Advisors: Why Your Dream Prospects Just Won't Find You

Attention: some of the things I say in this post will upset some people. But maybe that’s a good thing.

I’m sorry if this bursts anyone’s bubble, but you can’t just sit around and “attract” your ideal client.

Or, at least most of you can’t. I’ll get to what I mean by “most of you” in a little bit.

Am I taking a stab at the “law of attraction”? Not all.

I’m personally a big believer in what many people call the law of attraction. Except I believe that what you’re really doing is tuning in your Reticular Activating System (RAS) to notice things you didn’t notice before.

Ever buy a particular type of car and see that car all over the road? Congrats, that means your RAS is working.

Plus, as much as I love the law of attraction, I'm an even bigger believer in the "law of getting off your butt and getting results".

Anyway, I don’t mean it in that way.

What I’m talking about are the financial advisors who get so caught up in the all the hype about inbound marketing to the point that they expect all of their dream prospects to come to them.

They expect to use online marketing and nothing but online marketing to build their businesses.

Now, let me be perfectly clear, so nobody misconstrues my message…

Inbound marketing WORKS. It totally does. I personally have a website, an email list, etc. that sends inbound leads to me every single day. I’ve also helped financial advisors build inbound marketing systems that generate them business on autopilot.

But a financial advisor will USUALLY fail if inbound marketing is all he/she does.

Write this down: inbound marketing works, but the financial advisor usually fails if its the sole marketing strategy.

Notice that I didn’t say the inbound marketing fails. I said that the financial advisor fails.

Why?

Here are two scenarios I see….

Scenario #1

John Advisor is a financial advisor who is sick of cold calling, sending out direct mail, going to networking events, etc. One day he reads a book/watches a lecture/visits a website that tells him these marketing tactics are unnecessary. He is reassured and coddled and sold the dream that he can sit around and attract dream prospects.

He buys the idea hook, line, and sinker. He stops all of his outbound marketing tactics and gets to work. He writes some blogs and expands his social media presence. “Time to hop on the gravy train!”, he thinks. But alas, he hears nothing but crickets. His pipeline is dry as a bone….and so is his bank account.

John’s sudden drop in income freaks him out so badly that he curses the inbound marketing strategies and writes them off completely.

Scenario #2

Joe Advisor is a new financial advisor who thinks he knows it all. He grew up with people who are much more likely to perform a Google search and read online reviews than ask for a friend’s opinion.

Because he’s slightly more tech-savvy than his technophobe colleagues, he gets to work immediately making a stellar website, busting his butt to get in ranking in Google, and builds some social media profiles.

But Joe doesn’t make a single dime. He’s got a tiny trickle of web traffic and some engagement on social media, but no actual dollars. He gives up his dream of being a financial advisor and trades it in for a meager salary.

Both of these financial advisors made the same mistake: they ONLY tried to generate inbound leads. That led to them cutting off their income flow and getting scared out of the game way too early.

Related: Five Things People Really Want From Financial Advisors

Again, inbound marketing works. But it cannot be the only thing you do.

Are there exceptions to this rule? Sure. If you’ve got a ton of money and all the time in the world, this probably doesn’t apply to you. If that’s you, focus on nothing but inbound marketing until your heart’s content.

For the rest of us, we’ve got a strong desire to not only improve ourselves, but to improve the lives of others. We can’t just sit around waiting for a LinkedIn connection to get accepted.

We have to WORK. Messages have to be pushed into the marketplace. Relationships have to be built. That takes time.

You might have to knock on a few doors. You might have to send a few letters. Heck, you might even have to pick up the phone and dial a few times.

Sometimes “attracting” your ideal client involves going out into the marketplace and striking up a conversation with him/her.

Sadly, I still see financial advisors fall into one of two groups:

The “nothing but outbound marketing group”. This group proudly makes endless cold calls, asks for referrals, and puts on seminar presentations. People in this group can make a lot of money, but they never get to the point where their business is building on autopilot. At some level, it’s always dependent on them.

The “nothing but inbound marketing group”. This group is usually afraid of outbound marketing or writes it off entirely. However, they usually can’t generate enough business fast enough to keep them afloat.

So what do I tell financial advisors?

I tell them to focus on both inbound AND outbound marketing.

You do mostly outbound marketing at first, while simultaneously building your inbound marketing machine. You rub elbows with clients and prospects during the day and work on your lead-generation system at night.

That way you get the best of both worlds. You don’t get wiped out since you’re generating revenue but you don’t stay on the hamster wheel forever.

Slowly but surely your inbound marketing machine will begin to bear fruit.

And the best part?

You’ll actually be around to enjoy it.