Optimizing Your Business: A Guide for Financial Advisors, Insurance Agents & Financial Planners

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I find it rather startling that somewhere between 97 percent and 98 percent of FAs are not actively marketing their services. Or the reverse of that, less than 3 percent of FAs actively market their services. Some of the people who pick up this book are among the active marketers, always on the lookout for new or better tactics and strategies. But most are looking for anything from a quick hit to a full marketing plan. In this section I provide some background information, plus around three dozen things you can do to market your services. At the very least, pick some that fit into your view of yourself, but also don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone, at least a bit. That's when we tend to get our greatest growth. In this section we first discuss a technique that virtually every FA needs, followed by background information related to all that follows, and then finally to the approximately three dozen marketing tactics and strategies. FAs tend to be more garrulous than most other groups of people, so there's a very good chance you get a bit carried away talking with your clients and prospects, which could lead to you talking yourself out of some sales, or depriving you of valuable information your client or prospect would have revealed. This tends to be a problem more for male FAs than female FAs, but neither gender is invulnerable to it. In the case of men, we seem wired to try to solve problems, and often jump in with solutions. Additionally, it's even more important to control our urge to provide solutions. I'd like you to try a technique to use when meeting with clients and prospects, and maybe even build into it a system of rewards and punishments for controlling your over-talking. Take a yellow legal pad with you to all client and prospect meetings. In the margin to the left of the double vertical red lines write key words of things that occur to you as your client or prospect is speaking-things like solutions to an issue you just uncovered. In the larger right hand section take notes of what the client is saying. This will encourage you to let the client speak fully, which will reveal more of the client's needs and concerns so that when you do start talking again you will have the full picture. Further, and this is very important, by making your key word notes on the left you will feel less compelled to interrupt your client since your thoughts are saved. After each client/prospect meeting you have in which you have not over spoken, give yourself a reward, such as listening to a piece of music you enjoy, or listening to another chapter of an audio book. There could be food rewards too, but careful about those if you don't want to look like the Goodyear blimp. Conversely, for each meeting in which you over talk the client or prospect punish yourself. If you are either a non-smoker or a former smoker consider this punishment: Get an empty jar with a tightly sealing lid. Put several used cigarette butts in the bottom of the jar and add just enough water to cover them. Keep the jar someplace where you'll see it as a reminder-perhaps on your credenza. Your punishment in this example is to open the jar and take a good, solid whiff from it. Another punishment I've seen work is to make a five or ten dollar donation to the political party you hate every time you over talk your client or prospect. Be certain to include a note to the party indicating your donation is a punishment.