Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
We recently went through an exercise with a marketing firm to identify our ideal client and implement strategies and tactics to focus specifically on those people we want as clients. Much of what we came out with is what I would call “soft” elements. It isn’t so much clients who have a certain amount of money, are a certain age or even have a defined career path. It’s that they want to partner with us, enjoy working with an outside expert, are comfortable delegating and value their time. They don’t want to spend it on their finances.
The marketing firm is helping us rewrite our copy on the website and coming up with some marketing materials to send when needed. But the questions coming up from my team are, “How do we turn this into an elevator pitch? How do we say these things that are deep and meaningful in two short sentences when someone is with us in an elevator?”
L.A.
Dear L.A.,
I’m going take some pressure off you. Who – in real life – uses an elevator pitch? I know, at events like Business Network International (BNI) or Vistage when you stand up and introduce yourself it is supposed to be the quick pitch and nothing more. But I haven’t seen many cases where when introducing oneself to someone in the professional realm, the other person says, “I will give you two sentences and nothing more!” This is tongue in cheek, but we can fully describe who we are, what our firm does and who we enjoy working with when making a business introduction.
I like the way you outlined the type of person who works well with you. You are only giving me short details, but I can see where you could go into depth in any one of these areas when speaking with someone. For example, what does it mean to partner with one’s financial advisor? What does it mean to be comfortable delegating? What do these things “look like”? How can you compare the typical financial advisory experience with what you do? This is conversational, and you want to handle it in a conversational manner.
Given the way you describe your firm and the type of client you work with, do you want someone as a new client who is looking only for an elevator pitch? This is part of your qualification process. If they aren’t interested enough to listen to how you work with clients and the type of person who fits your firm and process, that is enough to say they aren’t the right client for you! Sometimes identifying who is not a fit is just as important as identifying who is.
Dear Bev,
We are trying to improve our standing with COIs in the local community. One of my junior advisors, Sara, was at an event. It was for not-for-profits who were sharing their stories and asking for help. Sara ran into an accountant to whom we have referred a number of clients over the last seven years. The accountant didn’t remember Sara’s name and couldn’t remember, “off-hand” as he put it, the names of the clients we had referred! This accountant has taken work from us but hasn’t given us anything in return.
Sara worked closely (albeit behind the scenes), but she was very engaged in these client transitions to this accountant.
It makes me believe a few things – we should be promoting our junior advisors more proactively, we should not be referring to accountants who don’t care about us, and we should be checking in more frequently once we do refer to see how things have turned out. Anything else you would glean from this interesting interaction?
A.W.
Dear A.W.,
I mostly agree with the points you took away from the encounter. I have a couple of my own to add:
- You should formally introduce the accountant to your junior advisors, in this case Sara, and let him know who she is, what her role will be and what information she is going to share. You should also let Sara (if she is still the point person for these transitions) be the one to share information and details. Have her cc you, but be sure she is out in front and is building her own brand for the firm.
- I disagree a bit with your statement that this accountant has “taken” work from you. Weren’t you making the introduction to help your client? Wasn’t your client the one who needed support, and you recommended him because you either thought it was a good fit, he had the skills necessary or was convenient? The accountant didn’t take anything from you – you gladly gave it to him, in the interest of helping your client! But if you were expecting a quid pro quo, it doesn’t always work this way. If you want to have an exchange, not just a referral system, you have to cultivate it. It isn’t handing off a client and then sitting and waiting for someone to come back to you in return. In fact, I often call COIs (accountants, attorneys and others) “the perpetual prospect” because you have to work the relationship in an ongoing manner. Most advisors look the same to COIs, and they don’t know the nuances. Unless you stay top of mind and keep the relationship strong, they are not going to think about you very often.
- It would be prudent to check in and see how things turned out with the client. You want to show that you and the client are in touch, and you care about other outside advisors your client is using. Doing a periodic check-in both with the client about the accountant would be prudent.
- You have to keep the relationship warm. It’s helpful to share stories with COIs of clients you have helped or information about something that might be of interest to them, or check-in periodically to see how their business is going. It’s a relationship – they aren’t robots taking and giving in equal measures. Treat this accountant like an important relationship – to you – and see whether the dynamic doesn’t shift just a bit in how he approaches working with you.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022 and 2023. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 