You know which advisors to call. Who needs a follow-up. Which relationships deserve more attention. You know you should be asking for meetings and asking for opportunities. You don't need another list of things you already know. So here's the better question: are you consistently doing them?
I'm Michael Fox. I coach insurance wholesalers and financial-services distribution professionals who work with financial advisors.
I won't hand you another sales system. You've got plenty. I work on the person carrying the strategy into the advisor's office, because that person is the one variable your competition can't copy.
You have to get an advisor's attention when twelve other wholesalers want the same fifteen minutes. Earn access. Build trust. Give them a reason to remember you after you walk out.
You follow up without becoming the person they dread hearing from. You handle being ignored, which is often harder than a straight no. You prep for the meeting, ask good questions, try to actually understand the advisor, and then ask for the opportunity.
Then you get back in the car, look at the next name on the list, and do it again. Some weeks the results show up. Some weeks they don't. You keep going anyway.
Standing out in a crowded inbox and a crowded office.
Becoming someone an advisor wants to bring opportunities to.
Staying relevant without becoming annoying.
Handling rejection, silence and slow stretches without losing your week.
I've worked in financial services since 1996, and I spent decades on the advisor side of this relationship. I know what it's like to be the advisor a wholesaler is trying to reach, earn trust from, get meetings with, follow up with, become valuable to, and ultimately do business with. That gives me a useful perspective when I'm coaching wholesalers, because I understand the relationship from the other side of the desk.
So when you're sitting in the car wondering:
I can't tell you what every advisor wants. Nobody can. What I can bring is perspective. I've lived on the other side of the table, and that changes the conversation we have about yours.
Most experienced wholesalers already know the activities that create opportunities. Sound familiar?
That space between knowing and doing is where the real work is. It's usually shaped by something you can't see from the inside: a belief, a thought you've stopped noticing, an emotion, your self-image, your expectations, a habit, a standard, or a comfort zone that feels like "just how I work."
Your manager is graded on your number, so that conversation is rarely safe enough for the truth. Your spouse loves you and is too close. Another podcast won't close it either. It closes in an honest conversation. More on the Knowing-Doing Gap →
Here's a made-up example, not a client story, but you'll probably recognize it.
A wholesaler believes "that advisor isn't going to take my call." So the thought before dialing is "why bother?" That brings a feeling of hesitation, maybe a little dread.
The action follows the feeling. The call gets pushed to Thursday. When it happens, it sounds tentative. The meeting request is soft. The follow-up slips. The result: no meeting. And the belief feels proven.
Same advisor, same product, different belief, and the whole chain changes. Explore BTFAR →
Same products. Same advisors. Same playbook. Watch the difference:
The difference isn't the deck. It's the person inside the suit.
You've had that week. Calls made. Follow-ups done. Great meetings. Good energy. You prepared well and it showed.
Then the next week, the activity drops. Why?
Sometimes it's discouragement after a slow stretch. Sometimes it's success. A big week gives you permission to ease off. Sometimes it's short-term results making you forget what actually creates long-term ones. And sometimes it's simply that your standard, the thing you consider normal, hasn't moved.
The goal isn't the occasional great week. It's raising what you call normal. When that moves, the phone gets lighter. The call you've been avoiding for three weeks gets made on Tuesday.
What you quietly accept as a good enough week.
Whether your calendar runs on a system or a mood.
How long a "no" or a silence stays with you.
What you expect from yourself before the week even starts.
Maybe you're doing well. Good money. Strong advisor relationships. You know your territory and your products. You're confident, you work hard and you're respected in your organization.
And your results have been sitting at about the same level for a while.
Nothing's broken. What if you're simply ready for another level? That's a very different conversation than "fix what's wrong," and it's one of my favorite ones to have.
Strengthen the foundation: beliefs, confidence, self-image, call reluctance, fear, habits, expectations.
You know what to do. Now do it consistently at your capability: activity, execution, follow-up, focus, standards.
You're already highly successful. Find the next level: higher standards, strategic thinking, mental preparation, decisions, identity, leadership, legacy.
These describe what helps most right now, not how good you are.
I've been in financial services since 1996, spent decades on the advisor side of the wholesaler relationship, and have studied mindset most of my life. My coaching focuses on the person executing the strategy, so the strategy you already have actually gets used. About Michael Fox →
What this isn't: product training, a replacement for company training, a sales script program, motivational hype, or someone yelling at you to work harder. The strategy may already be there. We're working on the person executing it.
Also see coaching for insurance RVPs, financial advisors and distribution leaders.
The question is whether you're consistently doing it at the level you're capable of.
If you want to find out what's really between your current performance and your next level, let's talk.
Michael Fox — Mindset & Executive Coach for Financial Advisors, Insurance RVPs & Wholesalers.
Apply for private coaching →