You're listening to Financial Advisor Marketing, the best show on the planet for financial advisers 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 advisers grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard. [00:31.7]
James: Financial advisors, welcome to another episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast. I wanna start off this episode by expressing my gratitude for you. I'm glad you're listening, I know I don't say it enough, but I appreciate you. These past few weeks have been crazy for me. There's been a lot of stuff going on, all good, don't worry. It's not like bad stuff or anything, it's actually all good. And I found myself trying to check a lot of little boxes. In a previous episode, I talked about the productivity experiment I was trying where I would do a big task, a medium task and a small task. And one of my fears was that the little things would add up and that has happened. A lot of little things like little nitpicky thins, things that need to be addressed that need to happen in order for the business to move forward. They, I don't wanna say they've been falling by the wayside, but they've definitely been adding up and it is a little frustrating at least for me. [01:21.8]
I noticed that I have this, I, I don't know if it's part of my personality or what, where I don't really like doing small things, small things, small things, small things, small thing. I like having some big, hairy, audacious goals mixed into my day in order to keep me motivated to keep me going. But enough about that, I wanna tell you about a little nastygram I got from a financial advisor who wanted me to do some in private coaching with them. It’s a little funny, I'm gonna tell you what happened. [01:45.7]
Every year for the past few years, I've given serious thought to opening up the coaching part of my business. I messed around with the idea in 2019, I got really close, I didn't do it. I got really, really close in 2020 and didn't do it. And in 2021, I, I did, I was going to spend most of the year traveling and I didn't commit my time to coaching a bunch of people because quite frankly, I didn't want to. So, this guy emailed me like in April of last year, so, April of 2020 and asked about private coaching. And I told him everything I just told you about how every year, for the past few years, I've toyed with the idea, but haven't pulled the trigger. I've gotten really, really close, but I haven't done it. I told him something like, who knows, I might finally do it in 2022, but don't get your hopes up. That's important. It's not like I led the guy on and said, yeah, just wait and I'll throw the application page up. I didn't say any of that. I said, do not get your hopes up. [02:41.4]
And obviously I didn't open any formal coaching packages this year or anything like that. But this guy emailed me in early January of this year. So, 2022 talking about how he was ready to sign up and I wasn't doing any coaching and this guy goes off. He sends this long, long, long email about how he waited for me and was looking forward to it all year and on and on and on. I felt bad for the guy I, I really did, but I told him again, just like I told you here. I told him specifically, do not get your hopes up. And to be fair, I have a history of not a offering coaching programs now, because let me be honest with you guys. I don't make my money from coaching. I'm not someone who coaches in order to make a living. I always find it weird when people run real businesses and do coaching on the side. I, I think to myself, is your business not making you enough money? I mean, why would you need to coach if you are running a successful business? [03:41.6]
I am a marketer. I can't speak for other people. I'm just gonna tell you, my experience. I'm gonna tell you what I do. I'm gonna tell you how I think. Okay. Cause I can't put words in other people's mouths, but I've, I've always thought it a little strange when people have coaching on the side, but I am a marketer. First and foremost, I have marketing skills that I use in the advisor coach and I use in other businesses. Quite simply, I can make more money using my skills to grow businesses than I can coaching other people. That's the honest to goodness truth. It would be dumb for me to sabotage my own income by running a coaching program. I would literally have to have a pay cut it. It would be a big-time investment on my part too. I can make more money doing other stuff. Plus, I wouldn't even have the time commitment in my calendar or I wouldn't wanna put it in there. If I wanna drop everything and go to Atlantic city for the weekend, I can do that right now. I can't necessarily do that if I have coaching calls like every Tuesday or every Wednesday or whatever, I hope that makes sense. I, I hope you understand. [04:42.9]
The closest thing I do to “coaching” these days is the inner circle newsletter. It it's a way for me to get in front of many financial advisors at a much lower cost than the expensive coaching that costs thousands of dollars. And the reason I love the newsletter from a selfish business owner perspective is I can write it whenever. It fits perfectly with the lifestyle business aspect of the Advisor Coach. I can be in Virginia Beach, Naples Florida, The Outer Banks or my home State of Delaware, the greatest state in the union, by the way, and still write it. If I don't feel like writing at 9:00 AM, I don't have to, I'm not tied down like I would be with a coaching program. And advisors end up getting the same valuable information anyway, and guess what? The advisors can also consume it at their discretion. If they get it in the mail and wanna read it right away, they can, if they wanna wait a few days, they can do that. The advisors are also free from the time commitment that comes with coaching. And I think that's a win-win. But enough about of that, let's get into the topic of the show, which is about handling the I'm not interested objection. [05:48.5]
Every so often I will receive a question from an advisor about how to handle the I'm not interested objection. For instance, the advisor will reach out to prospective clients like on LinkedIn, for example, with one of my recommended messages, from how to get clients with LinkedIn. And the prospective clients will say that they're not interested in using a financial advisor at this time. This is one of the most common objections. And this also happens with other marketing strategies, not just LinkedIn, but I'm to talk about LinkedIn because it seems to come up a lot simply because the program is so popular and advisors get a lot of results with it and word of mouth, it just spreads and more and more financial advisors use it. So, they will ask me things like, what do I do? How do I respond? And perhaps the worst question of all, how can I get them to become interested? And I, I wince, like my heart hurts when , when I received these questions because the reek of neediness and neediness recks conversions. But here's my answer to the last question. [06:47.9]
The last question is how can I get them? Them, meaning the perspective clients, how can I get the perspective clients to become interested? You don't, you don't waste your time trying to create interest. You move on. I know that there are various coaches and consultants and marketing agencies out there that will tell you that people say they're not interested when they don't understand the value of something. And their prescription for you is to try to make the other person, see the light and finally accept how valuable you are as if there's a switch inside. All you need to do is turn the switch on and they'll say, oh yeah, I actually really do wanna work with you. Let me set an appointment right away. But guess what happens when you do that. You take time away from someone who might actually be interested in hiring you. You are fighting an uphill battle. Then this is doubly true on LinkedIn because on LinkedIn, it's so easy. So, so easy to find the right people and connect with them in a meaningful way. You can engage with them. You can comment on their stuff. You can send messages; you can send connection requests. There's, there's so much stuff you can do. It is such a better use of your time to just move down the line and find people who immediately see the value you provide. [07:59.6]
These people are generally easier to work with anyway. You would rather have these people as clients, would you not? Would wouldn't you rather have someone who gets it immediately, who says, yes, this is what I want. Yes, I wanna work with a financial advisor. Yes, I see the value of financial advice or would you rather scratch claw persuade fight in order to get the other person to see? And there's a quote from Eugene Schwartz that I really like. Eugene Schwartz, for those of you who don't know is one of the greatest marketers/ copywriters of all time. Eugene Schwartz wrote a book called Breakthrough Advertising and many marketers consider it to be the greatest book our marketing ever written. And his quote goes like this, ‘The greatest mistake marketers make is trying to create demand.’ And I agree. You cannot create it. You cannot create demand. You can only take an existing desire and channel it into what you offer. Schwartz, what he did. He, he did something amazing because he also acknowledged that copy, meaning the words that you write on your website, on your LinkedIn profile, on your emails, whatever your copy cannot create desire for a product. You cannot get a vegetarian to want steak, even if you're the best marketer in the world. [09:10.5]
You can take my LinkedIn scripts. You can use every tool in my toolbox and you still will not be able to create a desire for meat inside of a vegetarian. People have to want whatever it is that you are offering. Nothing will work unless you're offering something people want, you have to understand that. If people aren't interested in financial planning, that's okay. I know it might seem like blasphemy to you. I know that you might be like, what? Why would anyone not wanna hire a financial advisor? Financial advisors are awesome. I get that. I understand that you provide accountability. I understand that you can provide a financial plan. I understand that you can protect their families, but most people just don't get it. Let's take a look at the population and I'm gonna say some stuff it's gonna sound kind of sort of mean, but I mean it, in the nicest way possible. [09:54.9]
According to bank rate, only 39% of Americans can afford a $1,000 unexpected expense. Northwestern Mutual did a similar study called, Planning and Progress. And everything that I'm telling you is 100% verifiable. You can Google it if you want. I'm not just saying this stuff to sound cool, Northwestern Mutual, again, they did a study Planning and Progress and they found that number to be 41%. So, bank rate found 39 Northwestern mutual found 41. So, let's just call it 40%. Okay. 40% of Americans cannot get their hands on a thousand bucks. That's crazy to me. And if it's, if, if that's you and you're listening to my voice right now, and you can't get your hands on a thousand bucks ma'am or sir, you need to wake up. You need to get with the program. You need to do whatever it takes to get your hands on some money. There are, there are more than 150 of these episodes. Okay? You can go back; you can listen to every single one. There are free blog posts over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/blog. Yes, I have products that I charge money for. You don't need to get me money right away, but I will recommend listening to all of the podcast, episodes, reading all of the blog articles and then applying that information to make money. And then you just recycle it and recycle it and recycle it. You circulate it in the universe. [11:10.0]
Hey, financial advisors – if you’d like even more help building your business, I invite you to subscribe to James’ monthly paper-and-ink newsletter, The James Pollard Inner Circle.
When you join today, you’ll get more than one thousand dollars’ worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren’t available anywhere else.
Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [11:32.5]
Here's the truth. And this is probably going to get me another nasty email. Some of you listening are letting your egos hold you back from making more money. If you're having financial difficulty right now, your ego is the last thing you should worry about. I I've sold ice in 100-degree weather. I I've shoveled horse manure. I've cleaned so many toilets. I can do it in my sleep. When I was in high school, I got paid $200 to digitize some old photos. There was a former either vice principal or principal. I didn't have 'em. I never had 'em. I, he was one or the other. He had these old photos slides and he didn't have the time to scan them and digitize them, so, I did it, it took me two days. I had to scan every single one by hand and I did it in between studying for AP exams, which by the way, the school didn't even offer. I'm gonna go off on a tangent here, but I just want to illustrate, you know, some people have it, some people don't, I'm just gonna tell you I've got it. I know what I have. I know what I do. [12:28.7]
Look, I took AP psych. I took AP European history. I took AP world history, AP government, and one other one that I can't even remember right now on my own, the school didn't even offer the classes. I studied the material on my own time. I took the test. I passed every single one and I rolled those bad boys up in the college credits. And guess what that allowed me to do. It allowed me to graduate early from college. So, take a look at this, check this out. I'm giving the dollar and cents behind this. At the time, a year of college, you know, because tuition has gone up, room and board has gone up. Inflation is running wild like hulk mania. At the time it was $20,000 for all of the expenses, right? I saved myself 20 grand by doing extra work and taking those exams. Yet you have a adults, adults who whine and complain about not being able to get it together. Give me a break. The problem is you are too interested in looking good for other people, or you're too scared, you'll miss out on the latest Netflix show who gives a crap about what's on Netflix or Hulu or paramount plus or HBO, max or Showtime who gives a crap. [13:32.5]
I mean, really, really, when it comes down to it, what would you rather have? Would you rather see the latest Netflix show or would you rather have the money in the bank? I mean, come on. But back to what I was talking about, you cannot create demand. And if you try to message the person back, trying to create the demand, it will fail you. I promise, like I hate saying that prospecting is a numbers game because it, that's not all there is to it, but getting some numbers on the board is a big part of prospecting. If you only have 10 people in front of you, then I can understand getting worked up and getting anxious when one person tells you that he or she isn't interested. But what if you have a thousand people in front of you, if one isn't interested that's okay. You can move on to the next person. And guess what? I'll lot of you don't have a thousand people in front of you. You're too comfortable. I, if you are someone who is part of the 60%, that has more than a thousand bucks, you might look down on the people with less than that, but I, I want you to be very careful, don't be so quick to judge. [14:30.4]
Because as someone who is marketing and building a business, your prospect list is like your emergency fund. If you can't reach into that figurative bank account and pull out some people who want to hire you, then you are broke. You are broke in that part of the business. Trust me, when I tell you that a lot of business problems could be solved by adding more people to the pipeline. And I'm gonna talk about that a little bit later too. But I know a lot of you are thinking, well, gee…James, you make it sound easy. It's not easy. I'm not gonna tell you that it's easy. It's simple. It's very simple, but it's not easy. You have to start with a list of leads. People are thinking, well, gee… James, where do you get the leads? You can find them on the LinkedIn. You can find them on other social media networks. You can rent a mailing list. You gotta get on your grind. You gotta do the stuff. I talked extensively about this in some of the previous inner circle newsletter issues. You can drive traffic to your website. You can make phone calls. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do. And here's one way to make it easier to find people. Have a niche. [15:30.9]
Because when you have a niche, you know where people in your niche hang out, or at least you should, you should know where they hang out. And from there, it's extra simple for you because all you have to do is go there and offer something they want. The whole idea of someone not being interested in hiring a financial advisor is one reason why I'm always stressing that prospecting is about filtering. Yes, you want to get in front of people. Yes, you wanna make sure you have good systems in place, but remember something else. I always stress. You should focus on productivity first. And the way to become more productive is to focus on people who are most likely to do business with you. You do that by being ruthless with your filtering. The caveat to this and I told you I was gonna talk about this later. Here we go. The caveat to this is that you probably do need to increase the number of people in your pipeline. [16:24.8]
When I started the Advisor Coach, I was shocked at how comfortable financial advisors were with itty bitty to tiny pipelines. It it's kind of like having somebody think that he or she has a million dollars in the bank, when that person really only has a few thousand dollars, it's, they're operating with this false sense of security. They feel so good, but they don't have anything. They don't have that figurative bank account. Remember if you don't have that emergency fund, as I describe it, meaning your pipeline is your emergency fund. You're in danger my friend, you are in true danger. And I talk about this a lot in the newest product that I put out called, ‘the 28-day prospecting challenge.’ It's available. If you wanna check it out, it's TheAdvisorCoach.com/prospecting. One more time TheAdvisorCoach.com/prospecting. I'm gonna leave it at that. I'm not gonna give away any proprietary information here, but I will tell you there's a difference between leads and prospects. [17:20.4]
Leads are people in your target market. If you're a financial advisor who works with teachers, you can hop on LinkedIn and find teachers. Those are leads. You can advertise to teachers on Facebook. Those are leads, but they are not prospects. In my prospects or people who have at least at some level acknowledge your existence slash acknowledge an interest in working with you. Someone who says, yes, I'd like to learn more, becomes a prospect. That person moves from a lead to a prospect. This means people who opt into your email list are prospects, because they've acknowledged your existence. They know you exist. And the fact that they've opted in means they are at least somewhat interested in what you have to offer. Then you have qualified prospects who are the prospects you decide to work with just because someone acknowledges your existence and wants to work with you does not mean you have to work with that person. You can still say, no. Maybe you have an asset minimum, maybe your capacity, who knows either way you call the shots when it comes to qualified prospects. [18:20.1]
Then after that, of course we have clients. So, we have leads, prospects, qualified prospects, and then clients. The reason I bring this up is because one of the biggest mistakes I saw advisors making was that they thought leads were the same thing as prospects. And that is like, that's not the case at all. If you think this way, then you need to change your thinking because you're probably operating with that same false sense of security. It's like operating as if you have a million-dollar emergency fund, when you only have a few thousand bucks. Like you believe thing, a false reality, these advisors would show me like a hundred leads in the pipeline and think that they were doing well. What they didn't realize was the math. The business is like math. You can predict these things. The reason I can create systems for financial advisors is because it's based on math. And the math doesn't change. The advisors didn't realize that the response rate or the average, your response rate, I should say hovers around two to 5%, which means that these 100 leads that they had were probably net two to five appointments. [19:18.4]
Obviously, that can change based on how qualified the audience is. But that's exactly my point. Most people don't have a highly qualified audience to begin with. And the people in the pipeline haven't made it to the prospect stage yet. Remember prospects are people who have acknowledged your existence / acknowledged an interest in working with you. They haven't acknowledged interest in working with the financial advisor. You need to avoid having this happen to you. I want you to get to a high number of people who have demonstrated interests. They're not just leads. They are prospects. This is one of the, I don't wanna talk about email that much, but this is one of many reasons why email marketing works so well for financial advisors and why I'm always harping about email marketing because immediately, immediately, I mean, right away, as soon as it happens, it puts people in the prospect category. And that has a huge impact on financial advisors’ businesses. [20:10.7]
So that's the a message I have for you this week. And I want to end it with a note about following up. When people tell you that they're not interested, should you cut them out forever and never follow up with them? Not necessarily. You can send another message in a few months, like a happy birthday message, a very generic happy birthday message, maybe a line or two about how you help people just like them. They may be interested. Then things change. Life happens. People educate themselves. They learn more about the value of a financial advisor, but you getting in front of them with a small-time commitment on your part is the most important thing, because that keeps you productive. And what do I always say, focus on productivity first. And if they come back and they say that they're still not interested after you followed up, you can give some serious thought about cutting them out for good. And besides I'm not interested is one of the best objections you can get because it allows you to quickly eliminate the perspective client from consideration. So, you can move on to someone who is more likely to say yes. [21:13.6]
And with that, I am finished. That's a wrap for this episode. If you want to check out the 28-day prospecting challenge, go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/prospecting. It might be the best investment you ever make in yourself besides the inner circle newsletter, of course. And I'll catch you next week. [21:29.8]
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