11 Client Acquisition Tips for Financial Advisors

1. Blog, blog, blog
2. Be Original
3. Having a Target Market Makes you Memorable!
4. A Bit of Networking can go a Long Way
5. Know Your Numbers
6. Modernize
7. Improvise
8. Hold a Free Seminar or Event
9. Arm Yourself with a Good CRM
10. Build a Marketing Strategy Around Life Events
11. Use an Unorthodox Approach with the Prospects of Wealth 2.0 Online Tool

Here are some smart, innovative ideas and suggestions from experts to get in front of your target audience and bring in some new clients:

Blog, blog, blog

There is no better place to start finding new clients than your own online content. If it is not clear, I am talking about blogging. Even though blogging takes time, if you do it consistently for many months, it will pay back in the currency of new clients, wider reach and a social profile of the expert on various questions related to finance. Being viewed as an expert is a very attractive position to be in since people are looking for professional advise all the time. Writing a blog on your own website and for different financial magazines help you to reach out to many hundreds, even thousands of prospects who will start to follow you if they like your content. These are potential prospects who may reach out to you one day. Try starting your blog if you do not have one and see how it will propel your business to new heights.

Be Original

Distinguishing yourself from the crowd is invaluable when it comes to gaining new clients. You need to be able to stand out and show a client that your services are better than the rest. This could mean having one particular niche that you specialize in or even some specialized software tools. For example, you could try to specialize in younger clients with a large investment horizon, building portfolios meant for long-term growth. You could even go the other route and help those reaching retirement soon to continue to protect their savings. Utilizing powerful risk methodology could be what helps you stand out to these investors to prove to them that you are right for the job, whatever it may be.

Having a Target Market Makes you Memorable!

By identifying a target market you will be better able to find new clients and significantly improve the effectiveness of your prospecting. You will need to build a Target Client Profile that includes both demographic and psychographic details. Begin by making a list of attributes you admire about your favorite clients. What is it about them that makes it a pleasure to serve them?(source)

Identify the following:

• Their socio-economic group
• Their geographical location
• Gender
• Age
• Education
• Income
• Profession

Other factors to identify:

• Are they executives with assets in non-qualified plans?
• Are they business owners with a need for a 401(k) plan?
• If a business owner, what type of industry?
• Are they professionals with 401k’s who need rollover assistance?
• Are they families in need of wealth management, trusts, and wills?
• Are they single parents needing 529 plans?
• Are they new mothers and fathers in need of life insurance?
• Where do they congregate?
• What technology do they use?

A Bit of Networking can go a Long Way

Investing that extra effort to leave a lasting good impression will pay off down the road. Whether it is sponsoring community organizations or going to networking events. Later on when your name comes up in front of a decision maker or a prospect, they already may have a positive association with you. Although an unlikely coincidence that a prospect may already be aware of you, what is likely is that someone else they know might. In the era of LinkedIn and other social networks, it is important to have a large network of people who would happily vouch for you. Check online if your prospect has any shared connections and then ask a favor of that mutual acquaintance to put in a good word for you. This will go a long way to creating trust which is the backbone of any deal.

Know Your Numbers

How many calls, on average, do you make per day? If you make 100 dials, how many people will you speak with? If you speak with 100 people, how many will agree to an appointment? If you can’t answer those three questions, you are doing something wrong. Your entire life changes when you are able to predict your income, and you do that by knowing your numbers. If it takes you 100 phone calls to set 5 appointments and you convert one to a client, then you can predict your income, provided you know your average client’s contribution to the bottom line. Let’s say I get one client for every 100 phone calls and each client contributes $2,000 to my bottom line. If I want to gross $500,000 this year, all I need to focus on is making 25,000 phone calls, or 69 per day. It’s almost 90 per day if you work five days a week. The numbers will vary based on your situation, but you get the idea. Knowing your prospecting numbers is incredibly empowering, and it can also help you stay persistent.

Modernize

For advisors who want to bring in more millennial clients you can not just make a few small changes. If you’re going to do it, you need to go all in. This includes modern marketing techniques, fee structure, technology — everything that goes into a practice. A lot of advisors even hire a millennial planner and let them come in to build out a service model and build a new brand. That might mean a brand with a different website, a coffee shop look (to the office) that’s more attuned to what these younger clients expect. That can absolutely be done, and it’s a wonderful strategy if that’s the way you want to go. (source)

Improvise

Obtaining new clients is much more difficult than keeping the old ones, and it requires additional efforts and expenses. Today’s market might seem oversaturated with different types of products and services, which can be true, but you should always be flexible and smart to make a good impression on our prospects and stand out from the crowd.

First, make sure you do your best to get in touch with your audience. Try to utilize all new and old resources (including social media and communication tools) to get your message directly to them. Make them notice you and take interest in what you say. Communicate in their language to be understood.

When experience doesn’t help, and you notice that you need to invent a new approach, don’t be afraid, because every new step is worth a try. In the worst case you’ll lose one prospect, but at the most, you’ll gain a lot of new clients.

Hold a Free Seminar or Event

People that would invest in financial planning solutions are likely savvy about money and would take advantage of something free and valuable. Host a free seminar or event in your area that offers strategies, tips and, insights on such topics as growth investing, retirement planning, and wealth-building. These types of events allow you to establish credibility with those in attendance and promote your services directly. You can also hold free client appreciation events for established customers as a way to not only reinforce those relationships but also to generate referrals. You can also step it up a notch and host an online webinar which has a potential of getting a broader audience with practically nothing on the expense side for you.

Arm Yourself with a Good CRM

During your hunt for a client the same questions keep spinning in your head – when was your last follow up with a Lead A? Have you sent the necessary letter to Prospect B? These and many other questions can be easily answered when you use a CRM – Customer Relationship Management software.

CRM is one of the best ways to streamline your clients acquisition. You can’t possibly hold all the information you need in your head when you’re on a hunt for clients. CRM will remind you who you’ve already contacted, who you need to follow up with, what contact methods you’ve used, etc. in a best timely fashion. A good CRM will record things like call history, calendars, appointment reminders, meeting notes etc, keeping your entire interaction history with your potential clients.

The bottom line is that using a good CRM can dramatically increase your client acquisition ratio because it gives you an accurate report of your activity level and allows you to systematize your sales process. With a CRM you will have the metrics that help you literally to predict your future.

You have nothing to lose with a good CRM – getting yourself organized is one of the best things you can do for your business. Besides, many of the CRMs, if not all, always offer a fully functional free trial period, after which you may continue using it even completely for free (with some limitations).

Build a Marketing Strategy Around Life Events

Here is some valuable advice from Samuella Becker, CEO and Founder of Tigress PR:

Knowing how to market your services around your potential clients’ life events will keep your business relatable and relevant. Celebrate your clients upon achieving a financial goal milestone—purchase of first house, kid’s college graduation, retirement—and host a party in their honor at a public venue where you can attract attention that could lead to new business. Don’t shy away from niche consumer magazines (e.g., bridal). A couple embarking on a new life together—whether combining assets or keeping separate accounts—needs to understand their partner’s spending habits (often opposites attract—spender and saver), student loan debt, and how their separate bank accounts will or will not mesh together after the wedding. Finally, you can also cultivate strategic alliances. A couple seeking a matrimonial lawyer for a prenup may be in the market for a financial advisor as well. (Source)

Use an Unorthodox Approach with the Larkspur Executive PRO & Platinum

At Larkspur-Rixtrema we have thought a lot about this challenge and we have created a product called Larkspur Executive PRO & Platinum that we think can help, though our approach may be a bit unorthodox. We started by asking “What if we could develop a tool that enabled our clients to pitch a prospect with relevant information about assets the prospect likely holds?”. This would allow you to show portfolio risk and potential challenges the prospect may face in certain scenarios using assets that they are familiar with. You could immediately demonstrate your value proposition to a client in a more concrete way.

For about 1.2 million executives in the US, we can help do exactly that. Of course, we can’t get the portfolios these executives hold, but we can get close. At least close enough that the conversation is relevant and will hopefully compel the prospect to pay attention to your pitch. Over the years we have developed an extensive database of 401K plan menus and the contact information for executives that work at the plan sponsor. By combining this information with our Portfolio Crash Testing (PCT) tool, you have a powerful prospecting platform that gives you the ability to tailor a unique pitch. Here are the 4 steps to your next new client: Follow These 4 Simple Steps to Win Over Prospects and Grow your Practice or request a personalized demo below: