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.
James: Financial advisors, what is going on? How have you been? How are you? What are you doing? I want to know. The reason I want to know is because someone emailed me and pointed out that I haven't been sharing as many stories on this podcast, like in the intros, and that's true.
I used to share a lot more stories. I used to talk a lot more about my life and what's going on, and I would keep the people abreast of what is going on in Planet Pollard. So, I will start this show off with an update, I guess, letting you know what's going on in my life, how I'm doing, and that sort of thing. [01:05.2]
I have been spending a lot of time at the beach this summer. I mean, I'm at the beach every year, but this year it's more than usual. I don't know why. I just feel like being there more, so go there more. People really sleep on Delaware's beaches, let me tell you. You can go to the beach in Delaware and not have it be overwhelmingly hot or humid.
I love Florida. I'm in Florida all the time. I spend a lot of time in Naples, but it's just hot. It's just in June, July, August, even in September, it's just unbearable. The Gulf Coast, I love the Gulf Coast, Mississippi, Alabama. They have some of the best seafood I've ever had in my entire life. I love it. But the truth is just the humidity kills me in Hilton Head, Georgia. That's awesome that the humidity there is awful and the bugs are just unbearable. But, again, I'm not hating on those places. I'm just pointing out that every place has pros and cons. So, the cons for the Delaware beaches is that, in the winter, it's much colder and it's something that you have to deal with. [02:00.8]
But I'm just saying that, for me, I like the temperate climate. You can actually enjoy some Boardwalk fries and some ice cream without feeling like you're going to melt in the sand. And I'm not talking about Rehoboth either. All the tourists go to Rehoboth. I used to work in Rehoboth, and let me tell you, the summer traffic is brutal. I get that the tourists are one of the reasons why my taxes are so low, because they spend their tourist dollars, but, wow, sometimes I wish there weren't so many of them.
It's one of those things where if someone starts talking about going to Rehoboth or how awesome Rehoboth is, I know immediately that they are not locals. They are not familiar with the area. They don't know what they're talking about, because there are so many better beaches in this area, not just Delaware, that blow Rehoboth out of the water. I mean, just to name a few, you have Ocean City in Maryland, which is consistently ranked as one of the best family destinations in America. I love Ocean City. It is almost as touristy as Rehoboth, maybe even a little bit more sometimes. [02:59.5]
But bringing it back to Delaware, you have Bethany, Dewey, Cape Henlopen, Lewes. It's pronounced “Lewis.” It's not Luz. If you're a tourist, you say Luz. It’s not Luz. It's Lewes. Fenwick Island. All better than Rehoboth, in my opinion. You also have Slaughter Beach, Woodland Beach, Big Stone Beach, and more. Keep in mind that Delaware ranges from 9 to 35 miles across, that's it, so if you drive west to east, you're going to hit water within nine to 35 miles of your trip. That means no matter where you are in Delaware, you are at most 45-ish minutes from a beach. Just hop on the highway, drive a little bit, and you're there.
There's a wide variety of beaches, too. Some are quiet. Fenwick Island is very quiet. Some are for partying. I would say Bethany and Dewey are party-ish. Others are just there for living and getting to know your community. Lewes is very community-oriented. Fenwick Island is also very community-oriented. The inlet area down by Indian River, if you're familiar with that. It's just awesome. It's a great place. [04:01.4]
I'm a beach guy through and through. It's always funny to me when people talk about going to the lake. Look, I get it, a lake is better than nothing. You have to get in where you fit in, but I could never, so that is what I have been doing and that's what I've been up to. I've been living the beach life and it's been a lot of fun.
Now, on to today's show, I want to chat about something that is likely costing you clients without you even realizing it. I'm going to talk about five major leaks in your financial advice business and how to plug them. The very first leak is the follow-up leak.
When I first began coaching financial advisors back in 2015, this was one of the biggest wins I could give them, and I told this story a few times before, but one of the main ways I got coaching and consulting clients was by sending a letter with an amazing offer. I switched my offer up over the years because I was always testing. I mean, by over the years, I mean 2015, 2016 and early 2017, because that's when I was coaching. [04:58.5]
But it was essentially something like this: you pay me for coaching. I will recoup what you pay me in 30 days or 60 days or 90 days, or whatever the offer was at the time. Or not only will I pay you the difference, but I will also give you an extra 1,000 bucks or an extra 500, or an extra 1,500, again, depending on the offer, for wasting your time.
I think one of the offers I tested was that I would donate a thousand bucks to your charity of choice. Hey, what can I say? I'm a marketer at heart. What I'm trying to get across here is I purposely held my feet to the fire. I had to deliver for financial advisors who hired me, or else, I would be paying out of my own pocket. Do you get that? I took on all the risk. That was how I got my offer out into the marketplace. I said, “I will get you results, for sure, guaranteed, or I will pay you the difference and I’ll give you money out of my own pocket for wasting your time to pay you for the inconvenience.” [05:52.5]
But I'll let you in on a little secret. One of the main reasons why I could make such a bold offer was because I knew that, more often than not, I could walk into a financial advisor's business, improve the follow-up just a little bit, and pretty much pay for myself right then and there. It was so amazing to see how big of an impact following up had for financial advisors, especially when it was automated through things like social media posts, email autoresponder sequences, and direct mail letters. A lot of this stuff can be automated.
Seriously, and I mean this, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. But I was happy because I could get financial advisors some results and I could get paid. They could get paid because they got the results, and they really didn't even have to do anything other than a 30- to 60-minute consultation with me once a week, if they wanted to do that. A lot of the financial advisors didn't even want to do that. They were so busy just growing their business. They were the delegators, the outsourcers, I suppose. For better or worse, that's what they did and they would say, “James, just do your thing. I'm happy. We're all getting paid. We're all making money here,” and it was just a lot of fun. [06:55.7]
So, in my experience, the consideration process doesn't even begin until at least five follow-up attempts. Are there exceptions to this? Yes, and I think that's why some financial advisors are terrified of following up, because if they have a group of 100 people, maybe one person will set an appointment on the first or second follow-up attempt. That leads the advisors to mistakenly believe that everyone else isn't interested, and that is what costs them clients, because the truth is, most people aren't even thinking about you until you show up multiple times. People are not thinking about the advisor.
I had one of my Inner Circle members email me, I think it was two or three days ago, and he was asking about creating a guide for S corps. He was making like the ultimate guide to S corps, and he was going to educate his market and push this out into the marketplace as a resource that business owners could use, and, eventually, it would lead to them hiring him to help with all the stuff, just the standard lead magnet stuff. [07:50.7]
I explained to him that people don't wake up in the middle of the night thinking, Oh my goodness, I have to set up this S corp. You have to educate the market, in the sense that you have to let them know why S corps are even important, why they should even consider having one, or two or three, depending on how many businesses they have, and that is how you, quote-unquote, “sell” the process, meaning, you are following up by talking about why they should set up an S corp. You are following up by explaining to them why it is important, and you could get five follow-up attempts easily. Easily.
So, how do you plug the follow-up leak? It should be obvious. You should implement a systematic follow-up process. This could be a series of emails, phone calls, direct mail, social media posts, and so on. The key is consistency, and with a little bit of patience mixed in, and if you have a strong digital presence, a lot of this follow-up will happen without you ever directly reaching out to prospective clients. It just happens because they see your content online. [08:52.5]
Do you know how many times financial advisors have told me that people have reached out to them saying something like, “I've been following you for a few weeks,” or “I've been reading your emails for a few months”? It's absurd how much it happens and it's because of that follow-up process. If those advisors only reached out to people once and then quit, they would not have the businesses they have today. So, the follow-up leak is the very first leak, and that's a great segue to the next leak, which is the digital presence leak.
I cite this study all the time because I think it's required reading for financial advisors, even though it's a few years old now. It's advisor value propositions, and it found that the first and second most popular ways for investors to search for financial advisors are Google and LinkedIn.
Okay, I want you to think about this. Let's say someone is considering you as his financial advisor. He's got a list of three advisors he's considering and he's typing all of their names, including yours, into Google. Please tell me, besides your website, what is one of the most popular pages to rank highly in the search engines for your name? Your LinkedIn profile. [10:00.6]
Do you know what that means? It means that you can make a strong case that your LinkedIn profile is as important and sometimes more important than your website, because it is where a bulk of people will go to do research on you. Here's where many advisors spring a leak. Their digital presence isn't congruent. If you're targeting a specific niche, this is especially important. If you talk about your niche all the time on LinkedIn, but your website doesn't mention your niche at all, then you're confusing potential clients, and confused potential clients don't become actual clients.
To plug this leak, ensure your messaging is consistent across all platforms. Your website, LinkedIn profile, and any other online presence you have should tell the same story about who you are, who you serve, how you do it, what you do, your process. It should be congruent. [10:51.0]
One more tiny leak I'll just point out in the digital-presence leak theme, I suppose, is when financial advisors don't post on LinkedIn at all, because people will go to their LinkedIn profiles and see that the last update was made months ago and assume that the advisor isn't working anymore, doesn't have time to stay updated, and all sorts of bad things. No good assumption comes from seeing a financial advisor's LinkedIn profile that hasn't been updated in five or six months. So, please make sure your LinkedIn profile is congruent and make sure you are active.
Next, we have number three, which is the referral leak. There are so many reports and studies about referrals, and they all find something similar. A whole bunch of people say they would give referrals. Yet advisors are only getting a small percentage of those referrals. Why? Based on what I've seen, the answer is deceptively simple. Many clients simply aren't aware that their advisors are taking on new clients, and to a lesser extent, they don't know precisely who their financial advisors want to take on as clients. They just don't know. [11:54.2]
You don't have to beg your clients for referrals, but you should let them know that you're open to receiving them, and that you're willing to help their family members and their friends and whoever your specific target market is. If the friends and family members are not in your target market, I get it, I understand, but you can still let them know that you're open to receiving referrals from people in your target market. That is the beautiful part of running your own business. You make the rules.
There's not much more I want to add to this because the way to plug the leak is to let your clients know that you're accepting new clients and that you would love to treat their referrals with the same amazing service that you've treated them with. That’s how you plug the leak. The leak is the referral leak. Enough said.
Listen up, financial advisors. This is something special I'm doing exclusively for people who listen to this podcast. If you subscribe to the Inner Circle Newsletter over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, I will send you a collection of seven copyright-free emails, personally written by me, that you can use right away to begin getting more clients.
I call these my “objection-busting” emails, because they are designed to overcome the biggest objections financial advisors face. All you have to do is send me an email letting me know you’ve subscribed and I will reply with a link where you can download them for free.
I originally offered these in the May 2024 Inner Circle Newsletter issue, and it was one of the most popular bonuses I've ever given away. Today, these seven objection-busting, copyright-free emails are only available to listeners of this podcast, because I'm not mentioning them anywhere else. Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to subscribe today. Now, back to the show.
Number four is the value-proposition leak. This is a big one, because let's be honest, many financial advisors just sound the same. They say, “We provide comprehensive financial planning.” If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I could buy that house on the beach I've been wanting.
I'm not just picking on that phrase, “We provide comprehensive financial planning.” Here are some other doozies. You have “We take a holistic approach to wealth management.” “We create customized financial plans for our clients.” Gee, I hope so. “We help you achieve your financial goals.” Yeah, of course, I hope so. You're a financial advisor. What do you want? What are you going to say? [14:06.7]
Don't feel bad if you've used one of those in the past, though. I'm not here to shame you. All right, all right, I'll come clean, maybe a little bit. I'm here to shame you a little bit, but I'm still here to help you fix this leak. The problem is when you sound like everyone else, you become a commodity, and commodities compete on price, not value. That is not a game you want to play. Trust me, there will always be people who want to do things cheaper, and even if you, quote-unquote, “win” that race to the bottom, you will still actually lose because you'll still be broke and you'll still be burned out, and that is not a good place to be.
So, what’s the fix? You need to develop a unique value proposition. But before we get into how to do that, I want to tell you why it's important. A strong value proposition does several things for you. It sets you apart from the competition, so in the sea of sameness, you stand out. It attracts ideal clients. That's important. The right message will resonate with the right people, so if you have the right unique value proposition, it will make sense, it will appeal to, it will stand out to the type of people you want to become clients. [15:13.3]
It also justifies your fees. When people understand your unique value, price becomes less than an issue. For example, I'm remodeling a bathroom right now, and if someone came to me and said, “We have already designed the perfect bathroom for you based on your taste and the colors that you use, and how your house looks. We've drawn up the designs. Just say yes and we'll make it happen. You don't have to talk to anyone. You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to look at samples. You can just do what you do best, James. You can sit at your desk and help financial advisors. You can go to the beach. You can have your laptop on the beach and answer your Inner Circle member questions. You can live your life and be happy, and not have to think about this bathroom whatsoever, and when you come back home, it will be 100 % complete. It'll be warranted for life. If you ever have any problems, then we'll come back and fix it.” [15:58.5]
That is a heck of a value proposition. I would love that, and price wouldn't be that much of an issue because they would remove a lot of obstacles for me. I'd be like, Okay, how much is this? They say, “Oh, just an extra $2,000 or $3,000 for this white-glove service.” I'd be like, Sign me up. Here's a tip. I'd be like, Here's a $1,000 for being so awesome.
A unique value proposition also makes marketing easier. When you know exactly what you offer and who you serve, creating content and messaging becomes much simpler, because now you have a standard. You have a benchmark to compare everything against. You can say, does this serve my unique value proposition? Does this add to it? Or does it take away from what I'm trying to accomplish in my business?
Let’s talk about how to create a unique value proposition, a compelling one. Here are some of the key elements. I'm not going to go deep on this. I'm just going to give you a general overview. You will have enough to make your own unique value proposition, but, truthfully, some of this stuff is just too advanced to share on a free podcast episode. I do reserve some of this information for my Inner Circle members, simply because it's more efficient for me to write everything out so answer advisors can see and I have something to point to and say, “Look, this is what I've referenced in a previous newsletter issue.” [17:09.4]
I'm rambling a bit, so I’ll just tell you. You need specificity. What specific problems do you solve? I said, “problems,” because it's possible that you can solve multiple problems and have that as part of your unique value proposition. With the bathroom example I just gave you, they solved the problem of my time. They solved the problem of wasted energy. They saved the time of commuting to and from sample stores and places to look at fixtures. They solved the problem of me trying to figure everything out myself. Those are examples of “problems” that they would solve, okay? Not just one.
A lot of people get hung up on this and they think, I need to pick one problem that I solve for my market in order to create a unique value proposition, and it's just not true. You want a target market. Who do you serve best? You want a unique approach. A unique value proposition has to be, by definition, unique. Don’t try to throw something together that everybody else does. What can you do that is different from everyone else? And how do you do that differently? [18:10.8]
Finally, you need a clear benefit. What results can people expect from working with you? What benefit will they get by hiring you? Let’s break these down. For specificity, instead of saying you help with, quote-unquote, just financial planning and that's it, you should get specific. Do you specialize in tax optimization strategies, estate planning for business owners, retirement planning for people with significant stock options? The more specific you can be, the better.
For your target market, just tell me who is your ideal client? And I don't mean business owners or high-net-worth individuals. You want to go a little bit deeper than that. Are they tech executives? Are they divorced women? Are they doctors? The more you can narrow this down, the more your message will resonate.
If you do end up going with business owners, just layer it a little bit—business owners in this geographic region, business owners in this industry, business owners with this amount of money or this amount of revenue, or this number of employees or greater. Just be a little more targeted. [19:06.7]
For your unique approach, you just want to figure out, what is your secret sauce? Do you have a proprietary process? What do you do differently? Your unique approach needs to be, and I can't stress this enough, unique.
Then you have the clear benefit. What transformation can your clients expect as a result of working with you? What benefit happens in their lives? How would their lives be better after working with you? You want to be as concrete as possible here.
Let's put it all together. Instead of saying “We provide comprehensive financial planning,” you could say, “We help dentists transition their practices into retirement without sacrificing their lifestyle.” See the difference? It's specific. It's targeted. It speaks directly to a particular group's needs and it's relatively unique. It could be better, I'll admit this. I'm just recording a podcast episode here. It's not like you've hired me for anything. So, that might sound kind of strange, but, yeah, I could do a little better on the unique part. [20:06.0]
But here's another example. You could say, “We help tech executives turn their stock options into generational wealth through tax-optimized planning strategies.” That's a little bit better. I like that one. That hits all of the key points.
Okay, enough about that. The fourth money leak. We spent a lot of time on this, so let’s move on to the fifth and final money leak for financial advisors, or losing clients or losing money, whether they know it or not, and it is the client experience leak.
This is one of the most overlooked leaks in many financial advisors’ businesses. It’s often said that it is cheaper to keep a client than to find a new one, and this is coming from someone who helps financial advisors get new clients. That’s what I do for a living. [20:46.2]
According to a study by Bain & Company, increasing retention rates by just 5% can increase profits 25–95%. That is huge. Even though that study isn't specific to financial advisors, the point is still clear. Retaining clients should be a goal if you want to make your business more profitable.
Even though I love helping financial advisors get more clients, I don't want them to focus so much on getting new clients that they neglect the experience of their existing ones, because that's where the leak starts. That's where the client experience leak begins.
I try to practice what I preach here with things like my Inner Circle Newsletter. I do a lot to make sure that the advisors who place their trust in me get the help and the results they deserve. For example, I'm recording this in July and I recently announced that I'm doing office hours exclusively for my Inner Circle subscribers.
On the second Tuesday of each month from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, I will hang out in a Zoom room with my microphone on, with my camera on, ready to chat with financial advisors who want to join, and in true office hours fashion, I will be there the entire time, unless I have to take a bathroom break or something. I'll put a little sign up, “Be back in 15 minutes. A different kind of leak is going on right now.” [21:58.0]
I'll be there whether five advisors show up or 500 financial advisors do, because it's all about making myself available for people who want help. I realize there's a segment of the advisor population who wants real [help]. These people want real direct help with their marketing and business-building efforts. They want someone there in person, kind of, I mean, over Zoom, to help them with what they need. They don't necessarily want to do it through email. I get that, so that is what I'm doing.
I love email and I've been emailing back and forth with advisors for many years now. But, truthfully, some things are just faster and easier when you can get on a Zoom call with someone and talk through your challenges and your issues and your problems, and your goals and your aspirations, everything. That's my goal here.
This is the biggest change that the Inner Circle Newsletter has had in the past few years. I've already had a handful of ex-members ask to rejoin for this benefit and I told them no. They've emailed me and they said, “James, I noticed that you're giving office hours. I know I canceled last year. I canceled two years ago. Can you make an exception and have me resubscribe?” No, no. This is not a game of hokey pokey. You're not in sometimes and out sometimes. [23:06.0]
After all, I have my blacklist policy for a reason. Once you cancel, you're going for good, and that's a good thing because it separates the serious committed financial advisors from everyone else. I am constantly working to provide the best experience possible and I think that these office hours are a step in the right direction, because I want to build a real relationship with financial advisors where I know more than just their businesses, where I know more than just their email addresses if they've never engaged with me through email before, where I see the email on the sale that comes through or the invoice to come through. I want to know who they are so I can help them better.
I also want them to network with other advisors who show up because I don't have all the answers. I want my Inner Circle members to learn from each other, to help each other and to grow together. I am really excited about that, if you can't tell. I'm doing it because I want to improve the experience. I want advisors to look at this and say, “Wow, this is something that I can greatly benefit from. This is something that will help me,” and just make the most out of it. [24:08.8]
I encourage you to put yourself in your client's shoes. Think about how you can help them. Look at their client experience. What do they do? Map out that journey. Find all those pain points that you can alleviate. In my case, some advisors felt like they wanted someone to help them right then and there. They also wanted more of a community feel and a network that they could rely on.
I haven't even had the first office hours yet. Again, this is in July. I'm going to do the first one in August, but I would like a scenario where advisors connect with each other on LinkedIn, help each other build the presence on there. They connect in real life, not like an engagement pod or anything goofy with LinkedIn, but just looking out for each other, like, “Hey, this post worked really well for me. Here's a link.” Put it in the chat. Or “This headline has been working really well for me. This landing page has worked really well.” Put that in the chat. [24:54.0]
I really want to hammer the collaboration side of things because I think that's one area of my personal Inner Circle member experience that has been lacking. In the client experience journey, the collaboration part is just not there as much as I would like it to be and I think the office hours will go a long way to solving that.
So, there you have it, five major leaks in your financial advice business and how to plug them. Let's recap.
No. 1: Follow up consistently. Don't give up after one or two attempts.
No. 2: Ensure your digital presence is congruent across all platforms.
No. 3: Make it known you welcome referrals.
No. 4: Develop a unique value proposition that sets you apart.
No. 5: Regularly review and improve your client experience, just like I did with the office hours.
I practice what I preach here. I take my own medicine. I am really looking forward to helping financial advisors. Seriously, whether five advisors show up, whether 500 do, I'm going to be there to help those who want the help. I'm serious, I want to build a real relationship with advisors and really be a partner in their success. [25:57.8]
Remember, plugging these leaks isn't about drastic changes. It is about small, consistent improvements that add up over time. Start with one this week. See how you can improve in that area. Then move on to the next.
Before we wrap up, if you like this idea of office hours and you're not subscribed to the Inner Circle Newsletter yet, you can join at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching. Remember, I plan on hanging out in Zoom on the second Tuesday of every month from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
As soon as you subscribe, you'll be taken to a thank you page with the Zoom link there that you can bookmark, that you can save, that you can put somewhere so you remember to attend every single month. I am truly here to serve you and I look forward to getting to know you.
I will catch you next week. [26:45.2]
This is ThePodcastFactory.com
