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The typical approach advisors use to cultivating center-of-influence (COI) relationships is dead wrong. To avoid the mistaken strategy that your competitors are surely pursuing, here’s a radical way to build referrals through COIs.
I’m sure you have heard this advice: “COI marketing is the way to go.”
The theory goes something like this: “Partner with the CPAs and estate attorneys in town and build your practice through dozens of professional referrals.”
This doesn’t work, at least the way most advisors go about this.
In my early days of working with advisors, I interviewed over 1,000 advisors by phone to find out what worked and what did not. Not one had successfully built their practice on this flawed premise.
Some advisors had leveraged one strategic relationship and built their initial practice through a single, key channel.
Others had formed a loose alliance of complementary service partners who worked with several of the same clients. This model helped deliver improved results for those clients and, in some cases, yielded some big new relationships for the financial advisors.
In contrast, most advisors spent years building professional relationships, given dozens of referrals over time, and gained only a trickle of business in return.
In some cases, advisors invested as much as a day a week with literally nothing to show for it. For example, one advisor I talked with met with 86 potential sources of professional referrals, without gaining a single new client.
Flip the funnel and reverse the relationship
Rather than focusing on many relationships with little co-marketing and negligible results from each, use a handful of strategic partners who are actively marketing and selling to your target market. Add to this active co-promotion with you, which can drive multiple clients to your firm per year.
Make this switch: Act as if the “COI” in COI marketing really “Center of Influence with your target market.”
How an introverted advisor built a practice through a non-traditional COI
A shy, independent advisor in Orange County, CA targeted independent dentists as one of his go-to markets.
He found a consultant who specialized in practice management for dentists in the region.
The consultant produced quarterly workshops on a Saturday for 10 to 12 dentists, and then he worked with one to three in depth.
The advisor partnered with the consultant by sponsoring his workshops (in effect, paying for the promotion of the workshops) and then sitting in as the consultant led the small group of dentists.
About halfway through the day during breaks, the dentists would start asking the advisor their financial questions.
The advisor netted one to two clients himself immediately from each workshop. What’s more, he gained 10 or so new prospects to add to his marketing database each and every quarter to sell to over time.
And, as a bonus, the practice management consultant (from his own marketing and selling) would occasionally refer clients to the advisor.
Select which specific market you want to target through Influencers
You don’t need to commit to a niche for life.
You do need to identify a specific, addressable market that matches your ideal prospect or client profile.
In the case study above, the advisor targeted sole-practitioner dentists, ages 40-60, in certain zip codes in the region.
Discover who is “of Influence” in this marketplace
Ideally, this Influencer will already be marketing and selling to the types of folks who fit your ideal client profile.
If you are doing your market research by “listening in” to the same messages and marketing as your target market, this will be relatively easy.
For instance, one advisor partnered with the top real estate agent in town. He drove around the neighborhood to locate agents with an outstanding number of visible “for sale” signs.
Create a win-win relationship and compliance-friendly deal with your Influencer
Ideally the Influencer will gain new prospects, cut marketing costs or see free advertising benefits through new fees or a revenue share, or all of the above (cleared with compliance, of course).
For example, if an Influencer runs an event, look to sponsor it or participate in it.
If the Influencer has a newsletter or educational materials they send to their client list, advertise or place your content in these materials.
Placing your message in front of the Influencer’s clients and prospects is essential.
Set expectations on joint goals for the relationship and on an action plan to get your message in front of their audience
Marketing is work. Don’t assume others will do your work for you.
Schedule in success by crafting a joint action or marketing plan to place your message in front of their audience.
Here are five questions to guide you to COI marketing success:
- What is your top or next specific or addressable market?
- Who is now of Influence with that market and ideally already marketing and selling to it?
- How can you forge a win-win deal or partnership to benefit both parties?
- How can you create a joint marketing plan to place your marketing in front of their built-in audience?
- As part of the plan, can you repurpose or adapt marketing that has proven to work for you elsewhere?
And yes, if you must, you can become the “go-to” advisor or a formal partner with a CPA firm and estate attorney.
But be smart: Call on the model of becoming the exclusive advisor for that firm, vet them as if you were bringing on a new advisory partner, and join forces with a growth plan to build both your businesses.
Bob Hanson is a fractional marketer and author of Marketing Power for Financial Advisors. Get his checklist, Nine Questions Advisors Must Ask Before They Hire a Marketing Agency, Fractional or Full-Time Marketer, click here.
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