In March of this year, I conducted a research project. It was a survey of the financial professionals in my personal database. I asked them to send me their top three concerns. This article is based on the responses received.

Based on the responses, I developed two conclusions:

1. The responses showed me that many advisors do not understand what is wrong with their business machinery. If it were a horse with a broken leg, they'd be trimming hooves. And, if it were a rifle range, they'd be shooting on the wrong target.
2. Since they don't know the real problem, they are helpless to solve it by themselves.

Quick Look: In response to the question: "What are your 3 biggest concerns," there were two answers that stood out most significantly. Today, we're going to look quickly at the most important one. Then, we'll go into greater depth:

This answer was voiced by fifty percent of the people responding – and the respondents came from all across the financial industry, in the US and Canada. Prospects. I had actually anticipated that this answer would come up, but I didn't expect it to come up quite so often. Advisors seem not to know how to be more effective at bringing in either new prospects or more highly qualified prospects. Our investigations show that this is a serious concern for people operating transactional businesses, as well as fee-based planners.