HOARD Blog

How do you create a person that wants to talk to you?  Why do I use the word create?  Because let’s face it, no one wants to talk to us.  They don’t want to hear about our great investment or service.  They are suspicious of us and our motives.  Caveat emptor.

So we actually have to take someone that is skeptical and help them towards wanting to talk to you.  How?

There are two kinds of people that advisors are interested in…clients and prospects.  You need to understand how both of them think in order to create a trusting relationship. 

Fortunately, they both want to be treated almost identically.  So if you understand what they are thinking, you are well on your way to a greater number of referrals and clients. 

In any profession, it may seem like the best policy is to communicate as fast and efficiently as possible, and there are certainly times that is the best policy.  However, when it comes to the overall perception we want our clients to have of us, fast and efficient can seem very cold.

Oh sure, we maybe take a CPA out to lunch or refer a client or two to an estate planning attorney in the hopes that they would reciprocate and refer back. As an industry, we have allowed them to take advantage of us for years.  We have in good faith referred our clients out for tax preparation and legal work.  We have ushered client after client out our door and into theirs.  We have become their main source of referrals and income.  In fact, many CPAs and attorneys would find their income cut in half if it wasn’t for referrals provided to them by Financial Advisors.

A recent survey showed that 70% of advisors plan to spend less than $1,000 a month on marketing.  Even as 99% of advisors say they need to improve at least one of their marketing practices.

You don’t send direct mail to get it opened (though that is helpful).  You don’t even send it to get read (though that too is necessary).  You send it to get a response.  

So how can we increase the probability of response?

This week I would like to talk about a great way to get prospects and clients to respond to your direct mail.

It really is just another way of making it look different from junk mail.  Junk mail is sent to the masses and for the most part has a message that would work just as well one time of the year as another or one part of the country as another.  It is TOO general!

To get the biggest bang for your marketing buck you must: