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Private
Practice Marketing
Be Good. . .Give Value
by John H. Melchinger
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People may know what they want to
retire from, but not what they want to retire to. Ah, there's the rub, as Bill Shakespeare
would say.
As an advisor, you may take well to helping
people sort through their thoughts and feelings on what they want and figure how,
as singles or as couples, they can achieve the harmony due them in retirement.
Case in Point
Amy dreams of retirement starting at 60...in
a home that is mortgage-free (or almost) with a big tub, big closets and a big kitchen...and
a room dedicated to massage. She has visions of helping diabetic women with therapeutic
massage, feeding them dishes she concocts with what she learned in culinary classes.
All this in between travels with Jeff to events they would very much like to see,
such as the Kentucky Derby and the running of the bulls in Spain. They both want
a loft in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.
Jeff wants to remain active in retirement,
but settled in a place with four pleasant seasons, like the Oregon coast or a small
town in New England. And Jeff would like to work through retirement, returning to
school to reinvent himself, perhaps in archeology. Jeff sees travel as a must, but
does not want the touristy things Amy dreams of. They both agree that they'd like
to spend one month twice a year working with children in developing nations. They
absolutely agree on the loft in Vancouver.
This scenario is real. It came about when
Amy and Jeff took some time and each completed a dream sheet of desires, then compared
notes. They are not retired yet, so they still have a ways to go. They are agreed
on not wanting to suffer the nursing home route Jeff's dad did. They agree on the
amount of money they need to put away to secure this vision. They understand that
life can interrupt their plans whenever it decides to bury its smile in the sand
and rear its ugly head. Such is life.
But Amy and Jeff are smart. They plan...and
work their plan without flinching. Jeff says, "...for me, failing to prepare
means preparing to fail." He's right, of course, but Amy and Jeff are a financial
advisor's dream client. Would that it were so with the rest of the population.
The Now Generation
The remaining hundreds of millions of people
in the U.S. and Canada occupy themselves insistently on the present. They can only
dream of the future, see it and guess-yes guess-what they must do to prepare to achieve
their cloudy vision. Many freak out.
The last thing you want is new clients who
are already stressed about failing for retirement, eh? What's an advisor to do?
Last Things First
What's the last thing you want to do or
can afford to do in your financial advisory? Hint: It takes time and is not
immediately productive. If you guessed "do three to five hours of fact-finding
and prioritizing for retirement with a couple who has talked very little about this"
then you are right. It should be the last thing you want to do. If you do not do
this, however, you may feel guilty and professionally negligent. If you actually
do this, you are incredibly inefficient and infinitesimally patient. Either way,
you suffer.
There is a better way.
There are third-party instruments that take
all that work that you cannot afford the time to do and, using state of the art on-line
technology, does it for you. Fact finding and prioritizing prior to meeting becomes
the customer's concern. S/he does it in the privacy of his or her own mind. No insurance
company or broker dealer lurks in the system. The test has the power of being from
a disinterested third party.
There are two possible questionnaires, depending
on the age and circumstances of the clients you are trying to attract. Here are two
examples:
One-Pre-retirement Planning-for clients
who are 45+ and not retired. These are commonly referred to as the "not yet
retired but about to" group.
Two-Life-balance would be used with
clients of all ages including retirees. These are the retireds, who often are still
deciding what they want to do. Sometimes, after a spate of doing nothing, their reflecting
forces new thinking in new areas. For instance, it has become popular to enter into
second careers, an activity that is fostered by increased longevity and spryness
(for most of us) in post-retirement years.
Ideally, the advisor controls the feedback
loop. You can use the information you receive via the questionnaire to lead the client
with it, or mail it to those you do not want to spend time with. Imagine-a third-party
pre-qualifier for clients. Amazing.
It is easy to see why, if the questionnaires
and processing are easy to obtain and their handling automated, you have a strong
and convenient value-added service for your practice. Charging $10, $25, $50 or more
per person for a workshop should pay for the tests and perhaps defray some workshop
expenses as well.
Your broker-dealer may feel entitled to
control you in this type effort and question or prohibit your charging a fee, or
worse yet, take half the fee for itself. If you go with a financial instrument, that
will be the case. However, Enhanced
Lifestyle Planning is not financially based and therefore
not subject to NASD or broker-dealer oversight. Such tests and retirement guidance
questionnaires are already being used by psychologists, career and guidance counselors,
and other advisors who wish to cash in on the Baby Boomers entrance into the realm
of active maturity. They are not subject to the Investment Advisers Act because they
are not counseling people in investments.
Sample Scenario
You advertise your pre-retirement workshop
around lifestyle planning. You state that participation costs $25. Giving this type
service for free is not good because participants will not value the service or take
it as seriously as they might. Your administrative assistant supplies participants
with the code to take the questionnaire and makes sure they will come to the workshop.
You conduct the 60-90 minute workshop on life balance and give each participant his
report. Latecomers can take the questionnaire by hand (although this later requires
you to input the answers into the computer and I recommend against it as terribly
inefficient). You concentrate on the participants that seem like potential clients
for you and give the others to associates. Easy. Cost-effective.
As a starting point for comprehensive
retirement planning, is there a better way? Maybe, but I don't know it. Lifestyle
planning gets couples talking...and you only have to listen to the results they agree
on or help them solve the real problems they face. That's efficient. ELP helps clients quantify and prioritize their goals for retirement,
however diverse they may be, and do it gradually. Psychologically, this is an
strong advantage over a financial based approach to retirement which is threatening
and works to the inordinate fear people have that they will never retire financially
successful. I never like to market anything from a position that leaps on peoples'
fears.
Imagine an employee who is suddenly offered
early retirement. This sudden offer hits like a ton of bricks and is potentially
devastating. The tension can create hasty, inopportune decisions. Advisors gather
around these individuals and companies like vultures. However, a third-party service
that focuses on the people first, not their money, helps employees calm down and
think through their issues before even considering the financial ramifications. How
good is that? It's a definite edge.
It helps the employer by providing a worthwhile,
inexpensive service for all early out victims. Lifestyle planning helps you by creating
real value that participants can see and feel without the threat of a salesman lurking
in their imaginations.
The benefits of lifestyle planning all provide
essential value to your practice. You can better...
- Build relationships
- Know your clients better
- Appear more like an advisor and less like
a salesman
- Talk to prospects comfortably, regardless
of market conditions
- Demonstrate that you are a full-service
advisor, not just a transaction hunter
In addition, your clients give you more
credibility when s/he knows s/he is better understood. That they gave you all this
input by answering the questions and thinking about the issues they discover certifies
the credibility they give you. This is all good and your feedback to them is empowering.
Enhanced Lifestyle
Planning reports and handouts cover many topics, but a
few examples will give you the idea. Various sections focus on how to research different
careers if you are thinking about making a change; goal setting techniques; relationships
and relationship nurturing; nutrition and aging; etc. These handouts and checklists
will help keep your participants thinking straight and productively as you both eventually
try to assemble their jigsaw puzzle of retirement.
A client of mine introduced me to Enhanced Lifestyle Planning in its infancy. In a recent email he confirmed, "As an update
we just yesterday moved to our own building. As well, I have added staff and won
a national contract with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to provide retirement plans
for 350 chambers across Canada for 170,000 businesses. We are busy.... we are using
it for our workshop program that we are marketing to HR departments of large corporations.
We did a Retirement workshop for a large organization based in Washington at their
annual meeting in Quebec City. Good response with an invitation to present in Arizona."
Golden Opportunity
Now there are more people looking for more
advice than ever, and fewer advisors who are actually qualified to give it.
- If you need to differentiate (and you do)
- If you need a brand (and you do)
- If you could use some excitement in your
professional career
Enhanced Lifestyle Planning as your value-added
third-party service may be just what the doctor ordered.
It's about marketing.
Happenings
Introducing ELP-Enhanced Lifestyle Planning. If you are an advisor and want
to demonstrate that you actually give good counsel and advice, try this. This non-financial
questionnaire for clients and prospects might be the answer to your prospecting needs.
If you manage, this may be the high truth/low cost recruiting tool that separates
the wheat from the chaff. Go to http://www.melchinger.com and click on Enhanced Lifestyle Planning.
John H. Melchinger
coaches personal financial services advisors how to market
their professional practice to high income and high net
worth affluents. Effective market identification, segmentation,
selection, penetration and development, with compelling
packaging and promotion, make his clients among the best
planners in the business. His marketing techniques, how-to
books, articles and presentations have become classics in
private practice marketing. John donates one day per month
to nonprofit organizations that request his support for
workshops, seminars and fund raisers.
elp@melchinger.com
Web site: www.melchinger.com
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