You're listening to Financial Advisor Marketing, the best show on the planet for financial advisors who want to get more clients without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal. James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisors grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard. [00:32]
James: Welcome another week, another episode of financial advisor marketing. I am James Pollard, founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com if you go there, the home page has got a bunch of cool stuff on there from this podcast actually to the blog, to the email list, to the newsletter, which are really cool and speaking in the newsletter, we're recording this in April and I know I'm dating this podcast but, so be it. I call the shots and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to date the podcast, producer Jonathan. I recently sent out the April, 2020 inner circle newsletter and we actually included a gift that I personally paid $2,500 for to my inner circle members. So by the time you're listening to this, if you are an inner circle member, you've already gotten a gift and you already know what it is and hopefully you're seeing some benefits with it.
Jonathan: Nice.
James: But— I know!! Like, and I didn't even advertise that Jonathan, I didn't even mention it.
Jonathan: Seriously.
James: In any of the emails in any of the promos. Like I didn't even say anything about the bonus because I didn't want people signing up for the bonus alone. [01:36.2]
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: But, because if it’s, if someone's in the inner circle or like I'm going to shower them with love and gifts and make it worth their while. I just don't want people seeing the bonus and being like, “Oh my God, I got to get this bonus and I'm going to cancel a month later.” Right?
Jonathan: Opportunity seekers.
James: Because that's what would happen, unfortunately. And I hate to say it like that, but that's what would happen. People would be attracted to this big, bright, shiny bonus object and get that and then cancel and then unfortunately once they cancel, I blacklist them and they can't come back. And that hurts me too because even if they changed their foolish ways and decided to come back, they can't. So I kind of have to operate my business in such a way where they, where people only join the inner circle when they're truly ready and I think that's the way to do it.
Jonathan: You're protecting them from themselves. [02:25.08]
James: Really. I really am because I don't want them to get in before they're ready. I really want them to get to a place where they understand that they have to be an investor first, that they're serious about building their business. I don't want them to jump in too soon and that's why I try so hard to turn off the, these people. But enough about that, enough about the inner circle. Do you want to join? Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching and the reason it's slash coaching is because it used to be a page where I offered one on one coaching and now I do the newsletter. So that's it! I recently saw something producer Jonathan, that was so crazy, I wanted to talk about it with you. [03:06.2]
Jonathan: Okay.
James: And it's quite possibly the most baller move I've ever heard of in my entire life. A friend sent me this YouTube video of how Michael Jackson wanted to see the real world. And that sounds kind of strange now that I'm saying it out loud on the podcast, but Michael Jackson, for those of you who don't know, I don't know how you couldn't know Michael Jackson. He was one of the most famous people ever in the world and mobs would form wherever he went. I mean he was like the definition of celebrity, the definition of superstar. And because he was famous like his whole life, cause he was in The Jackson 5 and then mega star after forever and then, I mean just total superstar. He never got to, like I said, have a real life, see the real world. So what Michael Jackson did in this video was he decided to shut down an entire grocery store, just shut the whole thing down. [04:06.0]
Actually, I think, I think it was more than a grocery store. I think it was the entire mall. He shut the whole thing down and he had people there that he knew, like his staff and his family members and everything. They staffed the grocery store and they dress like they were bag boys and cashiers and.
Jonathan: Really?
James: He, this man had his whole staff pretend to work at a grocery store so he could see what it's like to shop there.
Jonathan: Bizarre!
James: Isn't that nuts like that, but seriously, like there's some baller stuff. He's like, you know what? I'm just going to shut down the whole mall. I wanted to share that story though, because it goes to show that there was a lot of stuff that we take for granted that other people, we just take stuff for granted that other people wish they could have. Michael Jackson, it sounds so weird to say Michael Jackson dreamt about going grocery shopping and there's probably something in your business right now that you take for granted that other people wish they could have. [05:07.4]
So be more grateful for what you have. Be more grateful for where you are right now, but don't stop striving for more. And speaking of striving for more today we're going to talk about ‘Millionaire Clients’ and where to find them because a lot of financial advisors want to add High-net-worth and Ultra High-net-worth clients do their businesses, but most of the time they don't know where to start. So I'd like to give some pointers today that may help you in your marketing journey. Sound good?
Jonathan: Yeah, I can't wait.
James: The very first thing that you need to understand is that millionaire prospects, despite what you may believe. They are very similar to everyone else just except they have more money. They are just regular people; and yes, there are some differences. I understand that we're all different in our own different ways. We're all special unique snowflakes, I understand. But for the most part we're the same. And there's an even an extremely popular book, if you're a financial advisor, you probably read this by now; if you haven't, make sure you go out and read it. It's called ‘The Millionaire Next Door.’ [06:10.6]
And it essentially talked about how good millionaires are at blending in with the general public. And this is a, a bit of a mindset shift. And one of the reasons I recommend that you read this, if you haven't read it yet. It’s because it gets you to understand that the flashy people who want to stand out, they're usually broke, usually broke. I mean, there's this picture online like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates standing together and it's like, what— like $150 billion. No Gucci belt in sight.
Jonathan: Hmm…hmm.
James: The real millionaires, they're the ones who fade to black, they're just part of the group. And you couldn't necessarily pick them out of a crowd, and that's how they like it. I mean, I know I've talked on our private calls about the richest person that I personally know and he’s just a regular dude, I mean jeans and plaid. And you would never ever be able to tell this dude and, but yeah, he's got quarries and mind fuels and oil and agriculture and farms like he, his level of diversification when the average Joe thinks about diversification, they think about the stock market and buying a bunch of different companies and things like that. [07:22.4]
His level of diversification is like; I'm going to have 20 farms in different States. I'm gonna have 800 single family homes in different States. I'm going to have quarries like total next level stuff. And I mean he is just operating on a different planet. But you couldn't pick them out. He doesn't have any Rolexes, doesn't have any Gucci belt, not rocking that Louis that I know Cupcake loves. Look at you. You're falling into the trap, bro.
Jonathan: Oh come on now. It’s good to just
James: Buying her that designer now. Look at you, you better watch out. You're going to be flashy. But then you're not flashing though. I know you're not.
Jonathan: No, no. I'm, I've got the old 16 year old Ford truck. [08:04.9]
James: But most, that's the thing with, with financial advisors, most of your millionaire prospects, they don't want to be flashy. They don't want to flaunt their wealth. They want to build a legacy. They want to leave something to the kids. They want to help some charities, stuff like that. I mean, we're, I'm going through the process with Brandon Neely and setting up the, our banking system and all that.
Jonathan: Nice.
James: And I know that you mentioned that you felt uncomfortable revealing your finances and all that stuff.
Jonathan: Oh yeah!
James: It was a little weird for me too.
Jonathan: It is weird.
James: Financially naked. [08:33.7]
Jonathan: It's hard.
James: But ahhh…the cool thing was that I felt kind of proud of this and I try to be private about my charitable giving or whatever. But I mean, I had to give Brandon the number, right? He had to see what I donate to charity or whatever.
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: And he was respectful and yeah, he didn't say anything about it. So I was like, you know, if all hell breaks loose, you know, obviously I can, if worse comes to worst I can take the charitable money and I can use it for other things.
Jonathan: You can open up..
James: So we can do a cash flow analysis,
Jonathan: Karma there baby.
James: Yeah. Yeah. But that's what it is with the millionaire prospects. But the most important thing financial advisors that you should understand about marketing to wealthy prospects is that, and this is really important — they are looking for and they are willing to pay for ‘Quality.’ This is not just with financial services, this is with everything. They may not be flashy, they may not drive the nicest car, but they're looking for quality. [09:38.8]
Toyota, not the sexiest car in the world, but a quality car, it doesn't break down. It's got low, I think Toyota or Honda or one of those cars is like the lowest cost to maintain over five years. That's what they're looking for, looking for something like that. And they'll pay whatever you ask up up to a certain point as long as you stack the value in front of them. They're looking for quality. And I've talked about this in previous podcast episodes, but I want to give a few specific examples. I really, I'm trying not to talk and be big generalities anymore. I'm trying to be more specific and give more proof. If I make a claim I'm going to back it up because that's what makes me different from all the other people who promise big stuff. So I have in front of me right now a really nice computer keyboard and it's made by a company called DAS keyboard, D A S and it's one of the best mechanical keyboards that you can buy. [10:29.1]
Jonathan: Fancy.
James: And it's awesome; like I love it and seriously like it sounds weird but once you buy a nice mechanical keyboard, you'll never want to go back. And I bought it for like $200, which I mean isn't a lot of money in its absolute stone, but when you're talking about buying keyboards and when you know that you can go to Best Buy and get a $20 keyboard, it does seem a little absurd. But I happily paid that $200 because I understood the value that I was getting in return. I would rather have one keyboard that I can buy once and never have to think about again ever, instead of buying a $20 keyboard and having key stick and having it break down and not recognize as device, I get just I don't need that hassle. I am willing to pay for quality, and the same is true with millionaire clients and financial advisors. Once again, they are looking for a competent professional, so the best way to stand out to them is to provide information. This is different than “Providing Value” to your clients. Do your clients and just vomiting like the best stuff in vomiting, like real hardcore information to them that's going to overwhelm them. You just got to give them a little taste and this is why having marketing collateral is so important. [11:41.0]
Having marketing collateral in the form of blog posts, emails, content, all that stuff, it's a way to give in information and demonstrate your value, demonstrate that you are the real deal. Because affluent investors, they may take a little bit to reach a decision, but once they make that decision, they're locked in and they don't mind searching for quite some time either because they've got a specific problem. They want nothing but the best. They would rather solve that problem and then move on because if they get an inferior product or an inferior service, they're going to have to come back again and again and again. Just like me coming back with the keyboards and having this stuff stick, I'm going to have to go back and fix it and I have to go back and get another one rather than just spend the freaking 200 bucks, never think about it again. That's what they're looking for. Now, of course, you're not going to just move on and never think about it again, but they want to get a service that they don't; where there's no headaches like ThePodcastFactory.com
Jonathan: Well, thank you.
James: Build your podcast in 30 days with no headaches or hassle.
Jonathan: I like it. [12:44.4]
James: Ask what they, what they're looking for? When it comes to the money, you better believe that they'll get, they're going to go through a lot of information. A lot of people were trying to market to them and they're not doing it the right way. But they are going to consume it, they are going to evaluate it and they'll, they can wait until they're comfortable making a decision and that's okay. Because knowing this in advance, knowing that they take a little more time than the average Joe, that's an advantage. Because you know it and when you're going in and creating your marketing plan, you can put something together that takes a little longer, that's a little more meatier, that has more information. You can do it. Other people don't realize how, just how long it takes. They want everything quick and easy. [13:26.7]
Hey, financial advisors, if you're looking for a way to set more appointments with qualified prospects, I invite you to sign up for James' brand new webinar about how financial advisors can get more clients with email marketing. Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/webinar to register today. On this webinar, you'll discover why email marketing is able to generate upwards of 4400% ROI for smart financial advisors, three fatal mistakes nearly all financial advisors make with their emails, and the proven three-step process for converting prospects into booked appointments using email. All you have to do is head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/webinar and register today. [14:06.6]
I also want to point out, now I'm not a Call Reluctance expert, but there's a specific type of call reluctance called socially self-conscious call reluctance and people who suffer from this, it really should be called prospecting reluctance because it's not, you're not necessarily making calls you're, you could be reluctant to send an email, you can be reluctant to do a LinkedIn message, whatever. So I, I'm going to call it prospecting reluctance now. People who suffer from that, they're intimidated by people who they perceive to be better than them. And when it comes to financial advisors and prospecting, it's almost always directly related to how much money a prospect has. If prospect has $10 million, then the financial advisor may feel some discomfort. They may feel a little intimidated or even worse, that financial advisor won't even try to reach millionaire clients and millionaire prospects because of that intimidation. [15:05.5]
That's when it gets really bad when they're, they have this form of prospecting reluctance called socially self-conscious reluctance. They are so intimidated that they won't even try, they won't even put themselves out there. It's heartbreaking to see, and it's often a deal breaker or a career killer for financial advisors. So for a lot of advisors, putting together a prospecting plan for getting in front of millionaire clients, it involves beating this intimidation. If you have any shred of this reluctance, you need to deal with it first, and one of the best ways to deal with it is to understand more about them. Understand more about millionaire clients, millionaire prospects, because if you understand more about them, the fewer tends to grow away. You get a little bit more confidence, you can move more effectively. Another thing that can help advisors is to realize that those millionaires and financial advisors you, you've got more in common than you may realize. [16:02.8]
This is what I'm talking about, trying to like know them a little bit better. Because towards the top most high earners they have options for increasing their income. They can pull different levers. The six figure professional, that person can raise his fees, he can get more clients, he can cut expenses. There's a bunch of stuff that he can do, a bunch of little buttons he can push to make more money. That person has control and a lot of financial advisors also have control because they can go out and they can push those same buttons. They can go out and get more clients if they want to. They can raise their fees. They can also do a lot of the same stuff, they can cut expenses. So that's something that you have in common, so you run your business the same way that a lot of your millionaire prospects run their businesses. [16:47.6]
You are actually more like them than someone else out there on the street or of nine to five employee, you have more in common with them. They are more interested in talking with you, someone who owns a business and goes to the same crap that they do than talking with like some random person at the bar, not that they would be at bars, but if they are, hey, they're more interested in talking with you. And if you're optimistic, you have something else in common. Because there was an NBC news poll done in 2014 which found that only 25% of middle class Americans felt optimistic about the economy and their own financial futures.
Jonathan: Yikes!
James: And that was in 2014.
James: So I wonder what it is.
Jonathan: Right now?
James: -ve 10, -ve 10% of middle-class Americans felt optimistic about the economy and their own financial futures. So I, I'm trying to think about this now with me. I would say that I, I feel neutral about the economy right now. I mean, I don't want to grand stand myself and say, oh yeah, I feel optimistic and try to put myself in this millionaire prospect category. [17:54.1]
But I wish I could say I feel optimistic about the economy, I feel neutral. I don't definitely don't feel pessimistic, for sure. I definitely feel optimistic about my own financial future. So that's cool.
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: But back to that, the study among the 5, top 5% of income owners though 75% of them said that they were optimistic. So think about that. Middle class Americans only 25% said they were optimistic about the economy and their financial futures. Now I can understand if, if their financial future, if they're not optimistic about that cause they're not making as much money, things are getting a little tougher I understand. But optimism in general, like about the economy as a whole, not just you. Only 25% of middle class, we're optimistic, but 75% of the top 5% of income owners, we're optimistic. That's a huge difference. And this is another lesson financial advisors can use to improve their marketing. This is the financial advisor marketing podcast so here you go, ‘Embed optimism into your marketing.’
Jonathan: Interesting. [18:58.8]
James: This is like, it's a big deal and I I, you're already doing it. So you may not have ever registered this consciously with The Daily Bread Project or whatever, but you're already doing it. I've noticed that you're doing it and people are responding to you and I don't really know if this is why, but it's interesting cause I, I mean I've scripted this podcast out and wrote the outline for it months ago.
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: Weird to see to it that this is happening now, you know.
Jonathan: It is strange.
James: It is is a little freaky, but this is what you need to do. Financial advisors seriously. Take a look at all of your marketing. How did you sound? Are you pessimistic? And I think I tend to go on the pessimistic side, so I should work on this a little bit more. I think I'm, I'm optimistic about the, the cream of the crop financial advisors because my business is about helping winners win more.
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: That's what I do. It's very difficult for me to take someone who doesn't want to win, doesn't want to succeed, doesn't want to do anything or just kind of sort of interested or like I'll try it out and see what happens. [19:56.8]
Jonathan: Hmm.
James: Like I don't work well with those people. I want someone who's like, I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to win. I'm going to earn this money no matter what. I'm going to get these clients no matter what. I just need you to help me get there faster and I'm there. I'm your guy. I'm ready for you. So I'm optimistic in that thing. So when it comes to marketing, can you put a positive spin on things? That doesn't mean you have to make any predictions about stuff. You shouldn't do that. I'm not asking you to do that, but you should at least sound like you're optimistic about whatever's going on in your life, your family, your health, your car, you're getting a new car, you're buying something like your prospects want to know, like it's, it's so weird. Some of the best performing emails that we're seeing right now for financial advisors, just about random stuff like, “Took my car to the shop, was thinking about you”, like just the most mundane weird stuff. It's just; it's working like gangbusters as setting appointments. It's, it's blowing my mind because like I knew, I know that this stuff works, but it's amazing to see how well it's working. So yeah.
Jonathan: It's a confidence thing, James. Right? If you're confident, if you're optimistic, I think you're also confident and people are attracted to that. [21:02.2]
James: Yeah, and when you send out the market commentary stuff, you're letting someone else dictate your marketing. If you're letting another service write the newsletter for you, you were letting that person dictate or that company dictate your marketing. And I offer appointments on autopilot, which has 20 pre-written ‘done for you’ ready to go email templates. But within those templates I explicitly say, “DO NOT COPY AND PASTE”. Put your own stuff in here. Put your own spin on this. It has to have your voice. And the reason for that is exactly what I just said. That, you have to have it be genuine. You have to talk about stuff that is specific to you. Because I mean just speaking from the data here, if you don't, it's not going to work as well. And I say that in the templates and I say that in the video. If you just try to just straight up copy and paste, I promise you it won't work as well. [21:56.4]
You have to do certain things and I explained that within the system. But back to the episode finally, a lot of people have this myth or they believe this myth that millionaire prospects are somehow immune, I guess from insecurity. And it's not, that's not true at all. I mean it's almost as if people believe that once you hit that million dollar mark, you gained some sort of power that gives you superhuman competence. And that's far from the truth. I mean if you, if you're super confident now and you're broke, you're probably going to be super confident once you got the million bucks. It's just that's the way it is. And in my experience with financial advisors and with my own business and the operating in the world, millionaire prospects, they still live with some, at least some type of underlying anxiety to money doesn't it relieve? They're worried about losing it all or worried about screwing it up, losing friends, having family members turn on them. And it's not like they're just moping around, not like for being Eeyore. What is it the, the character from Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore
Jonathan: Eeyore. [23:03.3]
James: Eeyore, it's not like they're being Eyesores or anything but there's just like this nagging sense because it could happen, anything could happen, stuff could go wrong, and they worry about it. And as a financial advisor, you are at least partly in the business of selling peace of mind. And if you thought that you were selling peace of mind to everyone else, you've really got to sell it to millionaire prospects because they crave it more than anyone else, I know it seems counterintuitive. It seems as if they already had the peace of mind and that's covered and you don't need to worry about it anymore. You're helping everyone else get to peace of mind. It's actually the reverse with at least for a lot millionaire prospects. because yes, you are helping everyone else get peace of mind, but you also helping them, millionaire prospects get and keep peace of mind as well. A lot of people think, Oh, they've got the money, everything's cool, but the the anxiety does go away if they've had it. The insecurity doesn't go away if they've had it, and once you understand this and once you're beyond any insecurity or any reluctance in your own life about reaching millionaires, they're not that hard to find. [24:13.3]
I think one of the biggest like pseudo complaints that I get from financial advisors is that there are so few millionaires out there and it's hard to find. It's hard to grow your business by leaps and bounds because one of the ways to do it is to get very wealthy clients and get a lot of them. That's one of the ways you can really make it as a financial advisor. But here's the truth, about 6% of the United States population has millionaire status. According to spectrum, 84% of millionaires have a college degree and another spectrum study found that on a 100 point scale millionaires rated the importance of having a regular savings program at 82 which means they have a strong belief at saving is important. This is great because when you're working with millionaire prospects and millionaire clients, you will find they have a lot of the same beliefs that you do. You are going to be able to relate to them better than, like I said earlier in a podcast episode and better than most people. [25:12.4]
And here's another statistic. This is from Fidelity's millionaire outlook survey— they found that 80% of current millionaires did not reach the magical $1 million mark until they were at least 50 years old.
Jonathan: Wow.
James: I'll repeat that again. They found that 80% of current millionaires did not reach a million bucks until they were at least 50 years older. So if you're a financial advisor and you'd like to attract more millionaire clients, you probably want to filter for age. If you're doing online marketing, I know Google lets you do it, I know Facebook lets you do it, I know LinkedIn lets you do it. Well LinkedIn lets you filter by company, experience and time on the job, so that's a proxy for it. But email, Facebook and Google lets you do it by age. So if you want to attract more millionaire clients and you've got an ad that's working and you want to tighten it up a little bit, here's an actual for real tip that you can use — Filter by Age. Because if you're, if you're marketing to people who are under 50 and you're primarily, primarily concerned with getting more millionaire clients, the odds are not in your favor from a marketing standpoint. [26:20.4]
And according to that same study, it was done by Fidelity. It's called the ‘Millionaire Outlook Study.’ I'm not just making this stuff up; it's all a 100% verifiable, that's the direction I'm taking the business. It was found that 62% of millionaires, only 62%, I should say, rely on a financial advisor to help them manage your wealth. That that's a huge opportunity producer Jonathan.
Jonathan: Yes it is.
James: Cause you've got let me see, let me do some math. I'm not very good at it. 38% millionaires out there right now, don't have a financial advisor. You can serve this group. And I know we did a podcast episode about how to be number two and put yourself online for when the they fire the financial advisor, but even if you don't do any of that stuff, there's 38% who don't have a financial advisor and if you, if you're even kind of sort of interested in this stuff, that should be a huge, huge wake up call for you. [27:17.9]
You should be like, Oh my goodness, 38% of millionaires don't have a financial advisor like this is a blue ocean for you here. It's just amazing because we live in a world where it has never been easier for financial advisors to find millionaire prospects. You've got LinkedIn where you can filter by occupation and you can filter by experience all that good stuff. You've got Facebook where you can literally target by income. You can literally target by geography and education and age and more. You've got the internet in general which allows you to build a marketing machine. We talked about them in last week's podcast episode where people find you instead of the other way around. Because one of the things I've noticed about high-net-worth prospects from studying them and interviewing them and doing stuff for years is that on average they like to get information. They like to study from afar a little bit. They don't make impulsive decisions, especially not with a financial advisor because they realize how important it is. [28:17.2]
We are seeing this shift happen more and more, high-net-worth prospects are looking for financial advisors who will solve their specific problems and meet their specific needs. They will spend quite some time looking online; they will spend quite some time researching to make sure that they find the right financial advisor. So if you don't have your website, if you don't have your email marketing, all that stuff set up, you— are— falling— behind. I am not trying to scare you. This is not a scare tactic. I'm just calling it like I see it and if you're not doing it, you are falling behind fast. And speaking of building a marketing machine, if you want to discover how financial advisors all across the country are getting more clients with email marketing, make sure you register for the webinar over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/webinar , this is 100% free, it's automated. I practice what I preach, right? Like if you're not doing the stuff that I talk about on TheAdvisorCoach.com/webinar things are only going to get harder for you. So go over there, watch that thing, and implement the information.
Jonathan: Awesome man. So James, what do you have coming up for us next time?
James: I'm going to keep the listeners shrouded in mystery. I'm not going to give away the topic that we're going to talk about, but the title is going to be Clients desperately want advisors to do this.
Jonathan: Ooh…...That is a wrap for another financial advisor marketing. Thank you fam for tuning in and we'll be back in your ear buds next time. [29:53.9]
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