The Financial Manager’s Survival Kit: From Survival to Success in the Financial Services Industry
by Greg Powell
About the Book
I’M A FINANCIAL AGENCY MANAGER! NOW WHAT?
Do you have that “thrown to the wolves” feeling? You’re not alone. New managers of financial services agencies are often shocked by it, having to learn by trial and error as they build a competitive sales organization. Greg Powell has been there, and now he’s here to help you! Greg’s skills have made his agency a multi-year winner of industry awards in management.
THE ESSENTIAL SKILLS: RECRUITING, TRAINING, RETENTION
Through years of hard-fought experience, Greg forged a practical path to success and longevity in financial sales management. And he wrote this book to share it with you. He’s been where you are — chosen to lead but struggling every day to “stay above water.” Greg has accumulated and refined a series of tips, easy-to-implement tactics, and strategies to scale-up your sales organization.
FILL THE GAPS – END YOUR FRUSTRATION
Like you, Greg struggled to gain knowledge and convert it into wisdom and results. He read dozens of management books but them all lacked something — practical ways to deal with the problems faced by financial agency managers. But he persevered independently and sought the wisdom of mentors and senior figures in his chosen career. This book brings you those solutions step-by-step with examples from the real world from both Greg and some of the best managers in financial services.
About the Author
Greg Powell was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia and is a graduate of Simon Fraser University with a major in Psychology and minor in Criminology. He was active in a thirteen-year Canadian military career as a Combat Engineer. His duties involved providing leadership during aid-to-civil-power missions such as ice storms, floods, and forest fires as well as participating in international military operations such as the Bosnian War. Greg is a multiple-decorated veteran including the prestigious Governor General of Canada Commendation for his involvement in the Bosnian War, Battle of Medak, in 1993. Greg retired a Sergeant commanding 32 soldiers in 2001 and had a wide range of roles from field operations to military instructor to reconnaissance sergeant.
In 2004, Greg began his career as a financial advisor in the Surrey, BC branch with Clarica, which was one of Canada’s largest financial institutions focussing on insurance and investments. Within six months, Greg was selected for the Manager Training Program (MTP) and worked in various positions such as training manager, recruiting manager, and eventually associate manager.
He was later approached for a Regional Manager position that begin in 2007 with the mandate of growth and development within the region. Among many other tasks, Greg collaborated with managers and advisors in the company’s transition from Clarica to Sun Life Financial and assisted in the successful rollout of a new management compensation structure. Over 18 months Greg worked with and trained over 400 advisors and 40 managers in BC.
In July of 2008, Greg was offered the position of Financial Centre Manager of the same office he started in as an advisor, and interestingly his father had launched in 1976. Since that time, Greg and his team have achieved regional and national excellence within Sun Life Financial culminating in reaching the President’s Circle in 2014, being recognized as one of the top branches for production, agency growth, and advisor quality. He continues to win national industry recognition such as GAMA’s “National Management Award,” “Agency Builder Award,” and the “Agency Achievement Award.”
From 2009 to 2012, Greg acted as President of GAMA International Canada, an international association dedicated to developing leaders and managers in the financial services industry. He is a regular contributor to magazines such as FORUM, Money Magazine and Advisors Edge, and a successful public speaker in both Canada and the US. In March 2016 Greg will be speaking at the prestigious LAMP conference in Las Vegas where financial industry leaders from around the world gather to share and learn from the best in the business.
Greg enjoys SCUBA diving, writing, and woodworking. Having travelled by foot across the Arctic Circle, he hopes to travel to Antarctica one day to complete his pole-to-pole experience. In 2010, Greg and his wife Julie Cook, another long-time financial industry manager, travelled to Kazakhstan to adopt their wonderful daughter Lucy. They currently live in Chilliwack, BC.
Please contact him at (778) 552-3114 or managersurvivalkit@gmail.com
