The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants

A SPECIAL ME-P REPORT

Niche Career Development for Financial Advisors

[By Vicki Rackner MD]

Attention Physician Focused Financial Advisors

If you are a financial advisor who would like to acquire more physician clients, consider these facts:

• Fact: Half of physicians are behind where they would like to be in retirement planning.
• Fact: About half of physicians work with professional financial advisors.
• Fact: Physicians who work with financial advisors are better prepared for retirement.

The Survey

How can YOU build trust and be found by more physician prospects? Here are some steps. Trust is an abstract concept. It begs the question: Trust to do what? I asked my physician colleagues and friends, “When you say you trust your financial advisor, what do you mean?”

Here are some of the answers:

• You may trust your hairdresser to give you a great look, but you would not trust her to take out your gallbladder.
• Ask, “Trust to do what?”
• A recent survey offers insights. Almost half of physicians said that they do not work with advisors because they cannot find someone they trust.
• This leads to an obvious question: Why would physicians–smart professionals who spend their days identifying problems and fixing them–fail to take action and get on track for retirement?

1. I trust that she cares about me.
2. I trust he puts my best interests before his own.
3. I trust he knows what he’s doing.
4. I trust he understands the challenges I face.
5. I trust that she’s honest and direct. A person of integrity.
6. I trust that he’ll challenge me if I’m about to make a dumb financial move.
7. I trust the person who gave me his name.
8. I trust that I’ll keep more money than I spend in fees.

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Take steps to build rapport and trust – Be authentic

Tell the story of how and why you came to offer financial advice to physicians.

Here are a few examples from my own clients:

• Show you care. A famous quote among physicians is, “For the secret in the care of the patient is caring for the patient.” Your first step in building trust with physician prospects and clients is demonstrating you care about them.
• You can survey your clients and Identify how they how they see your trust-building strengths.
• An advisor tells the story of his surgeon father who outlived his money. That inspired him to help other surgeons enjoy true financial security.
• A cancer survivor tells physicians he’s giving back to the doctors who helped his kids grow up with a father.
• An advisor tells the story of always wanting to be a cardiologist. Now he’s using his real gift–making money grow–to help cardiologists build wealth.

More Tips:

Keep your promises

As my grandmother said, “Keep every promise you make, and only make promises you can keep.”

Conduct yourself like a physician

What does your personal physician do to win your trust? Do the same!

Be consistent

Conservative physicians may need to be exposed to you and your message six to ten times before they take action. Do you have lists of prospects and clients? Have you built an automated way of delivering something of value to them on a regular basis?

Quote other physicians

The most influential person in a physician’s life is another physician. If a physician offers a great idea or a best practice, ask permission to share this pearl of wisdom with other physicians. You want to be known as the financial advisor who rubs shoulders with physician leaders.

Regularly ask

Ask MD prospects and clients, “How can I do better?”

Take steps to be found

Physicians find financial advisors in much the same way you find a personal physician. You begin with someone you trust. Like me, most physicians turn to their own colleagues for names of financial advisors.

Address painful problems that need to be fixed TODAY

Busy people tend to put off problems that are asymptomatic today, even when they know the neglected problems will lead to pain in the future. Retirement is years away for most physicians. However, they seek relief from the acute financial pain of ObamaCare today.

Partner with experts and offer solutions to the problems of falling reimbursements, rising practice costs and heavier tax burdens. When physicians have more money to invest, they build wealth more quickly.

Interview key physician opinion leaders

Ask top physicians how ObamaCare impacts their day-to-day practice and their plans for the future. Uncover specific active problems. These are all opportunities for you. A key physician could introduce you to many physicians.

Listen to physicians

Active listening builds trust. Further, when you express true curiosity in others, they will want to learn about you.

Go to places physicians gather

Offer to speak at medical meetings about topics that the key physician opinion leaders identify. Submit articles for association publications. Join conversations on social media if that’s where your physician prospects gather.

What this means for you

Here’s why you may want to build trust and be found among physicians: you can mine the treasures in the medical market.

• Fact: Doctors make up 9 of the top 10 earners in the US.
• Fact: 500,000 US practicing physicians and dentists are financial do-it-yourself’ers.
• Fact: 40% of practicing physicians are age 55 or older.Physicians’ acute financial pain is your business opportunity. Someone will offer financial leadership to physicians. Why not you?
• Assessment
• Every physician is actively developing a personal ObamaCare plan; this is complex personal financial plan for which physicians solicit expert opinions.

Assessment

Enter the Certified Medical Planners

• Enter the CMPs
• http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

About the Author

Vicki Rackner MD, author, speaker and President of Targeting Doctors, helps financial advisors accelerate their practice growth by acquiring more physician clients. She calls on her experience as a practicing surgeon, clinical faculty at the University of Washington School of Medicine and nationally-noted expert in physician engagement to offer a bridge between the world of medicine and the world of business.

Conclusion

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

• PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
• HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
• CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
• ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
• FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
• INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
• Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
• Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
• Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care 

Comprehensive Financial Planning Strategies for Doctors and Advisors: Best Practices from Leading Consultants and Certified Medical Planners™

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