It’s easy to point out every financial advisor’s favorite client: the next one that comes through the door. Growth is the lifeblood of any business, so it’s vital that you keep growth in mind at every stage of your financial practice. But how do you break out of a holding pattern? What are the best ways to meet new clients while reaching out to your current clients? Here’s five essential tips to grow your financial practice at a steady clip.
1. Clean Up Your Lists and Reengage
When’s the last time you checked on your rolls? Been a while since you’ve touched based with everyone on your roster? No worries! It’s never too late to engage with your clients and offer them a friend’s helping hand.
Cleaning your client database is the perfect way to reengage with clients, prospects, and leads. They helped you grow your financial practice in the first place — returning to the source returns you to that state of mind. Maybe it’s been a while since you checked in and they are finally ready to talk! Or you realized a birthday is coming up! Get your clients on the phone and do a quick check-in. Ask if, with everything that’s happened in the market and economy, they would like to set up an additional principle-protected growth strategy.
Lastly, ask them if any of their friends or family members are wrestling with uncertainty. Remind them you can also build a plan for them if they need some guidance and to feel free to direct that referral your way!
When you get a referral, you could easily mail that person a packet about your firm, giving them a material overview of what you could do for them. You could also call them to let them know their name came up in a recent conversation and you wanted to check on them and make sure they’re confident about their position. Pitch them your firm: “We’re here to help families in our community offer growth potential, protection, and reduce taxes on their wealth.” (If you want more tips on handling referrals, check out our blog post here.)
It’s also a snap to clean up your email lists. You can check out our blog here for in-depth tips, or check out our House Rules video about branching out with text message marketing. With our help, you can easily blast a financial tip or current market update to your clients!
2. Host a Seminar or Workshop
Once your books are up-to-date, it’s time to pound the pavement and host a seminar or workshop in your area! Putting a face to your name is a tried-and-true way to grow your financial practice. Get out there and let the people know what you can do for them and how your personal approach gives them the best opportunity for success in their retirements.
A seminar offers the opportunity to get your face in front of a variety of clients. Impact uses templates to invite your database of old leads to attend a specialized workshop. Among many others, you can attract:
- Old seminar/workshop attendees who never booked an appointment
- People who RSVP’d for a seminar/workshop but never attended
- People who came into your office but never became clients
- Those families who you know don’t have all their money with you
Aside from the referrals you generate, this will be your fastest path to a new client. Keep in mind that there’s always a significant population out there on the verge of retirement. They’ll want and need someone to address their needs and give them the best outcome possible. Further still, those who are still just thinking about retirement could use an education about the finer points and more obscure details. Make yourself essential and be the resource that they need!
3. Client Appreciation Events
Impact always loves to talk about client appreciation events, and, if we’re remembering correctly, this isn’t the first time you’ve heard from us about hosting an event of your own. But that’s because client appreciation events — also known as CAEs — see great returns for our advisors!
There’s no end to the types of events you can host for your clients. Tie your event’s theme to the season, local community goings-on, or just a night out on the town. Any event where you can engage with your base while expanding your reach at the same time will always be a fruitful move. For some of Impact’s homegrown CAE ideas and strategies, check out our blog posts:
- Spring Client Appreciation Event Ideas
- Fall Client Appreciation Event Ideas
- Secrets to the Perfect Client Appreciation Event
- Movie Screening Night with Clients
Further still, CAEs are great opportunities to score referrals from your existing clients. Tell attendees to bring a guest who they think could use your services, or mandate bringing a guest as their ticket into the event.
4. Community Involvement
In uneasy economic times, your clients are likely looking for ways to help their neighbors and get involved with improving their local communities. Take the initiative and join their efforts!
Many of our financial advisors involve themselves heavily in community efforts, like sponsoring charities or hosting charitable events themselves. Reach out to food banks, second-hand shops, or local charities and see if you can lend a helping hand. Consider hosting an event in their name and combine the appeal of a customer appreciation event with the immediate impact of a charitable donation!
You could also reach out to any employers in your community who have been affected by recent economic tremors. Ask them if they would allow you to share how you can help those nearing retirement navigate challenging times and book a workshop or appointment.
When you get involved, you participate beyond just growing your practice. You get to help improve your neighborhood and get associated with the productive forces around you. Then you can return the favor and help them improve their future and their retirement!
5. Review Your Practice
With the threat of recession looming in the background, it may be wise to make sure you have your own house in order. The best time to get all your ducks in a row is yesterday; the second-best time is now.
Talk with your team or client advisory board to see if your practice needs to make short-term adjustments or long-term changes to your strategies. Take stock of yourself: where were your successes in the last months or year? Where were the shortcomings? What worked, and what didn’t? How might you better serve your clients in the coming days, months and years? What can you do better to grow your practice?
A sober accounting of your processes provides the clearest look into how you’re growing your practice. Has growth stagnated? Time to try some new methods and reorient your processes! Is your practice on the rise? Great! Codify what’s growing your practice and seek to build on your victories.
This would also be a great time to get in touch with us here at Impact! We’re experts at helping advisors grow their practice and realize their full potential.
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