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: During the most recent office hours session, exclusively for Inner Circle members, someone brought up the idea of selling courses as a separate business for financial advisors, and I mentioned how I thought it was odd that I rarely get asked about course-selling or digital products or online sales, figuring, as far as I can tell, I am the number one digital product seller in the financial advisor marketing space. [00:54.7]
As soon as I ended that office hours, I checked my email and saw that one of the attendees emailed me and took me up on the offer, asking for some of my best advice for selling products online. I could talk for days about this topic, but I sent him a few pointers and I wanted to share them with you, too, because I think they have some carryover to financial advisor marketing in general.
The first thing I told him was, you must know your market. You must create products to serve that market. Lots of business owners make the mistake of beginning with their product or service and then trying to go out into the marketplace and sell it. That is the opposite way of what you should do, because what you should do is start with the marketplace and then build a product or service, or offering, around what the marketplace wants. When you do it that way, it is so much easier to sell. [01:45.4]
For example, I regularly get asked about prospecting, so I created a product called The 28-Day Prospecting Challenge. Financial Advisors asked me about LinkedIn marketing all the time, so I created How to Get Clients with LinkedIn, and so on. Financial advisors told me they wanted more one-on-one time with me and regular accountability, so I started offering monthly Office hours exclusively for Inner Circle members. I didn't create something like office hours and then try to push it on to financial advisors. Instead, I listened to what financial advisors wanted and then created something for them. [02:20.5]
On a related note, to creating things specifically for your market, it's imperative that you get your titles right. I know that's a tactic. This is very specific, but you really do need to get your titles right. Spend a lot of time on your titles. Don't try to get cute or clever. In my experience, a lot of business owners screw themselves with weird titles that don't really tell you what their products or services do.
For example, I have a program called The Client-Getting Website. Gee, I wonder what that is. It's obvious. I have another product called 37 Sales Tips for Financial Advisors. Hmm, that's pretty obvious. I have another one called Financial Advisor Marketing Plan. All of these are obvious, and it helps them sell better, because they're good titles. [03:05.5]
What's funny and kind of sad, honestly, is that my Inner Circle Newsletter has the worst name of everything I offer, but it's pretty entrenched now. It's trademarked and everything, so I don't think I'm going to change it, but if I could go back in time, if I had a time machine, I would name it “The Client Getting Newsletter” or “The Financial Advisor Marketing Newsletter,” or something like that. But at this point, hey, it is what it is.
Another tip I gave him is to build your business around getting buyers, not leads. Yes, you need leads. Yes, leads are important. But one of the things that has allowed the Advisor Coach to become successful is I relentlessly focus on getting buyers. There are a few ways I do this. One way is I will mention my paid products in my free resources. For example, so far in this episode, I've mentioned four or five of my paid products. This episode itself might be free, but I am still talking about things you can buy. [04:03.0]
Another way I do it is I have a wide range of prices. I think this is a very underrated tactic. For example, “37 Sales Tips for Financial Advisors” is only $37, and I'm sorry, but if you're a financial advisor and you can't even invest $37 into yourself and your business, you probably aren't a good fit for me. That's just the truth. So, I am focused on buyers.
I also have products like Appointments on Autopilot, which is my email marketing system. That's $2,000. It's significantly more expensive because, candidly, I'm the best email marketer in the world for financial advisors, and when you learn email marketing from me, you're learning a skill that you can keep forever. Nobody can ever take it away from you. It is yours forever.
By the way, here's something I've never understood. Lots and lots of financial advisors will go through a program like “Appointments on Autopilot,” which is $2,000—$1,995 if we're being specific—and never join the Inner Circle, which is $199 a month, and that's crazy to me, because a) I think the Inner Circle is better if you can believe that, and b) if you're the type of person to invest two grand in yourself, then you should probably just invest the extra $199 per month. But, again, lots of people do it. [05:15.2]
People get the LinkedIn product and the 37 Sales Tips, and the Client-Getting Website and Financial Advisor Marketing Plan, and the Big Book of Business-Building Secrets, which I haven't even mentioned yet. They spend literally thousands of dollars with me and with The Advisor Coach, and they don't subscribe to the Inner Circle newsletter. I don't know, I don't know what's going on. I'm thankful for these people either way.
In the financial advisor marketing world, attracting buyers instead of leads means you should center your marketing around, attracting people who are at least interested in working with you. They have to have some baseline level of interest in the positive direction of working with you. What I mean by that is they're not just interested in downloading whatever free content you offer. There are lots of freebie seekers out there, and it could be demoralizing to have to wade through all the freebie seekers if they're in your business. [06:05.6]
The final tip I'll share with you that I gave this financial advisor is you must actually make your programs good. That doesn't mean they have to be high production value. That does not mean they have to be pretty or fancy or anything like that, but they need to be valuable. They need to actually provide results for people. I'm not going to give you any actual numbers because I'm a private person, but the percentage of repeat customers I have at the Advisor Coach is absurdly high.
I just googled it and I saw the average repeat customer rate for ecommerce businesses is around 20–30%, and keep in mind, this is with businesses that include stores like meal-kit or meal-delivery services, and makeup services and clothes and tools, basically things that lend themselves to repeat customers, and these stores can only get 20 to 30%. I don't really think my business lends itself that well to repeat customers. [06:59.8]
I mean, objectively, let's just keep it real here. If you look at my business, TheAdvisorCoach.com, you realize I am selling specific results. For example, “The Client-Getting Website” shows you how to get clients from your website. Theoretically, if a financial advisor solves that problem, he or she should be good to go, right? Yes. But so many of those financial advisors come back and buy other stuff because they were so impressed with their initial purchases, and, again, I'm thankful for that and, again, this does not mean high production value.
I actually recently watched an interview with one of the most successful online marketers of all time, and he said, the more he invested in fancy production, the more complaints he got and the worst his customers were, and that has been my experience as well. Most of my products have very poor production value. They're ugly. They're literally just PDFs and video presentations where I turn on my microphone and start talking over a presentation. I'm not going to win any awards for design or artistic beauty, but believe it or not, that's the stuff that attracts the best customers. [08:04.5]
Anyway, I have been preaching this message to financial advisors for years, especially with stuff like their websites, because you have to know what you're optimizing for. Many financial advisor websites are optimized for good looks, so they include things like lots of white space, high-quality images, professional fonts, and all the stuff just to make it look good. But one of the most shocking things I've ever discovered is that uglier websites tend to have higher conversions. I mean, even my website looks like it's stuck in the past, and it is butt-ugly compared to other sleekly designed websites. That's intentional. If a redesign would get me higher conversions, I would do it.
The biggest reason for this is that in a world full of beauty, the ugly thing stands out. It makes people stop and pay attention. Plus, it makes your calls to action stand out a little bit more, especially if you can make those beautiful—tip, tip, that is a tip for you—and everything else ugly, makes your calls to action beautiful and have everything else ugly, or vice versa. I don't know about you, but I am running a business, not a fashion show. [09:09.6]
In my opinion, the purpose of a website for a business is to maximize the chances of turning a visitor into a lead and then into a client. So, that is what I optimize for. I don't know about you. I don't know about any other financial advisors who are listening, but I optimize for that, and with online course sales, I optimize for getting buyers.
Of course, now the question becomes, how do you identify those buyers? Or in financial advisor marketing speak, how can you identify your best clients? I'll tell you. [09:40.0]
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.
In one of his old newsletter issues—yes, I read newsletters. They're my favorite products to buy—Gary Halbert talked about one of the most impactful ideas I've ever discovered, and that is selling to players with money. He explained, it's easier to sell something to someone with money. Duh, seems obvious, right? You'll soon realize that money is an effect. It's not a cause. But play along with me for a little bit. [11:10.1]
If you have five-- How can I explain this? Let's say you have a $5 million house for sale. It doesn't matter how appealing the house is, how awesome it is. It's got marble this and granite that, and beautiful flooring and super tall ceilings. It doesn't matter how amazing it is if the family you're pitching it to has a pitifully low income, because at some level, people have to have money. Yes, you can't get blood from a stone.
But there's another fact you mustn't overlook, he says, because players with money usually have an important character treat that other people don't possess, and that's the ability to make a decision, and they can make decisions without talking it over with their spouses or their lawyers or their CPAs or their mommies. Players with money have money because their lives are filled with independent thought and movement. [12:06.8]
He also says they have another rare commodity, and it is the ability to recognize value, which means these people, the players with money, are actually easier to sell to than average people, but only if you offer true value. If you don't offer true value, obviously, you're going to have a hard time selling to players with money, because these people can recognize value, and they can recognize that you aren't providing the value. But if you have value, they will recognize it and they will be easier to sell to. This is like gold. This is a huge takeaway. If you get nothing else from this podcast episode, get this. That's one of the reasons why I stress your products, your offering, your service, must actually be good. [12:50.1]
Gary Halbert then explains that players with money are most likely to buy the thing they did not get in school, and that is an education, because almost nothing taught in school has any commercial value whatsoever. This is true with financial advice as well, because schools rarely teach any sort of personal finance class, and even the rare schools that have personal finance classes don't have good ones. They give you horrible information. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to depend on a government employee to teach the children in the future of America how to handle their money.
Then perhaps the most important thing that players with money love to buy is time. All truly wise people realize that time is the most precious commodity they possess and it's this commodity that they are least likely to squander. In fact, I've discovered in my 10-plus years of helping financial advisors get more clients that this is one of the biggest litmus tests between people who are serious about becoming clients versus those who are not serious about becoming clients. [13:56.7]
The unserious ones are the ones who believe they could do everything themselves. And, sure, why not? I mean, we have YouTube. We have books. We have ChatGPT. I'm sure you can do everything the same way, with the same exact results as a financial advisor who actually has certifications, experience and real-world time with clients, but, whatever, you do you.
Players with money value their time. When it comes to hiring a financial advisor, they're not just paying for portfolio management or retirement planning. They are paying for, as cheesy as it sounds, peace of mind, because that peace of mind comes from knowing that someone is handling all of the details so they don't have to. They're paying to preserve their scarce resource, which is time, and to avoid the stress of doing everything themselves.
This is why one of the most significant divides in the world of potential clients is between those who understand the value of their own time and those who don't. If people truly recognize that time is finite, they won't want to spend hundreds of hours watching YouTube tutorials, reading articles and then stumbling through all the trial and error that comes from trying to figure everything out themselves. They would rather invest that time with family, friends, personal pursuits, hobbies or making more money in their business. How about that? [15:08.5]
This is also one of the biggest litmus tests I use in my own business. I tell you that because I want you to know that I practice what I preach. I'm not just telling you this to sound cool. I actually do it. The best financial advisors for me to help, the ones that get the most results, are the busy ones, because players with money are busy. They tend to be busy. They have a lot of stuff that they need to do, so they value time, and The Inner Circle from The advisor Coach is designed to save time.
I know financial advisors are busy. Most financial advisors I talk to feel stretched thin. They've got client meetings and paperwork and compliance, and then they got to run their business, and with all of that stuff, marketing often gets pushed to the back burner. And I get it, you did not become a financial advisor to spend hours trying to figure out LinkedIn, post email campaigns or ad copy. That's why I built the Inner Circle the way I did, hello, because I know you don't have time to waste. [16:07.4]
That's also why I include real-world templates. I include real-world strategies and concepts that you can use right away. It's also why I have the office hours, because you can literally get help right then and there. If you have the time to show up to a Zoom meeting for five minutes, 10 minutes, or the whole two hours, whatever, I can help you right then and there.
I actually believe that one of the most surefire ways to identify your best clients is to figure out who is willing to pay to save time versus who isn't, because from a financial advisor's perspective, a willingness to pay for time-saving services is an excellent indicator of a solid client. Here's why: players with money tend to grasp that time is the only resource you can't replace. They can earn more money. They can hire more employees. They can buy more resources, but they can never get back lost time. This is why they pay a premium for services and solutions that streamline their lives. [17:04.4]
Oh, and here's the takeaway for all you note takers out there—being someone who saves time is a way to improve your unique value proposition, all else being equal, meaning, you could go against someone who is equally as skilled, as equally as credentialed as you with equal marketing assets, and you can still get more clients by positioning your offer to be attractive to players with money.
It also allows your business to become more profitable, because if you can get more done in less time, you are more productive, and in service-based businesses where your income is tied largely to your time, that means you are more profitable, so that is a huge win-win.
To wrap up this episode, I want to give you four reasons why you can identify your best clients by filtering for people who value their time. [17:50.7]
Reason No. 1: if potential clients struggle to see the value in paying for professional services like financial planning, it usually means they haven't fully grasped the ROI on their time. Clients who do not understand that every hour they spend trying to do it themselves or figure out complicated financial products is an hour they can't spend on other priorities. It's just better for them. They can have happier lives, more fulfilling lives.
Reason No. 2: people who prioritize time don't want to spend hundreds of hours sifting through YouTube videos, blog posts and books. They know that a single expert like you and a single recommendation from you can save months or even years of trial and error. They'd rather invest in the direct route by turning to an advisor who is already there, who already has the experience, who already has the wisdom to steer them in the right direction.
Reason No. 3: this is a big one that I see all the time in my business, too. Clients who value their time are typically more coachable. They are less resistant to your suggestions because they hired you. They want you to tell them what to do. They don't want to reinvent the wheel. They want to implement your advice, so if they value their time, they're going to follow your advice, and that is pretty cool, because in my case, financial advisors who just listen and do what I say tend to get better results. [19:11.3]
Reason No. 4: these people see time as precious. They are inclined to invest in long-term relationships with you, meaning, their retention is higher. They don't want to shop around every time a new advisor catches their eye. They want one relationship they can count on. They want you because you understand their financial situation and you can continue serving them into the future.
The ability to pay for time-saving services often signals a more serious, dedicated and profitable client for financial advisors. If you can identify them, then you will have identified the people who are likely to be your best clients.
Thank you so much for listening. If you want to check out the products I mentioned earlier in the episode, I know I mentioned a lot of them, you can do so by visiting TheAdvisorCoach.com/products. Once again, that's TheAdvisorCoach.com/products—and I will catch you next week. [20:08.6]
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