How to be the Most Expensive Advisor in Town

You’d specialize in a certain type of clientele. Ideally an addressable group with a fair bit of money.

You may even focus on solving specific financial or investment problems for specific people (a niche).

This clientele could be busy, looking to outsource their financial planning and wealth management strategies, and have large enough problems such that solving them would save or make a lot of money for your clients.

The more you can save or make clients, the more value created. Thus, the higher the fee can be charged.

Fee-raising tactic #1

Specialize in helping certain kinds of people. Recognize that riches are often found in niches. Strive to add significant value to those who will appreciate and pay for it.

A structured onboarding, education, ongoing communication and management process

If you want clients to refuse to do business with anyone else, a proactive education process will be key to build and keep client loyalty.

This is very different thinking from most firms, where lead advisors communicate frequently early in the relationship and sparsely thereafter with quarterly or yearly check-ins.

(It is a mistake to think that periodic email updates about the markets and the economy deepen the relationship with clients. They don’t.)

As marketing guru Dan Kennedy says, “Put a fence around your million-dollar herd.”

This starts in the “get to know you” phase with prospects and extends as long as the client relationship lasts.

Educate on an ongoing basis about how clients can plan, save, invest and get more from their lives and give back for more impact with your services.

The way Warren Buffett engages and educates his shareholders is a model for advisors to follow.

Fee-raising tactic #2

A structured and ongoing education and communication process will help develop and maintain loyal clients willing to pay higher fees.

It’s how you make them feel

Many advisors struggle with how to measure the success of the client experience.

The value may be the “warm and fuzzies” that clients reflect back to you and your team.

For example, do clients say they feel in control of their finances?

Do they feel you are taking care of their needs and making life easier for them?

Fee-raising tactic #3

Deliver a client experience that makes clients feel valued, important, and in control of their financial destiny.

Set proper expectations and set-up processes with team members and vendors

I’ve worked with dozens of advisors who were skilled at delivering white glove service and were fabulous communicators, but client service by their team members was hit or miss.

Advisors depend on team members, partners, and vendors to deliver to the client’s expectations.

You may need to hire someone to create a customer service blueprint for your team to follow.

One of my very successful advisor clients recognized he was the architect of the practice, so brought in a junior advisor (now partner) to build out the team and processes and maintain the service standards.

Fee-raising tactic #4

Don’t leave the service delivery to chance. Expectations and processes will go a long way to ensure team members and vendors act in a manner consistent with your firm’s standards.

Maintain the vision for the practice over the decades even as key practice features change

Over time, key elements of the practice will change.

These features include clients, custodians, services mix, pricing, key employees and advisors. The external economy, the markets, and the competitive landscape will also change.

For example, your practice service model may move from investments to planning to ongoing wealth management.

Or, pricing may change from commission, to fees, to something else.

But it is your job to maintain the vision for the firm.

Fee-raising tactic #5

One firm leader, usually a lead advisor, will need to be the keeper of the vision. Recognize the external environment and elements of the practice will change over the decades.

A simple starting point to become the most expensive advisor in town is the ideal client.

A successful advisor of mine had acquired hundreds of clients all over the economic strata, ranging from $10,000 in assets to tens of millions.

In painting a portrait of his ideal clients, he realized the clients he would like to serve were in the ultra-high-net worth category.

This insight led to a re-aligning of his practice to serve a handful of families.

By adding a junior partner to handle the financial planning and coordinate wealth management he was able to literally double his income and cut his practice commitment to a 20-hour week.

Imagine you are the most expensive advisor in town.

How would you re-create your practice to fulfill this vision?

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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