Money has been one of the primary causes of stress, even before the COVID-19 economic crisis took place. Despite the increasing financial stress nowadays, there are less qualified professionals to help people who are suffering from it. Aside from financial advisors, financial coaches are what people look for these days.
A financial coach doesn’t only offer advice, like what financial advisors only do. Instead, financial coaches educate, empower, and become an accountability partner for their clients. If you plan to make a career out of this profession, here are the steps you need to do.
Step #1. Be Certified
The first question for every new venture always starts with “how to.” The same goes for a financial coaching career. Asking yourself “how to become a financial coach” is a particularly important step, which essentially starts with obtaining the necessary education, training, and certification.
A financial coach is more than a person who is knowledgeable about financing. In a financial coaching career, one should be well-versed of all, but not limited, of the following:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Regulations governing the industry
- Effective coaching methodology
You can learn these subjects from financial coach certification programs. They may sound in-depth and challenging for you, but they all validate your prowess in financial coaching, alongside your certificates and licenses (if there are any).
You might ask, “Can I just browse the Internet and learn this theoretical knowledge on becoming a financial coach online?” Of course, you can! The Internet has a lot of reliable sources. Having said that, having a coursework completion from a financial coach certification program will give you a certificate while learning by yourself online doesn’t.
How important is a financial coach certification to a novice financial coach? This accomplishment demonstrates your financial coaching knowledge and expertise that meets national standards. More importantly, it gives your potential clients credence in your capabilities, especially that you’re still a beginner.
Step #2. Get Practical Training
While you are pursuing certification, keep in mind that theoretical knowledge is incomplete without practical application. Look for a reliable supervisor who will permit you to gain some hands-on financial coaching experience. Make sure that you can apply everything you’ve learned into action.
Why should your initial coaching experience be under the supervision of a mentor despite your certification? It’s mainly because each client possesses unique individuality. Each has its own kind of financial needs, sentimental attachment to money, built-in habits, and even realities. This part of financial coaching is complicated and can only be solved once you gain sufficient experience.
Hence, if you’re still at the early stages of your coaching career, be supervised by a mentor who has relevant and valuable experience in the field. Your way of coaching should be monitored not until you finish your education, but only after you can demonstrate your competence as a financial coach.
In brief, be sure to get sufficient coaching for you to become a successful financial coach. Remember that, “Criticism is laudable when its pure intent is to enact improvement. Yet, before you render judgment, make sure that your holes are covered! (Diwa).”
Step #3. Establish Systematic Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
From the previous two steps, you can infer that the foundation of becoming a financial coach is built through three factors. That includes acquiring practical knowledge, giving basic coaching to a few initial clients (which gradually becomes more complex as you gain experience), and keeping track of the coaching results.
The next step should be establishing customer relationship management (CRM), which aids you in making timely client communications. This is crucially important since customer relationships are always at the core of any financial coaching. What’s more, doing so helps you perform your duties as a financial coach efficiently.
However, the overall processing, resourcing, and systemizing of CRM is the real deal here. First off, you need to realize that building a client relationship is very challenging to scale for a large number of clients.
It’s almost impossible for every coach to keep a large number of client relationships, while at the same time create a more personal relationship with each client simultaneously. Robo-coaches may be able to do this, but, of course, you don’t want to be overlapped by these AIs, don’t you?
Here’s the good news. You can successfully manage a lot of clients through the help of the current innovative CRM software solutions. We’ve listed down here the Top 25 CRM Software this year 2020:
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Freshsales
- SugarCRM
- NexJ
- Insightly
- Apptivo
- StayinFront
- Zoho CRM
- Ontraport
- Agile CRM
- Redtail Technology
- ActiveCampaign
- Copper
- CRMNext
- Spark451
- TargetX
- AtemisCloud
- Nimble
- Tigerpaw
- Less Annoying CRM
- Rethink
- Pipedrive
- WorkWise
- FranConnect
You can learn more about these CRM tools here at The Software Report. Each software is nominated and evaluated through its uniqueness, individual features, effectiveness in solving CRM-related issues, and overall user satisfaction.
How to choose the best CRM tool? It depends on what you think will make you more efficient as a financial coach, as well as what you’re comfortable with. That said, it’s recommended to opt for something that enables you to inspect a client’s entire profile, including bank balances, credit scores, insurance coverage, just in one place.
Ultimately, don’t solely rely on CRM software. Doing so may result in ineffective coaches that fail to offer their clients with a clear direction and action steps. Make sure to provide your clients with a personal financial plan and give them progress reports of their accomplishments.
Step #4. Plan your Coaching Career Path
You have to choose between working under an organization or starting your own financial coaching business. It’s entirely up to you, but the most advisable, especially for newbies, is to work for a company first and gain enough experience, then branch out into your own company.
You can soon realize how you want to coach when you’re finishing up your financial coaching courses or under the supervision of your mentor. Regardless of what choice you’ll make, don’t forget to do the third factor of a financial coaching foundation, which is to document client results (See Step #3).
Documenting client results and building case studies can give you an image of an accomplished service provider. This not only true to your potential clients but also to the organization you’ll work for. On top of that, don’t forget to protect clients’ privacy and meet confidentiality guidelines.
Step #5. Provide Excellent Service
The reality is that you can’t help all your clients perfectly, which can be frustrating. However, when you aid your client in accomplishing a milestone, it makes every hard work you do worthwhile and deeply rewarding.
With this in mind, you want to be a financial coach who is committed to helping clients in achieving better results. Make a positive feeling from your clients’ achievements as your motivation to provide excellent services and results.
Takeaway
When you’re already coaching in the near future, remember that your clients are investing in your financial coaching while they’re facing financial crises themselves. Let them save some bucks by providing them unbiased strategies and helpful advice on their finances.
