Marie Swift gives a great tips on advisory boards, and Brooke, you can do better Continue reading
Have Two Elevator Speeches – One To Get Their Attention, One To Draw Them In
Have two introductory speeches, the first to get them to focus on you if they are prospective client, and the other to give them a reason to come talk to you. Continue reading
To Connect With Prospects And Attract Referrals, Communicate Solutions – Not Methods
People care less about what you do and more about what they get. When I ask advisors what they do, or what value they represent, too many describe the process they utilize and not enough describe solution they deliver. Continue reading
Morningstar Gets Most Of It Wrong – An Illustration Of The Hazards Of Writing Your Own Survey
Last week, Morningstar Advisor ran an article reviewing a survey they recently did with 980 investors and discussing some of the conclusions. The article provides a great illustration of the mistakes you can make surveying clients, with examples of the two most common errors advisors make when writing their own. The article reviews respondents’ answers...Continue reading
A Change Of Mindset Can Be The Event That Drives The Client To You
The best time to get a referral is before the prospect is ready for a change. It is when their thinking shifts to accommodate the possibility. Continue reading
Reduce your vulnerability to a market downturn
Is the next market downturn your biggest vulnerability? It shouldn’t be. Many advisors lose clients when the market declines. The most successful add clients. Is the next bear a threat to your practice? If it is, how will you eliminate it? Continue reading
In a market crash, what you ask your clients is more important than what you tell them
One of the joys of volatile markets is that you can actually remember the lessons of the last big downturn, because it was not that long ago. One of the significant ideas to arise from that difficult time was the importance of doing as much asking as telling. Continue reading
How to turn a down market into client loyalty
The stock market dropped 5% yesterday, wiping out gains for the year. While this is bad for portfolios, it doesn't have to be bad for your client relationships. Continue reading
How to design a referral marketing strategy – results from client engagement think tank, part four
Building on what we learned from our think tank, some principles for designing a referral marketing strategy. Continue reading
Referrals 2.0
I authored an article on a couple of the discoveries we made at the Financial Industry Think Tank we held in conjunction with FPA Business Solutions 2011 for the Practice Management Solutions supplement to the Journal of Financial Planning. It appear as the cover story in the July/August issue. You can find the article here.Continue reading