Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
An advisor recently told me how he landed a client with $3 million in assets, with more to come. While he claimed that his success was an “accident,” I discovered that it was really the result of a key lesson that any advisor can follow.
This highly successful advisor – let’s call him Alex – is at a bank-owned firm. In 2004, he met with a very successful entrepreneur. While their initial meeting went well, this individual never responded to numerous follow-up calls; after a few attempts to reach him, Alex wrote him off.
Ready for the adventure of a lifetime?
Last year, seven advisors climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and experienced the adventure of a lifetime.
They did this to raise funds for Amani Children’s home in Tanzania; this four minute video describes their experience. The next Kilimanjaro climb will take place next August, for details and info on an upcoming information call, email [email protected]
That’s why Alex was more than a bit surprised to get a call from this entrepreneur, now 66, who is in the process of selling his business for several million dollars and wanted to meet to discuss how to invest the proceeds and to talk about estate-planning issues. It turns out that this prospect had been left on the list for Alex’s monthly market emails, effectively by accident.
After two meetings, the prospect signed on as a client with an initial investment of $3 million.
The virtue of consistent contact
“If we were still mailing out newsletters,” Alex said, “there’s a pretty good chance that at some point this guy would have been deleted from the list as a waste of paper and a stamp. The only reason he was still getting our emails is that there’s no cost associated with them.”
There are a number of important lessons here.
First, prospects will work with you on their schedule, not yours. Even though Alex was ready to work with him eight years ago, the client only now felt the need to do something.
As a result, you need a vehicle for staying top-of-mind with potential clients in a way that doesn’t put them under stress or pressure. The best vehicle is to send existing clients and prospects thoughtful, high-quality insights on a frequent basis (at least monthly to make an impact).
