Market Like an Egyptian

About Hoard Client Systems CEO

Hoard Client Systems CEO's affinity for investing and financial matters began more than 20 years ago when he began investing in the stock market through a class in high school.  Now, in 2006, he is being looked to for his innovation in altering the efficiency in which financial professionals communicate with clients.

The most powerful marketing tool has been around for thousands of years and is largely ignored. It has been utilized since the time of the Egyptians.  You’ve been using this kind of marketing since you were old enough to write…Dear Santa…

The Power of the Handwritten note:

• It’s cheap
• Pen or pencil -- free (Your local service station will give you one for free.)
• Paper --  one penny
• Envelope – one nickel
• Stamp – 41 cents
• Total cost – 47 cents

• It’s effective

The one piece of mail that is guaranteed to be read 100% of the time is the handwritten note.  If done right -- your message will:

·         Be kept for at least a week

·         Be shared with other people you normally couldn’t reach

·         Create referrals…and the most effective referrals - UNASKED FOR REFERRALS. 

• Sets you apart from your competition. You will be demonstrating the Golden Rule of selling:

They don’t care how much you know 

Until they know how much you care 

Your competition is playing a game that can’t be won. They are all trying to prove:

·         That they are smarter than each other

·         That they have better customer service

            You will be alone in demonstrating that you care!

The handwritten note can:

1. Create over 100 referrals in a year from your top ten clients
2. Create hot prospects that will be dying for you to call them
3. Create a campaign that will have prospects calling you for your product
4. Double your seminar invitation response rate
5. Find all the money your clients have but have never told you about

The handwritten note is an invaluable tool to both keep your calendar filled throughout the year and to boost your sales for next week as it did for Dale F.:

I had mailed 21 selected individuals a letter that said, “I have an idea that could benefit you and your family, just call me”. Five phone calls in the next 7 days to my office resulted in 5 appointments and $61,960 in booked commissions. One mailing, about $52 in marketing expense was a great return on my investment. ~ Dale F., Wisconsin 

Why it works 

I am a commodity.  You are a commodity.  Financial advisors are a commodity.  We like to think that we aren’t, but we are. We all look the same to the public.  We all sell the same things.  Our products all cost the same and we can’t put things on sale like retailers to pump up our business. 

We are all basically proficient at being financial advisors much the same as dentists are all proficient at dentistry.  We don’t all flock to a dentist because he is the “best.”  We go to a dentist simply because we needed one.  He or she had an office close to our home, we heard they were good, and they were as good, in our eyes, as any other dentist.  Sorry, but for most people, that is about the same amount of time and effort they put into choosing a financial advisor.

No wonder I had never made more than $50,000 a year in my 12 years as a financial planner.  I tried everything and it all kind of worked…just not enough for me to make more than $50,000 a year.

I tried:

• Seminars – Expensive and risky.  One failed workshop and I was $5,000 in the hole.  Three failed workshops and I could be out of business.
• Newsletters – Sent out thousands and they always seem to generate enough business to pay for themselves…just.
• Newspaper Ads – Got a lot of people wanting free information…just not a lot of people buying products
• Referrals – I asked for them a lot at the beginning but after making clients feel on the spot and still not getting many good referrals I quit asking.  I figured why make client feel uncomfortable when the likelihood of a good referral was slim to none anyways.

So finally, through desperation, I sat down and tried to figure out an inexpensive way  (I couldn’t afford anything but cheap) for me to look different than all my competition.  And I had a lot of competition.  I live in Rochester, MN, the home of the world famous Mayo Clinic. Since 7% of the entire Rochester population is doctors, every broker and their brother have set up shop in our city.

Here’s what I stumbled on:

1. Trying to look smart doesn’t work.  They either take your information back to their current broker and he made the commission on it or they just take the information home to “think about.”
2. You can’t give better customer service.  Your competitors answer their phones courteously.  They promptly return phone calls.  They fulfilled their client’s requests quickly and with a smile on their face.  Your competitors all have good customer service
3. You can’t promise them higher returns than my competitors for two reasons.  It’s illegal and it’s a lie.  Heck, if I could actually get them the highest returns I’d be living large on a Caribbean Island right now!
4. I had been ignoring the Golden Rule of sales for 12 years:

I had been spending the vast majority of my time trying to demonstrate how much I know to prospects and just expected them to know that I care.

They already know that you’re competent; they think all financial advisors are competent just as they do with dentists.  What they don’t know was that you care.

I sat down and tried to think how I could show them that I cared more about them than my competition.  I couldn’t tell them because prospects by nature are very skeptical. Their attitude is:

• Words are cheap
• Just SHOW me 

So how can you show them that you care about them?  If you just keep coming up with financial ideas to share with them, it’s just making them think that the only thing you care about is getting at their money.

You need to show them that you care about them as people as you would a friend or family member. 

People do business with those who treat them like a friend.

• They share stories about what has happened to them or their families
• They help each other out
• They keep in contact
• They time for each other

Phone is labor intensive and you run into the do not call list and making intrusive calls that cause people to dislike you.

Mail is not intrusive and can be done very time efficiently.  Unfortunately, the time efficient way of mail merging form letters is a waste of money.  99% are going to get thrown away.

The one piece of mail no one throws away without reading it is the handwritten note. 

 So I began to write handwritten notes.  A few at first and then dozens  and then as my business began to explode instead of stopping…I wrote hundreds of handwritten notes and within two years, without changing anything else I was doing, I went from making $50,000 a year to over $1 million a year.  I want you to experience the same great results I get by utilizing this handwritten note system.  So I have arranged for two of my experts here Bob and Kelly to answer any questions you may have, free of charge.  Simply give them a call at: 866-254-6035 ext 2.

The 10:1 Ratio to Riches and the Use of the Handwritten Note for Prospecting 

You can use handwritten notes for prospecting in two ways.  Immediate results or Great results.  What do I mean by that?  As in anything, the best results requires a little extra effort.  But sometimes we need results right now regardless of whether they are just good instead of great and that is why there are two methods for prospecting.

One time mailing – A mailing that is mailed just once to get your phone ringing right now.  You should expect a lower response of about 2% to 3% with this type of mailing.  Not bad if you send out 100 pieces and get 2 appointments.  But please be warned, these appointments will be in looking for information so it will be up to you to be at your best when presenting your solution.

10:1 Ration to Riches technique – (this is the one of the techniques I used for my practice) A Fool-proof way to dominate a zip code within 6 months.  How would you like everyone in your target market to know you, love you, and think of you anytime they need financial services?  If that is what you are looking for then you are going to find that this system will explode your practice!

Not everyone has the luxury of waiting for 3 months to build a very profitable practice.  They need money right now.  Well for those folks we will first discuss the

One Time Mailing possibilities of the handwritten note.

Tools needed:

1. List of your target market
2. Your offer
3. Creative postcards
4. Pen
5. Postage stamps

What is your market?  What kind of people do you want calling you?

Some Do Not’s:

• Do not just mail to everyone with an address. 
• Do not just mail to people in homes
• Do not just mail to people with high incomes or net worth

 Do some thinking before hand.  Do I want to tap into the 401k rollover crowd?  Do I want to be a magnet for seniors?  Do I want to become the expert for college planning in the area? Do I want to be the mortgage broker for everyone in a neighborhood?

Once you have your “perfect” type of client in mind, purchase a list of names and addresses (no phone numbers, the list is cheaper and you aren’t going to call these people.)

There are many list companies that you can find on the Internet.  Simply go to Google.com and type in mailing lists.  If you are having trouble with this or would like help finding a list company please feel free to give us a call at 866-254-6035 ext. 2 and either Kelly or Bob will help you find a list for your needs.

Your offer 

It’s really pretty simple.  Find a need and write a great headline.

Unfortunately in all simple and elegant solutions there is a large portion of genius needed. So let’s try to create some genius.

First, you need to identify the one thing that keeps your target market up at night.  What is their biggest fear?  What is that one thing that they desire more than anything else?  If you can figure that out then you are one step closer to a homerun.   

So let’s use a typical target market:  People with retirement dollars to move like 401k rollovers.  What keeps them up at night about their retirement dollars?

Probably a couple of things:

1. Is it enough or will I run out of money?
2. How do I get it out without paying taxes?

So let’s use “Will I run out of money.”

Choose a card:

You can get cards at places like Hallmark (very expensive) or online or even pick up fistfuls while you are on vacation. 

The one I utilize quite a bit is on www.hoardclients.com.  It’s colorful and some say ugly, but it sure gets people’s attention!

Next you need to create a headline for them.

 Headline for their worry of running out of money.  

The Writing is on the Wall for People born between 1937-1948

These people are facing a hurdle never faced before! 

What hurdle? 

• It could be the skyrocketing cost of nursing home care.
• It could be the accelerating diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease if you sell long term care insurance. 
• It could be the cost of health insurance and pharmaceutical costs if you are going after middle and upper-middle income households.
• It could be the big estate planning changes occurring in 2010 if you are going after the wealthy.

I just ran across an article  that I really thought would interest you.  Give me a call and I’ll get it to you right away!  555-5555    

1. Our goal here is to get people interested in calling you for information as we talked about before.  When they call, you can engage them in a quick conversation, get their information, and let them know you will be mailing them the article. 
2.  Find an article by searching on Google or I’m sure you may have an idea folder, with all the magazine articles you have clipped out over time, addressing some of your target market’s concerns.
3. Simply mail the article to them with another hand written note that you enjoyed speaking with them and that you will be following up with them to answer any questions.
4. The day after you mail the article follow-up with another phone call making sure they received the article and engage them in a conversation about their perception of the problem and set an appointment for them to come in to review your solution.

It’s really very simple and can be used for any target market or product that would solve your target market’s problem.

If you are having problems figuring out a message or headline for your target market, feel free to give either Bob or Kelly a call at 866-254-6035 ext 2 and they will help you out.

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