|
 |
The 7 Deadly Sins
of Advisor Marketing
by Martin R. Baird
|
Wholesalers -Making The Most of Them
To some people in the financial services industry, the definition
of wholesaler is: A person who buys lunch, buys drinks and gives away free golf balls,
shirts, etc. The person to call and yell at when a transaction is not handled properly.
The problem I have with that definition is the lack of vision
it shows. I'm not going to say that this is anyone's fault. Unfortunately, some wholesalers
do only buy lunch and drinks. That was the old days. Now, wholesalers are doing more
and being more of a partner with advisors.
At a conference one summer, I was disappointed by the way some
advisors treated the wholesalers. Wholesalers and their companies pay a substantial
amount of money to participate at most conferences. If it weren t for their financial
support, it would be very difficult or very expensive for some companies to have
conferences. They invested that money to get a little of your time and to share information
about their products.
I want to point out that I know not every product is right for
all your clients. I know some of the products may not be a good fit. I also know
it could all change tomorrow. Maybe you don t have clients today who need to use
some of the tax strategies that are available. But who knows, you could soon.
If you're still looking at wholesalers as a way to get a free
lunch or golf balls, you may be missing some great opportunities. On the other hand,
if your wholesaler is not helping you make your business better, you should talk
to them about how they can offer that kind of help.
I hope the definition of wholesaler will change soon to: Business
building partner who is helping financial professionals improve their business.
Use them but don t abuse them
Advisors have a huge resource that is looking for ways to help
them every day and they aren t doing a good job of using it. The people who call
or stop in each day to tell you about their annuity or mutual fund have a wealth
of information they can share with you.
Think about how much you learned at your last conference. Now
think about some of the wholesalers who attend 10 to 15 conferences a year. They
have a chance to hear some of the best speakers and learn some of the newest techniques
for improving your business.
The challenge is how are you going to learn from wholesalers?
Can you learn from them if all you do is stop in the seminar break room, grab a piece
of coffeecake and run? Can you learn from them if you screen their calls?
The answer is a simple and direct no!
You need to talk with wholesalers to learn from them. We re doing
some programs with one of our partners, and the people who register know that the
price for attending my marketing seminar is to do business with our sponsor. That
sounds like a great trade to me. You could pay money to attend one of our programs
or you could consider our client the next time you need a variable annuity or mutual
fund.
That is a direct benefit to you.
Not all companies are ready to have us travel around the country
for them, but why not require wholesalers to bring you marketing or sales ideas when
they want to meet with you? You could do a meeting-requirement sheet that explains
what you expect from them to get some of your time. Explain that it will take two
good sales ideas to get 40 minutes.
Maybe you could send a request for proposal asking them to prepare
a business development plan for you. Once you have several plans in hand, you take
the best elements of each and develop a system that will make it a win-win situation
for them and you.
The resource is available. You need to take the time to make the
most of it. You ll learn that wholesalers have some great ideas if you just give
them the time to share them with you.
Value-added competition
As competition increases for your business and your clients assets,
you re going to see companies look for ways to provide more value. I've heard about
this for the last few years: We want to be a value-added partner. I don't know if
most of the people who said it meant it.
Well, I think things are changing for the better.
At that same summer conference, we saw companies actually do presentations
that were value-added programs. They identified their company and then talked about
ways that advisors could improve their business. At the end, they mentioned their
company again. It was very refreshing to see someone do a program that was not about
product, price, and performance.
You have the ultimate vote. You vote with your clients assets.
If you want more tangible support from the people you re doing business with, tell
them. Use your vote to say thank you to the companies that are helping you.
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.
|
