Here's what the recent press is saying about Million Dollar Producer
Working Smarter, Not Harder
By Tracey Longo
Independent broker-dealers pulled off another profitable year.
"AIG is offering an “exclusive coach” program for more senior advisors who want to accelerate their marketing programs and productivity. It was developed by Tom Gau and Ken Unger. In its first year, “exclusive coach” helped advisors improve their production by an average of 20%, says Johnson.How impressive is the 10% to 20% productivity gains that AIG has helped advisors achieve through their coaching programs? Those gains are pretty dazzling, considering that the average advisor in AIG’s system achieved a 3% gain."
Practice Management: What The Survey Doesn’t Say
By Chris Radford
Executive takes issue with findings on broker-dealers.
Business Development In The Future"Tom Gau, a $2-million-plus-a-year producer and leading trainer of financial advisors with his partner, Ken Unger, president of Million Dollar Producer, recently surveyed experienced, larger producers to understand the support they seek. Their top five requirements were training and strategies for:
- Obtaining new qualified clients;
- Modernizing their businesses by successfully transitioning to a fee-based practice;
- Specific systems for operating efficiently and compliantly;
- A business model prototype;
- Hiring and managing a strong, capable staff.
These findings point to the fact that while financial advisors are working to keep practice management in motion, there is also the matter of developing opportunities for growth, or what is called business development. Enlightened financial advisors see it as a part of the whole. So do we."
Chris Radford is executive vice president of national sales for AIG Financial Advisors, a national independent broker-dealer serving more than 2,200 producing financial advisors with over $42 billion of client assets.
How to Market Your Expertise
By Donald Moine, 3-22-06
It has been said that information is the currency of the 21st Century. I'd like to revise that and say that expertise is the currency of the 21st Century.Expertise is certainly more valuable than dollars, Euros or any other currency. Human beings around the globe gladly exchange billions of dollars, Euros and other currencies every day for the expertise of others.
In the financial services field, we see many examples of successful info-entrepreneurs, including Tom Gau and Ken Unger of Million Dollar Producer, Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach, Ed Slott of of Ed Slott's IRA Advisor, and many more.
When Production Is Primary
By David Drucker
Did you have a full calendar of appointments today? If not, you're wasting your time, say Tom Gau and Ken Unger, the gentlemen behind the Million Dollar Producer training program.I interviewed Gau and Unger for my book--The One Thing... You Need to Do as Told By the Financial Advisory Industry's Top Coaches, Consultants and Visionaries (The Financial Advisor Literary Guild, 2005), co-authored with "D" Shannon. I learned the real difference between their philosophy and the multitude of other coaching philosophies available to advisors: Building relationships with your clients is laudable, but the licensed advisor doesn't earn a living until he or she makes a sale. And to make a sale--or lots of sales--advisors need to engage in "meaningful activity" backed up by real planning skills.
If this advice seems a bit anachronistic, it's because Gau and Unger often work with transaction-based advisors struggling to add an aura of professionalism to what they do. Gau's profitable, but regimented, system is often just what they're looking for.
It would be difficult to overstate the success Gau has had with his own planning firm, which he started in 1987. "By the time I sold the company in 1999, I had $1 billion in assets under management and was doing over $3 million a year in gross dealer concession," Gau says. In other words, he didn't need formal training as a coach; other advisors saw what he had accomplished and were beating down his door to find out his secrets.
Gau presented his first "boot camp" in 1993, a two-day intensive seminar to show people his operation. Advisors who've been through the seminar often advance to take Gau's Million Dollar Producer Exclusive Coaching Program. George Jackson, a Raymond James advisor in Longwood, Fla., is one such advisor who followed this path. "I started in financial services in June 1992 and went to my first boot camp with Tom in 1997," says Jackson, who's now in the second year of the Million Dollar Producer Coaching Program.
What Gau and Unger have done for Jackson is make him better at what he was already doing. Says Jackson, "I had a good process, but Tom has helped me really refine it." An example? "One area that's really improved is our client review process. We now have a standard operating procedure that gives our clients a consistent experience." Does it affect the bottom line? "Sure, consistency means greater efficiency," he says.
Gau and Unger teach proper financial planning, but that's not enough by itself. The advisor must also be engaged in "meaningful activity," Gau's phrase to describe the constant flow of client traffic through the advisor's office that translates into success each and every day. Even more than that, Gau says, "advisors need to have a 12-month marketing calendar of 'meaningful activity.'"
Meaningful activity is well illustrated by Gau's client, Gordon Wollman of Cornerstone Financial Solutions in Huron, S.D. "I've followed Tom's advice to run my practice like a doctor's office," Wollman says. "I now just see prospects or clients and delegate everything else. My typical day is 10 to 12 appointments, sometimes as many as 14. My staff has grown from just a few people to seven full-time and one part-time staff person. And since I began working with Tom over eight years ago, my revenue has gone up from $350,000 to $1.2 million." Impressive.
Some advisors are already high-producing when they come to see Gau and Unger for the first time. Mike Piershale, another Raymond James advisor out of McHenry, Ill., is one such advisor. Under Edward Jones, with which he was affiliated for 15 years before leaving in 2000, Piershale had the third highest-ranked office in the U.S. out of a total of 8,000 offices and was grossing about $750,000 a year. Yet, he will tell you he had a lot to learn about financial planning, and he hadn't mastered the art of meaningful activity.
"At Edward Jones, I did financial planning," Piershale says, "but what Tom did was help me expand it and make it better with a particular emphasis on what to look for on a client's tax return. I didn't always pay attention to unrealized losses, for example, that could be used to offset gains. Now we save a lot of taxes for clients."
Today, Piershale grosses $1.4 million--a feat duplicated by less than 1% of all advisors--thanks to Gau and Unger and their insistence that advisors keep their calendars full. On the day I spoke with him, Piershale told me, "My day's not over yet. I've had four appointments with clients or prospects since coming in at 1 p.m. and will have seven all together. That's how it is every day." Compared with what he was doing several years ago, Piershale says this is a big change.
What's the big deal about financial planning education? Isn't it already available from a myriad of colleges, conferences, and audio programs? What could be all that different about the education Gau and Unger provide? Piershale would say, "Gau is an ex-CPA, so he's anal-retentive in the attention he pays to details. He's compliance-focused and runs a very ethical business. I like that. I always know his advice is what's right for the client and meets regulatory guidelines."
Another change Piershale will implement, courtesy of the Million Dollar Producer, is to schedule all quarterly client meetings in the same calendar quarter rather than staggering them across all months of the year. What's the difference? "I've learned from Tom that if you can focus--and get your entire office focused--on having update meetings with all clients at the same time, you get into a rhythm. You can be more efficient and give better service," Piershale says.
Gau's emphasis on top-notch planning helps many of his advisor clients. Rich Boehm, a Scottsdale, Ariz., advisor with Unified Financial Services, says, "This training makes you a true financial advisor for your clients. It's helped me get away from the transaction-type business I had when I was with Royal Alliance. I was used to being looked at as a salesman; now I'm viewed as the manager of my clients' entire wealth, taking taxes and everything into consideration."
Boehm has not only acquired a new image, but greater confidence, as well. "Where this training has really helped me is in dealing with higher-net0worth clients--those with assets over $1 million." Boehm thinks he now better communicates with and services these clients because Gau and Unger have helped him adopt a business model that systematizes everything down to the last detail. "They helped not only me, but also my assistants and my 'director of first impressions,'" as Boehm calls his receptionist.
Can the effects of this training be quantified? Advisors cite somewhat vaguely the "efficiency gains" they've experienced, but Boehm claims his business is up 30% to 40% over last year--when he hadn't yet discovered The Million Dollar Producer.
Maybe Gau and Unger should consider changing their program's name. "The Million Dollar Producer" puts all its emphasis on the financial gains an advisor will experience if he adheres to Gau and Unger's principles. However, as Boehm says, "their program is actually for people who want to do really well by their clients."
Heightened Success Comes With A Commitment to Growth
James R. Cannon, President & CEO, AIG Financial Advisors
Financial advisors who participate in the coaching programs offered by AIG Financial Advisors can be characterized as successful in many ways, both in their profession and in their lives away from work. During a recent session in Phoenix, I was struck by a number of well-established advisors in the 2006 Exclusive Coaching Program.
One of these leaders is Rich Welch, who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He is moving his organization toward fee-based business and Exclusive Coaching is among the tools he is using for an effective transition. Second-year participant Peter Maris intendeds to further increase his production after growing by 50% in 2005. Ron Nielson began his career in 1969 and he ahs been affiliated with this broker-dealer for over 20 years. He increased productivity and enhanced his office structure last year by implementing what he learned in the coaching sessions. Randy Yeomans and Doug Peterson are top producers who are seeking new levels of record-breaking production in the midst of long careers that include proven performance.
By their example,. these people demonstrate that the benefits that come from stretching beyond current capabilities are never diminished by past accomplishments, no matter what you have already achieved.
A full 40% of the advisors who enroll in Exclusive Coaching last year recorded their best year of production ever and four of them achieved membership on the Leaders Council. The group's total assets under management almost doubled while their personal production increased by an average of 18% during the course of the program. Over 90% of participants have renewed their contracts for the 2006 Exclusive Coaching Program.
Profiles In Coaching
By David J. Drucker
Tom Gau: “The Million Dollar Producer”
Tom Gau, who calls his coaching program out of Roseville, Calif., “The Million Dollar Producer,” wants you to know his advantage over other coaches who work with financial advisors. “Most coaches can’t know how it feels to deal with clients after three years of a down market unless they’ve been an advisor.” Gau was and still is a producer, unlike most other coaches, and owns Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, with offices in Ashland, Brookings and Medford, Ore., which manages more than $400 million in assets.
Gau started his own planning firm in southern California in 1987, and it would be difficult to overstate his success. “By the time I sold the [first] company in 1999, I had $1 billion in assets under management and was doing over $3 million a year in gross dealer concession,” says Gau. In other words, he didn’t need formal training as a coach; other advisors saw what he had accomplished and were beating down his door to find out his secrets.
The high-energy Gau presented his first “Boot Camp” in 1993, a two-day intensive seminar to show people his operation. Advisors who’ve been through Boot Camp often advance to take Gau’s Million Dollar Producer Exclusive Coaching Program.
Asked if he’s aware of Dan Sullivan’s coaching services, Gau replies, “I was in one of Dan Sullivan’s groups in 1998-99. I thought his coaching was good for generic applications, but he didn’t have a clue about my business as a financial advisor. My partner, Ken Unger, and I do all of our own coaching, and we have been and are now practicing financial advisors. The question you have to ask is, do you want to be coached by someone who’s never done it, or by someone actually in the trenches? We help you implement our ideas because advice without implementation is worthless.”
However, Gau acknowledges that what he characterizes as a downside to Sullivan’s services is really a clarification of how Gau’s approach differs from that of the other coaches. On a continuum that begins with very inward-focused processes (i.e., self-examination) to very external processes (i.e., how one’s business is operating), all of our coaches hold a valid place. Gau sits at the end of the spectrum where the practice is paramount (as one can tell from the name of his program).
Perhaps this is best illustrated by one of Gau’s clients. Gordon Wollman of Cornerstone Financial Solutions in Huron, S.D., has been a client of Gau’s for about eight years now, and says Gau is all he promotes himself to be. “I first heard Tom speak at one of my broker-dealer conferences. I attended his two-day Boot Camp, which helped me get in the seminar business and get my office organized. Tom shares his own office organization systems, and I was impressed they worked for me,” says Wollman.
Wollman went on to do more work with Gau, and also with Bill Good, a noted marketing consultant to the business, both of whom he says have been his mentors. But how do we translate his statement that Gau’s systems “worked” for him into a concrete measure of success? Fortunately, Wollman shared some of his firm’s specs: “I’ve follow Tom’s advice to run my practice like a doctor’s office. I now just see prospects or clients and delegate everything else. My typical day is ten to 12 appointments ... sometimes as many as 14. My staff has grown from just a few people to seven full-time and one part-time staff persons. And since I began working with Tom, my revenue has gone up from $350,000 to $1,200,000.” Impressive.
The Million Dollar Producer offers three services/products. They are one year of coaching for $15,000, which includes three two-day meetings, six conference calls and four one-on-one personal coaching sessions by phone; a two-day Financial Advisor Boot Camp for $2,200; and training DVDs that cost between $100 and $500.