Practice Management Trendsetters

For Financial Advisors and Wealth Professionals

THE FUTURE-READY FINANCIAL ADVISOR

“In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment." -Charles Darwin

Marketing strategies for financial advisors in 2022 Working with elite financial advisors, and being a judge on the wealth professional awards, I get to see what financial advisors are doing for marketing. I will be back in 2022 judging elite wealth managers across Canada again! https://wpawards.ca/methodology/judges There is a big disconnect between the average and the elite advisors and that difference is events. When the pandemic started everyone struggled to figure out what to do. What events do you have planned for 2022? Event calendar What do you have planned in the coming 12 months for events? Planning events are a great excuse for activity, a great excuse for communication. It is a great reason to get excited about your business. Yes, events take a lot of time and effort, and energy, but the elite advisors see this as critical to their success. Elite advisors I work with have client appreciation events through virtual platforms, they have webinars for prospects, they have small intimate events when they are allowed because of lockdowns. They have events made for Centers of influence, and they planned family events such as a picnic and photographs for the best clients, the list of possibilities is endless. It starts with a date Plan your first event this year. Book the date now. Go ahead, grab a calendar and look at the best day to do your first event in 2022. Plan to do one event at least in the first quarter. Then plan out the rest of the year. Most elite advisors do monthly or quarterly events. Summer events such as golf swing clinics or virtual golf lessons. Christmas and client appreciation events, every month can be a great excuse for activity! Don’t worry, if you get behind, you can always cancel the dates. The key is to focus on the dates to get your message out. Don’t make the common mistake I made as a financial advisor. I made sure I saw everyone in the first two months, only to find out that I stopped prospecting for two months, and started the year behind. Your clients can see you in the first three to six months, so it gives you time to do events. Now that you have your first date booked, what is the communication plan? Communication is everything in financial services The event is a perfect excuse for communication. It has a timeline for your communications and forces you to get your message out. Crafting your message is easy. Book a zoom webinar ( not a zoom meeting, a webinar) It is painted by numbers simple. Fill in the blanks with the date, topic and title, speakers and details, and a signup page is drafted. See the steps below. ( always remember compliance approval) Now that you have a signup page you can get the message out to your database and the world. Once it is approved, you can send it out by email, social media, postcards ( which stand out in a world of less mail) phone calls, and word of mouth. You now have an excuse to call people, email people, send out social media invites, and even mail. More communication always helps your practice. No matter what type of event, when it is virtually such as a webinar, people only see the number of attendees ( if you let them see it) They never know how many people are there, who they are, except you. You get to contact prospects before and after the webinar, regardless if they attended. Prospects like to be in the weeds, being Anonymus, and listen to you and see if they would like to work with someone who does comprehensive financial services, by discussing your fee audit process. For more info on fee audits go to https://feeaudit.getresponsepages.com/ Target audiences? Is the event for clients, for prospects for COI’s, or all three? The event you plan can be educational or entertainment, or both. For example, advisors do wine around the world event, combined with a global money manager. Educational and fun. It is the time to be creative, and authentic. How to achieve your financial goals webinar and climb Mount Everest virtual climb. Fun and interesting. Global investing and tour cities of the world. https://www.thetourguy.com/tours/virtual-tours It’s not about attendance My first webinar was a success. I called, invited, and emailed everyone I knew. I had seven attendees and only one showed up. But I had booked 10 appointments as a result of calling people to invite them to the webinar. I would ask them to join the webinar and they would say they are busy, then I would ask for a 15-minute quick call to discuss the webinar material and have a one-on-one. I got 10 appointments and secured 4 new clients! One webinar and over $25,000 of revenue. Hmm not sure if you should do a webinar? Steps to set up a webinar 1. Set up zoom / or goto webinar software 2. Plan title and topic 3. Plan 3 dates –test and 2 webinars 4. Plugin info into zoom to “program” and generate LINK 5. Draft messages to email to clients, prospects, COI’s ( with compliance approval of course) with LINK 6. Draft content (with compliance approval of course) for social media posts –Linkedin and other 7. Make a list of calls to make-an excuse for calls and set up appointments as well as attendees! 8. Finalize offer(s) to make –checklists or guides that are valuable offers to the target market ( with compliance approval of course) 9. Follow up after webinar to get feedback and invite to next webinar and secure appointments Book the first date, and go for it. You will be glad you did!   How about your goals for your practice in 2022? Our Practice management resources   Comprehensive Practice Management checklist https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/ Fee Audit checklist https://feeaudit.getresponsepages.com/ 88 Marketing strategies checklist https://famarketingplan.getresponsepages.com/ Technology checklist including working remotely https://technologychecklist.getresponsepages.com/ Listen to grant speak at MDRT https://soundcloud.com/mdrtpresents/future-ready-practice-management-strategies   Download our "Exclusive prospecting checklist" to help acquire more ideal clients this year. https://prospectingchecklist.getresponsepages.com/   Discover: • Key processes to finding and acquiring more ideal clients for financial advisors. • How to enhance your offers and your value promise. • Blog on the best practice management strategies to help you manage and build your financial advisor practice and team

Let’s Talk   Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and having the goals conversation by contacting grant at grant@ghicks.com or click on the link to set up a no-obligation 30-minute discussion https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.   Grant Hicks, CIM, is President of Advisor Practice Management and co-author of “Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors” 1st and 2nd edition. www.advisorpracticemanagement.com for speaking, workshops or coaching, contact Grant at grant@ghicks.com Grants combined financial advisor clients manage over 5 billion AUM, and earn over $50 million dollars combined!