Author: Matt Bellis

It’s either because Financial Advisors don’t understand the worldview of the market or they don’t address it effectively. However, some Financial Advisor’s behavior does show that there is at least a subconscious awareness of this issue.

Case in point: I’ve conducted many workshops with Financial Advisors. I always began the workshop by introducing myself and what I do for a living. I ask each of the participants to stand and introduce themselves as if I were a prospect. They proceed to describe themselves with some very “creative” names for what they do for a living. “I’m a Wealth Enhancement Specialist”. “I’m an Innovative Financial Solutions Provider”. If you could have been a fly on the wall you would have seen and heard each Advisor, one by one, introduce themselves to the group, not one calling themselves a Financial Advisor. By the end of the introductions we were all chuckling. When I asked why – and this took some thoughtful searching – they all agreed that it was due to consumer “attitude”, as they called it.

This “attitude” is the worldview commonly shared by most of the public, a broad distrust of the industry at large. It’s not something you can change and we find that most Advisors don’t have a strategy to address and move beyond this barrier.

The key is to develop your marketing story. When you truly understand the way clients and prospects think and feel, you can create a marketing story that subtly and effectively addresses this worldview.

Creating this story will be different from anything you’ve ever done in the past and  you may need to erase some muscle memory.  Presenting facts and figures about your performance history doesn’t work. What does work is a passionate story that is about them, not about you. It’s the reason they will believe in you.

When you do this you’ll find your qualified clients will become your best “client advocates”, the most productive centers of influence a Financial Advisor can have.

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It’s always been said that the best way to grow your financial advisory business is through client referrals. However, we all know that getting client referrals is no easy task.

Our research among Financial Advisors shows that activity – getting referrals on an ongoing basis – is, for the great majority, the number one business challenge. The fact is that most of us – unless we are truly gifted in this area – don’t have the ability to gracefully go from the sale to the referral. We’re afraid, we don’t want to be pushy, we don’t want to put off the client. And we’re just too worried about closing the business. Does this sound familiar?

So what’s the solution to this conundrum? It’s learning how to get warm, qualified introductions – the anthesis of referrals. A warm, qualified introduction is when one of your best clients – the kind of client you would love to duplicate – introduces you to one of their qualified close friends, family members or business associates. Someone like them. What makes the introduction truly warm is that it’s done with permission and inclusion.

Here’s the major difference:

Referrals come from a traditional sales based approach where the primary goal is transactional, to make the sale. You provide financial advice to close a sale, to make money and hopefully, to get a referral. But if you don’t get a referral, that sale won’t help increase your activity or future sales.

Warm, qualified introductions are the result of practicing a service based approach where the primary goal is… warm, qualified introductions. These introductions keep your pipeline consistently filled with qualified potential clients, successfully addressing the number one Financial Advisor challenge… new, qualified activity. When you have more activity more implementation follows. As such, having a full pipeline creates tremendous opportunity to grow your income, revenue and business valuation.

As a Financial Advisor, you may not be aware of the most important asset you have available to you.  It’s Social Capital.

The way to understand Social Capital is by thinking about your relationships with your best quality clients.  They trust you with their financial assets.  But do they trust you enough to bring you into their circle by warmly introducing you to the quality people they know, people who are just like them?                                                                                                                      

That’s Social Capital. It leverages your relationships with your best quality clients into warm, personally introduced and endorsed appointments with their quality friends and colleagues.

Social Capital introductions bear no resemblance to standard referrals.  These are high quality introductions from your best quality clients, your best Centers Of Influence. 

So, how do you acquire Social Capital?

It’s driven by having a compelling  Remarkable  Marketing Story  (see post – The Bad News. Your Marketing Story May Suck!) that subtly addresses your clients’ Worldview of Financial Advisors and the Financial Industry –  that they are Darth Vader’s working for the Evil Empire.  (see Darth Vader post)

A compelling  Remarkable Marketing Story is what  moves your best quality clients to share your story with their quality circle of friends and colleagues.  It opens the door to consistent high quality personal introductions and high quality appointments on an ongoing basis.

Almost all of your best clients will give you permission.

These clients have made you their Financial Advisor – they have taken a leap of faith with you. At the same time you feel privileged and grateful because over time you have earned their trust. You protect and nurture it.

When you have your clients’ trust they will give you permission to talk about warm personal introductions, their most important asset. Different from referrals, open permission removes the discomfort and fear of asking – it’s the key to a personal introduction and endorsement. It’s the reward for earning their trust.

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