Don Connelly
Don Connelly is perhaps the financial industry's most successful speaker, story teller, motivator and mentor to Advisors. His career on Wall Street spans more than 45 years and includes positions as stock broker, financial planner, branch manager, wholesaler, national sales manager and for nearly 19 years, company spokesperson, Senior V. P. and Senior Marketing Officer for an internationally renowned money management firm. As co-founder of Don Connelly 24/7 , Don's timely and provocative sales ideas are offered through an extraordinary learning center and mentoring program available to financial professionals 24/7. Don is a guru on managing client relationships and inspires financial Advisors to achieve great accomplishments. He educates, entertains and motivates audiences with an extraordinary flair, using compelling storytelling and anecdotes. Learn more here .
Articles by Don Connelly
- Business Growth
What You Say Isn’t Always What Your Client Hears
The gap usually isn’t in the quality of the advice. It’s in the space between what you intended to communicate and what the client actually heard.
- Business Growth
If Every Advisor Puts Clients First, What Makes You Different?
There is a question every Advisor faces, and it may be the toughest and most important question we will ever have to answer.
- Opinion
Why Financial Advisors Practice Their Golf Swing More Than Their Value Proposition
ou wouldn't expect to fix your slice without practice. Why should an important conversation be any different?
- Business Growth
The Silent Warning Sign Advisors Miss in Client Meetings
Clients rarely remember every chart you showed them. They almost always remember how involved they felt in the conversation.
- Opinion
Can You Explain What You Do in 8 Seconds? Here’s Why It Matters
If you can’t tell someone in eight seconds what you do for a living, there’s a good chance that person can’t tell someone else what you.
- Money & Life
Think You Don’t Need a Financial Advisor? Read This First.
Good Luck Investing on Your Own. A few things to consider before you decide you don't need a Financial Advisor
- Business Growth
Your Client Agrees With Everything You Say. That Might Be the Problem.
The clients who trust you most deeply are often not the easiest clients. They’re the ones who ask difficult questions.
- PowerAdvice
Your Most Agreeable Clients May Trust You the Least
The danger is assuming that a smooth conversation automatically means you’ve built deeper trust.
- PowerAdvice
Your Clients Understand Your Advice. So Why Won't They Act?
Good advice gets ignored not because it’s flawed, but because people don’t make big financial decisions based on logic alone.
- Business Growth
Fee Objections Usually Aren’t About Fees
Stop Trying to Win the Wrong Contest. One of the most dangerous traps in our profession is believing that clients choose Advisors based on fees.
- Business Growth
Why Clients Trust Some Advisors Before They Even Speak
Why Clients Choose Some Advisors Before the Conversation Even Begins. A Note Before We Begin A few years ago, I was speaking at a Top Advisor Summit hosted by a large financial firm.
- Retirement & Income Planning
Nobody Delays Retirement Because of Fees
I have seen people postpone retirement because they never had a plan. But fees? No. That’s never the real issue.
- Business Growth
The Listening Trap: How Experience Quietly Undermines Great Advisors
We start to see clients not as new stories unfolding in real time but as familiar variations on themes we’ve already mastered.
- Business Growth
You Probably Haven’t Met Your Best Client Yet
The truth is that you may not have met them yet. Most Advisors would never say those words out loud. But many begin acting as though they believe them.
- Business Growth
Your Best Client Is Someone Else’s Best Prospect
One of the Most Uncomfortable Truths in Wealth Management. One of the uncomfortable truths in our business is this: Your best client is your competition’s best prospect.
- Business Growth
Most Financial Advisors Talk Prospects Out of Becoming Clients
Many Advisors don’t lose business because they explain too little. They lose business because they explain too much.
- Money & Life
Timing Can Make or Break Long-Term Care Planning Decisions
Why timing—not product—may be the biggest risk in long-term care planning There’s a conversation Financial Advisors know they need to have—one that carries enormous
- Business Growth
The Little Things Aren’t Little: The Follow-Up Habit That Builds Trust, Referrals, and Loyalty
An article. A callback. A piece of information. A follow-up. You fully intend to do it. And then the day gets away from you. A meeting runs long.
- Business Growth
Clients Don’t Consolidate Assets Until Emotional Confidence Exists
Why wallet share is often driven more by emotional confidence than performance. Most Advisors think wallet share is primarily about performance.
- Business Growth
What Market Volatility Is Really Costing Financial Advisors
The way an advisor handles that burden reveals their maturity more than any market cycle ever could.
- Business Growth
The Discipline Difference Between Average and Elite Advisors
Why consistency quietly separates elite Advisors from average ones. Most Advisors already know what to do. That’s usually not the problem.
- Business Growth
Clients Forget Advice, but Never Forget How You Made Them Feel
Not portfolio design. It’s not tax strategy. It’s not market knowledge. It’s the ability to make another human being feel understood.
- Opinion
Real Barrier to Success Isn’t Skill—It’s Willingness To Hear “No”
It’s not intelligence. It’s not knowledge. It’s something far more uncomfortable. A misconception in our business is that success comes from knowing more.
- Business Growth
Moments of Uncertainty Are Where Great Advisors Separate Themselves
Doubt isn’t a sign that the relationship is falling apart; it’s a sign that emotions have taken control.
- Business Growth
Clients Trust You—So Why Aren’t They Moving Forward?
Trust gets you in the room. It doesn’t get the decision. There is a statement we take for granted, but, in reality, is incomplete.
- Business Growth
Clients Who Don’t Push Back Might Be Pulling Away
By recognizing these cues, you can move from reactive fixes to proactively strengthening your client relationships.
- Business Growth
One Missed Promise Is All It Takes To Start Losing Client Trust
The quiet gap between what Advisors think they deliver and what clients actually experience
- Business Growth
What Veteran Advisors Know About Growth That New Advisors Miss
And why most of it has nothing to do with markets or products. Early in their careers, Financial Advisors focus on learning.
- Business Growth
If You’re Answering Objections Directly, You’re Missing the Deal
Why Advisors lose business they never should have lost. What You’re Hearing Most objections aren’t real.
- Business Growth
Confused Clients Don’t Act. Clear Clients Do.
As advisors, we can adopt similar recommendation frameworks to help clients say yes more easily, building trust and momentum in the process.
- Business Growth
Emotions Drive Decisions Advisors Often Miss
The real decision is made emotionally—and explained logically later. Financial Advisors spend a lot of time trying to understand why clients choose them.
- Opinion
Same Words, Same Pitch—How Advisors Lose Differentiation
How Industry Language Quietly Turns Good Advisors into Commodities. Sit through five meetings with five different Financial Advisors and you’ll notice something curious.
- Retirement & Income Planning
Retirement Planning Isn’t Complete Until Long-Term Care Risk Is Addressed
But there is one retirement risk that quietly sits outside the portfolio review and it has the power to undo years of careful planning: long-term care risk
- Business Growth
Referrals Rarely Happen by Accident for Financial Advisors
Recognizing the moment, reading the signals, and opening the conversation naturally. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with a sophisticated team of Advisors about referrals.
- Business Growth
Not Every Prospect Wants To Be Saved
You can’t build a great practice trying to convince people who aren’t ready. One of the hardest lessons in life — and one of the hardest lessons in this business — is learning that not everyone wants to be helped.
- Business Growth
Great Performance Won’t Save You if Expectations Were Never Set
Failing to set investment expectations early on means that even excellent performance won’t prevent disappointment later.
