THE CLIENT RELATIONSHIP
We completed an environmental scan and over 30 in-depth interviews of practicing advisors, ranging from those just starting out to those with over $300 million in assets. What we found was surprising: the most successful of these advisors did not have a primary focus on the investment strategy. Instead, they had a primary focus on strengthening the relationship with the client.
Based on these findings, we identified a core of “Best Practices” that all advisors should be including in their offering to strengthen their relationship with the client:
OVER 20 "TOUCHES" WITH A & B CLIENTS EVERY YEAR
- Newsletters form an important part of these 20+ touches. However, to achieve the objective of strengthening the client relationship, the newsletter should be written in the first person and have personal messages from the advisor in every issue. See A Sample Advisor Works Newsletter
- 90 Day Call Rotation also form part of the 20+ touches. Note, the purpose of these calls is not sales oriented. Rather it is simply to “check in” with the client to show caring and to capture life changes or issues that may have occurred since the last contact. See 90 Day Call Rotation.
- Holiday greeting cards, cards for birthdays, for anniversaries, and for less celebrated occasions (Thanksgiving, Canada Day, May 24th); See Samples Here
CLIENT EVENTS FOCUSED ON RETENTION
Client Events ranging in subject matter from specific financial planning topics to golf, wine tasting, gardening and other areas of interest to clients. See Client Events
REGULAR PROSPECTING ACTIVITIES
In addition, virtually all of the most successful advisors continue to engage in regular prospecting activities:
To help advisors pick the activities they would like to implement, we have created what we call the “Repository of Best Practices” based on information gathered by an industry insider with over 17 years in a major dealer’s head office while responsible for marketing and practice development, and as a Senior Financial advisor.
This repository includes the teachings of the industry “Gurus”-- Nick Murray, Dan Sullivan, Dan Richards, Steve Moeller, Ron Carson, Paul Karasic, Julie Littlechild, Duncan MacPherson, Bill Bacharach, Bill Bishop and many others.
In addition to the “Do IT For You” unique selling proposition, Advisor Works has one more unique advantage: we are former financial advisors and administrators/assistants helping financial advisors and administrators/assistants. The principals have over 30 years combined experience as a VP of Marketing and Practice Development for a major Canadian Investment Dealer, as a Senior Financial advisor, as an Office Manager and Admin Assistant for a successful branch, and a seasoned entrepreneur specializing in personal branding and psychometrics.