this environment. Regardless of how well you have managed your business, times like these force everyone to tighten their belts.

There are right ways to cut costs and wrong ways. Panic cost cutting – characterized by “across-the-board” cuts – often reflect knee-jerk reactions rather than well thought-out plans. Should every area of your firm really be cut, and by the same amount? I find it hard to believe that this would position any company for long-term success.

Consider leveraging your strengths and investing in certain areas of your business and perhaps taking the opportunity to reduce your exposure to other areas that have been under-performing and have a less optimistic outlook.

We recommend that you begin by analyzing the foundation of your business – your three Ps – People, Planning and Process:

• People – Do you have the right people in the right places and are they properly trained?
• Planning – Are your strategic goals in sync with your resources?
• Process – Do you have the right processes and tools in place?

Taking a comprehensive look at your business prior to making cuts will more than likely put your firm in a better position to meet your goals. The assessments that we conduct help companies align their people, processes and planning with their corporate goals, helping them turn potential into profits.

Whether you conduct your own assessment or hire someone to help you, we urge you to spend the time upfront – before you slash costs and jobs. It doesn’t have to take a long time and you will still end-up having to make difficult decisions; but at least the odds are greater that you will make the correct ones.

Andy Klausner
Founder & Principal, AK Advisory Partners, LLC and Co-Founder of Consult P³.

This month’s guest blogger is Jan West Tardy, a Consult P3 faculty member and founder of Tardy and Associates.  Jan is a certified etiquette and protocol trainer. She is certified by The Protocol School of Washington, a leader in the field of etiquette and protocol training. Jan’s programs include business protocol, public speaking, business etiquette, and general health.

According to Dorothea Johnson, Founder of the Protocol School of Washington, etiquette once meant “keep off the grass”. When Louis XIV’s gardener at Versailles wanted to keep people out of his gardens, he put up signs, or ‘etiquets’, to keep them off.

In the present, we think of etiquette as rules reflecting an underlying ethical code, or the written and unwritten rules of conduct in social and business settings.

When I ventured into the world of etiquette training, I was determined to learn all the “rules” I could to teach people so that they could feel comfortable in any situation. This included how to eat properly, how to meet and greet at business functions, give a proper handshake, how to dress to impress, etc. What I discovered is that etiquette is more than rules and sharpening your skills. It is about how we treat one another and the benefits of changing the way you interact. My goal became to create a more civil world, one person at a time.

The following are my own rules of etiquette, I hope they help.

1. Believe in a higher power. When we accept the fact that we are loved unconditionally, it allows us to be kinder and gentler.
2. Be grateful. If you are grateful for the many blessings you have in your life, and you take the time to count and acknowledge them, abundant blessings follow. Keep a gratitude journal and write in it ONLY about things for which you are grateful. It will be life changing.
3. Learn the value of a smile. Smile at people and find ways to sincerely compliment them and you will find friends everywhere you go. Try it; smile at 20 people today and say something nice to as many people as possible, see what it does for your day and theirs.
4. Understand the power in a handshake. A great handshake says you are confident and offers a good beginning to any relationship. Women need a great handshake as much as men do.
5. Listen. When you listen to someone you make them feel important. The best thing you can do for someone else is to make them feel special. If you are ‘interested’ instead of ‘interesting’ people will gravitate to you.
6. Use the magic words. “Please” and “Thank You” are universally understood. Each holds tremendous power when said with sincerity.
7. Learn proper table manners. It will give you confidence in any dining situation and will leave you free to enjoy the meal and your companions. If you have children, teach them.
8. Be enthusiastic. We all want to be around people with energy and enthusiasm. It is contagious and makes life more fun.

So, be kind to one another. Believe in goodness. Make someone feel blessed to know you. Mind your manners. Smile. Create a more civil world…one person at a time.

Oh, and, keep off the grass.

This month’s guest blogger is Andy Klausner, Consult P3 Co-Founder and Principal. Andy is also the Founder and Principal of AK Advisory Partners, LLC. Andy has worked in the financial services industry for more than 25 years. In that time, he has been affiliated with leading banks, brokerages and financial advisory firms across the United Sates. He founded AK Advisory Partners to help clients navigate today’s challenging market landscape and regulatory environment by bringing efficiency and innovation to their business structures, offerings and practices.

Many people are increasing the number of social media channels that they utilize. This means spending more time and energy, and increases the importance of monitoring your success with each. A natural question becomes the role of your website in your overall social media strategy.

The days of discussing whether or not your website is a dinosaur only in the context of how old it is and whether it serves more of a purpose than just being an electronic brochure, are long gone.

(By the way, if when you read the words “social media strategy” above and thought to yourself “what’s that?” your marketing problems probably run deeper than just the effectiveness of your website!)

If you haven’t updated your website in awhile it could very well be a dinosaur –– and you probably need to update it, make it more interactive and make it more relevant.

If your website is up-to-date you have passed the first test. However, it still might be a dinosaur if it doesn’t have a well-defined place in your overall marketing and social media strategy. In fact, given the interactive nature of social media, and the ability it gives you to form a community with clients, some are now even questioning whether you still need a website.

My answer is an emphatic YES. There are definite advantage and disadvantages to websites in comparison to other types of social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter). Each tool has different strengths and weaknesses, which means that those who can integrate the best of each into a cohesive marketing will be the most successful.

Importantly, while you will be able to reach portions of your clients with each of the social media tools mentioned above, you will be able to reach all of them with your website. Might there be some duplication? Sure. But overlap is better than missing anyone. Websites are also your property and you own it – unlike other types of social media like those mentioned above where you don’t have ownership.

I am a big fan of social media. But I am also a fan of well-designed and integrated websites. At the end of the day, the first thing most people still do to find out more about you is “Google” you or go to the website listed on your business cared – use this as a springboard to link to your social media sites. (Got to my website – www.akadvisorypartners.com – to see an example.) It’s still a red flag in terms of credibility if your answer to a prospect is that you don’t have a website. A website ads instant credibility (of course as long as it is a good one!)

So it is actually now more important than ever to make sure that your website is not a dinosaur!

This month’s guest blogger is Consult P3 faculty member, Sherri Elliott-Yeary.  Sherri is known as the “Generational Guru” because she has a passion for sharing her vast knowledge on generational differences. She is an author, columnist, blogger and sought-after-expert on hiring and workplace trends. Sherri is the CEO of Optimance Workforce Strategies, a leading human resource consulting firm and the founder of Gen InsYght, a multi-generational training company. You can reach Sherri at: Office: 972-231-4394 Email: sherri@geninsyght.com Website: www.generationalgur.com and www.optimancestrategies.com

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
(Barack Obama)

WHY IS GENERATIONAL DIVERSITY IMPORTANT?

This is a question I have been asked more times than I care to remember. I like to use the metaphor of an iceberg because there are things that you can easily see on the surface of the water while it also disappears under the waterline. If you think of humans as icebergs there are some things that we can see and some we can’t. We can physically see aspects of a person i.e. their appearance, age (or we can at least have a guess of their age), gender, body language, ethnicity and culture, all just by appearance and observing behavior. We need to think about what lies below the ‘water line’, this involves considering those factors that aren’t highly visible.

Below the waterline are values, perspectives, education, families, hobbies, interests etc. all the traits that we cannot see with the naked eye. We can assign individuals to their generational groups by making an educated guess based on what we can physically see by employing our perceptions, stereotyping, our values, beliefs etc.

Generational diversity is merely one variable of diversity. The groups differ in their fundamental approach to work issues; they have different lifestyles and social values, all of which have a significant impact in the workplace. Each generation views the world through their own generational experiences or as I call it the “generational lens”; and it is these factors that shape the core values of a generation.

Our worldviews are based on our experiences and are often shared with our cohort; we look at the world through our generational lenses. Insight to understanding differences in generational experiences and influences helps us to better understand the different values, attitudes and work ethics amongst other things.

This is the first time in history where four generations are in the workplace simultaneously. We need to know how to connect with other generations in order to connect with not only our colleagues but also our customer base. Keep in mind that today’s customer base now has the added dimension of being a global customer base. The ability to attract and retain talent across generations is now an essential component to successful organizations, more so than ever before. Appreciation and greater understanding of the generational diversity that exists within our society and workplaces will enable us to leverage on the differences, giving individuals and organizations greater competitive advantages. Diverse teams create better solutions if well managed.

When you think about optimizing your organization, your thoughts may conjure up the need for efficiency or effectiveness. Yet, when you look at the definitions for those terms, it is clear that organizations need to optimize both.

Dictionary.com defines efficiency as “performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort,” while defining effectiveness as “producing the intended or expected result.”

So often, an organization will concentrate on being efficient without realizing that they must first look at what is being done daily and align those activities with the organization’s strategic goals (or “intended or expected result”). Understanding the goals of an organization is the foundation for effectiveness.

No organization has truly optimized their activities (processes) until they align them with the organization’s strategic goals.

The focus for optimizing your operation should be on those processes that are most critical to your organization. Once those critical activities (processes) are identified, then you can turn your attention to ensuring each activity is being performed efficiently (“in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort”).

Only when an organization is maximizing its efficiency and effectiveness can it optimize its results.

So, here is some action to take to better optimize your organization:

1. Define those processes that are most critical to your organization in each of your functional areas. In other words, determine which high-level tasks are most important to your organization’s strategic success.

2. Ensure those critical processes being performed truly align with your organization’s strategic goals and objectives. So often, organizations put lots of energy and resources to activities that do not tie to what an organization ultimately wants to accomplish.

3. Concentrate on ensuring those critical processes are efficient, well defined, well documented, and effectively controlled.

By implementing these three action items, you are well on your way to increasing the value of your organization to its customers, its employees, and its investors.

Don’t know if you want to include this – if not, that’s fine too.

For more on how to increase your organization’s efficiency and effectiveness, contact Charlene Aldridge at CharleneAldridge@aldridgekerr.com or 972.447.9787.

Our guest blogger this month is Consult P3 faculty member, Jeff Brady.  Jeff is one of the trainers for Consult P3’s crisis management program called Vortex.

Jeff is a broadcast news veteran with almost 20 years of journalism experience in three states and five separate markets. He’s covered foreign wars, Presidential election campaigns, the Space Shuttle program and the Superbowl. His last eight years in TV were spent at WFAA in Dallas as an anchor and reporter. While there, he led an award-winning newscast at 5pm which dominated local ratings and served as a strong lead-in to ABC’s World News with Charlie Gibson.

Jeff recently retired from TV news to launch Brady Media Group, a Dallas-based publicity, consulting and digital content development agency. He is the founder and CEO.

In Chess, you can set up a fortress around your King.

In Football, you can play man-to-man to shut down your opponent’s passing effort.

In the Courtroom, an attorney can claim self-defense to fend off a Criminal Charge.

And in the modern media landscape, the best defense against an unpredicted crisis is a powerful arsenal of positive online media surrounding your brand.

What kind of online media? Anything with pertinent, positive content – tagged accurately – helps. Consider a series of short articles about your company’s unique product or service – on the website. What about a newsletter that can be archived – on your website? How about a series of short, informative videos that showcase strong customer testimonials – yep, on your website? (My personal favorite!)

All of it helps. And Social Media may be your most powerful tool – if used properly.

I know what you’re thinking…

Will online content (or content marketing) help fend off a lawsuit? Or a hailstorm? Or an investigative report by the local “I-Team”? Or an explosion on your back lot?

Of course not. But I can guarantee that it will help mitigate the resulting damage to your brand.

Why? Like it or not, your website is your front door. And all of us now access the world through search engines. Almost every buying decision begins with an online search. Maintain a good reputation on line, and your online reputation stays healthy, and you’re half-way to the sale.

These days, a crisis can be sparked by a disparaging blog entry, an impolite e-mail, or a racially-insensitive text that ends up in the wrong inbox. Never mind the traditional nightmares of an IRS audit, flood, assault, arrest, fire or bankruptcy.

So – Why Not Mount a Strong Defense NOW? As an Insurance Policy Against the PR Crisis You Cannot Predict or Prevent?

It all starts with Social Media.

Reasons to Begin Defending Yourself Now by Developing a Robust

Social Media Footprint:

• The conversation has already begun. Your industry already has a presence in Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook. You need to find it and join it.
• It’s free.
• It’s global.
• It’s current.
• It’s powerful.
• It positions you (your company) as a thought leader.

I use a video blog. To discuss media and brand-building strategies, to showcase media trends, or PR opportunities with traditional or new media platforms, I will often tape a short video, upload it to our video channel and then distribute it in a monthly e-newsletter. But then, I’m a former TV news guy, so what else would you expect of me?

Podcasts are even easier. Some people like to write blogs. Some have mastered Twitter. Maybe someone in your company is a Facebook superstar. Consider them all valuable opportunities to build goodwill online before a problem ever erupts.

How to Start?

1)    Listen. Explore some of the Social Media Monitoring services that will let you find the dialogues involving your industry. What conversations are the most active? Who are the influencers?

2)    Put Your Team in Place. No, it’s not the intern’s job. Understand that the person who engages in Social Media for your brand has a powerful influence, and should be at the right hand of the boss. It’s important!

3)    Plan to React Quickly in Case of Crisis. What’s the main message? Will you need to get approval from several managers? How can you streamline the process? Keep in mind Social Media is a rapid-response medium. Think in terms of hours, not days.  Do you have a Twitter account? Facebook? What about YouTube? Do you have a video camera? Who can edit? Who knows how to post and tag content?

4)    Reach Out. Engage the most effective, articulate influencers. Join the conversation. Contribute. Comment on someone else’s Social Media space first. Offer helpful, polite, short comments.

5)    Remember it’s a Dialogue. Social Media is NOT Advertising!! Don’t imagine you can post a statement and walk away. Consider any Social Media platform a conversation, a garden, a kite in flight. It requires constant attention.

6) (MOST IMPORTANT) Develop Content NOW! Blogs are – generally speaking – the easiest and most common platforms to develop an arsenal of pertinent, positive content. You can add photos, images or videos. Easy. Invite guest bloggers. Post press releases. Recipes. Suggestions. Quotes. Testimonials.  All of these items develop Social Media “currency” that can help when something negative pops up online.

7)    Drill. Practice your response. Dream up something really unpleasant that might be said online. And then give yourselves a few hours to respond effectively. Do it again.

The best insurance policy against a crisis that can damage your brand is a good defense. So check your insurance policy, pay your taxes, retain a great lawyer, and build up a stockpile of POSITIVE Social Media content.

Do it now.

Thank me later.

Many organizations agree that people are their most valuable asset yet few consider its importance. Instead organizations are thought of simply in terms of what they produce; products and services rather than the talent that creates those things.

There is a secret to developing talent in your organization; everybody has it! Historically the “development” philosophy within organizations has been to spend great amounts of time and money on “fixing what’s broken”.  There has become a misguided belief that this will create excellence.

Over the past few years I have been working from the opposite perspective which has proven to create exponentially faster change at the individual, team and organizational levels. My experience has found its exponentially faster to develop people, teams and whole organizations by helping people find their “gifts” (what they are good at) and enabling them to get even better. When you work from this point of positiveness, people are encouraged to address their perceived “weaknesses” from a position of strength.  In other words they use their strengths to positively improve upon their weaknesses.

While working with organizations across the world, I found that if you want to quickly get ahead in today’s global economy you have to learn how to be adaptive, flexible and work with emerging trends and demanding customers.

Emerging leaders should consider strengthening their skills in the following four areas so they can; respond quickly to the needs of the organization, become resilient to change and learn from and build upon the shared knowledge of the organization.

1. Building Specialist skills- Understanding money management, business operations, business etiquette, having a professional image and improving your English language skills to work in the global market.
2. Becoming a Champion within yourself- Understanding your personality and how it impacts others, managing stress and anger, building your social and business network, acting with courage, setting high expectations and developing your self esteem
3. Learning to Enable learning of yourself and others- Having listening skills, possessing strong presentation skills, knowing how to negotiate and resolve conflict, knowing how to facilitate results and being able to manage appropriate business communications.
4. Thinking and acting strategically- Knowing how to succeed in other parts of the world, able to lead change, able to be innovative, capable of strategic thinking.

How we do business is changing and how we need to lead during these changing times is changing faster as well. The developing Third World has no reason to behave by old rules and in fact, has every reason to take extreme risks in pursuit of transcendent rewards. The old command and control models for leaders are being replaced by a new approach that fosters a highly collaborative, ethically based approach to achieving a positively focused “desired future state”.

The next generation leaders need to be agile in order to succeed.  They will be able to incorporate the ingenuity, resourcefulness, skills and abilities of each of their team members and leverage the resources of the organization in building opportunities and solutions. The next generation of leaders WILL BE Agile Business Leaders.

Eileen Dowse, founder of Human Dynamics, is an innovative, results-oriented human resources leader with extensive experience in organizational development, executive coaching, human relations and facilitation.  Human Dynamics provides coaching and counseling to executives and leaders from a variety of industries in the areas of performance, productivity, career transition and workplace dynamics. Industries served include high technology, manufacturing, government, research and development and higher education.

That’s the question on most people’s minds. August brought more bad news on the economy, and pessimism on the economic outlook continues to increase. Fall is always an important time, as we strive to meet our goals for the year, and plan for and set goals for next year. Given today’s economic uncertainty, making the most of the remaining months of 2010 was more important than ever.

There is little any of us can do individually to impact the macro-economic course for next year and beyond. But to get caught up in the “glass is half empty” mentality is sure to hurt your business. Your clients will take a cue from your attitude – negativism breeds negativism. What’s called for is realism and honesty.

What you can impact now – and what will have an influence long into 2011 and beyond – is how you’re running your business. This special edition of our newsletter will focus on ideas to help your control what you can control – the image that you portray to prospects and clients (your brand), the markets that you target and the manner in which you run your business.

Regardless of market conditions, taking the time to reflect on how to be the best that you can be is always a winning strategy.

Jump into 2011 - and control your own destiny.

Our guest blogger this month is Susie Parker who is one of my daughter-in-loves.  I am honored that she sent this to me and thought perhaps you might have people in your life that would smile if they received it from you …

DEAR SANTA,

I DON’T WANT MUCH FOR CHRISMAS THIS YEAR.  I JUST WANT THE PERSON READING THIS TO BE IN MY LIFE FOREVER …