The most important aspect of a successful financial services business is identifying, nurturing and processing prospects into new clients. I use detailed procedures to ensure this happens in my business, and you can easily adapt them for your own prospecting.
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Technology interface: big data mining
We’ve used a research company to build a profile of the values, interests and demographic markers of our best clients. Once they’re cre- ated, we engaged the company to build a list of prospects who matched these demographics, us- ing ZIP codes from within our geographic focus area. This resulted in 6,000 names/households, most of whom were unknown to us.
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Research tools
My marketing director downloaded the list, along with the local chamber of commerce list and our client list, to an online aggregation tool called Nimble. This tool allowed her to search for con- nections between individuals and households us- ing social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and, most importantly, LinkedIn. She also relied on Google searches to augment her research.
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Social media
You can learn a great deal about a person from their social media activity, but more important to us are their connections to our best clients and centers of influence. When we identify a person who matches our ideal client profile, we ask for an introduction either directly, via email or by way of a LinkedIn introduction. These requests happen as part of our annual review process, at informal coffee chats or lunches. Often clients will bring people we’ve identified as prospects to one of our regular client events.
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Community involvement and attraction marketing
Even when I was a teacher and football coach, I regularly involved myself in community activities and volunteered for worthy causes. I did so to contribute, to give back, and to better know par- ents and community leaders. When I left to sell life insurance, this involvement did not end. Over the years, my participation and level of leadership has grown, along with my business, but always with the same objectives in mind.
As a result, people are attracted to me as a pro- fessional. When I support a charity event or lead a volunteer effort, I add my website and Face- book page. My brand is associated with caring and sharing.
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Email campaigns
When I meet someone at a networking or com- munity event and they give me their business card (I never bring my own, because I don’t want to be labeled as “that guy”), I get permission to email them later. My marketing director has cre- ated template email campaigns that go out on an automated schedule to anyone I meet. They are short, personal, relational and not sales pitches! They are designed to promote only an introduc- tory meeting when I call. She also has created an email newsletter that goes out monthly and gets an incredible 25 percent open rate.
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Processing: leads tracking and development
We have created an automated process within our client relationship management (CRM) system that enters prospects from all sources and sets a follow-up with a specific date, which results in names showing up daily on my call list.
Every step, from introduction to implementation, is set up as a workflow, with target completion dates. Very little falls through the cracks.
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Organized delegation
Each member of our team has specific tasks for which they are responsible, from adding names and contact information into the CRM to assigning workflows to evaluating prospects. This allows my partner and me the maximum time to function in our areas of strength — set- ting and keeping appointments, and building relationships.
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Cost effectiveness: inexpensive vs. other traditional
Like many advisors, I have tried most of the tradi- tional avenues of prospecting and have ultimately found them to be an expensive use of both time and money. Our strategy is run on a shoestring budget, but we have garnered better-quality prospects who are more closely aligned with how we operate and what we offer. We have one full- time marketing director who also manages our client relationship programs, and a part-time staff member who enters data and sets follow-ups.
This is all coordinated through post-activity notes in our CRM.
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More individual interaction, fewer objections
Rather than dealing with mailing lists, direct mail or seminar management, we find that seeking out the right people and meeting them on a per- sonal basis is more efficient. They have all been exposed to us in some manner, they know why they’re in the appointment, and we don’t have to spend as much time building credibility. We have, in many ways, pre-educated our prospects and find them much more open-minded, which is one of our top pre-qualifying attributes.
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Better referrals
We’re finding that when we know more about who we’re trying to be referred to and their rela- tionship to the nominator, the introductions are easier and more effective. That further enhances referral prospecting, and helps us turn a prospect into a client.
