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Developing
Clients into Advocates:
Creating
a team of clients committed to
building your business
Part One
by Michael E. Brizz, CMC |
Imagine the payoff. Your best clients proactively
and consistently open doors for you and serve as your advisors
as you develop strong positions in the most profitable markets.
Doable? Advisors all over the country are
successfully leveraging their clients to grow their business
in a highly profitable way. How do they do it?
They have a clear strategy of identifying
the right clients, they commit to forge strong personal bonds,
and they proactively recruit and train their clients to be
effective marketers.
The First Step: Analyze your clients
and select those whom you enjoy and respect, have an extensive
network of contacts that meet your target client profile,
and are willing to actively refer.
Once you have identified potential advocates,
commit to learning about the company and the key players in
the firm. This includes learning the firm's vital objectives
and the major challenges confronting the firm. A simple question
can generate a treasure chest of information; "What are
your biggest challenges this year?" Then add one follow-up
question, "How can I help?" Companies may be striving
to become more cost-competitive or keep key employees or smoothly
integrate a new acquisition. With this knowledge, you can
pick the right time and shape your solutions to fit their
vital objectives. This information also helps you to identify
resources you can refer such as consultants, potential employees,
alliance partners, even books and websites. These actions
position you as a strategic partner, not just another vendor.
When you are seen as someone who fully understands the company's
situation and responds in a timely way with useful solutions
and information, the company is much more open to your helping
them address a wide range of needs.
Your position within a firm advances significantly
when you can help one key player become a hero, such as the
CFO or even the HRVP. Search for opportunities to help a key
player win an important victory. Then proactively, consistently,
and strategically focus on forging strong personal bonds with
this key player(s). Commit to them as people, not just as
owners or managers of assets. Find out what you can about
their family, career, cultural backgrounds, and past investments.
This information provides insights on core values and impact
the type of investments and strategies with which the client
is comfortable. Then dig deeper to discover and understand
the clients' passions and visions - both personal and professional.
Make a commitment to listen deeply to what's happening in
their clients' lives - to the challenges and achievements
their clients are experiencing in both personal and professional
lives. This knowledge allows you to provide information and
assistance that is deeply appreciated and will help you forge
a strong bond.
Some examples: An advisor learns that
his client's child is a passionate Boston Red Sox fan. The
advisor gets a Red Sox hat autographed by Nomar Garciapara,
gift wraps it, and sends it to his client so his client can
give it to his son for his birthday. The advisor made his
client a hero in his son's eyes and brought a moment of great
joy into their family. Another advisor sees that a client
walking with a limp and provides the client with names of
specialists that can help with that specific problem. Another
advisor learned that a client's daughter recently lost a job
and arranged two job interviews for the daughter.
Proactively discovering passions and actively
listening to what is happening in clients' lives provide many
opportunities to forge deep bonds and demonstrate the extraordinary
value of having a relationship with you.
Warning: You don't have time
to do this with every client. Strategically choose those people
and firms who have multiple needs you can serve, are in a
strong position to refer you and are open to doing so, and
for whom you are willing to go "the extra mile".
Application Tip: Examine your client
base and create a list of potential advocates.
Part Two in the next issue:
How to Recruit and Train Your Clients to Become Advocates.
Michael Brizz, CMC is President
of the Center for Professional Achievement, Inc. .
and developer of The Referral Mastery System.
Since 1988, the Center has been helping financial advisors
elevate their business to operate "by referral only".
He can be reached at 800-865-2867 or www.referralmastery.com.
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