I’m attending and presenting at NAPFA Practice Management and Investments this week, so when I have time, I’ll post periodic updates of key takeaways from this event.
Advisers always need help with marketing. One consultant offers strategies to increase referrals and new biz development.
Roughly 200 advisers queued up to the Grand Ballroom of the Brooklyn Marriott hotel to hear Richard Henry of Cambridge, MA-based Millennium Consulting Group deliver marketing strategies.
Henry introduced advisers to several marketing strategies that fall under the BOOM acronym: Big Opportunity Outbound Marketing. Here are some highlights from the BOOM program.
The Goldmine Strategy
Henry told of one adviser who pulled a client’s file and looked through the paperwork for names of the client’s other advisors. She found the client’s CPA and promptly called him, saying “We haven’t met, but we share several clients in common, so I’d like to get introduced over a quick cup of coffee.”
When Henry asked the audience how many would accept the invitation, over 80% of the room raised their hands. So Henry used the goldmine analogy, as most advisers have a goldmine of information about clients’ professionals in their volumes of client paperwork.
The Tax Document Strategy
Another strategy Henry highlighted is a technique to increase the convenience for clients. At the end of each year, advisers generate documents relevant to the preparation of a client’s tax return. Instead of handing those documents to the client, advisers can connect directly with the client’s CPA and exchange them directly (with the client’s permission, of course).
It’s a convenient service for the client, and the adviser and CPA now have the opportunity to work together and help each other directly.
Henry finished up with the “Would You Recommend?” strategy, where advisers should replace the word “referral” with “recommend” (Henry said referral implies some voodoo sales tactics), and the Golden Ticket Strategy, where clients give advisers a “golden ticket” to interview other professionals on the client’s behalf to find qualified professionals for the clients’ needs.
Advisers can follow Henry’s strategies with very little burden and effort, and the potential for the strategies to result in business growth is fairly appealing.
