Marketing Principles
for
Financial Advisors
Marketing Principles for Financial Advisors:
This chapter has similarities to Jay Conrad Levinson’s book Guerrilla Marketing Excellence—The Fifty Golden Rules for Small Business Success. It is not a workbook; rather it is a set of marketing commandments by which to live by as you develop your business. It contains principles learned over a decade of marketing.
Financial services and these principles, or golden rules, may seem obvious, but they allow successful financial advisors to separate themselves from the pack and allow them to “See the forest from the trees.” Each principle is discussed in detail as it applies to the financial professional. A chapter excerpt follows:
Principle—Your career as a financial advisor is to ‘Market Financial Services”
When you ask most financial advisors what their job is you get statements like ‘To help people with their tax and retirement plans” or “to service and sell financial services.” Most advisors don’t understand that when they get into this business, they think of it as a sales job. Selling is only half the job, marketing is the other half. Selling does not occur without marketing. You need someone to sell yourself to, so how do you find that someone? By finding your marketing focus, and your ideal client profile, you can concentrate on selling. If we market to a set of clientele that we are looking for, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel as opposed to spray and prey method of prospecting.
Principle—Practice what you preach and believe in it—”Own what you sell”
Establish your own written tax, estate, investment, and financial plan. Then put that plan into action. Most advisors know this rule yet often forget that the plan is the product. How can you sell what you don’t own? How can you motivate investors or have enthusiasm for a product or service you don’t believe in? Do you have your own organized plans for your estate, retirement, insurance, and investments?
Principle—Run your business like a franchise—”Develop your systems”
What differentiates you from other advisors? Why should I do business with you? What can I expect as a client? What is your approach to money management? Provide some examples of who you have helped, including names and numbers. How do you do what you do? How do you add value to the services you provide? What type of system do you have for managing new and existing clients? These are the types of questions clients are asking today. The cookie cutter approach doesn’t differentiate you or your services. You must have systems for all aspects of your business. The systems are also part of your marketing statement that tell people why they should do business with you and then prove it. If I asked you these above questions, can you answer them in a format that makes you look organized and you have a plan for clients, or are you just winging it?
Principle—Earn the power of repetition—”Commitment to your marketing plan”
How many times have you stopped using an idea that worked well? Don’t feel bad, most advisors do it all the time. The power of repetition can get boring. However, we eventually come back to what works. Marketing is sometimes a difficult measure because results can come down the road after months or years of trying. How long did it take for you to land your largest client? The persistent advisor knows that the best clients did not make decisions quickly, rather they need enough comfort to make a decision. What is enough comfort? Great question, why don’t you ask your top clients what it was that eventually made them decide to join you and you will have incredible insight towards your marketing strategies. This will tell you what works and what doesn t. As an advisor I cannot tell you what works for your biggest clients, rather do your market research and gather your results. Maybe it was from a couple of seminars. Could it be that it was from more than one client referring your name to them, or finally it was that they found you had the systematic planning and teamwork approach that they were looking for? You won’t know until you ask. Now if you were to have 10 or 12 more clients like your top ones, would you not be having your best year in the business?
Define your job
• “Marketing Financial Services’ ‘
• Schedule time to make the calls
• Run your business like a “franchise”
• Help people who want to be helped
• What can you do for your company/dealerl
• Practice what you preach
• Re-invest 10-15% of your gross income back into your business to make it grow
• Take time off
• Be persistent—the 5-touch rule in marketing
• Nick Murray—What do you believe in?
• Success leaves cluesl
• Provide excellent advice
• Activity drives production
• Brand yourself—What makes you unique?
• Love what you do
Principle—Become effective
There is a world of difference between efficiency and effectiveness, and it’s in that world that guerrillas flourish. They are well aware of the power and omnipresence of the 80/20 rule and have probably read Richard Koch’s book, “The 80/20 Principle” because even its subtitle—The Secret of Achieving More with Less”—is guerrilla through and through. It dramatically emphasizes the effectiveness that can be gained by simplicity.
Alas, even guerrillas don ‘t hit the bullseye with all of their marketing, but at least they direct their energies towards learning which 20 percent of their marketing generates 80 percent of their sales. Just knowing this to be true is a compelling reason to learn where each of your customers learned of your existence, to recognize that all customers are not created equal and that 20 percent of them most likely account for 80 percent of your profits.
The 80/20 rule teaches you simplistic and applies to more of your business than marketing and more of your life than business:
• 80 percent of what you achieve at work comes from 20 percent of the time you spend working.
• 20 percent of a company’s products usually account for 80 percent of its sales and 20 percent of its employees contribute to 80 percent of profits.
• 20 percent of criminals account for 80 percent of crimes.
• 20 percent of motorists cause 80 percent of accidents.
• 20 percent of your carpets get 80 percent of the wear.
• 20 percent of your clothes will be worn 80 percent of the time.
• 80 percent of traffic jams occur on 20 percent of the roads.
• 20 percent of computer users purchase 80 percent of software.
Your job? To find out which 20 percent of your marketing is motivating the most sales, to determine which 20 percent of your customers are producing 80 percent of your profits, to learn which 20 percent of your prospects are most likely to become customers.
One of the most fascinating definitions of entrepreneur comes to us from the French economist J-B Say, who coined the word, and said, “The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower productivity into an area of higher productivity and yield.”
The underlying meaning of that definition and 80/20 rule is that there’s a whole lot of wasted money and energy in life. The goals of the guerrilla are first to identify the area of lower productivity and do something about it, then identify the area of higher productivity and do something about it. It’s the doing something about it that determines the real winners.
The actions you take to eliminate waste and double up on effectiveness may make you seem unreasonable. So take comfort in George Bernard Shaw’s words: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
When you discover which 20 percent of your customers are responsible for 80 percent of your sales, focus on keeping them happy, increase the amount of business you do with them, and tap them for their referral power because these are obviously satisfied customers. Paying more attention to them reduces your marketing budget because you can pay less attention to the 80 percent who motivate 20 percent of your profits.
Once your mind has absorbed the full implications of the 80/20 rule, consider applying it in other ways: celebrate exceptional productivity rather than raising average efforts. Look for shortcuts. Be selective more than exhaustive. Delegate and out-source as much as possible. Target a limited number of goals and focus like a laser beam upon them.
Because you ‘re a guerrilla, don t do any of these things in a hurry. Patience will enable you to spot the areas that need changing, then to implement the changes so that humanity remains part of your modus operandi. Fast isn t beautiful. Big isn t beautiful. Small isn t beautiful. It’s simple that is most beautiful if you ‘re an 80/20 kind of guerrilla.
Memorize These 12 Words Then Live By Themby Jay Conrad Levinson.
l’m giving you a memory crutch so that you’ll never forget these words. All 12 words end in the letters “E NT”. Run your business by the guerrilla concepts they represent and you’ll be in marketing heaven.
1. COMMITMENT: You should know that a mediocre marketing program with commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing program without commitment. Commitment makes it happen.
2. INVESTMENT: Marketing is not an expense, but an investment—the best investment available in America today—if you do it right. With guerrilla marketing to guide you, you’ll be doing it right.
3. CONSISTENT: It takes a while for prospects to trust you and if you change your marketing, media, and identity, you’re hard to trust. Restraint is a great ally of the guerrilla. Repetition is another.
4. CONFIDENT: In a nationwide test to determine why people buy, price came in fifth, selection fourth, service third, quality second, and, in first place—people said they patronize businesses in which they are confident.
5. PATIENT: Unless the person running your marketing is patient, it will be difficult to practice commitment, view marketing as an investment, be consistent, and make prospects confident. Patience is a guerrilla virtue.
6. ASSORTMENT: Guerrillas know that individual marketing weapons rarely work on their own. But marketing combinations do work. A wide assortment of marketing tools are required to woo and win customers.
7. CONVENIENT: People now know that time is not money, but is far more valuable. Respect this by being easy to do business with and running your company for the convenience of your customers, not yourself.
8. SUBSEQUENT: The real profits come after you’re made the sale, in the form of repeat and referral business. Non-guerrillas think marketing ends when they’ve made the sale. Guerrillas know that’s when marketing begins.
9. AMAZEMENT: There are elements of your business that you take for granted, but prospects would be amazed if they knew the details. Be sure all of your marketing always reflects that amazement. It’s always there.
10. MEASUREMENT: You can actually double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bulls-eyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won’t know which is which.
11. INVOLVEMENT: This describes the relationship between you and your customer—and it is a relationship. You prove your involvement by following up; they prove theirs by patronizing and recommending you.
12. DEPENDENT: The guerrilla’s job is not to compete but to cooperate with other businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up tie-ins with others. Become dependent to market more, spend less.