- Attentiveness. Simple
- Educating Participants Matters
- Cost may be King
- I’ll leave you with one more extra piece of wisdom.
- It all starts and hopefully ends with Marketing
So, in preparation for some neat new features, RiXtrema will be launching in the coming weeks, I interviewed some of our clients (retirement specialists). With a little additional independent research, I found some useful tips as to how advisors exploit a competitive advantage to convert leads into clients. Basically, I explored answers to two questions:
- What does it take to win a 401k plan sponsor?
- How do retirement advisors unseat an existing plan sponsor provider?
Attentiveness. Simple
It seems too simple to mention, but it never hurts to be reminded of the bare necessities. Employers want responsible and accessible retirement specialists. Maybe your service menu won’t fit every one of your clients. So, you need to be actively listening and responding to their needs.
One source empasized the importance of a thorough and succinct plan review – one for employers and one for participants. This is even more important for plans of less than $1 million in assets – who are just getting started and need some help along the way.
Educating Participants Matters
Educating employees and providing retirement advice is becoming an employer expectation. Many want their advisors to provide more frequent educational workshops discussing financial literacy or personal finance. Not only do educational seminars and one-on-one meetings boost 401k participation, but it can be leveraged to increase one thing many plan sponsors know nothing about: employer contribution.
I wrote previously about why participant contributions are important to a plan sponsor. Boosting how much an executive can contribute to their 401k plan is one piece, but it is only one piece explaining why 47% of sponsors want their advisor to provide education semi-annually or more (MassMutual).
Click HERE to read more about 401k education.
Cost may be King
At the end of the day, the cost concern is unavoidable. MassMutual found that 73% of plan sponsors want advice that could help lower costs.
So, how do you tie all these things together?
- Research your customer to know their interests
- Craft a succinct elevator pitch with a value proposition
- Learn. Learn Learn. (That’s where our blog comes in, I hope.)
I’ll leave you with one more extra piece of wisdom.
Don’t approach plan sponsors or employers as if they’re stupid. In other words: make sure your marketing is smart.
Odds are that a sponsor who is looking to replace their advisor (i.e. listen to your pitch) is already more engaged, encouraging participation in their plan, and cares about their employees’ financial wellness.
How can you help their plan design?
It all starts and hopefully ends with Marketing
Picture the average Plan Sponsor’s inbox or voicemail. They may get solicitations from dozens of financial advisors every year. Advisors need to be creative in their approach.
However you choose to distinguish yourself, your first contact with a plan sponsor matters. That’s why I researched and wrote some tips to increase your marketing email open rate. We will be expanding our marketing section on our blog to help educate advisors and stay strong during turbulent times.
As always, software offerings are better seen in a demonstration than read about. So click the banner below to schedule a short demonstration of Larkspur Executive – our premier marketing software for 401k retirement specialist with over 700k preloaded plan sponsor data and automated marketing emails.
