August, 2002 Article Submission Journal Archives ABOUT FSO Financial Services Online (FSO) is the first and largest financial services publisher and portal on the Internet. Our publications include Financial E-News, Financial Services Journal Online and Messages From The Masters, which are available at no cost on our Portal http://www.fsonline.com ADDENDUM: This Newsletter is published by Financial Services Online, Inc. and distributed on a complimentary basis to members of NAIFA, subscribers of the Virtual Sales Assistant(TM) and selected other recipients. It is designed to provide financial service professionals an overview of the events and happenings that may affect their business. If you would like additional information on any items or the sources used, please e-mail us at e-news-list-admin@ e-news.fsonline.com Contact: Carolyn Hersman chersman@comcast.net Copyright © 2002 Financial Services Online. Reprints and/or permission to reproduce Financial Services Journal must be obtained in writing from the publisher, Financial Services Online. LEGAL NOTICE Please read these important legal notices concerning this publication About NAIFA Founded in 1890 as the National Association of Life Underwriters, NAIFA is comprised of 900 state and local associations and represents the interests of 90,000 life and health insurance agents and financial advisors nationwide. Many of NAIFA's members are NASD-licensed registered representatives or registered investment advisors. Benefits of membership include legislative and regulatory representation, education and training, and networking opportunities. The NAIFA umbrella includes the Division of Financial Advisors and three specialty organizations: the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), the Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA) and GAMA International.		The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing by Martin R. Baird The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sin Orville and Wilbur Wright. Peanut butter and jelly. These are famous relationships. These relationships make each other better. They show that sometimes when you put two items together, they add up to more than the sum of the parts! That is what good relationships do. That is exactly what you want to do with your prospects and clients. By having a relationship with you, they get more that just a financial advisor. The sin I see committed all too often by advisors is that they do not value the relationship enough! The relationship with any of your clients is priceless. The only way you develop that relationship is by earning it through your actions. One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to help people is to maximize the opportunities you have with your existing client relationships. We have all seen the studies that show most advisors only have a portion of any client's investments. Wouldn't it be great to grow your business without adding new clients? By building your relationships, you can do exactly that! These articles give you some examples of relationship building and WIIFM! By focusing on these two areas, you can increase your revenue without wasting your hard-earned money. Using relationships in your marketing can be a grand slam for everyone. I was looking over my marketing Web site's discussion list page recently, and one of the questions hit me like a ton of bricks! Within the question is a great idea and a wonderful way to grow your business. The post from Catherine Scrivano is about generating more referrals. That's a challenge advisors face on an ongoing basis. How do they create more highly qualified referrals? The amazing part is that Cathy wants to make a donation to local charities for each referral she gets! Think about it. She gets more referrals, the charities get needed donations and her clients know that they've helped Cathy and the community! This is a winning situation for everyone involved. That makes it a marketing grand slam. If you can find ways to make your marketing a winner for all parties involved, you have a wonderful opportunity! How can you do the same thing? What can you do to help your community and grow your business? Could you team up with a service organization and provide planning workshops for needy families in your area? When you do a program like that, you also want to let the news media know so they can cover it. These types of programs are also good human-interest stories. They show the good side of business and that people are helping those in need. I think any program that helps you, your clients and your community has great potential! Who else can benefit from this kind of relationship? I just mentioned how this can work with charities or people in need. Could it also work with other businesses? The answer is yes, and it can be a big hit for both of you! What I'm talking about is developing a relationship with businesses that would like to have access to some of your clients in a noncompetitive venue. As a financial advisor, you have clients with a variety of needs. They might need legal help or real estate assistance. Do you have a relationship with other professionals that you can offer to your clients? What if you have a client who does carpet cleaning and who wants to grow their business? You could offer all of your clients FREE carpet cleaning as a value added for using your service. The carpet cleaner gets new clients, and your clients like the FREE gift from you. You could do a similar program with a restaurant or even artists that you have as clients! The next step is to determine who you could "partner" with to grow your business. Who is already working with your target market that you could be working with? When you develop this relationship, all you need is well-defined rules on how the program will work. Everyone needs to know the rules. Are you paying the carpet cleaner? Are they paying you for the introduction? It's important that you go into the relationship with your eyes open. Look at the long-term value of the new clients so you are not penny wise and pound foolish. If you know that a new client will generate $4,000 in revenue for you over the next two years, it would be a good investment to part with $200 to get that new client. You need to see what the long-term benefits of the relationship are for you! Then there's the matter of making room to give. This may sound funny, but sometimes we need to make room so we have time and energy to give. Many years ago, I was told you need to get rid of some of your clients each year so you have time and energy to work with new clients. I thought that was silly. Why would I dispose of clients I worked hard to get so I could have more clients? I don't know why it works; I just know it does. Each year, we are more targeted about who we will work with and what we will do for them. Each year, we grow and have more satisfied clients. I think the same is true for giving. The more time you spend helping others in need, the more you and your business grow. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you should stop working completely so you can "give." What I'm saying is that by giving back to your community, you benefit in many ways! Try it! PURCHASE THIS BOOK 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.