SMART ADVISOR MARKETING

Now is not the time to hide from your clients. Yes, the financial markets are in more turmoil than they have been in a couple of years. Yes, there’s a national election on the horizon that could change many of our tax and retirement plans. Yes, there’s the potential for greater terrorist violence. But now is the time to be proactive with your clients.

Here’s what’s interesting about crisis situations - people want to connect. We can look back at 9/11 and see how communication impacts client relationships. According to studies by CEG Worldwide, when clients were contacted, over 97% of them saw their esteem for their advisor’s rise. But there were practical ramifications as well. Over 78% of affluent clients who were contacted said they were likely to move more assets to their advisors’ while ‘almost none’ of the clients who were not contacted were inclined to add assets. Almost 40% of those who were not contacted were seeking a new advisor and 0% of those who were contacted were looking for a change.

The disheartening part of this experience was that 78% of the clients they surveyed were not contacted. When advisors were asked why they had not contacted their clients, the most frequent excuse was that they didn’t have time. Clients’ expectations were met if the advisor made a simple non-investment contact.

So, don’t adopt a ‘bunker mentality’!

Where can you find assistance in building your client communication program? Go to www.buildyourmarket.com. There you will find several tools that will help you build stronger client relationships. For example, in the “Learn” module you will find a training program on Communication with Power Point presentations, scripts, exercises, marketing tips and specific action plans.

Putting knowledge into action is what BuildYourMarket.com is best at. The unique web-based marketing platform integrates your database and a variable data marketing engine. This allows an advisor to create targeted marketing pieces that are personalized to the client and fully branded to the advisor. Click here to check out a montage of one client communication campaign.

[CEG Worldwide “Maximize the Bottomline” 2002]