Clients come first. And that means meeting their needs, which can entail scheduling meetings at their convenience. But is that really the best approach? Michael Kitces in “How a More Regular Client Meeting Schedule Enhances Advisor Productivity and Business Growth” posits that it may not be — and that scheduling regular client meetings is a better approach.
Kitces argues that the flexibility that allows one to meet a client’s needs with the timing that best serves them can be too much of a good thing. Says Kitces, “as an advisory firm grows, providing clients “too much” flexibility in scheduling meetings leaves the financial advisor stuck in a purely reactive mode, with declining productivity and the inability to focus due to the disruptive switching from client meeting to financial planning work to emails to staff meetings and more.” And ultimately, he says, “when you’re unable to control your business, then your business will control you!”
The alternative to that, Kitces says, is to create a “more rigorous and structured schedule for yourself and your client meetings.” Doing so, he argues, will:
Research backs the worth of such an approach, Kitces argues, citing studies that found that advisors that kept their business more structured and less reactive felt more in control, and that switching frequently from one kind of task to another hurts productivity.
Ultimately, it’s up to an advisor to overcome that latter tendency, Kitces argues, writing, “while being distracted from minute to minute is an outright challenge of creating focus for yourself and learning to “single-task” instead, the speed at which you switch amongst a broader range of single tasks throughout the day (and week) can still have a productivity impact… but is almost entirely a function of how you choose to schedule your time — or allow your time to be scheduled — in the first place!”
The alternative to a chaotic schedule, argues Kitces, is “to proactively structure the week with a fixed schedule, rather than reactively scheduling around whatever is already placed on the calendar (by clients).” And an important step by which an advisor can accomplish that and gain control over use of time is to actively schedule meetings with clients. Kitces writes, “Once client meetings are scheduled, ‘the rest’ of the advisor’s obligations for the week are fitted around those client commitments.”
And not only can such an approach benefit an advisor, it also can help an advisor’s staff and support team be more productive, as well, says Kitces. He writes, “The regular rhythm of the client meeting schedule, and the work time built around it, provides a structure that everyone on the team can build around as well. Which means regaining control of your schedule to enhance your productivity is actually a boost to the productivity of the entire team and business!” And he adds, “Taking proactive control of your calendar allows you and your team to be more productive in getting everything done, by reducing the negative drag of multitasking, which frees up time to work on the business!”
Kitces warns against falling prey to the mindset that it would take too much time to adjust the way scheduling and time management is done. He writes, “if there isn’t enough time to take away a day of client meetings to do a day of strategic planning meetings every quarter, even after taking control of your schedule, that’s the hint you may just be flat out overscheduled in the first place, and that it’s time to hire more staff support and better focus your time on what you do best!”
Kitces argues that the flexibility that allows one to meet a client’s needs with the timing that best serves them can be too much of a good thing. Says Kitces, “as an advisory firm grows, providing clients “too much” flexibility in scheduling meetings leaves the financial advisor stuck in a purely reactive mode, with declining productivity and the inability to focus due to the disruptive switching from client meeting to financial planning work to emails to staff meetings and more.” And ultimately, he says, “when you’re unable to control your business, then your business will control you!”
The alternative to that, Kitces says, is to create a “more rigorous and structured schedule for yourself and your client meetings.” Doing so, he argues, will:
- allow the advisor to regain control of the business;
- enhance productivity and efficiency;
- reduce the distraction of switching from one type of task to another; and
- allow time to schedule meetings to work on the business and its growth.
Research backs the worth of such an approach, Kitces argues, citing studies that found that advisors that kept their business more structured and less reactive felt more in control, and that switching frequently from one kind of task to another hurts productivity.
Ultimately, it’s up to an advisor to overcome that latter tendency, Kitces argues, writing, “while being distracted from minute to minute is an outright challenge of creating focus for yourself and learning to “single-task” instead, the speed at which you switch amongst a broader range of single tasks throughout the day (and week) can still have a productivity impact… but is almost entirely a function of how you choose to schedule your time — or allow your time to be scheduled — in the first place!”
The alternative to a chaotic schedule, argues Kitces, is “to proactively structure the week with a fixed schedule, rather than reactively scheduling around whatever is already placed on the calendar (by clients).” And an important step by which an advisor can accomplish that and gain control over use of time is to actively schedule meetings with clients. Kitces writes, “Once client meetings are scheduled, ‘the rest’ of the advisor’s obligations for the week are fitted around those client commitments.”
And not only can such an approach benefit an advisor, it also can help an advisor’s staff and support team be more productive, as well, says Kitces. He writes, “The regular rhythm of the client meeting schedule, and the work time built around it, provides a structure that everyone on the team can build around as well. Which means regaining control of your schedule to enhance your productivity is actually a boost to the productivity of the entire team and business!” And he adds, “Taking proactive control of your calendar allows you and your team to be more productive in getting everything done, by reducing the negative drag of multitasking, which frees up time to work on the business!”
Kitces warns against falling prey to the mindset that it would take too much time to adjust the way scheduling and time management is done. He writes, “if there isn’t enough time to take away a day of client meetings to do a day of strategic planning meetings every quarter, even after taking control of your schedule, that’s the hint you may just be flat out overscheduled in the first place, and that it’s time to hire more staff support and better focus your time on what you do best!”
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