Your Best Use of Marketing Dollars in 2010

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

As you think about marketing in 2010, one under-utilized strategy to consider is running a series of small, unique and focused client-oriented events.

Recently, the leading online US resource for advisors, Horsesmouth.com, featured an excellent article on this subject. This article is reprinted with permission (I’ve added a few comments of my own in italics.)

Note that for a trial subscription, go to www.horsesmouth.com

Guest article from Horsesmouth.com

The thinking behind event-driven marketing

With a client event marketing strategy, you commit to a series of regular get-togethers with your best clients outside of the normal meetings to talk about their finances.

Tags: Benefit Schedule, Budget, Event Marketing Strategy, Groups, Guest Article, Horsesmouth, Initiatives, Intimate Dinner, Italics, Low Key, Mass Events, Oriented Events, Relationships, Running, Small Group, Time And Money, Trial Subscription, Urban Centers, Wine
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How a Small Change Made A Big Difference

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

When advisors think about ways to drive their business forward, they often look for dramatic initiatives that hit the ball out of the park.

Last week, I had a conversation with a twenty year veteran who’s a perennial qualifier for his firm’s Chairman’s Club. He described a change he made to his routine ten years ago that’s had a big impact on his business.

Every morning, his assistant prints out a “Conversation Diary” which has four columns.

The left hand column lists all the clients and prospects he’s meeting with or are on his schedule to call that day.

Tags: Accountant, Capital Gains, Compendium, Diary, Gap, Information Gap, Initiatives, Left Hand Column, Phone Call, Phone Conversation, Prints, Prospects, Score, Strides, Target, Veteran
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Avoiding the black hole of business planning

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

This month, many advisors are working on next year’s business plans.

For many advisors, these business plans will end up like a black hole in space – lots of energy will go in and little or nothing will come out.

Causes of the “black hole” effect

There are number of things that cause business planning to fail to translate into results.

First is underestimating the impact of entrenched habits – and failing to build in routines around new initiatives emerging from the business planning process.

Tags: Absolute Commitment, Advertisement, Black Business, Black Hole In Space, Business Planning, Business Plans, Business Process, Cause Business, Commitments, Consequences, Exercise, Failure, Goals, Initiatives, Loyalty, Mid Term, Practice Efficiency, Prospective Clients
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The Power of Just “One Thing”

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Since January, I’ve been conducting full day workshops to help advisors adjust their businesses to today’s new reality. I’ve had a terrific response to these – typically, advisors emerge excited with a long list of possible initiatives and new ideas. That’s good news at one level – but also risks having advisors feel overwhelmed and fail to act as a result. The difficulty after a workshop is almost never not enough new ideas – it’s almost always too many.

Tags: Act, Advertisement, Array, Business Idea, Business Move, High Impact, Impact Initiative, Initiatives, Likelihood, Momentum, New Reality, Odds, Phone Number, Seven Days, Step At A Time, Team Meetings, Terrific Response
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A proven formula for change

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Making meaningful changes in how we work is one of the hardest tasks we can attempt.

Change is possible however – recently I had a conversation with an advisor on a large team that had succeeded in implementing some significant new initiatives since the beginning of the year.

They key was time blocking, setting aside time each week for a major new undertaking and implementing a proven formula for change behind that commitment.

Recognize the obstacles to change
Change is an incredibly powerful force – it can word for you or against you. The trick is to harness it to work in your favour.

Tags: Accountability, Appointment, Attempt, Calendar, Change Priority, Colleagues, Favour, How To Organize Your Time, Initiative, Initiatives, Meaningful Changes, Momentum, Obstacles, Proven Formula, Success Breeds Success, Team Member, Time Block, Two Ways, Undertaking
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Listening for the ECHO in client calls

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

In the course of a typical week, all advisors and their support teams have lots of routine telephone interactions with clients.

At a recent roundtable for advisors in downtown Toronto, a top producing advisor talked about a simple step he’d implemented that had significantly increased the mileage from those calls.

Ranking number one in Ontario for a bank owned investment dealer, this advisor leads a team of twelve wealth advisors, investment associates and administrative staff – together they talk to hundreds of clients each week.

Many of these calls are on routine matters and are initiated by clients. A while back, they launched a program called “ECHO”, an acronym for “Every Call Holds Opportunity.”

Tags: Acronym, Administrative Staff, Adult Children, Clarification, Client Interaction, Downtown Toronto, Grandchildren, Hidden Opportunity, Initiatives, Investment Dealer, Mileage, Principle, Priority, Productivity, Roundtable, Routine Matters, Target, Tax Receipt, Wealth Advisors, Workforce
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