Last Updated on February 8, 2024 by John Prendergast
Find the time, energy, and courage to innovate. It’ll benefit you, no matter what your goals are. – John Prendergast
“The beauty of serving financial advisory businesses is that we’re all entrepreneurs running our own businesses. We have the freedom to innovate,” said Blueleaf CEO John Prendergast recently on the Advisor Lab podcast. “The nature of innovation is that you have to be willing to experiment and possibly fail to make progress. Failure isn’t a failure in this context; it’s learning. You have to try things in a way that’s somewhat controlled, so you can see what works and what doesn’t.
“This sounds terrifying to most advisors. “What? Experiment with my clients?” There are ways to mitigate risk in innovation.
“Pick a group of clients you want to test an idea with and roll it out to them. Don’t just stick a solution in front of them; offer two solutions that would solve the problem, preferably as different from one another as possible, because you learn the most that way. And you ask them, do either of these solve that problem?
“And finally, you ask, which one do you prefer and why? Why is what matters. Asking why allows you to find the common thread among each of your clients.
“As you have these conversations, a pattern emerges. Once you have that, you can create solutions that work for all of your clients or a segment of your current or future clients.
“I love innovation. I love advisors who innovate. I love to talk to our customers who are innovating. They teach me something new every day. This comes from a startup methodology that many entrepreneurs are embracing. It’s about applying a more scientific method to innovation.”
Stay tuned. John is invited to return to the Advisor Lab podcast to talk about Blueleaf’s latest innovation in helping advisors run a more efficient practice and meaningfully engage with clients.
Listen to the full Advisor Lab podcast: Innovating Advisory Practices: A Comprehensive Digital Client Engagement Model With John Prendergast
