How to Get Clients for Less Than $10 a Month

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Yep, you read that right. I’m about to teach you how to get new clients for less than $10 a month.

Before we get started, throw out all this marketing clutter:

Brochures
Pitch books
Robotic cold-calling scripts
Lead-generation services
Newspaper advertisements
Steak dinners
Monogrammed water bottles
Cookie cutter newsletters
Top advisor lists

I’ll wait.

Did you toss it out? Okay, now let’s get on with it.

Societal isolation has led to rampant narcissism

I remember when I was little, I was in a pack of about 12 kids who would play stickball in the street. Then we would all go to someone’s house and watch Goonies. There were no babysitters; our neighbor, Mrs. Murray, would watch us and my mom would call on the corded phone to send us home at dinner. We didn’t have money, but we had each other.

Whenever I go back to my old house, though, I never see any kids playing in the street. They’re inside doped up on Ritalin on the Xbox. The Murrays moved out and a new family moved in, an unfriendly young couple people with a dog that barks a lot. My dad put up a row of bushes for privacy.

Society has shifted to a higher focus on the individual at the expense of the collective group. We are a divided, turned-inwards, unanchored people in almost every way. It’s no wonder bullying, obesity, divorce, depression, and anxiety are running rampant while the institutions of society are crumbling. We weren’t designed for this isolated way of life.

And marketing, the assertion of our worth, is not surprisingly a self-centered reflection of this. Most marketing is ugly, despite all the photoshopping.

Disconnected and narcissistic – and that is why most of it fails.

But what if your marketing were to help your target prospects reclaim a sense of values, family, and community – wouldn’t that be beautiful?

I’ll give you three ways.

Three examples of beautiful marketing for less than $10 a month

Now before I tell you to go volunteer at the next United Way fundraiser (which would be fake and sheer virtue signaling), let me clarify. Making it beautiful means changing the fundamental way that your marketing interacts with other people much more than changing what you do.

Reversing the direction of attention on social media

The friend request you accept is the last point of connection you’ll ever have with most of the contacts you have on LinkedIn. Then it becomes a narcissistic game of, “Okay, now you watch me and throw me a like. Never mind what I am doing for you or anyone else on this platform. It’s all about me and getting all the attention I can for this image of who I want you to believe I am.”

Narcissistic, isolating, and disconnected. No wonder it fails miserably!

Most of you have nothing that original to say on social media and that is why you fail. But don’t throw in the towel – simple reverse the flow of attention.

Instead of trying so hard to get attention, give it.

What if your social media were more about the attention you paid to other people than about what they paid to you?

What if you saw social media as a way to generously serve others than to profit yourself?

It’s the idea of building an interactive community. It’s rare to find anyone willing to get outside of themselves enough to do this. Try making it more about the comments you make on other people’s stuff, or how much you help other people achieve their business goals, than about your own posts. See what happens.

Selfless acts and sincere interest in another person’s activities are beautiful … and rare, which is why those who behave this way are exceptional!

Other LinkedIn tips are here.

Help your clients build family alliances

For most of my childhood, I had a best friend named Melissa. Her dad and my dad coached our soccer team together in junior high school. Our families used to go on vacation together at the lake. Her dad taught me to waterski. Her mom used to dress us up the same with matching scrunchies. It was almost like I had two moms and two dads. We used to go on family ski trips, and everyone would wear racoon hats, all eight of us, and people on the slopes used to see us on the chairlift and laugh and make racoon sounds at us.

It was a family alliance.

This bond made me feel very safe at a very pivotal time; Melissa’s family and mine were one contained unit. I felt very secure in junior high school because of that family friendship. Melissa and I both became honor’s students and prominent athletes in high school, and we never fell into the traps.

If you want to help your wealthy clients make family alliances, know that it won’t happen on its own; you need to push it along. It’s hard to make friends as an adult and status can be very isolating. And the wealthier you are, the harder it is to find true friends. But these family alliances are one of the things society is missing and the rich need them as much as anyone else.

Encourage family friendships by introducing families with similar values and interests within your client base. Help them build bonds that will strengthen their families for years to come.

Have client events about this exact topic: how to preserve your family’s values through generations. Instead of the same old boring holiday or cocktail party, hold an interactive discussion where families can share their traditions and the techniques they have used to ensure their values are transferred from one generation to the next. Team up with an estate attorney. When financial advisors talk about succession planning, they place emphasis on legal documents, business interests, etc. Transferring human capital dwarfs all of those, yet it’s the one nobody pays attention to.

Play matchmaker and introduce families to each other one by one.

Establish a family mastermind team of clients dedicated to the task of helping wealthy families preserve their wealth, traditions, culture, and values through generations and pass on these teachings through your newsletters, events, etc.

Helping your clients deepen their relationships with each other will only broaden your relationship with them – and as you know, referrals are the best source of new leads.

You can whine all you want about how your clients are too busy, but rich people have just as many problems as poor people.

What if:

Your clients introduced their kids and their kids got married;
Your clients met and one of them became successor to the other’s business; or
Two of your clients who met became best friends, embracing the beautiful grace of a loving friendship, and so did their kids, and their kids’ kids, and their kids’ kids’ kids.

Constructive for society, no? Make it happen, advisors!

Serve community institutions as a leader

Pick one community institution and find a way to donate your time in a leadership role. Not completely altruistic – this is a way to help while gaining visibility for yourself.

School
Church
Hospital
Senior center
Library
Museum

I am not saying go join a 500-person charity walk. I’m saying to gain more visibility in your community as a wholesome leader of a small group you are on a mission with. The easiest thing would be to organize a small event.

Maybe you organize a day where everyone goes and cleans up the courtyard outside your church. Or you take a group of people from your kid’s school and give the gym a new coat of paint.

Whatever it is, make sure:

You do something beautiful.
It makes you look beautiful.
It makes people feel beautiful.

And with that foundation you are ideally set up to go sell them an IUL.

Just kidding.

Respect is what you gain when you respect others first. There was one meeting where I was talking so passionately about composting at my kids’ school, people were hunting me down on LinkedIn to connect.

Leading a noble mission is a beautiful way to be seen and that is a great position to build a relationship. Read this blog about how to convert a friend to a prospect in a non-sleazy way.

(Quit whining)

But Grillo, you say, the only people I meet at volunteer events are broke.

People think community service means you only meet poor people, but that is not true. There were rich, classy, successful people I’ve met through local volunteer events, and I live in the “drug zone.” Plus, you can be a bit strategic about which institution you choose to serve to increase the chances you’ll meet the richies.

But Grillo, you say, I’m too busy with my kids.

Ahem.

I have four children under nine years old. My house is so chaotic that I have to wear earplugs during dinnertime. My kids and I do this stuff together. And given that none of the activities I’ve suggested cost you any money, if your kids are too young then you can hire a babysitter with all the money I’ve saved you. Remember, all these marketing techniques cost less than $10 a month.

Reclaiming societal values > great Instagram selfies

Society has fallen because we have fallen unconscious to each other. We’re so used to being individuals that we have forgotten how to connect, how to get outside of ourselves. It has gotten to the point where being aware of others is something we have to consciously will ourselves to do.

I know you want me to tell you how to make a great selfie video for Instagram or something. But what I’ve taught you is greater than that. Most of you don’t need to do more marketing; the basis is flawed to begin with.

What is needed is a different path of consciousness, one that unifies and aims to generate positive outcomes for the community you serve. Make it your goal to beautify the world around you in ways that make sense for your business and see the Picasso paint itself. Do it right, and this will bring new clients to you.

Sara’s upshot

And now I have to go because one of my kids insists there is a spider in her bed. Last night it was a bumble bee. I have to get Antonio to go deal with this.

Here are some resources if you want some no-nonsense marketing guidance:

Thanks for keeping me company today. Try out these marketing ideas and I’ll see you next month.

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a marketing consultant who helps investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms fight the tendency to scatter meaningless clichés on their prospects and bore them as a result. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor.

How to Get Clients for Less Than $10 a Month

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