Archive for the ‘Result driven marketing practices’ Category

Most Financial Advisors do not recognize the incredible impact of rebranding their practice. A new brand can redesign your compelling message giving you more focus and clarity. A new brand can re-stoke the fires under an existing client base stimulating referrals. A new brand can inspire new ideas and a new perspective accelerating the growth of your business.  A new brand can jump start your practice making 2012 your best year yet.

At some point or another every advisor will reach a plateau in their business, where the growth rate slows down to single digit numbers. Referrals dry up, prospecting is non-existent, your day becomes almost a mundane routine (is this resonating with you?) The good news is this lull in your practice can signify time for a change.  By just rebranding your practice, redefining your business and message you can quickly and effortlessly turn things around.

Many financial advisors shy away from change fearing they may upset the apple cart and generate disgruntled clients, when in fact the opposite is true. Some advisors prefer the stability of the daily routine creating some consistency to an already volatile business yet this resistance to change prevents growth elevating the impact of natural attrition.  The reality is change is inevitable you can either be at the tail end of change being forced to amend and adapt your practice or you can lead the change proactively reenergizing your clients, prospects and new business development. This seems like a no brainer to me.  To rebrand your practice there are just 3 things to consider your tribal market, tag line or message and method of marketing.

#1.  The first step in rebranding your practice is to reevaluate your tribal market. Just as everything evolves so do you and so should your business?  As you review your client base you may find that the kind of client you used to attract is different than the client you are attracting now.  It could also be that the kind of client you used to work with is different than the client you enjoy working with now.  Don’t be afraid to redefine your tribal market, this will not negatively affect your existing clients but will only add more focus and attract more of the clients you want to work with.  Remember branding and marketing is all about moving forward and should be directed to the kind of client you would love to attract.  Whether or not you actually change your tribal market will not impact the next step in the process and that is defining your brand.

#2.  Defining your brand is really about you and has everything to do with what you actually end up doing for your clients. Most financial advisors will say “Well I make them money” or” I provide them with a financial plan” in most cases that is what you are expected to do for your clients.  What we are looking for here are the non-typical benefits of working with you, the principles or the values you incorporate in order to provide value to your clients. Think about some tag lines that resonate with you in your everyday life.  Nike for example, their tag line is “Just Do It”, this certainly sends a message of “Just Get off your tush and get it done” yet the simple words (and more appropriate words I might add) “Just Do It” say’s it all.  The old tag line for GE “We bring good things to life” sends a bigger message than just saying “We build great light bulbs”, they are supposed to build good light bulbs.  Your brand and tag line is all about sending a bigger message with fewer words.

#3.  Once you know your tribal market and you have developed your brand you now want to develop a launch plan. How are you going to share this new message and image with your clients, prospects even friends and family?  If you are truly excited about your new brand and message you will want to share it with everyone. Live it up and leverage the opportunity, utilizing social media is a must going forward. Send a mailer announcing your new brand and message with a “New Programs Coming Soon”, even clients like to know you are thinking, changing and evolving.  Use email to announce your new brand, host seminars and events, run an ad in the newspaper or local town paper, and hold a focus group with a handful of clients and prospects to roll out your new program.

If you think this through and plan ahead you can spend the first 6 months reigniting the energy behind your business, stimulating new growth, inspiring more referrals with greater assets and production, you can accomplish all this by just rebranding your practice.

If you recognize the power of branding and are looking to utilize seminars as method for expanding your brand If you would like to learn more about how to develop and leverage your brand as a financial advisor then send me an email at adri@yourpinkoffice.com or

And I thought it was only women who felt boxed in. Today I visited with a Male Financial Advisor, after reading his brochure I still had no idea who he was.  His message was so generic he was almost invisible and then I learned that was his intention.

During my conversation with this young man I could see he was doing some good things but definitely not getting the results he needed for his business.  After further probing I learned so much more, he is an avid sports enthusiasts, running, biking, rowing, hiking, when he talked about this his whole being lit up, he showed me pictures, books it was obvious this was something he was truly passionate about.

I asked him why he wasn’t sharing this in his marketing and brochure?  And then I learned something new.  He told me that because he wasn’t the mainstream guy who liked to golf and smoke cigars he felt almost embarrassed about his life and passions. I don’t know how this came about but as a woman I totally understand.  I told him that hiding this part of him was making him invisible when in fact it was this part of him that truly made him different and different in a powerful way.

We started to talk further about his sports and passions and then we started talking about the process and discipline he incorporates to succeed in sports, we then transferred those same concepts to his business and he immediately got the connection.  It was a transformational 30 minutes.  All this time he was hiding the exact thing that would allow him to succeed.  I told him what he experienced was no different than what women experienced in this industry.

It’s time for women and the non-mainstream men to come out of hiding. Advisors are constantly looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition, odds are you don’t have to look far, just look within.

If you are still doing business as usual you may want to consider changing it up.  While seminars continue to be a viable source of new business you must stay fresh and rethink how you can attract more qualified prospects to your events to get new business.

Many advisors use RME (Response Mail Express) a direct marketing company to promote their seminars and events.  While this is an effortless way of filling the room it can also be costly if not managed properly.  The biggest frustration to this process is buying lunch for someone who is only there  for the meal.  But there are two strategic methods to get the benefits of a direct marketing process without the unnecessary expense. The key is making sure your guests are all qualified.

The first most common method of qualifying your guests is to put a qualifier right on the invitation.  While this may screen out most unqualified prospects (at least the honest ones) there is no guarantee that everyone is adhering to your guidelines.  What I do like about this is that with a qualifier on the invitation about 80%+ who attend your event will have the necessary assets.  The only negative is that while they may have the assets they may have little to no need much less commitment to doing business with you.

The second option is to qualify the leads yourself, this not only allows you to identify those with money but learn their status and potential commitment to making a change to do business with you. Instead of  placing a qualifier on the invitation you can have the RSVP company tell all those that RSVP that the event is already full BUT they would take their name and contact information and have the advisor call them in case there was a cancellation. This is where you step in.

That same day you as the Advisor would call the prospects reconfirming that the event is full but also giving yourself the opportunity to engage in conversation and screen or qualify the prospect.  If after a brief phone conversation (which is already building the relationship) they did qualify the advisor would call back the next day to say a spot had opened up.  If the prospect did NOT qualify she would maintain that the event was full.

The benefit to option 2 is that you are able to maintain more leads and contact information thereby continue dripping on these prospects even if they are not currently qualified or truly interested. The value of this is that at some point they may become interested, inherit money or change jobs giving them the liquid assets.  In addition by continuing to drip on these prospects there is the possibility that they will forward your information to another qualified party.  The second option, while providing you with fewer leads you are automatically dealing with a smaller number of potential qualified prospects without the additional commitment of time to call each one.

Seminars are alive and well you just have to keep rethinking how to make them work BETTER.