There are three main ways to gather new clients and grow your business . To excel, you should put your effort into mastering all three of them.
1. Acquiring new clients from existing clients
Referrals are by far and away the best way to gather new clients. And the only way you can earn referrals is by becoming referable – which will only happen once your clients feel you’re delivering them a 5-star service.Clients won’t refer you until you become part of their inner circle, when you become someone they like and trust on both a personal and professional level. They need to feel confident that if they recommend your services to their family and friends you won’t let them down.This level of understanding won’t happen right away. Only when your relationship is on a firm footing should you consider asking for a referral.Get the
mp3 compilation, Mastering Client Relationships: What Elite Advisors Do, to learn how to build and maintain healthy relationships with clients.Without being prompted, clients are less likely to refer you so overcome your discomfort and do what’s necessary. When the time is right to ask for a referral step out of your comfort zone,
be proactive and ask.Overcome your fear of rejection by putting the emphasis not on helping yourself – but others. Ask your client if they are happy with your service. If so, do they know anyone who could also benefit from your expert financial advice? Who do they know who should know you?Get across that you are on a mission to make a positive impact on others’ lives – just as you have for them. Do they know of a family member who should be saving for college fees but isn’t? Could you step in to help? If they know of anyone who could be struggling, the sooner you get together with them the better.
2. Converting prospects into clients
If you’re generating leads and setting appointments, you’ve laid the groundwork for growing your business. Now you need to use your powers of persuasion to turn these ‘hot’ prospects into clients. Use all the soft skills at your command to get people off the fence by
creating urgency.An ‘aversion to risk’ is often behind people’s disinclination to invest. It’s your job to change their mindset. Explain that by failing to invest they are not, in fact, safeguarding their assets; they’re simply setting themselves up to ‘go broke safely’.Prospects are afraid of losing money – they fear handing over control of their money to you. However, by taking no action and failing to start a plan they’re not reducing their risk – they are actually increasing it.If you need help preparing your clients for the wild emotional journey long-term investing is, get the
mp3, Simple Truths for Investors – it will give you ideas on stories and phrases you can use with them.If your prospect 45 years old and not convinced they need to save for retirement, present them with this sobering reality: They have just 240 paychecks left until they reach 65. If they don’t start investing without delay, they may have to rely on friends, family or benefits to get by when they finish work (even without the cost of rising inflation added into the mix).Related:
Why You Must Have Repeatable Processes in Your Practice 3. Generating leads
The importance of prospecting cannot be overstated because
nothing happens without an appointment. Many advisors see prospecting as their least favorite task. Some however actively enjoy the act of talking to strangers, and instead of disliking prospecting, see every phone call as an ‘uncashed lottery ticket’. Be like them. Get enthused by imagining that every call you make could win you the lottery, even though the odds are stacked against you.Approach prospecting in multiple ways –
cold-calling can still be relevant – lots of people are unhappy with their advisors and a call out of the blue could be a great way to stir them into action.Consider holding seminars. Go out and introduce yourself to small business owners in their own premises. Tell everyone you meet who you are and what you do. Word of mouth is a strong prospecting tool. If people don’t know about you, they can’t consider hiring you, so you need to be proactive and set aside a time to prospect every day.If you’re looking for ideas on where to find your next prospect and keep your appointment boom full, get the
mp3 compilation, 12 Prospecting Ideas for Financial Advisors.Growing a business is about gathering assets. Use a combination of approaches to attract new business. Dedicate time into developing the relevant skills you need to consistently generate and convert leads. Work on your relationship skills so you
keep existing clients 100% happy. Then you’ll be covering all bases.
