Chapter 1 

Build a Better Business
and
Marketing Plan

 

What lies behind you and what lies ahead of you pales in comparison with what lies within you.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Build A Better Business Plan—Your Ten-Year Vision

Concept:

Writing out your goals is one thing. Establishing a system and framework for accomplishing your goals is crucial to your success. Working on your business on a regular basis will create results that are dramatically better than working in your business. I guarantee that working harder in this business will not make you more successful. Working on your business and regularly developing ideas for success will. Why do the greatest athletes such as Tiger Woods keep practicing on a regular basis? Each day they are trying to get a little better. They are working on their game, not playing the game.

Objective:

As financial advisors we plan our clients’ long-term financial futures every day. So why do we neglect to do it for ourselves and for our businesses? I have asked several financial advisors what “long-term” means. They usually answer that they develop five-, ten-, or fifteen-year plans for clients. Then I ask, “How long is your business plan?” If it is not ten years, maybe you don’t plan on being in the business that long. I dare you to look at your financial plan and share it with your peers. Then look at your long-term business plan. If you have one, congratulations! You’re in the top 20% of financial advisors in the world. If you’re like most financial advisors, however, you wrote it a few years ago and never updated it. As advisors, we develop long-term financial plans, yet the average business plan for financial advisors is one to three years. Develop your plans as one-year (must-do), three-year (achievable), five-year (goal-oriented), and ten-year (long-term vision).

To sell you on the benefits of the business plan, I would show you that projections into the future based on what you know today would be of huge benefit to your success. The challenge is to think how you can grow and do things differently to achieve higher goals. Start by thinking what your ideal business plan would look like, if you could design amazing financial targets and goals, then think of a business or advisor that you would like to emulate. Think of the possibilities. The only limit is how much you can imagine. Challenge yourself to become the most successful financial advisor you know, not because of the money you will earn but because of the person and advisor you will become.

Strategy:

Start today to develop one-year (short-term), three-year, five-year, and ten-year (long-term) written business plans for success. Most advisors love to feel they are independent and work for themselves, yet they lack the discipline to run a successful business. If you work for a firm, structured goals and targets are set for you and followed up on a regular basis. As an independent financial advisor, I know that it is one thing to write a business plan, but to be disciplined and accountable for it is another. Make yourself accountable to someone and share your business plan. This may be a spouse, an associate financial advisor, a wholesaler, or someone in your peer group (discussed in a later chapter). A business plan has the benefit of creating a blueprint for even greater success.

Grant’s Tip:

Review each section of your plan every month and set goals for certain dates in each category.

When you review each month, make sure you revisit and check off completed goals. Have a place to keep ideas to review and develop. For example, I keep a folder with business planning ideas that I pick up. Each month when I review, I also review these ideas so that I might implement them into my business (with a time frame for completion). If I see a new software program, I keep the idea for review at the time I planned to spend working on my business, not in my business.

Review the ideas with your peer group or people who help you be accountable in the business. Have you ever spoken with someone who said they are busy because it’s month-end? Why don’t you have a month-end where you review production, business planning ideas, your business and marketing plans and goals? Do you think this exercise each month will bring greater results?

One idea to use when you are developing your plan is to find a boardroom-type space where you can take each section of your business plan and freely write out the benefits. Do this exercise with someone else (or your peer group) to make yourself accountable and to give you feedback on your process. Remember, success leaves clues. Ask other successful advisors for their business plans and invite them to a strategy session. Surround yourself with literature on building business plans. Our web site has hundreds of successful sites devoted to developing business plans and marketing plans. Hundreds of books are written on this topic. Ask the wholesalers or marketing representatives with whom you work, or even your company, for help on this area.

At the end of this strategy is a sample confidential business plan. If you want to see what other companies do with business plans, check out corporate annual reports. Usually a company’s vision and plan are there. Questions I receive from audiences are, “What is included in a business plan?” or “How much time does it take to prepare a business plan?” The answers are simple and straightforward. An effective business plan holds the fundamental information to manage your business as it will look five years from now. Then start working backwards. What will you need to have in place when the business is successful? What business is successful now and how is its business plan laid out?

The easiest way to build a business plan is to start by writing down your goals. Take a blank pad of paper and start writing. Combine business goals, family goals, spiritual goals, lifetime goals, travel goals, etc. Write them all down, then break them down into time segments—per year, per month, per week, and per day. For example, if your goal is to have 30 new clients this year with average investable assets of $300,000 for a total of $9 million new assets, how much per month and per week do you need to achieve the goal? Do this with all of your goals.

More importantly, activity drives production. What activities do you need to do to arrive at those numbers? Some experts suggest you make your numbers based on three assumptions—best-case scenario, likely numbers, and worst-case scenario. After you have completed your business plan, the key area should be a one-page summary of key objectives and key actions you need to take to follow up and complete your plans. One tip I will give you is to review your results for the past week every Monday morning, rewrite your one-page summary of goals and plans, and plan your week. One definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. Each month and year, what are your targets for improvement? Would you invest in a business that targets growth of 5% per year? Not likely; you want businesses that target plus-10% to plus-20% growth per year. What is your target for growth per year?

A final note: Work on your vision. Here is a story from Michael Gerber’s book, The E-Myth Revisited (HarperBusiness; 1995), that tells you why we ask ourselves these questions. Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, was asked to what he attributed IBM’s phenomenal success. He is said to have answered:

IBM is what it is today for three special reasons. The first reason is that, at the very beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. You might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream—my vision—was in place.

The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company that looked like that would have to act. I then created a picture of how IBM would act when it was finally done.

The third reason IBM has been so successful was that once I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would have to act, I then realized that, unless we began to act that way from the very beginning, we would never get there.

In other words, I realized that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one.

From the very outset, IBM was fashioned after the template of my vision. And each and every day we attempted to model the company after that template. At the end of each day, we asked ourselves how well we did, discovered the disparity between where we were and where we had committed ourselves to be, and, at the start of the following day, set out to make up for the difference.

Jay’s Comments:

The first insight is that guerrillas plan backwards, beginning with the attainment of their loftiest goals in the future, then working back to the present. If you can allow yourself to visualize success, the path to it will be easier to find. Most companies see the beginning of the path in front of them, but don t see where it leads in the distance. Their short-sightedness gets them in trouble when change or unforeseen circumstances occur.

The hardest job in the planning of marketing is seeing the target. You must remove the shackles of insecurity and fear in order to travel to your final destination. So you’ve got to think as though you’ve been attaining your goals all along as you plan for your distant future. You must see your company at its finest in 20 years in order for it to operate at its peak in ten years. By knowing what must be accomplished for such optimum performance, you can see where you must be in five years. That helps you concentrate upon what must be done by the end of one year. And that points the way to what you’ve got to do tomorrow, to do today, to do now.

When the golf ball is in the middle of the fairway and the green 200 yards away, the great golfers don’t aim for the green. They aim for the cup. How do you come up with a successful business plan? As Grant suggests, you evolve it over time. Revise and revise it until it is a powerful plan packed with enthusiasm and excitement about the future. You put it to work and then you stay with it no matter what (in most cases). You watch it slowly take effect, rise and falter take a bit more effect, hold on even more, stumble, then finally grab on and soar, taking you with it. Your plan is working. Your bank account is growing. And it all happens because you were committed to your business plan.

What usually happens if you weren’t patient enough during the time your plan slowly took effect? You might have changed the plan. Many entrepreneurs do. What if you dropped theplan the moment it faltered? You would have lost out. What if you lost your cool when your sales slid backwards? You might have scrubbed the plan. Suppose you dropped the plan when you stumbled, as virtually all marketing and business plans do. You tell your clients to be patient when the market changes and stick to their plan. If you change your plan what will happen? Disaster may have ensued. But because you stayed with the plan, because you were committed to it and believed in the long-term benefits, it finally took hold and did what you wanted it to do. Your success was very much due to your understanding of the concept of commitment. If you had not been in touch with the essence of the concept, you probably would have taken one of many tempting opportunities to kill the plan and would have killed your chances along with it. However,you understood what commitment means, and it paidoff for you.

Additional Resources:

Web site: Visit “Business Planning” on www.financialadvisormarketing.com. Examples:

See the following Sample Confidential Business Plan.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes____ No______

Additional information required: Yes_____ No_____

You ‘ligo out on a limb sometimes because that is where the fruit is.

-Will Rogers

Sample Confidential Business Plan For Grant Hicks

Contents

1.   Business Philosphy

2.   Mission And Vision Statement

3.   Marketing Statement

4.   Strategie s/Goals

5.   Targets

6.   Technology Strategies

7.   Support Staff

8.   Professional Development

9.   Business-building Ideas to Review

10.   Measuring Success

1.   Business Philosphy

•   Kindness—Work with nice people.

•   Interest—Work with clients who want help and advice.

•   Referable—Clients who work in a team environment with accountants and lawyers, not “do-it-yourselfers.”

•   Conservative—Clients who are conservative in nature when investing.

•   Quarterbacks—Clients who want us for all of their financial needs—for tax, estate, and investment management.

•   Independent Thinkers—Clients who can make a decision and stick to it and trust in their decisions.

•   Family—Clients who have strong family values.

•   Personal—Building client relationships one family at a time. Relationship-oriented—”Thinking of You—Using our slogan to think of ways we can help our clients.

1.   Mission And Vision Statement Mission:

Helping Canadians achieve financial security and peace of mind through sound financial planning since 1989.

Vision:

•   To be the best team of retirement planners on Vancouver Island, Canada (population approximately 1 million).

•   To have a highly specialized education focusing on retirement planning, estates, and inheritances.

•   To have a team managing $500 million-plus assets for retirees.

•   To be a known source for retirement advice and planning on Vancouver Island in the accounting, legal, and retirement communities.

•   To focus on the benefits for our clients including unbiased advice, helping them increase their retirement income, planning their estates and inheritances, and adding value to their personal lives.

•   To have one of the best client communications systems in the industry.

3.   Marketing Statement

The goal is to develop a memorable trademark or slogan that will be remembered for generations.

Grant Hicks personal marketing slogan is: Thinking of you.

Additional slogan: Helping you achieve financial peace of mind through sound retirement planning since 1989.

Future Ideas: Focusing on maximizing your retirement income with tax-efficient investment solutions and preserving wealth for your family

Sweat Focus:

S—See a vision of 500 million under administration. W—Work effectively not efficiently. E—Expect clients will invest with us. A—Achieve great results from our marketing. T—Thanks: always thank clients for business and referrals.

4.   Strategies—Goals

Goal 1: Be a quality organization—client-focused service for all levels, with one of the best follow-up systems in the industry, and with one of the best client communications systems in the industry.

Goal 2: Be a diversified financial services organization—team up with the best products and services and build successful relationships within the industry. Goal 3: Be a dynamic marketing organization, be known for retirement planning, and be known for resource partners.

5.   Targets

One-year target—$50 million under administration. Start-of-year database—Clients, 268; centers of influence, 20; referrals, prospects, 170; leads database, 250—total 708. Year One key objectives:

•   FCSI/CFP.

•   $50 million under administration.

•   1 half-time marketing assistant.

•   Attend two or three conferences.

•   Launch updated web site in April.

Three-year target-$100 million under administration. Five-year target-$150 million under administration.

Long-term targets-$500 million under administration; 500 clients/average account $800,000 to $1 million; 2 additional full-time financial planners.

6.   Technology Strategies

•   Minimize the paperwork by working in an electronic environment.

•   Improve client reporting.

•   Educational and marketing web site.

•   Improve web site to allow exchange of information, education, and links with life insurance companies, investment partners, mutual fund companies, and term deposit providers.

•   Implement electronic processing, whenever possible, of all investments, term deposits, and life insurance products.

•   Client-centered contact management systems.

•   Database mining contact management systems for prospects.

7.   Support Staff

Philosophy: Treat support staff the same as our best clients.

•   Year 1—Hire a half-time marketing and database person.

•   Year 4-Hire an additional financial planner and additional support staff.

8.   Professional Development

•   1-year plan

•   Attend two educational conferences.

•   Collect 30 educational credits.

•   Complete two additional courses to achieve FCSI designation.

•   3-year plan

•   Complete CFP and CIM professional designations.

•   Attend one national conference and one international conference.

•   5-year plan

•   Take advanced estate and tax planning courses.

•   Work with estate planning and inheritance planning educators.

•   10-year plan

•   Hire an accountant and lawyer to help clients.

9.   Business-building Ideas to Review

Keep a file of ideas you come across that you may implement into your business. Each month plan to spend some time reviewing the ideas and how they may help your business.

10. Measuring Success

Assess at monthly meetings and review with Board of Directors quarterly and at brainstorming meetings annually.

See Strategy 3 on Successful Franchise-like Production Systems.

Early to bed early to rise, work like heck and advertise.

-Ted Turner

STRATEGY 2

Build a Marketing Plan Guaranteed to Increase Your Business

Concept:

To have an annual marketing plan and annual marketing calendar. This is to go along with your written business plan for success.

Objective:

There is nothing better in marketing than surpassing your targets and growing your business as you planned. On the flipside, there is nothing worse than finishing a slow month and starting a new month with few prospects and little potential business other than a desk full of cold calls to make. We all have financial goals and targets. Now we need a blueprint to start making those goals a reality. As an advisor, I know ups and downs happen. But I also know that with a consistent marketing guerrilla attack program, you will smooth out your production and be more consistent in your approach.

Strategy:

How do you sit down and write a marketing plan? Budget at least half a day to one full day. Grab a pad of paper and a pen and start writing. Sounds simple—well it is, so make it simple. Unless you’re running the marketing of Proctor and Gamble, why do you need an exhaustive written plan? You don’t! Try these simple steps:

First, write down all of the marketing you are doing now, the frequency, and the annual and monthly costs. You can use the Monthly Marketing Calendar worksheet at the end of this strategy to help you.

Second, write down all of the marketing ideas that you were thinking of pursuing in the next year. Write or collect a list of ideas. Don’t discard anything until you have examined it further. At this point write it down. If you are looking for ideas, check out our web sites listed at the back of the book. Ask you manager or marketing wholesalers for ideas. Use this book as a guide to some of the best ideas. Just write them down.

Third, write down who is your competition and what your competition is doing for marketing.

Fourth, write down what your peer group or the top advisors you aspire to emulate are doing in terms of marketing and their costs.

Fifth, create an annual and monthly budget. Excluding the cost of personnel and assistants, the marketing budget should be between 10 and 20% of your gross income. Remember marketing is an investment in your business, not an expense. The second part of budgeting is time. Your time or a staff person’s time, or both, must be allocated. How much time will you devote to developing your marketing? How much time during the day do you spend on marketing? Now, how much time should you spend on marketing during the day? (I always schedule a half-day per month to work on my marketing and client communications strategies. This scheduled time is very productive time in my practice.) If you don’t have time now, how will you have time in the future to grow your business?

Sixth, we will identify your ideal client profile in a later chapter, but for now write down what you think is your ideal client profile.

Seventh, decide what marketing mix will work for you. What will and what won’t work depend on your commitment. This is where you make decisions based on projections of growth that you want to achieve. For example, if you want to increase revenue from $100,000 to $150,000 per year, your marketing budget is $2,000, and you have no major plans for marketing, how are you going to achieve that growth? Although some advisors say their business grows by referrals only, what do they do to generate those referrals? Do they provide exceptional service? This costs money and may be defined as an excellent communication program. Well, guess what, their dynamic communication program is part of their marketing strategy. We will discuss internal (existing clients) and external (new clients) marketing in a later chapter. What is your ideal marketing mix?

Eighth, once you have decided on what you are going to do in the next year, break it down into a monthly marketing calendar. Decide which months you are going to do what.

Ninth, decide on costs and put annual and monthly costs down on paper. At this point make sure that you can afford your program. If you cannot, consider the consequences of borrowing to invest into your business. That is solely your decision. I remember once when I first started in the business, I borrowed money on a credit card to attend a conference. I couldn’t afford to go; however after I returned I realized I couldn’t have afforded not to. I learned that I was investing in myself and not just spending money on my business.

Finally, put the plan into a working document. Share it with your peer group or manager and your staff. Then commit to completing it, revisiting it on a monthly basis, and measuring the results.

Grant’s Tip:

The simpler your marketing plan, the easier it will be to complete successfully. The marketing plan should be simple to execute once you have put enough thought and effort into it. The most challenging part of your marketing plan may be time and timing. I know several advisors who started working on a marketing plan only to stop after a few months because they were too busy. The plan depends on a constant time commitment to complete. If you plan your seminars a year in advance and book the rooms, speakers, and invitations, you are committed. Instead, advisors have a speaker coming to town and spend a lot of time hoping one event will pay off big for them. Don’t put your marketing eggs into one basket. Have multiple marketing ideas working for you.

Each quarter I take one day to review the success of the marketing plan, look at future ideas that I may implement into my plan, and set a course for the quarter. I write a mini-marketing plan for the quarter. That way I can review it with my team and advance-plan the marketing events and ideas.

Another key element is looking backward and forward. First, look back on what marketing worked for you and what didn’t. Then project a vision of how you want to position yourself in your marketing messages. For instance, I manage retirement assets, so my title is “Retirement Planning Specialist”, not “Financial Planner”. Positioning means determining exactly what niche you’re intending to fill. I live in a retirement community, so it is natural to work in that niche.

Finally, if you’re happy with and expect average service, you are probably giving average service. But if you expect world-class service, then bring that element to your practice. The Ritz Carlton motto is “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” Look to first-class organizations with a high degree of service and attention to detail, and implement that type of philosophy into your business. This will help your marketing efforts when thinking of attracting new clients.

The first thing we should do is define this word, “marketing.” Marketing for financial advisors means communicating with clients and prospects on an ongoing basis to help them achieve their financial goals. To some marketing means cold calling. It is all of your business efforts to communicate with people. Substitute the words “Guerrilla Communication” for “Guerrilla

Marketing”—it has a completely different meaning, yet it is the same thing. A good friend of mine and a successful realtor on Vancouver Island, taught me the importance of marketing and money-making activities. He said that if he is not selling or listing real estate, he should go and do something else in his life. His support people take care of everything else. That is his job, period; and he understands it clearer than any other realtor, which makes him successful. Start by examining your desk. How much paper and files are on your desk? How much time and energy do you need to spend on getting rid of that paper? Now take that energy and put it into your marketing.

Now what is your job? You know that working harder is not as efficient as working smarter. Let’s start by delegating paper and clearing off your desk. Now let’s examine your business. What percentage of time do you spend per day or per week on marketing? Remember that communicating with clients and prospects is part of marketing, not interviews or discussing financialplans. Write it down here:_____% time marketing. Now, what percentage ofyour budget do you spend on marketing and client communication? Write itdown here______% of money from gross revenues. Finally, what percentage oftime do you spend on educating yourself about marketing using books, tapes,etc.? Write it down here:_____% education. Let’s look back at your businessplan and the percentage of growth you want in your business. Is it 20%? Are you spending 20% of your time/money and education on marketing? If not, do you see a problem here? You want growth yet you, like most advisors and wholesalers, spend less than 8% of your time on marketing. This is why I have written this book and why I speak to advisors today. If I can help you change your habits and your activities to increase your marketing time, will you be more successful? The answer is yes, because that is what the successful advisors do. They spend 20% or more of their time, money, education, and energy on marketing.

What other activities are key to your success? Key Action 1 is to allot the appropriate time, resources, education, and energy to marketing. Our job is calling and seeing clients and prospective clients. Key Action 2 is to see the people. In real estate the three keys are location, location, location. In financial advising it’s see the right people, see the right people, and see the right people. Key Action 3 is to examine all of the activities that keep you from doing Key Actions 1 and 2. Write down a list of all of the things that keep you from doing what you need to do to be successful. Examine this list as you would your eight-hour day. A time-management technique is to keep track of a few week’s worth of activities. Write in your DayTimer the time you spent on each activity; then atthe end of a few weeks examine where your time is going. When I first did this, I was shocked at the time wasted—all of the activities I could have delegated and all of the trivial items that chewed into my valuable action time.

At the end of this strategy is a sample marketing plan. Start right now by examining your marketing plans. Remember, your marketing plan is also your communication plan. Look at all of your written marketing material and your web site and circle the number of times you say “we,” “us,” and “I.” Change most of those to “you” and “your.” In all of your marketing, remember it is about the clients and not you. Communicate the benefits from the client’s position and not yours. Just like you would prepare a financial plan as if you were in their shoes, your marketing should be viewed from their shoes. If your target market is wealthy retired people, then as a wealthy retired person, to what marketing will you respond? How would you choose a financial advisor? Put yourself in the target market. Walk a day in their shoes and find out to what marketing and communication they respond. Do this as part of your marketing and communications plans. Do your homework. Be specific and dig deep for details.

My recommendation is to have marketing files. In these files are categories of marketing such as seminars, client communication, marketing ideas, and business development. As you attend numerous business-building workshops and seminars and read ideas in your monthly publications, add the ideas to the files. I know that as a financial advisor you don’t have time to do it all; however, if you allow some time to develop these ideas on a regular basis, your business will continue to grow and improve year by year as I have experienced.

Jay’s Comments:

What is the outcome you really want? Be specific. A true guerrilla knows that the clearer the goal in the mind and on paper, the richer the rewards of your marketing efforts. Maybe it’s to develop 100 new leads in the next month. Or to generate 1,000 web hits a day. Or cultivate ten new clients in the next 3 months. Send 100 newsletters targeted to the most influential people.

To build with success in the future, here are some tips to help you get the most out of your marketing. Forget the past. Changes in service, technology and competitive marketing savvy are taking place now. Read current publications on marketing, not the old way to do things. Expand your niche by offering what your competitors don’t do well. If you’re competing against a large organization, find out where they fall down and you pick up. Become your client. What do you expect as a level of service will dictate what they might expect. Do more fusion marketing. When your business is flat and you are not aware of how to change, team up with new collaborative marketing partners to help spread the marketing word for you, by benefiting both of you.

Your mission is clear.

Your task: Make prospects confident in you. Your secret weapon: Commitment to your plan. Your personality: Patient.

Your marketing: An assortment of great marketing ideas enclosed in this book.

Your format: The spirit of consistency.

Your finances: Some wisely invested in marketing.

Your energy: Most apparent prior to and subsequent to attracting a new client.

Your operation: The essence of convenience.

Your creative message: It always amazes readers.

Your ultra-profitable chore: Measurement of your marketing success.

There are your ten most important marketing secrets. You now have a head start on your competition. Completing your marketing plan will help you discover how to leapfrog ahead of the competition. In a few short years they will wonder why you passed them, and at such a great speed. Keep it simple and follow through. The results come with time.

Examples:

See Sample Marketing Plan and worksheets.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes_____ No______

Additional information required: Yes_____ No______

I could use a hundred people who don’t know there is such a word as impossible.

-Henry Ford

Sample Marketing Plan

1.   Benefits to Clients

2.   Target Market your Ideal Client

3.   Competitive Advantages

4.   Marketing Strategies—1-year Plan

5.   Budget

6.   Monthly Marketing Calendar and Review

7.   Client Appreciation

8.   Fund Companies

9.   Marketing Ideas to Develop

10.   Sponsorships and Community Involvement

1.   Benefits to Clients

•   You’re a retiree with special retirement goals. Our business depends on listening to your plans and committed to helping individuals like you achieve your goals.

•   You require trustworthy advice. We maintain high educational qualifications and ensure we are using the latest insights from the fields of tax, estate, law, and finance to keep you on the right path.

•   You feel comfortable being in control of your retirement plans. Together we build a worry-free plan so you can financially enjoy your retirement.

•   We’ll provide you with a clear retirement plan that you can count on.

•   It’s simple to transfer your accounts to us. We look after all transfer fees and we discuss your switching costs up front, as well as any fees.

•   Your money is important to you and your family. We find out about your values and what is important to you about money.

1.   Target Market your Ideal Client

•   Semi-retired or retired.

•   Ages 50 through 70.

•   Family income above $60,000.

•   Net worth 1 million+.

•   Assets to invest $400,000+.

•   Wants a financial advisor for retirement planning.

•   Wants a financial plan and an estate plan completed.

•   Wants solid investment performance.

•   Needs to minimize taxes.

•   Wants control and simplicity.

•   Wants appropriate products and strategies.

•   Wants help in planning and maintaining a secure retirement.

•   Needs guidance to avoid mistakes.

•   Wants to invest conservatively.

•   Knows money is love and need to plan for his/her family through the estate.

•   Prefers money over material goods and wants financial security.

1.   Competitive Advantages

•   Completing comprehensive written financial plans.

•   Comprehensive written estate plans.

•   Working with a team of professionals—see team list.

•   Tax-efficient investment solutions—a tax-efficient investment focus.

•   Excellent client communications.

•   90-day call program.

•   Quarterly client reviews and comparisons to benchmarks.

•   Monthly email programs—web site access.

•   Client seminars focused on target market.

•   One of the best follow-up communications systems in the industry for our clients.

•   Client relationship building.

•   Semi-annual client gifts for top clients.

•   Listening and responding to their needs.

•   Client portfolio binders.

•   Gifts for referrals.

•   Comprehensive client library.

•   Excellent client service.

•   Telephone rule—call back within 24 hours.

•   Follow up including transfer follow-up and maturities.

•   Available 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.

•   Daily email follow-up.

•   Monthly statements available.

•   Consolidated statements available.

•   Attention to detail and thank-you letters.

•   New client introduction program—see Chapter 3.

4.   Marketing Strategies—1-year Plan

See Marketing Ideas to Develop and Monthly Marketing Calendar.

5.   Budget

•   Seminars $ 3,500

•   Centers of influence n/a

•   Luncheons $ 500

•   Advertising $ 4,000

•   Web page $ 500

•   Brochure $ 500

•   Printing $ 2,000

•   Mail costs $ 4,000

•   Sponsorships $ 500

•   Client appreciation $2,500

•   Miscellaneous $2,000 Total $22,000

1.   Monthly Marketing Calendar and Review

•   Maturity list.

•   90-day call list—client reviews.

•   Monthly statements.

•   Outstanding transfers.

•   Monthly email.

•   Mailers.

•   Centers of influence to see.

•   Referral follow up and thank-yous.

•   Web site updates.

•   Monthly marketing calendar.

7.   Client Appreciation

•   Gifts to top 50 clients and centers of influence.

•   Have an extra 10 gifts in my office for handouts to centers of influence/ new clients and referrals.

•   To mail out before thanksgiving—thanks for being a client this thanksgiving.

•   Thanksgiving gifts and spring gifts.

8.   Fund Companies

•   Working with wholesalers.

•   Find better ways to work with the wholesalers.

•   Discuss each quarter:

•   The fund managers—marketing products and material.

•   Education—products—book.

•   Marketing—industry trends to discuss—ideas.

•   How can they help my business.

9.   Marketing Ideas to Develop

•   Create list of potential advisors to buy out and purchase in the next year adding $xx million in assets under administration.

•   Video conferencing with fund managers for top clients.

•   Complete centers of influence team list.

•   Update picture.

10.   Sponsorships and Community Involvement

•   Community and/or other foundation.

•   Find a cause, charity, or organization in which to believe.

Monthly Marketing Calendar

The objective here is to get you thinking about your marketing each month. You can’t just write a marketing plan for the year and not review it. Each month set aside half a day to work on your marketing plans to get you excited about your business!!!

Month__________

Activities Planned/Potential $ Cost/Dates Planned		Completed .
1. Seminars
2. Mailers:
• Client monthly statements.		Completed .
• Quarterly statements.		Completed .
• Seminar invitations.		Completed .
• Newsletters-due dates.		Completed .
• Call-me letters.		Completed .
• Other.		Completed .
3. Top investment opportunities-have a list of your best investment and financial planning ideas and review each month.		Completed .
4. Advertising:
• Seminars.		Completed .
• Announcements.		Completed .
5. Web site updating to do:
• Top investment opportunities.		Completed .
• Other updates.		Completed .
6. Newspaper articles:
• Number of articles to submit .		Completed .
• Submitted .		Completed .
7. Sponsorships.		Completed .
8. Emails-monthly.	Completed .
9. Centers of influence:
• Mailers/education.	Completed .
• Seminars.	Completed .
• Special seminars-centers of influence only.	Completed .
10. Client appreciation.	Completed .
11. Client reviews:
• Centers of interest to meet with-one per week-educate with brochures in their office !	Completed .
• Ninety-Day Call Rotation Program	Completed .
12. Referral thank-yous.	Completed .
13. Potential other ideas to discuss and implement.	Completed .
14. Maturity list.	Completed .
15. Outstanding transfers.	Completed .
16. Centers of influence to see.	Completed .
17. Marketing Materials/printing/stationery/ supplies.	Completed .
18. Budgeting/costs.	Completed .

Note: Review your annual marketing calendar and business plan each month—Start a file called “Business Planning Ideas.” When you go to seminars or conferences, add ideas you obtained there to the folder. Then review and implement at the end of each month.

Success comes to those who set goals and pursue them regardless of obstacles and disappointments.

-Napoleon Hill

STRATEGY 3

Successful Franchise-like Production Systems

Concept:

If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up there. Consistency is the key to long-term success in this business. How many times have you started off with a great month and ended up slowing down because you’re ahead of schedule, then suddenly finding yourself scrambling at the end of each month? If you are consistent week in and week out, you will find this business more enjoyable in the long run. This is one reason why so many advisors are transitioning to fee-based operations. They are establishing predictable cash flows for their business.

Objective:

A written inventory on tracking your progress from marketing and sales to focusing on referrals. Goal setting will make your success measurable and attainable.

Strategy:

Each month, set out the number of weeks you’re going to work, the number of days, and your production target per week. Then plan your production target for the month. Keeping track with a daily log will also help you track month to date, year to date, and outstanding commissions. It can also be used to track different targets that you set such as new clients, specific product sales, and so on. You will find that you will also refer back to this sheet to keep track of transfers and information for your new and existing clients. Another key to planning your business is to decide whether fee-based is the way to go. If you have made that decision, you cant just expect to change overnight. Setting monthly goals on the transition to a fee-based operation becomes a critical step in your planning. How you are going to accomplish this on a monthly basis and tracking your results will give you comfort knowing you have a structured plan for the transition and tracking it monthly.

With your family, you can make a game of it by putting a target on the fridge at home, such as a sales thermometer, to give the family incentive for encouraging you and helping you reach your goals and the family’s goals. You can have rewards for hitting the targets and for certain targets hit and surpassed.

Most successful sales organizations also use sales production reports to report increases or decreases of sales over the same period of time each year. This will help you keep track of your growth rate. For example, target your growth at 1% increase per month and you will see a 12% increase in sales each year.

Grant’s Tip:

At the end of this strategy are sample worksheets. Use these sheets and track commissions and/or fees each month as well as completed transfers and client follow-up. Use the monthly reports to track year to date, targets, and comparison with previous months and years. You can easily customize this to track your growth.

This tracking system can be used for client anniversary dates from the time they started working with you. I recommend creating a separate follow-up file for work in progress and, at the end of the month, putting in a copy of the monthly production sheet and confirming all transactions in progress or completed. It should also be used to track referrals from clients, centers of influence, and others. This way it is a reminder to thank them for the referral in a special way.

At the end of each month, you should go over the numbers in these categories:

•   Number of new clients.

•   New assets in dollar amount.

•   Total assets under administration in dollars.

•   Commissions and/or fees in dollars.

•   Number of referrals given out.

•   Number of referrals received (see Referral Tracking Review Worksheet).

•   Number of clients.

Planning for next month:

•Your database system should have follow-up reminders and produce a list of people to contact. (A great idea is have your assistant call for appointments; it will show your professionalism in how organized you are.) •Any investment maturities for the upcoming month (calling for appointments).

•List of calls that need to be made for the month.

•Your monthly review of numbers. (I track the securities and funds that clients own as well as market indexes and print the numbers each month as part of my month-end review.)

Measuring your marketing monthly:

•As part of a monthly habit I started a long time ago, I measure the monthly marketing that we are doing as a firm and plan for the next month. I want to try to measure the effectiveness of our marketing methods (see Monthly Marketing Calendar in Strategy 2).

•As you can see, part of the habit pattern I created is keeping on top of everything in the business. Measuring and planning are parts of what I call my month-end.

•Each month, we have to account for receipts as a business, but do we plan our business once a year and try to follow a plan in our minds? I know I am inspired by marketing ideas and plans that come across my desk all the time, and it is easy to get off track, go in another direction, and completely change the business. That is why I developed month-end worksheets to reflect on the past and plan for the future as a process or habit and not once a year.

One last idea on your monthly marketing review. Each month I read and receive hundreds of great business-building and marketing ideas that I would love to implement. I collect them in a folder and, at month-end, review what I can implement in the next month or so, thus improving a little bit each month. If you put one new idea into your business each month and make it a habit as well as part of your business, in one year you will have twelve new ideas working for you. You can watch your business continue to grow each month and in three years you will find a half a dozen ideas that will make your business as successful as you want it to be and more!

Jay’s Comments:

Measure the success of your marketing on a monthly basis. Track where your efforts are being demanded and the source of new and current business. Tracking and following your marketing will make it results-oriented. As a small business you can not afford to spend a fortune on image advertising or brand recognition without getting results. For example, if you did radio or newspaper ads based on your name and what you do and after six months to a year you did not have one new piece of business as a result of those ads or referrals because of your image then you are wasting your money.

Assume you ‘re going to do what it takes to be a successful guerrilla marketer—be sure to know how to deal with success. Most people lack the skill. A good rule of thumb is to engage in no expansion until you have eliminated all of the mistakes in your current operation; otherwise, your mistakes will be magnified and multiplied. When you begin to hit new profits month after month, you ll be tempted to go for the gold and grow. Make sure you take some time each month for self-discovery and examining what is working and what is not working. Plan to schedule an uninterrupted afternoon to complete your month-end review and plan your next month. Schedule the time in advance. If you use a success coach, consider reviewing the resultsand discussing your plans for the following month. As a successful athlete, Tiger Woods examined his game right after he won the US Open with a record margin. He then decided to fire his caddy and change his game after reflecting on what he wanted his swing to be like. Tiger is an example of CANI—constant and never-ending improvement. You think, after doing that well, why would you want to improve on it? Tiger is an example of what Grant and I are talking about. Each month refine, refine, and refine your business.

Examples:

1.   Monthly production worksheet.

2.   Guerrilla Marketing Action Planning Worksheet on page 271-278.

3.   Referral Tracking Review Worksheet.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes____ No_____

Additional information required: Yes____No_____

We are or become those things which we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence can become not just an event but a habit.

-Albert Einstein

Monthly Production Worksheet

Monthly production review-Review the completed month and the next month. Month of_______________.

Goals for Month	Weeks/days in this month New assets		Actual Results
$			$
$	Commissions/fees		$
	Referrals given Referrals received
	New clients
$	Total assets under administration		$
$	Assets administration this time last		year.
%	Increase/decrease over last year.
$	Increase/decrease over last year.

 

 

Referral Tracking Review Worksheet

Each month you will see where you are giving and receiving referrals. Set up a planned strategy to receive so many referrals each year from different sources; this will allow you to remember to focus each month on giving and receiving referrals by tracking them. Then, in your annual planning next year, you will know that you can count on so many referrals each year from various sources and map out the source of new clients each year. Wouldn’t it be great to plan 50 referrals this year from your top sources so that you aren’t wondering how you will build your business? Track them each month.

YTD

Month Referral Given Referrals Received Tool

•   Name of referral given:

•   Referral received:

•   Accountant A:

•   Accountant B:

•   Accountant C:

•   Lawyer A:

•   Lawyer B:

•   Lawyer C:

•   Top Client A:

•   Top Client B:

•   Top Client C:

•   Top Client other:

•   Center of Influence A:

•   Center of Influence B:

•   Referral–other:

•   Target for month:

•   Actual for month:

•   Target for year:

•   Year to date:

You can t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

-Henry Ford

STRATEGY 4

A Secret to Rapid Growth

Concept:

One way to build a business is to start from scratch. The second way is to buy one. I cannot think of a better way to be seriously “in” the business. This is the quickest way to be in front of several new clients and to help them continue to achieve their financial goals after taking over from another advisor. You could spend thousands on marketing plans or you could purchase a relatively predictable income stream from another advisor. Caution: Some firms will not allow this practice; however, there may be retiring representatives of that company who will allow you to service their existing clients. If you want fifty, one hundred, two hundred new clients, consider buying a book of business.

Objective:

As with any business owner, selling your book eventually should be your goal. When thinking of building your business, I recommend giving the business your name (such as Hicks Financial). This will allow more goodwill, since your name would carry goodwill at a high rate, just like Charles Schwab, J.P. Morgan, or Dean Witter. So how do you go about buying a book of business? The biggest question is valuation and price. This is all over the map; but just like stocks, sometimes they’re undervalued and sometimes they’re overvalued. I have helped several people buy and sell their books and I have personally done it. I can’t think of a better way to grow your business and think like a business owner than buying a book of business.

Strategy:

If you are planning to buy a book of business and have identified potential sellers, use the “Buying a Book of Business” evaluation sheet at the end of this section to find out what the business is worth. Performing due diligence is more than price. Once you have decided to purchase the business, the critical step is the transition period. Every day we see companies merge; some are successful while other mergers cause both companies to suffer. It has to be a win-win-win. The client comes first.

When you are planning the transition, think in terms of dating. You first get acquainted. The former advisor should attend the first meeting. Then you want to present your value proposition to your new client. In the few months following you MUST restate your value proposition and personally learn about your client, bringing up what you have learned to show you are paying attention to him (or her). An example would be to learn about a family member. At the next meeting, ask about that family member. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. An additional strategy in your transition would be to bring one key thing to the table. You may bring several additional things to the table but find one key area, such as advanced estate planning, and demonstrate that additional benefit to the client. The client will want all the benefits he was receiving but not a lot more. Adding just one additional benefit and displaying it to him will show that you’re adding value. From there you can build value because he have your trust and confidence. You said what you would do, and you did it.

The steps to a smooth transition are as follows:

•   A letter from the retiring representative introducing the new advisor. The letter should include a brief bio on the new advisor but should be kept simple and should state that you will call to set up a joint appointment with the retiring representative and the new advisor. State the purpose of the meeting to be an introduction and brief discussion of the file (see the sample letter at the end of this section).

•   Appointments made for all clients to meet with both advisors—both advisors review and discuss the files prior to the meeting. I recommend you make personal notes in each file to remember each individual. Build key points and information into a database. If you take more than a hundred clients, a few months from now it may be difficult to remember them all. Build memory triggers to help you remember each personally.

•   A commitment letter sent out by the new advisor after the meeting, repeating the commitment discussed.

•   Shortly after the introduction meeting, a review meeting with the clients to review their situations and update their overall financial planning.

Grant’s Tip:

Plant the seeds with agents so they know, when they leave the business or retire, that you would like first right of refusal on buying their books of business. Finding a book of business suitable to buy can be a difficult task. Putting ads in your association publications may not be enough. You may have to do some digging.

If I moved to a new city and didn’t know anyone, one of the first things I would do is look into buying a book of business. I would talk to all of the companies marketing wholesalers in the area and dig up leads from them. Then I would advertise in the local trade publications. I would attend the industry meetings and meet local representatives, look for older representatives, and ask that they contact me when they are considering retiring.

There may be buying and selling consulting services available in your area. As more and more representatives approach retirement, more opportunities will be available. Finally, if you find a book of business, consult with a qualified accountant and lawyer to structure the deal. Discuss with other representatives who have bought or sold before you finalize the terms of the agreement.

Jay’s Comments:

One idea is to team up with a partner who will back your business until you want to retire or sell. Why not put a formula in place now and market it to a company that will help you when you want to sell or retire? For example, approach your company and see if they have a program in place to help you market it to another advisor. Maybe you can get more on the open market. However, that may not be the best solution for your clients. Make sure that your transition is seamless for your clients, otherwise why do it?

A great deal of business never occurs because the financial advisor makes a strong business bond with his client and leaves it at that. The guerrilla is all for business bonds, but the strongest are braided with a human bond. When you are taking over new clients in an acquisition, first make the human bond and then the business bond. As the months and years pass and as you take over new clientele in a merger, both bonds are strengthened, enhanced, and made permanent. To add more power to your human bond while increasing a client’s sense of identification with your new company, educate the client on how he or she can succeed financially. Even if there is no immediate gain for you, helpingyour client will eventually be worthwhile.

The whole concept of “eventually” takes on special meaning to advisors who know that most, but not all, people respond to determination. Show your new clients that you and your company are determined to demonstrate the benefits of continuing to deal with you will benefit them for years to come.

Additional Resources:

Talk with other advisors who have bought or sold books of business. Review your contract, or ask your company to review your contract, on the ability to buy or sell. One key area you should have in your contract is what would happen in the event of your death. Some companies have a retirement program, and you may be able to purchase a book of business from your company. Talk to your wholesaler or your company about opportunities. When I go to industrymeetings or associations and meet local advisors, I always mention to them that I would be interested in first right of refusal on buying their books of business if they decide to sell. Amazingly, a few years later, I receive phone calls from these representatives.

Examples:

Buying a Book of Business evaluation sheet.

Advisor letter—an advisor with whom we completed a successful transition.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes_____ No______

Additional information required: Yes______ No_______

Excellence is a habit, not an act. We are what we repeatedly do.

-Aristotle

Buying A Book Of Business-Areas To Review

1.   Verification Of Clients

•   June 30 and December 31 Fund Company Statements

•   Client Statements from Software Data System

1.   Income Verification

•   Trailer Fee Revenue

•   Earnings Tax Slips

•   Income Tax Returns

•   Trailer Fee Statements

•   Commission Statements

•   PACs and SWPs

•   Contract with Company and Current Payout

•   Cash Flow

•   View Files and Statements

3.   Marketing Plans

•   Advertising/Promotion

•   Client Service Standards

•   Business Plan

•   Goodwill

•   Client Communications

•   Client Files/Organization

4.   Asset Mix

•   FE, DSC, Money Market

•   Fund Companies

•   Average Account Size

•   Number of Clients

•   Length of DSC Left on Files Per Average Client

•   Product Mix

5.   Penetration

•   Cross-sell Products/GICs/ CDs /Life/DI

•   Full Financial Planning

•   Asset Gathering/Other Statements

6.   Other Assets

•   Life/Group Renewals

•   Hard Assets/Computer/Desk, etc.

7.   Buyout Contract

•   Noncompete

•   Transition Planning

•   Retention

•   Contract Completion

•   Payout Formulas

•   Client Complaints/Outstanding Legal, Risks/ Client KYC and Disclosure

•   Securities Problems—E+OE Coverage, Liabilities

•   Tax Ramifications

•   Corporation Tax and Accounting Concerns

Sample Letter

Dear Client:

One of the most pleasant tasks for a financial planner is to tell his client that all financial goals for a worry-free retirement are met, that all the years of saving and careful investing have finally paid off.

Over the past few months I have taken a hard look at my own situation. I really enjoy working with my clients, but I also long for more time to enjoy other interests. My financial resources are more than sufficient, so I have decided I will retire from financial planning at the end of August. I will continue my income tax preparation service working from my home. I have chosen Grant Hicks, General Manager of AAI, to assume responsibility for the management of your investment account. Grant was responsible for a good part of the growth of AAI over the last few years and it was he who encouraged me to join AAI in 1996. I respect his good business sense, helpfulness, honesty, and commitment to his clients. Grant and I will sit down with you to do a complete review of your portfolio.

My RRSP and pension portfolios and much of my nonregistered portfolio is invested in mutual funds that will be placed under Grant’s management. Of course, I will still maintain an active interest in the news of the markets and welcome your future calls and visits to chat, investor to investor. While we will have to endure some periods of substantial volatility over the next ten years, it is my belief that global equities will produce superior returns. The technology revolution is driving the consolidation of industries into efficient, profitable, and well-run global businesses. I believe this works to the benefit of not just the investor, but also working people throughout the world. Enclosed is Grant’s personal brochure explaining the commitment he has made to help you reach the level of financial security you desire. If you have any questions or concerns, please give me a call. We will speak to you shortly. Sincerely,

Jim Advisor Enclosure

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

-Thomas Edison

STRATEGY 5

Success Secrets to Leveraging Time

Concept:

You should look at utilizing software to cover these six needs:

•   Contact management (which is covered in detail in Strategy 10).

•   Portfolio management software for statements.

•   Financial planning analysis software.

•   Market/research management software.

•   Nonmanaged assets tracking software.

•   Handheld PC-time and data management technology.

•   Web sites and services.

Objective:

The most successful financial advisors learned early in their careers that time management is vital to success. How many time-management courses have you taken? How many software presentations have you attended? If you are like me, you embrace what technology can do for your business, yet you lack the time to learn about all the technology that can help. I have a file of technology to review; yet I never seem to get to that file. When I started in the business in 1989, our office was still using rate books and rate cards for insurance. Can you imagine how productive you would be if this was the case today? Make your practice more efficient by leveraging the use of technology.

Imagine if you sold your practice today. Do you have systems in place for gathering data such as name and address lists, prospect and centers of influence lists, a ninety-day call rotation schedule for your clients, a review process, or a financial planning and research process? Or are you old-school and doing it on paper and by memory? Think of your business as a franchise. If I stepped in tomorrow, would I have technology systems in place to carry on and make it a productive and profitable practice? Or would I have to search in each file for information? Look at your existing software and see if you have all five components to make your practice an effective success.

Strategy:

1.   Contact Management:

If you are into database marketing, you must read The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, PhD., (Doubleday, 1996). This idea will be covered in more detail in strategy #10 on page 78.

2.   Portfolio Management:

Most firms have packaged software for financial planners but, because we are individual business people, we look for software that we know is useful to our practice. We don’t want, however, to spend an enormous amount of time and energy learning software, because we know it keeps changing and we can waste valuable time constantly learning new systems. The strategy is clear. Find the best systems and technology for your practice. This means systems that will leverage time for us, not software that promises to do more than leverage our time. If a software vendor can’t convey this benefit to me in five minutes or less, I simply discard it. I need cookie-cutter systems to run my franchise. Systems that we can learn and use as a team, not some specialty program that will take three weeks to learn and run. Portfolio management software systems that are fully compliant for their representatives. Make sure you and your team learn the best way to present information to your clients. So many systems have graphics capabilities, and color does sell. Color pie charts are excellent to illustrate simple concepts to clients. Our web site has some excellent examples of systems. Check out www.financialadvisormarketing.com under Software.

3.   Financial Planning Analysis Software:

Your clients ask you (after they have been clients for years), “Do we have enough money to retire in two years?” You respond by saying yes, they indeed have enough to retire, without illustrating to them with a written financial plan. You may know that they have enough, but it is more important that they understand it. Depending on the type of practice you have, such as specialized estate planning or general financial planning, your needs for this software will vary. The basic requirement of the software should be simulations of real-life situations for retirement and estate planning. You should have asset allocation software for simple and advanced portfolio analysis that can also design investment policy statements for your clients. While there are thousands of variations of software to examine and hundreds of client financial planning situations, a good word processor and spreadsheet will also do a great job of a handcrafted financial plan.

4.   Market/Research Management Software:

Years ago I had to pay thousands to have tax programs, research programs, and data available on a monthly basis. Now a lot of information is available free on some excellent web sites. I could write another book on the Internet and its uses for financial planners, but I will summarize by saying the Internet has three main uses—research, client services, and marketing communications. (See the strategy on email.) Although the majority of information is on the Web, there is still a need for professional programs to do additional research. If you sell mutual funds, mutual fund research software can be an invaluable tool for research and creating and simulating portfolios. Software can also help you research insurance, stocks, or other investment instruments.

5.   Nonmanaged Assets Tracking

Have a way to keep track of your clients assets that you do not manage. See Strategy 27 on managing nonmanaged assets. How many times have you heard clients mention that they have assets elsewhere that are not working that hard for them and that eventually they will bring them to you? You may forget about them, but the client doesn’t. Also at the back of the book is a demo of this type of software, which I have designed for my practice and which my clients find valuable as a service to keep track of their assets.

6.   Pocket PC

Another piece of the puzzle is technology that replaces your pager, cell phone, DAY-TIMER, calculator, notepad, and business card index. The technology, which takes minutes to learn, is an invaluable tool for time management. The pocket PC cell phone/Palm Pilot system is by far the best piece of equipment since the cell phone. Have you ever driven to an appointment and forgotten the address or telephone number? Have you and your assistant ever booked you for separate appointments on the same day at the same time? This system can be an extremely effective tool for productivity. I had a top producer introduce the system to me and in less than three minutes, I was using it. It’s a no-brainer to add this system to your practice. If you want less paper and more time in front of clients, invest in a pocket PC.

7.   The Internet

Do you use the Internet on a daily basis? Do your clients? Do you use email on a regular basis? Do you have a web site? Do you have a web site strategy? These questions are explored throughout this book in additional strategies, but here are some ideas to help you. First, see where you are spending money on software and see if you can’t get it for free on the Internet. Second, look at your web site. Can it be improved? Third, if you are looking for a book of business, send out an email to other representatives in your area who have web sites. Finally, check out www.financialadvisormarketing.com for links to the best marketing ideas and web sites for financial advisors.

Grant’s Tip:

Make sure you don’t spend too much time in front of your computer screen examining and learning software programs. Some advisors use the computer screen as a part of call reluctance. After all, you can spend countless hours on the Internet at home, why not at work? Take computer courses or have a computer trainer. Put that in your annual planning budget.

Consider the time it takes to complete a full financial plan. Consider hiring someone to prepare your financial plans. Then you would complete the plan and add your recommendations. Can you have certified financial planners prepare the plans for you and save time?

For your handheld PC device, make sure you inject one rule regarding your team or assistants setting your appointments. Synchronize your software twice a day, first thing in the morning and at the end of the day and don’t set appointments in the system for the current day.

As always with all s oftware and technology, make sure you have backup procedures in place and system maintenance. Find a technology person and hire this person on contract to maintain your systems.

Make sure that, as part of your business plan, you allocate enough resources to technology, since technology leverages your time and can make you a lot of money or save you a lot of time.

Ask the top planners what they use for software and ask to see samples of their financial planning documents.

Jay’s Comments:

Do you have the world’s best client list? Orient your marketing plan to capitalize upon the most valuable client list in existence—your very own. There’s nothing more exciting than a great hot list of prospects who fit your target market right on the money. Your own client list has a lot on it beyond names and addresses if you think like a guerrilla. Harvey Mackay, author of “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive “ (Fawcett Books, 1996) is also Chairman of Mackay Envelope Corporation. Over ten years ago, before we had sophisticated computer programs for tracking client information, he figured out the value of every customer and key prospect, and so his customer list is loaded with details 66 of them, which should give you an idea of what bound-for-glory customer list is all about.

Harvey and his salespeople know the education of the people on their list. They know about their customers’ and key prospects’ families. They’re allfilled in on the business background, even the office décor. Their salespeople have details about their customers’ lifestyles with lots of details. Can you imagine taking the time to gather all that information? You’d better imagine taking that time! That’s part of your dues you pay to be a practicing guerrilla marketer. If you don t want to pay them, be warned that even if you try to substitute media mega money for in depth research, the investment won t pay off as well.

Harvey’s company pays its dues and gains its customer andprospect data by devoting time to personal contact. It obtains more data from other customers, suppliers, banks, newspapers, trade publications, receptionists and assistants. Information doesn’t care where it comes from. As a financial advisor, you should be able to obtain a fantastic database of information and attributes on all of your clients and prospects and use this to begin your guerrilla marketing.

Additional Resources:

Customized Contact, Client, and Office Management for Financial Advisors: Frequent contact with customers, or “relationship management,” is important in building a successful business. The payback is clear: Retaining current customers costs five to seven times less than finding new ones. Studies show that over a lifetime loyal customers purchase more, cost less to sell to, and will refer five other people to a business.

Investment professionals that use the widely acclaimed ACT! software know the power and advantages it brings to their financial practice. With over 3 million users worldwide and 10,000 corporate accounts, ACT! has proven itself by bringing ease of use and powerful features that even a novice can master in just a few minutes.

Act4Advisors is a custom ACT! database and layout template designed specifically for financial services professionals.

If you have a question about Act4Advisors or desire ACT! consulting services or customization, contact them via email to sales@software4advisors.com or call 800-831-7636. Visit their web site at www.act4advisors.com.

Learn how to turn your Palm™ computer into a competitive tool for conducting and managing your financial planning business—check out www.emobilities.com.

Examples:

The Web is an excellent resource. Check out my master marketing web site, www.financialadvisormarketing.com, for links to hundreds of software programs and vendors.

Note: Before using any software, make sure it is fully compliant with your firm.

(For Great Financial Tools, check out Quotemedia. QuoteMedia develops and markets unique, Web-based software components that deliver dynamic content to websites. They have developed a full range of financial data applications. You choose from full tool packages or individual components to add dynamic, real-time financial information, customized for your company websites. Check out www.quotemedia.com)

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes_______ No_______

Additional information required: Yes_______ No_______

The most important weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

-Ferdinand Foch

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.

-Jim Rohn

STRATEGY 6

Learning From the Best

Concept:

The mastermind concept has been around for centuries—bring together the greatest minds and solve the world’s problems. Mastermind groups are formed in all areas of society—religion, politics, world economics, and business. So why is it that we don’t practice this thousand-year-old philosophy? Do we, as successful financial advisors, know the answers and decide to stop growing?

Objective:

Develop a mentoring system or peer group to develop each other’s business and create your own mastermind group.

Strategy:

Plan to spend one day each quarter, or four to five days per year, working with a peer group. For new advisors, a mentoring system is critical for the first four years. Write a list of top advisors with whom you can develop a peer group. They may be local or not. Teleconferencing makes it easy to develop a world-class network for sharing ideas, giving feedback, and building ideas.

To organize such a meeting takes time, I know. How about leveraging your time? Ask your favorite wholesaler to develop the meeting for you and structure it with top advisors they work with in their regions. They may be able to cover costs of the meeting, scheduling, and room costs. Most wholesalers to whom I have presented this idea have jumped at the chance to brainstorm with their top prospects and clients. Make sure it is a win-win for everyone attending. You want the members of the group to be very compatible and open and willing to share ideas. Keep the list to between six and ten people. For larger groups, you can break off into discussion groups but it is not as effective as a group of enthusiastic professionals brainstorming their ideas, education, and experiences. Have each meeting with a main topic or two and have an advisor prepare a presentation for the meeting. That way, over time, each advisor attending will learn to come to the meetings prepared and willing to share. Someone such as the wholesaler should control the agenda as well as take notes on items to follow up and circulate.

Grant’s Tip:

Be the ringleader on this idea. It will pay the most dividends you have ever seen. Start the group, schedule the calls or meetings, and develop and control the agenda. Then watch all the answers you have been searching for in business suddenly appear. Not only will your production go up, but also your enjoyment of the business will go sky-high. Instead of listening to the negative attitudes of other advisors, get with a successful group.

If you are in the developmental phase of your business and learning everything seems a huge task, work with a mentor or group of mentors who are willing to share time and expertise helping you find your way. Success leaves clues, and finding successful advisors in your area or your company shouldn’t be that difficult. Approach them on a mentoring or peer grouping basis and you will be sure to find they are also willing to learn and grow from the mastermind principle.

This strategy can be developed in a couple of ways. First, form a peer group amongst associates in the industry in different cities. Then have a scheduled conference call each quarter, focus on a couple of topics, and invite a speaker to coordinate the call. For example, wouldn’t you like to know more about developing effective seminars? Organize a conference call and ask a popular speaker in the financial industry (call me, for example) to host a conference call dealing with seminars. If the geography or time permits, hold the meetings face to face and deal with the issues and topics of importance.

A second way to do peer grouping is also a marketing idea. How about holding a meeting for successful entrepreneurs on business issues and topics such as marketing? Invite several successful CEOs and business owners and develop a success forum where they can meet on a regular basis and share ideas. Some advisors have used this method successfully to attract top business owners as clients. You are seen as the catalyst for bringing insightful ideas while meeting other successful people to learn from.

Do your homework and research numbers; bring it to the table of your peer group.

•   Select the marketing weapons you will use.

•   Create a guerrilla marketing plan.

•   Develop a guerrilla marketing white paper.

•   Decide the priority order of launching your marketing.

•   Decide in your firm who will be responsible.

•   Develop the plan, execute, and measure.

This is your chance to do an incredible amount of research and brainstorm an effective plan. Ask yourself, doing this exercise, whether it will be worth it. Will you get great sales and feedback and avoid mistakes, gain experience? Absolutely. This is a major key to your plan so put this on the list of to-do’s!

Your peer group will be able to guide your development and grow. You can gain excellence by assembling this group.

Call up your favorite wholesalers and have them establish a peer group with their top representatives. They have a chance to sit in and learn and at the same time gain valuable feedback to help their business. They may even gain some referrals by finding out who are the members of your peer group and networking with them. Also, each of the representatives invited gets a chance to possibly meet a new wholesaler and other top representatives from whom he or she can learn. Your wholesaler will be delighted to be part of the process!

Jay’s Comments:

Let’s start with the bad news. Much that you have learned in the past, although God’s own truth at the time, has changed, leaving you misinformed or uninformed, so that a lot of what you know is wrong. In social situations,your lack of information is inconvenient, but in business, it’s suicidal. You’ve got to realize that in business, just as in sports, people are constantly trying to become better than you, and some of them succeed. The ones that do have mastered the art of learning. To do that, you simply acknowledge to yourself that learning should never stop and is an endless process.

Seagulls fly in circles in the sky, constantly searching for prey. When they find that prey, they land and eat their fill. Then, they return to the sky, only to fly in circles once again. It is their most powerful instinct. Guerrilla marketers have one instinct that is equally strong—the need for constant learning. They gobble up data with an intellectual appetite that can never be sated.

But anybody can read books, listen to tapes, watch the tube, attend seminars and browse the Internet. How do guerrillas learn differently from other marketers? They learn with two-way brains. That means that in addition to merely learning, they act upon their new information. They do things to take advantage of their newfound wisdom. This action is the essence of guerrilla marketing.

Learning is different these days from when you were a kid. The key to succeeding in your own business is not learning all about something but learning one thing after another. The information changes and it pours in from all over the place. So you’ve got to be selective in your learning. Learning something will always be possible and learning everything impossible, which is why guerrillas learn with a filter in their brains.

Never before in history has so much information been available to so many people with such simplicity. In one hour in your own office today, you can learn more than you could a decade

63 Guerrilla Marketing for Financial Advisorsago with a week in a library. You can learn theories and facts, up-to-the-minute information, and competitive intelligence galore. You can learn about your prospects, your customers, your industry, and your marketplace. Key information, every bit of it.

The information that is so available has never been as important as it is right now—in The Information Age. You can give it away for it is often far more precious than any hard goods. Brochures and newsletters are very much appreciated by people who can honestly benefit from the information imparted. Because information is the currency of the times, guerrillas do all they can to help their customers learn how to succeed. They do it by providing information.

Guerrillas also know well the immense power of repetition in learning and in teaching. They’ve seen its potency in marketing. They know, too, the joy of learning—for its own sake, and for the sake of propelling their businesses to the top. Non-stop learning-that describes their journey there.

Additional Resources:

Create a list of areas in which you want further help. For example, I always want to learn more about marketing. Create a list of ideas and areas that you want to learn more about, form a group, and discuss them. You will find amazing resources brought out by everyone.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes_____ No________

Additional information required: Y______ No_______

You have to think anyway, so why not think big?

-Donald Trump

When you believe in people, they do the impossible.

-Nancy Dorman

STRATEGY 7

Finding Marketing Team Builders

Concept:

Here are some hiring techniques for financial advisors. Hiring and training people is the most costly and time-consuming expense in a financial advisor’s business. You want to hire people who are like your best clients and treat them that way.

Objective:

In developing your business plans, you will want to hire individuals who are client and team builders. They don’t need an MBA in marketing; however, having a client-centered approach is critical in building your image. Have you ever left a professional’s office frustrated by the way you were treated by the staff? Or have you been impressed by the way you were treated? The next time you visit a world-class franchise, see if you can recognize the top staff. They are all getting paid the same but one person can make or break your experience. Now think of your practice. Are you impressed by the appearance and professionalism of the staff? A story I once heard about guests at a Disney resort was how the staff cleaning the room paid attention to placing the children’s toys each day as they cleaned the room. The guests felt like every detail was important. Now how much did Disney pay that employee? How much did it cost Disney to give that family that great experience? It was worth a thousand referrals to their resort.

Strategy:

How do you treat your best client? Really think this question through. Now, how do you treat your team member(s)? Treat your team members as well as you treat your best clients and you will develop throughout your organization the experience you are seeking.

Grant’s Tip:

Make sure that you are never completing $10-per-hour tasks as a financial advisor. Your time may be worth $60 or more per hour. It is costing you whatever your time is worth per hour to do these $10 tasks. When you are hiring, think down the road. Do you need two people, one for marketing and client communications, and one for administration and processing? Breakdown the daily tasks these people will be completing and put a dollar amount on the type of task.

Sales Support: Producers in this industry tend to use the term “sales assistant.” If I go to the car dealer and I want service, I don’t go to the sales department but to the service department, which is usually clearly labeled. If your clients want service, do they go to the sales assistant? Why not go to the client service manager? That is the title given to my “sales assistant.”

The function of your “communications manager” is to ensure you have plenty of appointments set up. Whether client reviews or new contacts, the communications manager should be the one in touch with the clients in your database.

Depending on your size here is what your team may consist of:

•   Full-time registered client service manager.

•   Full-or part-time communications manager.

•   Client service assistant(s).

•   Top wholesalers.

•   Printing and graphic designer.

•   Compliance officer to approve your marketing.

The most important concept in team building is to get the right person for each function and use the time gained to see new clients. If you can’t afford staff at this time (although I highly recommend you hire anyway), consider hiring out on contract. After the first few years in the business, I couldn’t afford to hire a full-time person, but I hired a marketing consultant on a contractual basis to do newsletters, mailers, and prospect communication. This cleared up valuable time for me to look for new clients.

Also on your list of marketing team builders are wholesalers. They can be an invaluable part of your team when it comes to marketing. Their marketing departments usually have successful marketing and communications people to work with. See Strategy 15 for more information.

A marketing, printing, or communications company should also be a part of your team. Finding a great graphic designer to do ads, seminars, business cards, etc., is important to the successful delivery of your messages. Ask the top marketing people in your area who they use for their printing and design.

Finally, your compliance and/or in-house marketing people. You may have all the resources you need inside your own company. Your compliance officer may or may not understand your marketing efforts, but it pays to have him or her help you get the approvals you need. Remember, all printing and design MUST be pre-approved by your compliance department.

Jay’s Comments:

The Designated Guerrilla

Reality in running a financial advisory practice means knowing exactly what you’ve got to do but not having enough time to do it. If you understand how guerrilla marketing can propel you into hyper-profitability but can’t take the steps to activate and maintain the process, your understanding is wasted.

Here’s the deal: Marketing can succeed only if time and energy are devoted to it regularly. Insight and understanding, savvy and skill, are useless unless action is taken and somebody is paying close attention to the marketing process. Maybe that somebody will be you. But perhaps you’re too busy attending to the details of operations, finance, production, sales or service. If that’s the case, that somebody should be your designated guerrilla—an individual who has the expertise, interest, desire and time to mastermind your marketing.

Select that person from within your company or from the outside. There are lots of hired guns who will be delighted to eat, sleep, and obsess over your marketing. Just be sure you select somebody. Find someone who will approach the marketing function in true guerrilla fashion—with enthusiasm, confidence, high energy, and a killer instinct. If the person running your marketing show now doesn’t have those attributes, get yourself another guerrilla.

Marketing, for all its sophistication, is just like a little baby in that it needs constant attention and thrives best when it is nurtured and guided. Unless you or your designated guerrilla provides this parenting, your company will begin to fade from your customers’ and prospects’ minds. The companies that get into trouble are often those that establish marketing momentum, then move on to other things. Those other things should always include more and better marketing-because marketing is a continuing connective process and not a series of disconnected events.

Your designated guerrilla should be a person who knows how many marketing weapons are available to you, how many you can create right in your own office, which ones are free, what your competition is up to, and what kind of new technology can help you. Perhaps your designated guerrilla will be your marketing director or director of sales. It might be a marketing consultant, the account supervisor at an ad agency. It might be you. Just be sure it’s someone who shares your vision and absolutely loves every aspect of marketing.

If you don’t have a good one, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunities. You’ll constantly be in a position where your marketing must react rather than act. And the spirit of your company will never come shining through. If the person you need to shepherd your marketing doesn’t quite know how to plan, launch, maintain, and succeed with a guerrilla marketing attach, train him or her. The science, art, and business of marketing can be learned. You don’t have to be a born guerrilla. There are books, seminars, lectures, courses, newsletters, Internet sites, and audiocassettes that can give a bright person more solid and realistic information about marketing than four years of study at a university that teaches Dark

Ages tactics for companies with billion-dollar budgets.

How much time should your designated guerrilla spend attending to the actions required by guerrilla marketing? The most time will be necessary at the outset, when the planning is done. Less time will be required during the launch phase, when the weapons are fired. And still less time, but constant time—must be devoted as you sustain the attack. That time will be devoted to three tasks: maintaining the attack, tracking your marketing efforts, and developing improved marketing. It is rare for time to be spent more valuably in your pursuit of profits and joy.

Of the many reasons for business failures, an inability to market aggressively and constantly ranks right near the top. When that happens, the finger of fault always points to the CEO—the person who is too busy with other business functions to give proper attention to marketing, too egotistical to delegate the function to someone else, or too ignorant of the power of marketing to realize the need for consistent nurturing. The role of the successful financial advisor is to find marketing team builders that can help grow your business.

Additional Resources:

Visit www.financialadvisormarketing.com for a full array of marketing and communications web site listings.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes_______ No________

Additional information required: Yes_______ No________

If you have integrity nothing else matters. If you don t have integrity, nothing else matters.

-Unknown

There is only one boss: The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

-Sam Walton, Founder, Wal-Mart

STRATEGY 8

Finding Your Ideal Client

Concept:

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Does that famous song by the band U2 sound familiar? If you are looking for new clients, you need to know the following about them:

1.   Marital status.

2.   Age.

3.   Income.

4.   Occupation.

5.   Net worth.

6.   Hobbies.

7.   Risk tolerance.

8.   Rate of return objective.

9.   Family status.

10.   Investable assets or estate planning needs. Target marketing is key to your business plan.

Objective:

Can I find a married retired couple with approximately $50,000 of income, a net worth of $800,000 to $1 million, who like to golf, spend time with their children and grandchildren, who don’t mind some moderate level of risk and a conservative rate of return? Also they must have investable assets of $600,000 and estate planning needs. Well, guess what? That is an example of a target client. Now where do you find these clients? How do you market to them? What brings them together? These are the questions about the start of target marketing that you need to consider. We could write another book on target marketing, but as advisors what follows is what we need to do in our business plans.

We can also dissect each component of the profile. It is not necessary to have married people but they are easier to find. Their age can help you target easier. Income is not necessarily important if you are dealing with retirees or business owners, but net worth is essential in all segments regardless of income. Net worth needs to be determined. Hobbies help you find out how your target group networks. Risk tolerance helps you design your money management programs, since you may not want highly aggressive or speculative investors if that is not your model. This also goes for rate of return objective. If you are targeting retirees seeking a high rate of return and low risk, this may not be achievable. This helps target the education level of investors in the group. Family status is very important since you must find out from clients who they love. Simply put, money is love. If they don’t love someone and they are driven by greed, this may not fit your personal beliefs and understanding of clients. Finally, if all of their net worth is tied up in real estate and they have no estate planning needs, then they may not need your help. All components help identify what your ideal client should look like.

Strategy:

Many financial advisors are running two distinct models. First, the advisor who only deals in the high-net-worth, high-touch type of practice. Second, the advisor who looks after all types of clients and delivers a baseline level of service to all and a premium level of service for top clients.

Both models have one critical element to building. The advisor is faced with declining time as the business grows. So how do you grow your business each year and provide an increasing demand for more service? The short answer here is to target larger clients each year. In three to five years your client base will be dramatically different and you will be forced to get more sophisticated. By changing your target upward each year, not only will you improve your services, but also you will earn more and have a higher asset base. For example, set a minimum client account size if you are in the money management business and a target premium if you’re in the insurance business.

•   Year 1—minimum $250,000 assets.

•   Year 2—minimum $350,000 assets.

•   Year 3—minimum $500,000 assets.

•   Year 4—minimum $750,000 assets.

•   Year 5—minimum $1,000,000 assets.

Most advisors have never increased their target client. So how do they expect to improve, challenge themselves, and make more money? Remember, one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. When is the last time that you increased your minimum account size?

Grant’s Tip:

Profit margins are shrinking, and service demands and costs are increasing. Welcome to the world of a growing financial advisory practice. Advisors continue to take on unprofitable and time-or service-demanding clients. Why do we do this to ourselves, only to hope that they eventually leave? With ideal client profiling you also need to ask a few tough questions up front to make sure that you want this client.

For example: You say to Mr. and Mrs. Client, “Your money is important to you; however, I take four to six weeks’ holidays a year. In that time my team can service your needs, but I will be unavailable during these times. Are you comfortable with that? If the answer is no, then you may have a couple demanding high maintenance; maybe you should open the door right now, give them a mint, and send them across the street to your competition.

You ask Mr. And Mrs. Client, “How often do you expect us to sit down face to face and review your portfolio or retirement plan?” If the answer is at least six times per year and you cannot deliver on that, give them your competition’s business card.

You can create your own service questions to help you choose the right clients. An easy way to do this is think of your top three clients, the ones that you really enjoy working with. Then imagine if you had twenty more of them. Would you not have your best year ever if that happened?

The challenge of increasing your minimum account size is that you will have clients that you might have outgrown. There are two schools of thought on this one. Some say fire the bottom 10% of your book each year. Others say service them with your team or hire people to service them. Regardless, make sure that you segment them first. The way to segment clients are not into A, B, C clients (which is the old way) but to put them into a grid based on the following:

•   Assets under administration.

•   Client potential.

•   Referrals generated/referability.

•   Profitability.

•   Servicing time.

•   Nice people.

•   Want your help and trust you.

The next thing you must think about is your time and your target number of clients. How many clients can you truly service in a sophisticated high-touch relationship? For example, if you feel you can service 150 clients at an average asset base of $500,000, then your book of business target is $75 million for yourself. Then your service team will pick up the rest—say $25 million. Your total book of business will be $100 million. Develop your targets around realistic numbers of clients you can personally handle. If you are working in a team the numbers may be different, but each person only has so much time.

Potential Results: Bigger fish = more fish per pound. Make sure they don’t have too many bones with their last advisor.

Simple Rule: An advisor’s income is in direct proportion to the income and assets of their clientele.

Jay’s Comments:

Geoff Ayling, in his superb book, “Rapid Response Advertising, “ provides wannabe guerrillas with a full fifty reasons why people buy. There are really far more than fifty, but I have a feeling that these fifty will get your creative juices flowing. People make purchases for these, among many reasons:

1 To make more money—even though it can’t buy happiness

1.   To become more comfortable, even a bit more

2.   To attract praise—because almost everybody loves it

3.   To increase enjoyment—of life, of business, of virtually anything

4.   To possess things of beauty-because they nourish the soul

5.   To avoid criticism—which nobody wants

6.   To make their work easier—a constant need to many people

7.   To speed up their work—because people know that time is precious

8.   To keep up with the Joneses—there are Joneses in everybody’s lives

9.   To feel opulent—a rare, but valid reason to make a purchase

10.   To look younger—due to the reverence placed upon youthfulness

11.   To become more efficient—because efficiency saves time

12.   To buy friendship—I didn t know it’s for sale, but it often is

13.   To avoid effort—because nobody loves to work too hard

14.   To escape or avoid pain—which is an easy path to making a sale

15.   To protect their possessions—because they worked hard to get them

16.   To be in style—because few people enjoy being out of style

17.   To avoid trouble—because trouble is never a joy

18.   To access opportunities—because they open the doors to good things

19.   To express love—one of the noblest reasons to make any purchase

20.   To be entertained—because entertainment is usually fun

21.   To be organized—because order makes lives simpler

22.   To feel safe—because security is a basic human need

23.   To conserve energy—their own or their planets sources of energy

24.   To be accepted—because that means security as well as love

25.   To save time—because they know time is more valuable than money

26.   To become more fit and healthy—seems to me that’s an easy sale

27.   To attract the opposite sex—never undermine the power of love

28.   To protect their family—tapping into another basic human need

29.   To emulate others—because the world is teeming with role models

30.   To protect their reputation—because they worked hard to build it

31.   To feel superior—which is why status symbols are sought after

32.   To be trendy—because they know their friends will notice

33.   To be excited—because people need excitement in a humdrum life

34.   To communicate better—because they want to be understood

35.   To preserve the environment—giving rise to cause-related marketing

36.   To satisfy an impulse—a basic reason behind a multitude of purchases

37.   To save money—the most important reason to 14% of the population

38.   To be cleaner—because unclean often goes with unhealthy and unloved

39.   To be popular—because inclusion beats exclusion every time

40.   To gratify curiosity—it killed the cat but motivates the sale

41.   To satisfy their appetite—because hunger is not a good thing

42.   To be individual—because all of us are, and some of us need assurance

43.   To escape stress—need I explain ?

44.   To gain convenience—because simpliaty makes life easier

45.   To be informed—because it’s no joy to be perceived as ignorant

46.   To give to others—another way you can nourish your soul

47.   To feel younger—because that equates with vitality and energy

48.   To pursue a hobby—because all work and no play etc. etc. etc.

49.   To leave a legacy—because that’s a way to live forever

I must add one more area about which you should be creative, one more reason that motivates people to make a purchase, and that area deals with pain. Thomas Jefferson said, “The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.” More recently, Sam Deep and Lyle Sussman, who wrote “Close The Deal,” teach the importance of pain and the ways to learn where it resides. If you know exactly, you’ve got a heckuva great starting point for your creativity.

There. Now that you’ve got 51 ways to win the hearts and business of your prospects, I think you’ll have an easier job of winning sales and profits.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes______ No_______

Additional information required: Yes______ No_______

Never, never, never, never, never give up.

Sir Winston Churchill

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

-John F. Kenndy

STRATEGY 9

Secrets of Selecting Marketing Methods

Concept:

There are hundreds of marketing concepts to choose from (the subject of my next book). As you go through the various methods, you are faced with questions, “Which mix of marketing strategies do I choose in my business?” “How do I select the best ones?” “Which ones will work for me?” The answers are obvious. Read on.

Objective:

If you went out fishing for a day and tried a few different approaches and lures but were not successful, would you change your style? Tough question after only one day, but if you go out every day for a week, you know you need to change something. As a fisherman I know that once you find something that works, you stick with it. A very successful fisherman friend taught me that location and presentation are the keys to fishing. Presentation can mean the lure, the speed of the boat, the flasher, and other things in connection with presenting the bait to the fish. In other words, it’s not just one thing. That was great advice from a great fisherman. In Dr. Thomas J. Stanley’s Marketing to the Affluent (McGraw-Hill, 1988), he points out that successful financial advisors didn’t just try one thing and it worked, they fished for strategies that would work and continued to improve the strategy until they were successful. There were not one or two things that worked well but usually a half a dozen things done together that made 80% of the difference between not catching any fish and catching the big fish they wanted. For your marketing to be successful, location and presentation are keys to your success. It becomes obvious to you which ones you should use once you cast your line several times. It is a unique combination of techniques that will work for you—not necessarily for the advisor next door, but for you—what works as you adjust for the best presentation and location.

For example, if I was to put ten top advisors from across the country in a room and asked, “What are your five keys to successful marketing?” I would find that some keys are similar but not all five keys are the same.

Strategy:

Repeating the questions asked at the outset, “Which mix of marketing strategies do I choose in my business?” “How do I select the best ones?” “Which ones will work for me?” The answer should be obvious—as many as you can do well.

Once you have selected the marketing strategies, be sure you use and implement them in a systematic way. Make all of your marketing a system and put it into an operating manual. Just like Ray Krok of McDonalds, record your marketing info systems and keep duplicating your success.

As we suggested earlier, write down all of the marketing strategies you have planned to use and are using now. Then, go through what will be your marketing mix. See if you can’t mesh some of the strategies—such as your web site, brochure and mailings. Some of these have a common theme.

Every marketing method has its own particular strength. Radio is the most intimate of the media, allowing you to spend time one on one with the audience. Newspapers are great for disseminating news. Although most advisors find newspaper advertising to be useless, it is a great medium for delivering news, which can be done through advertising, specialty ads, or articles. Newspapers are for people who want news, not advertising. Magazines are where readers become more involved.

•   TV is most comprehensive.

•   Direct mail helps you take aim.

•   Brochures are for great detail.

•   Seminars—To sell yourself and your ideas.

•   Internet—Useless for prospects unless it is advertised.

•   Trade shows—To make contacts with purchase-minded people.

•   Sponsorships—To build stronger relationships.

•   Telephone Marketing—Most effective when used in another medium; e.g., Internet, CDRom, mailer, or other!

Grant’s Tip:

Make sure you distinguish how you want to market yourself. The biggest hurdle here for most advisors is ego. You want to be seen as a true professional who deals only with the affluent and never needs to market. If you’re that good, why are you reading this book? There is always the best of the best, and they may be at a stage where the business grows from within. But most advisors can handle more assets to manage, not necessarily more clients, but assets.

Try this exercise right now. Write down all of the marketing methods you use today. Beside each item on the list, write the approximate percentage of new business that comes directly from that source. Now combine three or four of those items and write down how they can work together. Now with these items together, add up the percentages again. You see the percentage can dramatically increase by combining your marketing strategies. For example, your web site linked to your newspaper ad linked to your articles linked to your seminars linked to referrals linked to word of mouth linked to inviting a friend. Linking your marketing into one linked method of marketing will increase the likelihood of each marketing method as a stand-alone item. 1+ 1 = 2, but 1+1+1+1+1 = 5, now you are 5 times more successful in your marketing.

So find your ideas mix and develop your plan and implementation schedule; revisit it and stick with it, improving it along the way.

Jay’s Comments:

Succeeding with a guerrilla marketing attack is a very simple seven-step process. Take all seven steps and watch your profits rise and your competitors cringe. It’s not as hard as you may think to succeed at a guerrilla marketing attack. And if you launch one properly, you ll find that succeeding at business is also not as hard as you may have thought. Don’t even think of skipping any of the seven steps to success because all seven are necessary. We’re not talking about playing with marketing. We ‘re talking about succeeding with marketing.

1.   The first step is to research everything you can. That means carefully investigating your market, your product or service, your competition, your industry, and your options in media. What media reach your target audience? What media make them respond and buy? Shouldyou focus on advertising or direct marketing or a combination of the two? There are answers to these questions and guerrillas have the knack for coming up with the right answers. As a person who is already connected to the Internet, you’ve got a head start in the research department. There is loads of information on line that can propel you in the direction of success.

2.   The second step is to write a benefits list. Have a meeting. Invite your key personnel and at least one customer—because customers are tuned in to benefits that you may not even consider to be benefits. For example, my wife patronizes a certain bookstore regularly, not because of their books, but because of the carrot cake they serve in their cafe. Once you have a list of your benefits, select your competitive advantage because that’s where you’ll hang your marketing hat. If you haven’t got a competitive advantage, you’ll have to create one because you’ll need it. After all, anyone can come up with a benefits list. Figure out why people should patronize your business instead of that of a competitor.

3.   Step number three is to select the weapons you’ll use. I listed 100 weapons from which you may make your selection. My recommendation is to use as many weapons as you can. Fifty of the hundred weapons are free. Grant has over forty weapons in this book to add to your arsenal. After you’ve selected the weaponry, put the weapons into priority order. Next to each weapon, write the name of the person who is in charge of masterminding the use of the

77 Guerrilla Marketing for Financial Advisorsweapon plus the date it will be launched. Consider each date you write to be a promise you are making to yourself. Guerrillas do not kid themselves or lie to themselves, so be realistic. The idea of a guerrilla marketing attack is to select a lot of weapons, then launch them in slow motion—at a pace that feels comfortable financially and emotionally. My average client takes 18 months to launch an attack. Don’t rush.

4.   The fourth step, and this is a toughie, is to maintain the attack. The first three steps are extremely simple compared to this fourth step. Maintaining the attack means sticking with your plan and your weapons even though you don t get the instant gratification you want so much. Everyone wants success to come instantly, but it doesn t happen that way in real life. The Marlboro Man and Marlboro Country helped make Marlboro cigarettes the most successfully marketed brand in history. But after the first year of marketing, they didn’t increase sales one bit for Marlboro. Maintaining the attack made it happen.

5.   Step five is to keep track.. Some of your weapons will hit bulls-eyes. Others will miss the target completely. How will you know which is which? By keeping track.. By asking customers where they heard of you. By finding out what made them contact you. Keeping track is not easy, but it is necessary. If you aren’t ready to keep track., you aren t ready to launch your attack in the first place.

6.   Step six is to make a guerrilla marketing calendar, just as Grant outlined in Strategy 2, your marketing plan. This should be 52 rows long and five columns wide. The first column is called “Week,” listing in which week of the 52 weeks you did what you did in marketing. The second column is called “Thrust,” referring to the thrust of your marketing that week. What were you saying? Offering? The third column is called “Media,” and it refers to which media you were using that week. The fourth column is called “Cost,” and lets you project how much you ll be spending that week. The fifth column is called “Results,” so you can give a letter grade to the week—you know, an A, B, C, D or F. After one year, you compare your calendar to your sales figures and eliminate all but the A’s and B’s. It takes about three years to get a calendar loaded with slam dunks. Once you have one you’ll feel like the client who said, “It’s a lot like going to heaven without the inconvenience of dying.”

7.   The seventh step is to create a guerrilla marketing plan. Seven steps to succeeding with a guerrilla marketing attack. If it sounds easy, reread this column. It works, but it’s not easy.

Additional Resources:

See 100 Guerrilla Marketing Weapons in Chapter 9.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes______ No_______

Additional information required: Yes______ No_______

Do, or do not. There is no “Try. “

-Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back)

You can have everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want.

-Zig Ziglar

STRATEGY 10 What Sets You Apart from the Rest

Concept:

Unless you have new qualified people to talk to every day, why should you go to work? If you don’t have a target database or network of people, get one. The key here is database and contact management systems.

Objective:

There are two parts to your objective here. The first part is a solid list of qualified prospects to contact every day. The number of qualified prospects on the list depends on your business plan. For example, if I want to deal with 200 people with an average of $500,000 investable assets and I only have 50 people who fit that profile, I will need at least 150 people on my list. However, I don’t expect every one to do business with me; so I really need about 300 solid prospects on my database. The second part of the objective is your client communications standards. Be known for client communications. For example, what if you could say to a prospect, “We have one of the best client communications systems in the financial industry today. That is one reason people deal with us.” Now imagine what’s going through the prospect’s mind. The number one reason why people leave their advisor is lack of contact. If you can say that your clients will never leave you because of lack of contact, you set yourself apart from the rest.

Strategy:

The old life insurance sales ratio was 10:3:1—For every 10 people you talk to, 3 people will come in, and 1 person will do business with you. What is your sales ratio? If you talk to 100 prospects from your database in the next year, how many of them might do business with you? Be honest with yourself here—this will help you improve dramatically over the next few years. It will also help you in becoming a better qualifier of prospects and to gather more and more information on prospects.

Grant’s Tip:

Do you remember the movie Wall Street, with Michael Douglas? He said in one part of the movie “What I need is information.” How can you gather more information? Harvey Mackay said the single most important word in the English language is not in the dictionary. It’s “Rolodex.” Harvey wrote about database management in his book, Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive (Fawcett Books, 1996). He talks about having more than 50 different categories of information on prospects and clients. Another book on contact management is The One-to-one Future: Building Business Relationships One Customer at a Time, by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers (Doubleday, 1996).

While I think that there are great ideas in both books and that you will be more successful the larger your database of information, I have a simple solution for financial advisors when it comes to gathering information.

We are information gatherers. We gather tons of information from people on everything from taxes and investing to families and estates. But how can we use all of this in marketing? Besides the system of collecting important information (such as dates of birth, risk tolerance, time horizon, etc.) on the know-your-client forms that we fill out and update every day, develop a simple system that will help your memory as well as your database. Create three categories. Call them “hot buttons,” “excitement buttons” and “the WOW factor.”

The first, the hot buttons, are what the client values towards money. Some clients want to minimize taxes as much as possible, so any communication or discussion on minimizing taxes will get their attention.

The second are the excitement buttons. My excitement buttons are hockey and fishing. If you were to talk to me about hockey or fishing we could have a conversation for hours. It puts me in a positive frame of mind and allows me to tell stories about myself. If your communication includes anything about my excitement buttons, you WILL get my attention.

The third button is the WOW factor (which we will discuss in more detail in Chapter 5—Wowing Clients). It’s something that will make you and/or your client say “Wow!” about something you or your team did. It can include client appreciation, extraordinary service, or something close to the client’s heart.

On our fact finder we have the three button categories. When we get new clients, I sometimes sit with my assistant and we brainstorm on how can we WOW them? What gets them excited? What are their hot buttons? These three attributes will also be easy to remember and call up from your database.

How do you make your practice more valuable? Have a large database of qualified targeted prospects. If you have the best prospect list, with tons of qualified clients waiting to hear from you, would you be excited? How do you develop this list? Chapter 2—Getting New Clients from Outside Sources has several strategies for finding prospects and putting them on your list. Just buying lists and marketing to them is the old way of doing business.

Along with the ideas in Chapter 2, here are some ways successful guerrilla marketers and guerrilla financial advisors develop their own custom-made lists:

•Create lists from classified ads posted by people selling businesses.

•Create lists from real estate ads posted by people selling large homes or vacation property.

•Create lists from ads selling expensive items such as cars, boats, etc. •Seek to acquire lists from Welcome Wagon.

•Seek to acquire lists from companies with which you work—orphan accounts.

•Create lists of larget market prospects—larget successful engineers in your area through their association or trade magazines.

•Team up with a company—some companies let you set up office in general insurance agency premises.

•Team up for expertise—insurance and investment professionals sharing their lists and cross-selling services (an instant qualified list).

•Talk to a successful financial professional who want to starts taking time off-he or she developed a huge list of prospects and now is not going after them.

•Talk to a financial advisor who is a great prospector but not necessarily a great manager of clients.

•Talk to a key influential client or person in a group club or association and has a common network; for example, recreational associations such as golf or tennis clubs.

•Seek lists from business clubs/associations. •Seek lists from trade associations and publications.

While I won’t reveal all of the secrets to creating a great prospecting list in this chapter, most successful financial advisors know that a combination of marketing strategies consistently applied continues to put qualified prospects on the list every day.

Jay’s Comments:

You work like crazy trying to attract attention and business, operating from a marketing calendar, committing to your strategy and doing everything right, resulting in an influx of clients—but you lose them. They never come back. You did your marketing so well and marketed so wisely that you’re almost in a state of shock at how your customers ignore you.

You treated them well while you were making your business transactions. You gave them your best advice. You assured them service is your middle name. You smiled and used their names when you said good-bye, thanking them for the business. And then, after all that caring attention on your part, they completely ignored you, never set foot in your business again.

Do you want to know why they ignored you, why it was so easy for them to put you out of their minds? It’s because you ignored them.

It’s because you made the sale and then made the grave but all-too-common error of thinking that your marketing job was over. That was a terrible error. But at least you’ve got a lot of company making the same terrible error. Nearly 70 percent of business lost is lost due to apathy after the sale. Apathy is the deadliest enemy of marketing. A “love ‘em and leave ‘em “ attitude is usually fatal to profitability.

The opposite of apathy is follow-up. Guerrillas have a “love ‘em and love em “ attitude, marketing to prospects like crazy till the sale is made, then continuing to market like crazy to them after the sale. Apathy never sets in. Customers never feel ignored. Guerrillas do all in their power to intensify the relationship with caring follow-up and loving attention. They know that once they have established a relationship, their product or service is no longer thought of as a commodity. Businesses that offer commodities often lose customers due to competitors offering lower prices. Businesses that form warm relationships transcend being thought of as a commodity and maintain their customer relationships with service and constant contact.

No wonder they don t lose business so readily. People want relationships, want the businesses they patronize to stay in contact, want to feel cared for and not ignored. All guerrillas know that their customer relationships are their most precious assets. They know that if customers purchased from them one time and had an enjoyable purchase experience, they are very likely to buy from them again. And again and again. And to provide many referrals over time.

To nourish these kinds of lasting relationships, guerrilla financial advisors create constant communication systems. They send thank-you notes after the sale—within 48 hours. They contact customers within a month of the sale to make certain they are satisfied and have no questions. They get in touch with customers once again three months after the sale, this time suggesting new items that may tie in with the original purchase. And three months after that, they make another contact. This kind of guerrilla follow-up not only prevents dreaded apathy from setting in, but also increases business anywhere from 20% to 300%. That’s because customers, in their hearts, silently hope for recognition, acknowledgment, information, advance opportunities to purchase, and new calls to action.

Instead of the kind of apathy that loses customers forever, constant attention and follow-up results in healthy back-end sales. This means repeat sales, ancillary sales, and referral sales. And this means big profits to you—because it costs six times more to sell something to a new prospect than to sell that same thing to an existing customer.

These days, all the true marketing experts ask you to calculate the lifetime value of a customer. If you don’t understand the damaging effects of apathy after the sale, that lifetime value is pretty small, probably a few hundred dollars, if that. If you do all in your power to prevent apathy from ever setting it, the lifetime value of each customer may be measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even more. You’ll profit from the initial sale, fromthe repeat sales, from the referral sales, and from the long, mutually beneficial relationship. It happens only when you defeat the most deady enemy of marketing. And now you know how to do that.

Action Summary:

To add to my marketing plans: Yes_______ No_______

Additional information required: Yes_______ No______

Strong reasons make strong actions.

-William Shakespeare