Do not let your first year Ruin your success

Have you heard how the university can be difficult the first year? The transition from high school to college is no walk in the park. Many students leave their safe and comfortable to deal with a home life as “adult” for the first time, causing students to struggle under the pressure. Balancing part-time jobs, club activities, sporting events, socializing and course work can be daunting, but need not be.

Contrary to what your classmates say, the key to success in college is not networking, joining as many as possible social clubs, or attend every party on campus. The key to success in college is hard work, clear and simple. And to help you succeed, we have developed some simple tips to make the transition from high school to college students easier:

1. Buy a notebook binder. In his file cabinet to keep important documents in hanging folders. Documents such as school transcripts, letters of acceptance, letters of recommendation, resumes, information on scholarships, bills by name, emergency telephone numbers and your Social Security card.

2. A plan to buy. While it may seem “Dorky” keep a planner with you wherever you go, it’s a great way to ensure that no over-commit yourself. Pencil in extracurricular activities, but PEN in school and jobs. While you can cancel extracurricular activities, or arrange to suit your schedule, classes, test dates and days of work can not be altered. And to help you remember those important dates of the tests, highlighting the dates with a yellow marker.

3. Set realistic goals. One reason that some students fail the first year is because they do not take the time to set realistic goals. In the eye of your mind, you are Superman and can achieve anything you set your mind, even if it means juggling two important obligations on the same day, at the same time. But real life is not a movie. You may not be in two places at the same time, or you can complete a project in just three hours 30 minutes. Know your goals. Understand, they break down into smaller, more manageable tasks, and set specific dates and times in your calendar to complete these tasks.

4. Find a partner. Hard lessons must never be taken without the aid of a partner. Study partners are great for bouncing ideas, responsible for keeping you when you prefer to flake on a difficult subject, and even encourage you to find a tutor. Also planning regular study sessions fun!

5. See your adviser or counselor of students. Student advisors are available to help make your transition painless. That can provide a list of resources for scholarships and financial aid, be sure to maintain the academic course, provide a list of mentors, and even offer advice on personal matters that may be causing havoc in their school life.

6. Keep your room clean and organized. When space is clean and your soul is relaxed and is more suitable for the study of escape. Also organized a space that you have no shortage of important dates and keep you from spending hours searching for her last assignment university.

7. Fun. All work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy, but when you do not take the time to have a little fun, work and study schedule can feel burdensome that can hurt your study habits and results testing.

Finally, take care of their health, making time for exercise, plenty of rest and eat healthy foods.

Virtually every advisor has been taught that generating referrals from clients and prospects are the way to success, but less than 15% of all advisors generate enough referrals to significantly impact their business. Most of the time, the problems advisors have generating referrals is due to the training—or lack thereof–they have received, rather than with the their performance. The traditional referral selling training has been to “do a good job and ask for referrals.” Yet, it has been obvious for decades that it really does not work very well. Using the traditional approach, the typical advisor will get an occasional name and phone number or two from their clients, but seldom do these names and phone numbers result in a sale. Certainly, on occasion, these referrals become clients, but the close ratio tends to be quite poor.

The failure to generate a large number of high quality referrals actually lies in the traditional method’s approach to the client. The traditional “do a good job and ask for referrals” approach creates several roadblocks to getting referrals.

First, by waiting until the sale is complete and then asking for referrals, your client has not had the opportunity to prepare for your request. To the client, the request comes from out of the blue. When you approach your client with your request without giving them an opportunity to think about it, you have put them on the spot. You are only giving them a few seconds to go through their mental file cabinet. More than likely in this situation, they will not be able to immediately produce the number or the quality of referrals you want.

Second, even if your client takes a few seconds to think about it, they really do not know what you want. It may seem obvious to you, but your client really has not a clue what a good referral for you is. This may seem a little difficult to accept, but it is true. You assume that because you sell a whole array of financial products and services, your customer is immediately going to think, “Who do I know who needs or uses any type of financial advice, guidance or products?” Wrong assumption. What they actually think is “what does this person want from me?” Or, more likely, “how can I get out of answering this?” Without having defined for your client exactly what a quality referral for you is, you stand a very little chance of getting quality referrals.

Third, the traditional method of “do a good job and ask for referrals” does not give your client a reason to give you referrals. We make the assumption that if we have done a good job, the client will like and respect us and be willing to give us referrals. Again, this is far from the case. Most clients will not give good, quality referrals just because they like you or because you have done a good job for them. You must give them a reason to give you referrals. They need to understand why it is in their best interest to give you referrals—and after the sale is complete, it is too late to try to explain how giving you referrals benefits them. Clients assume that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and critical they have been. When a client gives a referral, they are putting their reputation and image on the line with the person to whom they are referring you. They are concerned about what their friend or acquaintance is going to think of them, particularly if you mess up. Consequently, you must give them a good reason why they should go out on the limb for you.

Fourth, the traditional referral generation method does not give the client an objective standard by which to measure the quality of your performance. You and your client may “feel” you have done a good job, but when you ask for referrals, they begin to think back over the sales process more critically and question whether you have really performed up to standard. If the two of you agree up-front on exactly what you need to do in order to “do a good job,” they will have an objective basis to decide if they trust you enough and if you have earned the right to be sent to the people they really know and respect.

And finally, although not a direct result of the traditional referral generation method, an equally serious issue is studies show that the majority of the times advisors do not really ask for referrals—rather they suggest referrals. Instead of asking a direct question seeking referrals such as “John, which of your friends, family members or acquaintances do you know that I may be able help solve some crucial issues?” the typical advisor will make a weak request such as “John, if you happen to know someone I can help would you mind letting me know?” Or, “John, if you run across someone who could use my services would mind giving them my card?” Rather than a request for referrals, these are throwaway sentences, quickly forgotten by most clients.

Traditional referral training is inherently unfair to you, the advisor, and your client. It does not give the you the tools needed to successfully work with your client to generate quality referrals, and it does not give your client a reason give referrals, nor a chance to become comfortable giving you referrals.

Yet, it is possible to generate a very large number of high quality referrals from your clients. You need to make sure that your interaction with your client eliminates these shortcomings. Preparing your client during the sales process to give referrals by informing them up-front that you are a referral-based advisor and expect referrals after the sale; defining for your client exactly what a quality referral for you is; educating your client on why it is in their best interest to give you referrals; and then coming to an agreement with your client on exactly what you must do during the course of the sale to earn their referrals will quickly give you a large pipeline of quality referrals.

By recognizing and resolving the problems of the traditional referral generation method, you can turn these issues into your strengths, generating a large number of high quality referrals from almost every one of your clients and prospects.