“Focus is magical.”
Richard Koch in “16x: Real Simple
Innovation for 16 Times Better Results”
A financial advisor client, we’ll call him Glenn, told this story. Recently, he attended a workshop where Ed Slott spoke. No ordinary CPA who prepares taxes! Slott is the go-to guy in an important specialty. He was named as “The Best” source for IRA advice by The Wall Street Journal and called “America’s IRA Expert” by Mutual Funds Magazine.
Glenn was more fascinated, though, by how Slott placed himself in this “Category of One” than in his advice about IRAs. We have a word for it: Focus. Slott chose a specialty where he could shine, and he concentrated on marketing that specialty with all his might.
Missing Focus
As we talk with financial advisors, we find many suffer from lack of focus that can take many forms.
From One Extreme . . .
There’s the financial advisor who immerses himself in every one of the details of his business — all being equal. The pesky client with a few thousand dollars in stocks gets the same care as his “A” clients. Marketing doesn’t fit into the picture because no one is clamoring for his marketing attention.
Year after year he takes care of the “urgent” details, and the important ones never get done. He relies on the momentum of the marketplace to stay in business. Prospects arrive by chance not from deliberate, focused action.
To The Other Extreme
There is the committed financial advisor who reacts to an avalanche of marketing opportunities. Lack of focus shows up when he is unable to select his prime options and just let the others go. The choices he sees in front of him include participating in a radio show, networking in groups made up of his target market, creating his own monthly newsletter, writing a brochure, organizing talks for his clients and their friends, expanding his website, and more. This is an exercise in being overwhelmed — the opposite of focus.
Planning On Marketing Focus
A plan brings marketing into the daily routine of someone too “busy” to market. And a plan helps to select marketing tools with the highest priority for the hyper-committed marketer so that he doesn’t waste his time.
In the words of a client . . .
Before A Marketing Plan:
“Developing my marketing was a big task, and sometimes it seemed overwhelming. All these ideas were swimming around, and I didn’t know whether they were good and worth pursuing or a waste of time. I just reacted to ideas without having any clear direction.
Afterwards:
“The marketing ideas that weren’t worthwhile just fell away. Now I have a focused system, and my production is up a bunch!”
Marketing Focus is about both: Taking up the very few marketing actions (We always recommend more than one) that will make the most difference and letting go of those with less power.
Our Sample Marketing Plan focuses on what goes in and what stays out of a marketing plan. You’ll find it at:
http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com/sample-marketing-plan.html
March 29th, 2008
Bob Hanson, Jr., wrote this article.
Recently, we received several calls and emails about new brochures. The calls went something like this:
“Hi Bob and Shirley. I need a (new) brochure. Is this something you can help me with?
Our first question is, “What would you like your brochure to do?” Let’s look into what a brochure can and cannot do.
First, The Brochure Cannot’s
A brochure, as a static and all-purpose marketing handout . . .
* Will generally not help you get new prospects in the door,
* Will typically not help to get the phone to ring, and
* Will usually not handle the entire job of selling for you.
Reminder: A brochure should not be confused with a trifold direct mail piece. What’s the difference?
A direct mail piece to potential prospects can get the phone to ring because it:
- Benefits from a headline that stops your prospects in their tracks,
- Speaks to a sharply pictured target market (”left-handed golfers” is a specific direct mail example),
- Focuses on a problem or a narrow set of nagging concerns your special target market has,
- Introduces a solution such as an event, checklist, or article,
- Proves the solution is a good one, and then
- Calls prospects to action with some urgency (and probably includes a “respond by” deadline).
Depending on your own brochure’s purpose, you can beef up results by drawing on some of these direct mail advantages.
Caution: a brochure’s power does not lie solely in clever graphics. Your prospects will not choose to work with you simply because you put pretty pictures on a piece of paper. Ultimately, your text will sway them.
What CAN a brochure do for you?
5 BIG Benefits Of A Productive Brochure
1. It Communicates Your Uniqueness:
Your words (supported by your design) convey the one-of-a-kind qualities of your financial advisory practice.
2. Gives Prospects The Who, What, When, Where, And Why Of Your Practice:
These basics can help to reinforce your uniqueness. Answering these questions constructs the cannot-ignore foundation of a power brochure.
3. Highlights A Key Service:
It could be, for example, your “killer” wealth management strategy or your desire to serve as your prospect’s “personal finance advisor” — a place to turn for help with a broad array of “money” services from long-term health care options to mortgage assistance. Or it could be the benefits you provide to make life easier for a clearly defined target market.
4. Answers Your Prospect’s Question, “Is This for Me?”:
Here you build your case with as much proof as you can muster.
5. Differentiates You From Most Competitors
Marketing can seem hard or expensive if you have to do all the heavy lifting. As a loyal marketing partner at your side, your brochure can offer answers to common objections and help to build you up as the ONLY choice.
The Skinny on a “Fat” (Effective) Brochure
Straight Talk On Brochure CAN Do’s: A targeted brochure put in the hands of the right prospects and centers of influence will help you stand out from a crowded field, build your credibility, introduce your exceptional services, and highlight for your target market the key
features and benefits of working with you.
Yours for more income,
Free access to our “7 Client-Attraction Secrets of Highly Successful Financial Advisors” is at http://www.marketingplanfinancialadvisor.com
March 4th, 2008
