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The 7 Deadly Sins
of Advisor Marketing
by Martin R. Baird
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You know you
want to do it, so now what?
The secrets to making your transition to fee!
If you're like most financial
planners, you have seen the studies that show more and
more clients would prefer to work with a fee-based advisor.
Or you have heard from other advisors about how nice
it is to have an income stream that flows every month.
Some of you may even know that when it comes time to
sell your business, it's much easier if you have those
fees.
OK, you know
what you should do. Now let's talk about how to do it!
The first thing I want
to touch on is fear. Any time you have change, you have
some fear. So you need to address that fear before you
get started. If you don't, you will find plenty of excuses
not to make this transition!
Once you get past your
fear, you need to address your clients' and prospects'
fears. The answer to this is simple. (Simple, not easy!)
The way to address their fears is through education.
Well before you're ready to be a fee-based planner,
you need to start educating your clients about fees
and why they are good for them.
The easiest way I know
to do this is to give examples they can understand.
If you can compare fees to something that they already
comprehend, it will make it easier for them. It's also
important to show them that with fees, you have a stake
in their success.
For example, explain that
if the investments you recommend perform as you expect,
both of you will benefit. If they don't, the advisor
also loses! This makes a very strong case for most clients.
They understand that you will be more interested if
your compensation is based on their success.
The next part of education
is communicating the information clearly and with a
high level of repetition. The average American is exposed
to more than 3,000 marketing messages every 24 hours.
That means you need to keep repeating your message and
be creative in order to even get noticed.
Develop a series of marketing
materials that you can use to reach out to your clients
and prospects over time so they start to learn about
your plans. For example, you may want to use a series
of mailers that you send to your clients to educate
them about the transition. Consider developing an eight-piece
mail system that you could send to your clients three
times during the next 12 months.
You need to have that
many contacts to cut through the clutter. I would also
mention the transition in all of your newsletters and
in your company collateral. The more places you put
information about the transition, the easier it will
make it for clients and prospects to understand.
You also should address
the transition in person at your quarterly client meetings.
This is a great opportunity to talk with them one on
one and learn what their thoughts are. You will find
that some of your clients have no thoughts whatsoever
about it. They like what you do, and they will go along
with whatever you suggest. However, not all your clients
will be that way. Some people will have fears about
the change.
This is an educational
process. The better job you do of communicating and
educating your clients, the easier the process will
be for you and them.
Martin R. Baird is president
of Advisor Marketing, a full-service marketing
management firm that provides a variety of services
to financial advisors to help them improve their marketing
methods and increase revenues, including seminars and
conference speaking engagements on such topics as referrals,
marketing, client communication and transitioning to
fee.
The firm's Web site, www.advisormarketing.com,
offers free marketing information and tools for financial
advisors, including a free weekly e-mail newsletter.
Baird is author of "The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor
Marketing," a book that offers easy-to-implement
marketing ideas for advisors. Baird may be reached at
mbaird@advisormarketing.com
or by telephone at (480) 990-1775 or (800) 279-1775.
Visit www.advisormarketing.com
for marketing tactics that will help your business grow.
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