This is a simple system that will allow you to stay focused and expand verti- cally within your target markets. Identify your top 10 clients. These are not necessarily the top 10 by revenue alone, but also the ones you most enjoy working with. Quality of life is critical, and you need to enjoy the people with whom you work. By cloning your favorite clients, you have more favorite clients, and you can build the ideal business.
Often, these 10 people are the ones who have made the biggest financial impact on your business and whom you most appreciate. They are likely to already be giving you unsolicited referrals. Gaining an understanding of why these clients choose to work with you will help you understand what future clients will be looking for. If you can uncover your unique abilities through these relationships, you are on your way to developing a profitable and enjoy- able business.
Let’s say you are working well with a few key physicians and have an understanding of their unique needs. When one of their financial parameters changes, it is easy for you to emerge at the right place at the right time with the right solution. You are uniquely positioned to solve a particular market need or problem. These physicians will be pleased to refer you to other physi- cians like themselves.
Marketing research shows that, in most cases, 80 percent of an advisor’s revenue is generated from the top 20 percent of his/her clients. Find out everything you can about the top 20 percent who generate this revenue for you. These top clients will each provide you with two or three qualified refer- rals each quarter, if you make it easy for them to do so. The top 20 percent of your clients will be replicated, and you will be working with high-quality peo- ple with whom you most enjoy working.
Position yourself as a trusted ally of this market niche, not as someone on the outside. Your job is to gain a reputation as an industry insider, not as a salesperson. It is better to position yourself early in the game. Your clients can also help you uncover an effective delivery system into their marketing niche.
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Create a Client Marketing Board
Invite favorite clients to participate on your advisory board. All you need is one contact. Ask him/her to be on your marketing team, and get that person started working on your behalf. It often only takes one call to set up a meet- ing to get this going. A marketing board of your clients takes you into their worlds. Explain to your best clients that you like their advice, that you are calling your group a client marketing board. You’d like to run ideas past them to help you market yourself.
We almost always meet with people who are referred to us by someone we know. This type of referral and networking alliance is a powerful technique.
Colleagues and associates will invariably be willing to help you out, give you names, and offer suggestions on how to build your strategic network. Call your favorite clients and tell them, “I need your help. I am developing a more focused approach to my marketing. I have created a profile of my favorite clients and you are one of them. I really respect your opinion. Would you let me take you out to lunch? I would like to get your ideas and opinions about marketing to people like you in your field.”
This works. We have never had a client say no to this. When you tell some- body he/she is one of your favorite and respected clients, and that person has already entrusted you with his/her own life savings, you’re going to get a pos- itive response. At the luncheon meeting, we take out a worksheet that’s made up of 22 questions and we walk the client through it, question by question, taking notes. You’ll be surprised by the answers you get when you do this.
One of our advisors felt that this really wasn’t a valuable exercise when she first undertook it. On her first client interview, however, she found out she was not assured of getting the million-dollar rollover that her corporate client was going to soon be receiving. Even though she had been his financial advisor and tax preparer for many years, he didn’t see her as an asset man- ager. Questions 11 through 13 bring up competitors. In this client interview, the advisor found out that the client had a friend who was also a financial advisor, and this was the person the client was considering to manage his assets. Had she not conducted the interview, she would have surely lost this million-dollar sale. Instead, she found out what she was up against; she pre- sented her story, and made the sale. She’s now convinced.
Questions to Ask
1. What are your lifetime financial goals?
2. What have been your greatest personal financial frustrations?
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3. What are the major financial challenges that people in your situation (industry, etc.) face today?
4. What else could I do to help you solve your problems or achieve your goals?
5. To what business organizations do you belong?
6. To what social organizations do you belong?
7. What sports or other activities do you enjoy?
8. What publications do you like to read?
9. How did you first hear about me?
10. What originally prompted you to do business with me?
11. With whom else did you consider working?
12. Who do you feel are my competitors?
13. How do I compare with my competitors?
14. What is important to you in your relationship with a financial advisor?
15. What are the major benefits you have enjoyed by working with me?
16. If they asked, what would you tell your friends about me?
17. What is the most compelling thing I could say to someone in your situ- ation that would interest him/her in doing business with me?
18. Knowing what you know, if you were me, how would you market to people like yourself?
19. Do you have any friends or associates who might benefit from meeting me or attending one of our workshops?
20. Do you know of anyone who works for a company that is about to downsize its workforce?
21. Do any of your friends own their own businesses?
22. Do you know of anyone who would like to sell his/her highly appreci- ated house or business?
Once you’ve gone through the questions, thank your clients for their help.
If they’ve done a good job and you’d like to continue the conversation over the years, tell them that you’re creating an informal board of advisors for your business, and ask them if you can call them occasionally to get their opinion and ideas on your marketing plan. Almost always, they will say yes.
Here are a few examples of situations uncovered during client interviews by advisors who work with us.
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■ A good friend of a client has just inherited a large amount of money and needs the help of a financial professional to preserve it.
■ A friend of a client is just about to retire and will receive a $500,000 lump-sum distribution from his retirement plan. He needs a money manager for the first time in his life.
■ A local corporation, where a client was previously the CEO, is down- sizing. He identifies 1,200 people who will soon receive over $200,000 each in lump-sum distributions.
■ A friend of a client has just taken his company public, thereby increas- ing his net worth. This friend wants to prudently diversify his wealth and needs an advisor to help him do it.
■ A client’s colleague is selling his $2 million house and wants to be shown how to avoid capital gains tax by using a charitable remainder trust.
■ A client’s relative is a wealthy small-business owner who wants to transfer his business to other family members without the government taking a huge chunk out for taxes. He wants to find out how a family partnership might solve this problem and how to get the rest of his financial house in order.
This system of cloning your best clients will allow you to easily double the total number of clients in your business, thereby doubling your income. And you can continue this process as long as you’d like. If you don’t have existing clients or your favorite clients are not in the marketing niche that you want, then call on certified public accountants (CPAs) or other centers of influence who are in that target market and do the same exercise.