3 Ways for Financial Consultants to
Achieve Work-Life Balance
The struggle to juggle is real.
As the pandemic drags on without an end in sight, more and more people are reporting increasing workload, behavioural stress, and professional burnout in their careers. On top of these exceptional circumstances, financial consultants must also deal with intense competition, increasing business challenges, and uncertain economic and market prospects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s no wonder that financial consultants lay claim to one of the most stressful career paths of any major profession. In fact, some surveys claim that more than 90% of new financial consultants and insurance agents leave the industry in their first year due to burnout. The burnout rate increases to 95% in their fifth year.
How, then, can you overcome these challenges? As you go about fulfilling the demands of your clients and businesses, are your personal relationships falling behind? Are you compromising on your home life?
“Is it even possible for financial consultants to have it all—a successful career and yet a steady balance between work and life?”
It may sound like an impossible feat—but don’t worry, you are not alone. We have compiled the top 3 ways that you can achieve work-life balance in your life.
1. Be more organized
The most common advice to be more organised that can be found online is to choose a virtual calendar or to-do list tool from the hundreds of tools available. These tools are touted to be able to bring order to your life and streamline your daily processes; it’s like having your own personal assistant right in your pocket.
But oftentimes, we find that being organised doesn’t just entail the keeping of a calendar or a to-do list, be it a physical one or through a fancy mobile application. In fact, being organised is to be able to establish a steady balance between your work and your personal life.
i. Client management with ease
Often, you may find yourself spending a lot of time on client management—scheduling meetings, balancing the client’s desires with the practical reality of your business, and ensuring that both sides can grow together. However, more often than not, this takes up a significant portion of your limited time.
A good customer relationship management platform like GoalsMapper’s GM Connect can make a difference in good and great client management. With GM Connect, you can transform your customer relationship management processes by automating communication with a personal touch. Additionally, GM Connect provides a one-stop platform for you to stay on top of every interaction with your client, so that you can maximise your efficiency.
ii. Don’t forget to leave some time for yourself and your family
Despite how busy you may get, it’s good to always establish boundaries between your career and your personal life. As author Nora Roberts once said, the key to juggling work and life is to know that some of the balls you have in the air are plastic, while some are glass. Dropping a plastic ball is fine—plastic would not break. But a dropped glass ball would shatter. Achieving work-life balance is the realisation that not all ‘work’ balls are glass, and not all ‘personal life’ balls are plastic. Sometimes, you may have to compromise on your work for your personal life, and that is completely fin
2. Separate personal and work messaging tools
With the advent of social media messaging, the line between work messages and personal messages has been blurred. You may find yourself answering work messages even in your personal time. With remote working, the line blurs even further as both work and play are now taking place in the same confines of your home.
“Thus, it is vital to take steps to separate your communications tools for work and personal messaging so that you can switch between work and play modes easily.”
i. Create different social media accounts
With the ubiquity of social media, many financial consultants are turning to these platforms to engage and develop client relationships and self branding. However, your clients might not be interested in watching your daily mukbangs nor do you want to be hounded by your clients in your DMs when you just wanted to catch up on the latest memes.
Keep different social media accounts—one for friends and family, and another for colleagues and clients—this will help you better keep a work-life balance and make your content more directed and engaging for the different audiences.
ii. Set automated messages
You can set automated email replies for emails that happen to reach you after working hours. This manages the sender’s expectations and allows you to comfortably wait till an appropriate time to reply to an email.
To easily automate all your communication channels, including WhatsApp and email platforms, you can use GM Connect. You can send or automate messages (such as appointment reminders or even birthday greetings) with just a single click.
iii. Manage your notifications
Ever been to dinner with your loved one, only for the lovely reservation to be interrupted by the many pings resulting from the notifications coming from your phone? Well, you can manage that by simply activating the “do-not-disturb” feature that is on virtually all smartphone devices.
If you are worried about missing something important, you can set different settings. For example, allowing calls to go through after 3 missed calls for certain contacts—this can be useful for your higher-ups or clients who may need urgent advice.
3. Build meaningful connections with your clients
Socialisation is an important aspect of human life. Luckily for us, our client meetings can be a form of socialisation as well! Build meaningful connections with your clients and get to know them as a friend rather than just a client.
You may be wondering, “how does getting to know my client as a friend help me?” The notion of being good to clients may seem like an odd piece of advice for a blog post on achieving work-life balance, but it rings true for financial consultants who have felt the strain and pressure of an unhappy client.
“A pleased client means a successful and smooth sailing partnership, but a client relationship that is distressed and anxious can take a significant toll on the financial consultant’s wellbeing.”
As you interact with your clients, you may begin to gain more experiences regarding how to work with certain clients. You may become more skilled at explaining the value proposition of your solutions to your clients and helping them see the benefits that you can bring for them. All of this plays a part in letting your clients know that they can place their trust in your words and actions.
A client that works with you instead of against you… Trust us when we say that a meaningful connection with your clients can significantly improve your psyche!
Closing Thoughts
Work-life balance has been a common subject in conversations about quality of life for a long time. Some believe that it is important to make an effort to establish it while others think it is impossible to separate them. There are even schools of thoughts that embrace the blending of work and personal time.
As financial consultants, it may be easy to get stuck in the never ending loop of work. The first step to achieving work-life balance is recognising that you need change. Being self-aware allows you to evaluate your life goals, priorities and what really matters. Once you have done this, you will be able to identify what areas are still not aligning with your vision.
We hope that our tips have given you some insights while you journey through this process. Good luck!