SIX-FIGURE BROKER REINVENST HIMSELF AS A COACH TO 100 FORMER PEERS: GETTING TOP PRODUCERS OVER THE HUMP

Randy Cox had overextended himself.

Although he pulled in six figures, Mr. Cox, an investment executive at the Tucson, Ariz., office of brokerage Dain Rauscher Corp., still performed many clerical functions, such as taking care of the paperwork and making follow-up phone calls. And even after he had put in 60 hours a week, not everything was done. Mr. Cox had reached a plateau in his career: No matter how hard he worked, he seemed to be running in place.

Figuring he needed to shape up, he hired a coach.

“I just got too wrapped up in what I was doing,” Mr. Cox explains.

Sessions with TruQuest Strategies, also based in Tucson, helped Mr. Cox unwind enough to reveal what he really liked about his job — designing clients’ investment plans — and how he could reach the next level of income while paring down his work schedule.

Mr. Cox started delegating duties to a sales assistant and hired a part-time intern.”It freed up my time to do what I’m here to do, pick investments and design a financial plan,” Mr. Cox says. And the extra free time also allowed Mr. Cox to better handle the acquisition of another adviser’s client base six months ago.

Learning to delegate tasks may not seem that innovative, but it can be a revelation to some highfliers. After all, if they’re successful they must be doing something right.

It may be hard for most people to have sympathy for TruQuest clients, concedes the company’s president, Leif Hartwig. He generally accepts only executives who earn more than $100,000 and focuses on financial executives who work on commission.

“Most aren’t exercising enough and spending time with their kids,” Mr. Hartwig says. “Once you get to the height of your expertise, you get stuck.”

Booking ‘play days’

The executives are tested by Kolbe Corp. of Phoenix and given their “performance profile.” The test helps the executives quantify the tasks they enjoy or are particularly good at and build their workday around those areas.

The
executives then draw up road maps detailing what their days and weeks should be like, emphasizing their favorite areas and minimizing their bugaboos. They’ll decide, for instance, when to schedule “power days,” which are sales-oriented times of the week. Time off, referred to as “play days,” also is booked.

The financial executives also are given a crash course in the “80/20 rule,” reviewing the theory that 80% of business usually comes from 20% of accounts.

“Most advisers are spending 80% of their time on relationships that are not productive,” says Mr. Hartwig, who earned $300,000 a year as a senior vice president at a brokerage before starting his coaching business about two years ago.The firm has about 100 clients nationwide, and Mr. Hartwig says he expects to sign contracts soon with two large corporations, which he declines to name.

The program isn’t cheap: those earning up to $200,000 pay $3,500 for four quarterly sessions and those earning above that amount pay $5,000 a year. But if executives follow their game plans, by the end of the year, Mr. Hartwig says, they should see their income increasing.

“We say there’s no quick fix to getting a life,” Mr. Hartwig says. “It is not Tony Robbins doing karate kicks on stage and getting people all pumped up.”

Like the little red engine

And Mr. Hartwig hopes to expand his influence by having corporations put their top producers through the program. Again, he suggests that the top 20% of a company’s sales force be chosen to attend the program. His competitors rarely target this market, feeling that top producers already know their stuff.

He doesn’t work on commission, but TruQuest student Mike Hanley says his first coaching session gave him the confidence to leave his job as vice president at the National Bank of Arizona and launch the Bank of Tucson last year.

“I didn’t talk to Leif and decide to start my own bank,” Mr. Hanley says. “But in the sessions I talked to people w
ho have been successful and have done specific things. You look into your inner self and decide to go ahead and do it. The ‘think-you-can philosophy’ is so important.”