I had a moment of insight and clarity this morning. There was this amazing moment when 20+ years of business coaching, writing a bestseller on referral marketing and what I have learned about strategic use of social media came together in a BFO (blinding flash of the obvious):
We aren’t doing anything enough…instead, we are doing too many things too little.
My ideal clients, owners of #financialplanning firms, aren’t running huge, global enterprises. They are managing teams from 1-100 and don’t have deep benches when it comes to marketing and sales departments.
Instead, they are trying to navigate a very narrow space between servicing and growing their client base. Time is a precious and extremely limited resource. Often, these business owners are managing their own clients, a team of advisors and support super starts…and trying to figure out how to scale their business. They often have moved from an ‘earning’ perspective to a ‘living’ perspective. How can they grow opportunity for themselves and their entire team without sacrificing their personal lives?
What I have seen all too often is that they end up doing…not enough of anything when it comes to marketing.
They are either (a) not doing anything at all other than servicing their current clients (passive referrals system aka chicken little marketing), OR, they are (b) doing too many things which ends up being too little of everything (not enough of one thing).
How in the world does a leader in the financial services industry make the right decisions when it comes to how to market and, more importantly, trust that the marketing will work for them and their entire team?!?
This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but, hang with me for a second. Imagine if you could (remember this is a fantasy) wave a magic wand and remove all your marketing stuff…how would you prefer to grow from this very point?
I bet, if you could figure it out, you would want to have #referrals at the core of your strategy. The great news: no matter how big your financial services firm gets…referrals can deliver everything you need and be the foundation for all kinds of other marketing success. How do you do that in the real world, with all the distractions and competing ‘voices’ for your time, money and energy?!?
Get strategic.
I had a great conversation with a friend of mine about his companies challenges when it comes to growing their business and he basically repeated to me the exact situation I have seen countless times both pre-social media and currently: they have too much going on (because they are killing it) and are practically frozen by it.
Here is what I shared with him as a first step. I promise it will work for you.
Step 1: get strategic
My friends company is incredibly successful, by all metrics, and is growing rapidly. Most of that growth is from referrals, even though they have a great marketing department and excellent branding (their content from their marketing department really helps to build trust and deeper relationships). Here is the problem: they need to grow more, but, are trying to figure out how to do so without killing their ability to service clients.
Now is the perfect time to take a step back, briefly, to take a broader look at marketing and how to make sure that they get optimal results from what has produced the most success from them in the past and currently.
My answer: go all in on #referrals first
They don’t have time, right now, to really invest in strategic social media. They are on social, but, they know enough to realize that the transformation required to make it really work isn’t going to be viable right now. I agreed with him. The last thing they can handle right now is a long process. Additionally, they have tremendous internal marketing support and expertise that, when applied to the referral process, can make their referral results even better.
My suggestion: a half day workshop on enhancing their current referral results.
Instead of committing to anything long term from a training and coaching basis (remember they are overwhelmed right now), I suggested 4 hours in which I would organize, streamline and make their referral system predictable right now.
That’s right I used the word predictable.
Most of the owners of financial services companies have everything in place to immediately start benefiting from referrals AND easily put in a system to make them effortlessly predictable for the next year or three. The problem is finding someone with the expertise and confidence to show them how to do it in four hours.
Here is what is going to happen when my friend and I sit down with their leadership team:
We are going to do something they love (referrals) in a better way
They know how to do referrals…they just don’t know how to make them effortless and predictable. Organize, streamline & make predictable. Literally, I know for a fact that they have the client base, network and the relationship levels to fill up all the necessary referrals for at least a year.
How much does it cost? $1500 if we do it virtual.
You don’t need to do everything when it comes to being able to trust your marketing, just need to do one thing enough as your foundation: referrals. Get your referral system predictable and then you have the foundation to add in some serious scaling through other marketing.
If you know that referrals are the bedrock of your business, the easiest and most profitable way to find and onboard your best clients, do you have four hours to make it effortless?
- The fee is negligible when compared to what you make off of one great client. My average client makes between $5-10,000 per new client annually.
- The cost of your time is also really, really small.
- The potential impact of doing what you know works…better and (finally) enough is massive.
Sorry if this one seemed to be more of a pitch than a blog. The reality is I see too many folks like you struggling when it is completely unnecessary and thought it was worth getting something more direct out there. There is so much potential revenue and great clients right in front of our noses via referrals that can be predictable and effortless.
I would be honored if you thought this was of value for you to like/comment. If you want to explore this simple way to turbocharge your marketing as a financial advisor/planner feel free to direct message me as well and/or connect with me.
Be Human, Be Social & Be Enough
All the best,
Mike
